Occultists & Mystics of All Ages OCCULTISTS & MYSTICS OF ALL AGES BY RALPH SHIRLEY AUTHOR OF “THE NEW GOD, AND OTHER ESSAYS,” “A SHORT LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN,” ETC. _WITH FOUR ILLUSTRATIONS_ LONDON WILLIAM RIDER & SON, LIMITED 8 PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C. 4 1920 _First Published Autumn 1920._ CONTENTS 1. APOLLONIUS OF TYANA ... 1 2. PLOTINUS ... 31 3. MICHAEL SCOTT ... 54 4. PARACELSUS ... 76 5. EMANUEL SWEDENBORG ... 91 6. COUNT CAGLIOSTRO ... 120 7. ANNA KINGSFORD ... 145 ILLUSTRATIONS PARACELSUS ... 78 EMANUEL SWEDENBORG ... 92 COUNT CAGLIOSTRO ... 122 ANNA KINGSFORD ... 146 I APOLLONIUS OF TYANA The difficulty of treating of such a subject as the life and activities of the Philosopher of Tyana lies in the fact that the story of Apollonius’s career has been overlaid with legends of the miraculous on the one hand, and distorted by religious prejudices on the other; while the only authoritative account of this great religious reformer is marred by the glaring deficiencies of the writer for the task which he had in hand, and his inability to appreciate the life-work of the subject of his biography. Indeed he fills many pages with literary padding of the worst kind, while he fails to give us over and over again the very facts which it is of value and importance for us to know. Philostratus, the author of this life, was one of the literary coterie that gathered round the presiding genius of the Empress Julia Domna, the wife of Septimus Severus and mother of Caracalla. Julia Domna was a generous patroness of art and literature, and her husband Severus was devoted to the study of occult science. Gibbon, in his usual sceptical vein, observes that “he was passionately addicted to the vain studies of magic and divination, deeply versed in the interpretation of dreams and omens, and perfectly acquainted with the science of judicial astrology.” The Empress, who was a daughter of the Priest of the Sun at Emesa in Syria, was an enthusiastic bibliophile and had collected, among her other literary treasures, the note-books of Damis, the companion and fellow traveller of Apollonius. These note-books or tablets contained the records of his journeys and other details concerning the life of Apollonius, who was as great a hero to Damis as ever Johnson was to Boswell. If these notes were as full of detail as Philostratus asserts, one can only regret that the biographer did not turn them to more useful account. Damis was a native of Ninus or Nineveh, and Philostratus speaks somewhat contemptuously of his defective Greek style. But it is probable