Jean (or Joanny) Bricaud (11 February 1881, Neuville-sur-Ain,

Ain Ain (, ; ) is a French department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, Eastern France. Named after the Ain river, it is bordered by the Saône and Rhône rivers. Ain is located on the country's eastern edge, on the Swiss border, where it ...

– 24 February 1934), also known as Tau Jean II, was a French student of the

occult The occult () is a category of esoteric or supernatural beliefs and practices which generally fall outside the scope of organized religion and science, encompassing phenomena involving a 'hidden' or 'secret' agency, such as magic and mysti ...

and

esoteric Western esotericism, also known as the Western mystery tradition, is a wide range of loosely related ideas and movements that developed within Western society. These ideas and currents are united since they are largely distinct both from orthod ...

matters. Bricaud was heavily involved in the French neo-Gnostic movement. He was consecrated a

Gnostic Gnosticism (from Ancient Greek: , romanized: ''gnōstikós'', Koine Greek: �nostiˈkos 'having knowledge') is a collection of religious ideas and systems that coalesced in the late 1st century AD among early Christian sects. These diverse g ...

bishop on 21 July 1913 by bishop Louis-Marie-François Giraud.Ecclesia Gnostica Position Paper Concerning the Thelemite or Crowleyan Gnostic Churches
by Stephan A. Hoeller (written in the early 1980s) He was the

Patriarch The highest-ranking bishops in Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, the Roman Catholic Church (above major archbishop and primate), the Hussite Church, Church of the East, and some Independent Catholic Churches are termed patriarchs (and ...

of the '' Église Gnostique Universelle'' ( French for "Universal Gnostic Church") and a central figure in the various lines of the

apostolic succession Apostolic succession is the method whereby the Christian ministry, ministry of the Christian Church is considered by some Christian denominations to be derived from the Twelve Apostles, apostles by a continuous succession, which has usually been ...

of subsequent Gnostic churches, as well as a spiritual heir of

Jules Doinel Jules-Benoît Stanislas Doinel du Val-Michel (8 December 1842 in Moulins, Allier – 16 or 17 March 1903), also known simply as Jules Doinel or Tau Valentin II was an archivist and the founder of the first Gnosticism in modern times, Gnostic c ...

(Valentinus II). From 1916 he was head of the ''Ordre Martiniste''. He was a friend of the

occultist The occult () is a category of esoteric or supernatural beliefs and practices which generally fall outside the scope of organized religion and science, encompassing phenomena involving a 'hidden' or 'secret' agency, such as magic and mystic ...

s Papus and August Vandekerkhove.

References

External links

* * 1881 births 1934 deaths People from Ain French occultists Bishops of Independent Catholic denominations Martinism Modern gnostics Place of death missing 20th-century occultists {{France-reli-bio-stub