Agla was an esoteric society in the Renaissance period, grouping together apprentices, companions and masters of Guilds associated

with Books: librarians, engravers, printers, stationers and bookbinders, as well as card makers who created the first playing cards and the first Tarots. The collective "glyph" of this vast association was the "four". It figured, accompanied by flourishes or distinctive adjuncts, in the individual cipher of each master of this large confraternity. Leon Gruel, in his work (22), gathered hundreds of these companions' signatures. Frequently it surmounted a second glyph, which often indicated a second interior association. Thus the hexagram or "Seal of Solomon", the "planetary seal" of Saturn, or the Monogram of Mary, denoted an association with alchemy or Hermeticisrn; while the heart, which figured on playing cards, indicated another branch, in which Mysticism - and more particularly that of Kabbalism were studies and practiced. And Martinez de Pasqually was a Kabbalist!

Seals of Agfa It is to this last group to which King Francois I belonged. In order to participate in these works, this sovereign left his palace of the Louvre incognito once a month, alone, dressed simply as a Parisian burgher, to go to the rue de I'Arbre-Sec, house of the Estienne brothers, jurors of the corporation of printers and librarians, and also affiliated to Agla. Within the group of master-stationers, esoteric traditions originally derived from Cathar and Albigensian doctrines were preserved. By the master-librarians or printers, teachings issuing from the Zohar were spread, (22) Extract from a work by G. Van Rijnberk: "A Thaumaturge in the XVIIIth Century*, since the new invention of printing had completely overthrown the world of illuminators. In fact, the illuminators' principal task was copying and decorating Books of Hours, Gospels and Bibles. Had that which had been entrusted to them always been truly orthodox?...

In the ghetto in the main cities, other illuminators, in this case the Jews, patiently copied the sacred texts comprising the Torah" onto interminable rolls of skin. Some contact was established between Jewish copyists and Christian illuminators, contact which had originated out of professional care and curiosity, touching on the secrets of making black or coloured inks, that of their placement on fragile surfaces or rough and hard parchment, the preparation of Armenian bole (day), destined to support the gold and silver in illuminating, etc...These regular meetings between parchment makers and printers achieved a uniting of the ancient craft of illumination and the new invention of printing. The pocketbook, easy to dissimulate, easy to handle secretly, was for heterodox doctrines a precious means of diffusion. An abundance of works which shouldn't decently have seen the light of day in a Catholic state, not receiving the royal "privilege" of publication, were supposed to have been printed in those states devoted to the Reformation, or so remote for the times that nobody was able to verify where they were from! Thus cities such as Amsterdam, Edinburgh and Geneva had the benefit of works which were in reality printed clandestinely in Paris, Lyon or Brussels. One can understand from this overview, that all that was clandestine, heretical or forbidden had to pass through the hands of printers, stationers, engravers and book-binders, if they were to be disseminated! These artisans thus found themselves in a position to well understand the esoteric teachings, forbidden to the common man, and by virtue of the attraction of forbidden fruit, to join together.,

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CrifN de 1 Ultra nB 29 du 17 Avril 1772 So was bom Agla, an esoteric group if it indeed was, which in the Renaissance welcomed the spiritual heritage of the medieval Cathars and Gnostics. And that is how the symbol "four", a Cathar symbol, became that of this mystic confraternity
Facsimiles of Magical Signatures Written on the Letters of Martinez de Pasquaily One may thus easily conclude that, in this Southern region impregnated with mysticism, metaphysics and heresy, Martinez de Pasqually might be in a position to gather together a number of traditional teachings coming from Gnosis, Manicheans, Gathers, etc, and why, a hundred years later, his successors will unite modern Martinism, the Gnostic Church and Freemasonry!... One can then better understand how this astonishing man had been able to create this strange synthesis of Gnosis, Kabbalah, the Zohar and the magical traditions of all periods, which he then tried to perpetuate in the heart of the Order of Knights Elus Cohen. One can also understand the severity of the regimen and life which he imposed on his disciples: abstinence from certain meats, certain parts of animals, sexual continence, rejection of adultery and homicide, etc. This was the best road for him thus to merit the blessing in this extract from the Zohar: Those who have possessed divine Wisdom shine with all the lights of Heaven, but those who have taught Men according to the ways of Justice, shine like the stars for all Eternity!..." For the little shortcomings that his detractors have always brought to our attention (such as the bad debts which he did everything in his power to control!) will never be able to throw the least cloud over the grandiose Work which he had dared to attempt.