The Masonic Magician

Nous avions sur ce blog, déjà évoqué l'ambivalence entretenue par Cagliostro, dans un registre équivoque où la prestidigitation croisait crédulité et rites égyptiens. L'ouvrage The Masonic Magician co-écrit par les auteurs Philippa Faulks et Robert L. D. Cooper, publié chez Watkins Publishing, en septembre 2008, 317 pages s'en fait la synthèse. Les informations qui suivent proviennent de sites anglo-saxons qui présentent l'ouvrage, incontournable pour tous les bibliophiles de l'Art magique: The Life and Death of Count Cagliostro and His Egyptian Rite. The Masonic Magician tells Cagliostro’s extraordinary story,complete with the first English translation of his Egyptian Rite of Freemasonry ever published. The authors examine the case made against him, that he was an impostor as well as a heretic, and find that the Roman Church, and history itself, have done him a terrible injustice. Philippa Faulks is a writer on the occult with a special interest in the magical life of Ancient Egypt. She lives in Suffolk, England Robert L.D. Cooper is a Scottish Freemason and Curator of the Grand Lodge of Scotland Museum and Library in Edinburgh. He is the keeper of the oldest Lodge records in the world, dating from 1599. He writes and broadcasts on all aspects of Freemasonry, and has lectured on the topic throughout the world. He is the author of any books including The Rosslyn Hoax and Cracking the Freemason's Code. Introduction : Miracle-worker or man of straw? Count Alessandro Cagliostro was a cult figure of European society in the tumultuous years leading to the French Revolution. An alchemist, healer and Freemason, he inspired both wild devotion and savage ridicule – and novels by Alexander Dumas, a drama by Goethe and Mozart’s opera The Magic Flute. Cagliostro’s sincere belief in the magical powers, including immortality, conferred by his Egyptian Rite of Freemasonry won him fame, but made him dangerous enemies, too. His celebrated travels through the Middle East and the capitals of Europe ended abruptly in Rome in 1789, where he was arrested by the Inquisition and condemned to death for heresy. The Masonic Magician tells Cagliostro’s extraordinary story, complete with the first English translation of the Egyptian Rite ever published. The authors examine the case made against him, that he was an impostor as well as a heretic, and finds that the Roman Church, and history itself, have done him a terrible injustice. This engaging account, drawing on remarkable new documentary evidence, shows that the man condemned was a genuine visionary and true champion of Freemasonry. His teachings have much to reveal to us today not just of the mysteries of Freemasonry, but of the mysterious hostility the movement continues to attract. A ce jour, aucune édition en langue française.