Masonic Magician: Cagliostro and Egyptian Rite

[Cerulean]

www.amazon.com/Masonic-Magician-Death-Cagliostro-Egyptian/dp/1905857829

A new take on Cagliostro and 'lost' manuscript recovered and the authors are said to have research expertise and other credentials.

The curious thing about the information is how well it gels with...well, working with the Alchemical Tarot by Robert Place...or even the Alphabet of the Magi 'talisman' use...this book and the Lo Scarabeo Egyptian Tarot has the same symbols in their "Alphabet of the Magi."

The symbolism and uses of it to spell out names magically and then use the number/numerology of the letters is also illustrated or explained in The Egyptian Tarot book by Giordano Berti for the Lo Scarabeo Egyptian Tarot.

I am not certain exactly if these small parallels are striking in themselves--they seem to flow in a curously fresh and related way to other similar topics on alchemy and Renaissance writings...am working with a Petrach text in a discussion context for my night literature courses...

I really liked the Masonic Magician book and am comparing it to my Berti text that comes with my Egyptian Tarot kit. The Masonic Magician book differs because it does not give Balsamo credit for being the 'real' Cagliostro--but the ideas of alchemy expressed in the Masonic Magician seems curiously modern--or perhaps fresh and curious to me, as I wade through creative tarots that touch on alchemy with tarot designs.

Cerulean

 

[Cerulean]

Here's a synopsis of the "Alphabet of the Magi" from Count Cagliostro

and the link explaining that it appeared in Paul Christian's works that we moderns associate with tarot trumps...and bits with alchemy and esoteric mythology and romanticism and even reading/making talismans associated with your name:

http://www.quadibloc.com/other/tarint.htm

It's actually the second table on the right with the Egyptian and the Magi alphabet listed, with corresponding European alphabet letters, etc...

For my art calligrapher friends and family members, I plan to 'write/scribe' their chosen version of the name and try to do a reading.

Here's a sample of the romantic and intriguing ideas:

http://www.omsh.net/Cagliostro_Power_Of_Your_Name.html

It's a complex operation as described in the Egyptian Tarot book and I may not be able to glean further insights from the Masonic Magician book--but all this maybe helpful to those who are curious about the historical romanticism of old French alchemy, the ideas of a masonic courtly sister and brotherhood around Napoleon and Josephine....and give you a taste of the times if you ever explore and wonder about some alchemical designs that fed into the a more modern, popular tarot...which may include the hermetic caduceus in the Smith Waite (RWS) Two of Cups!

Sorry to wander and whisper only hints...will now dreamily melt back into the bookshelves to pursue old-tyme romanticisms...

Cerulean