Excerpt from The Secret History of the World by Mark Booth
Count Cagliostro. By a mixture of mesmeric charm, his habit of using as bait Seraphita, his beautiful young wife, and above all his rumored possession of the philosopher's stone, he rose to the top of European society.
To those at the bottom of society he seemed kind of saint. Healing miracles performed among the poor of Paris, unable to afford a doctor, made him a popular hero, and when, after a short imprisonment, he was released from the Bastille, some eight thousand people came to cheer. When Cagliostro was challenged to a debate in front of intellectual peers, his opponent Count de Debelin, a friend of Benjamin Franklin's and a renowned expert on esoteric philosophy, soon admitted he was up against a man whose erudition far surpassed his own.
Cagliostro also seems to have had remarkable powers pf prophecy. In a famous letter of 30 June 1786 he prophesied that the Bastille would be completely destroyed, and it is said that he even predicted the exact data of this event - 14 July - in graffiti found inscribed on the wall of the prison cell in which he died.
Anyone with supernatural power is bound to suffer temptation. Perhaps the most charismatic and disconcerting initiate of the twentieth century was G.I. Gurdjieff. He deliberately presented his ideas in an absurd way. He wrote of an organ at the base of the spine that enabled initiates to see the world upside down inside out, calling it the 'Kunderbuffer'. In this way he deliberately gave the power of the kundalini serpent, the reserve of unredeemed energy that lies coiled at the base of the spine, and which is central to tantric practice, a laughable name. Similarly he wrote of gods in giant spaceships and that the surface of the sun is cool. Anyone who dismissed these ideas showed himself unworthy. Anyone who persisted and was able to tune in, found that Gurdjieff's spiritual disciplines worked.
Since his death it had emerged that he sometimes used his undoubted powers of mind control to prey on vulnerable young woman.
A friend of mine journeyed to India, to visit the renowned teacher, adept and miracle-worker Sai Baba. My friend was travelling with his beautiful young girlfriend. After an exquisite dinner the servants withdrew and Sai Bab took his guests into the library. My friend was perusing a booke while his girlfriend talked to Sai Baba. He noticed that their host was standing unusually close to her and became anxious when Sai Baba tuned the conversation to the subject of the sexual dimension in Hindu myths. Suddenly Sai Baba reaches to ring a copper bell engraved with sigils and simultaneously seems to grab something out of mid-air. He turned his hand palm up to reveal a golden chain with a crucifix on it. He told the girl that this was real magic and held his palm out to her, offering her the object, which seemed to my friend to glow with a dark aura.
He also noticed tha tht esigils on the bell were Tantric, and realized that the intention was probably to bewitch his girlfriend with a view to seducing her. He asked where the chain came from. "it appeared before you very eyes,' said Sai Baba. My friend took the chain from him, to prevent his girlfriend from touching it. Holding it over his palm, he used the art of pychometry to determine its origins. He had a disturbing vision of grave robbers, and realized that his crucifix and chain had been dug up frpm the grave of the Jesuit missionary.
He confronted Sai Baba with this and so, by demonstrating his own magical powers, he was able to make him back down.
Telling me about this many years later, my friend said that since Prospero had broken his wand at the end of The Tempest, initiates have been forbidden to exercise their magical powers, unless in exeptional circumstances like these. There is a law that if a benevolent magician uses his occult power, an equal amount of power is made available to a malevloent magician.
Is there any other evidence to suggest that magic is still practised today? In a second-hand bookshop in Tunbridge Wells I recently came across a small cache of letters in which an occultist gave his correspondents advice on how to use magic spells to achieve their goals.
Count Cagliostro. By a mixture of mesmeric charm, his habit of using as bait Seraphita, his beautiful young wife, and above all his rumored possession of the philosopher's stone, he rose to the top of European society.
To those at the bottom of society he seemed kind of saint. Healing miracles performed among the poor of Paris, unable to afford a doctor, made him a popular hero, and when, after a short imprisonment, he was released from the Bastille, some eight thousand people came to cheer. When Cagliostro was challenged to a debate in front of intellectual peers, his opponent Count de Debelin, a friend of Benjamin Franklin's and a renowned expert on esoteric philosophy, soon admitted he was up against a man whose erudition far surpassed his own.
Cagliostro also seems to have had remarkable powers pf prophecy. In a famous letter of 30 June 1786 he prophesied that the Bastille would be completely destroyed, and it is said that he even predicted the exact data of this event - 14 July - in graffiti found inscribed on the wall of the prison cell in which he died.
Anyone with supernatural power is bound to suffer temptation. Perhaps the most charismatic and disconcerting initiate of the twentieth century was G.I. Gurdjieff. He deliberately presented his ideas in an absurd way. He wrote of an organ at the base of the spine that enabled initiates to see the world upside down inside out, calling it the 'Kunderbuffer'. In this way he deliberately gave the power of the kundalini serpent, the reserve of unredeemed energy that lies coiled at the base of the spine, and which is central to tantric practice, a laughable name. Similarly he wrote of gods in giant spaceships and that the surface of the sun is cool. Anyone who dismissed these ideas showed himself unworthy. Anyone who persisted and was able to tune in, found that Gurdjieff's spiritual disciplines worked.
Since his death it had emerged that he sometimes used his undoubted powers of mind control to prey on vulnerable young woman.
A friend of mine journeyed to India, to visit the renowned teacher, adept and miracle-worker Sai Baba. My friend was travelling with his beautiful young girlfriend. After an exquisite dinner the servants withdrew and Sai Bab took his guests into the library. My friend was perusing a booke while his girlfriend talked to Sai Baba. He noticed that their host was standing unusually close to her and became anxious when Sai Baba tuned the conversation to the subject of the sexual dimension in Hindu myths. Suddenly Sai Baba reaches to ring a copper bell engraved with sigils and simultaneously seems to grab something out of mid-air. He turned his hand palm up to reveal a golden chain with a crucifix on it. He told the girl that this was real magic and held his palm out to her, offering her the object, which seemed to my friend to glow with a dark aura.
He also noticed tha tht esigils on the bell were Tantric, and realized that the intention was probably to bewitch his girlfriend with a view to seducing her. He asked where the chain came from. "it appeared before you very eyes,' said Sai Baba. My friend took the chain from him, to prevent his girlfriend from touching it. Holding it over his palm, he used the art of pychometry to determine its origins. He had a disturbing vision of grave robbers, and realized that his crucifix and chain had been dug up frpm the grave of the Jesuit missionary.
He confronted Sai Baba with this and so, by demonstrating his own magical powers, he was able to make him back down.
Telling me about this many years later, my friend said that since Prospero had broken his wand at the end of The Tempest, initiates have been forbidden to exercise their magical powers, unless in exeptional circumstances like these. There is a law that if a benevolent magician uses his occult power, an equal amount of power is made available to a malevloent magician.
Is there any other evidence to suggest that magic is still practised today? In a second-hand bookshop in Tunbridge Wells I recently came across a small cache of letters in which an occultist gave his correspondents advice on how to use magic spells to achieve their goals.