Lives of alchemystical philosophers: To which is added a bibliography of alchemy and hermetic philosophyWaite, Arthur Edward
Philosophy
Lives of alchemystical philosophers: To which is added a bibliography of alchemy and hermetic philosophy
Waite, Arthur Edward
Alchemists -- Biography; Alchemy -- Bibliography; Alchemy -- History
Doubtless during his sojourn at Strasburg he propagated with zeal
the mysteries of his Egyptian Freemasonry, and at length, laden with
spoils, he repaired to Bordeaux, where he continued his healing in
public, and then proceeded to Lyons, where for the space of three
months he occupied himself with the foundation of a mother-lodge,
and, according to the Italian biographer, here as elsewhere, in less
creditable pursuits. At length he arrived at Paris, where, says the
same authority, he soon became the object of general conversation,
regard, and esteem. His curative powers were now but little exercised,
for Paris abounded with mesmerists and healers, and the prodigies
of simple magnetism were stale and unprofitable in consequence. He
assumed now the _rôle_ of a practical magician, and astonished the
city by the evocation of phantoms, which he caused to appear, at the
wish of the inquirer, either in a mirror or in a vase of clear water.
These phantoms equally represented dead and living beings, and as
occasionally collusion appears to have been well-nigh impossible,
and as the theory of coincidence is preposterous, there is reason to
suppose that he produced results which must sometimes have astonished
himself. All Paris at any rate was set wondering at his enchantments
and prodigies, and it is seriously stated that Louis XVI. was so
infatuated with _le divin Cagliostro_, that he declared anyone who
injured him should be considered guilty of treason. At Versailles, and
in the presence of several distinguished nobles, he is said to have
caused the apparition in mirrors, vases, &c., not merely of the spectra
of absent or deceased persons, but animated and moving beings of a
phantasmal description, including many dead men and women selected by
the astonished spectators.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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