The Placebo Effect – the great scientific lie
Today I spent a very pleasant time with a young couple. Sadly, the young woman had a chronic health issue, but they had been told about me and decided to come for a healing. The ceremony was performed, using traditional Rosicrucian and spiritual techniques, and will continue at a distance using established methods. I wish […]
“Elementary Treatise on Practical Magic” by Papus is here!
I am delighted to announce that my latest translation, “Elementary Treatise on Practical Magic” by Papus, is now available on Amazon across the world and on a number of other book sites. Available in hardback and paperback, don’t be fooled by the word “Elementary” in the title: it weighs in at 510 pages long! You […]
Abbé Julio’s House Blessing Ritual
I have always been fascinated by Abbé Julio (1844 – 1912), that enigmatic French priest who, having been ordained as a Catholic priest, broke with Rome in 1885, eventually joining with Vilatte in the Independent Catholic movement. His books of prayers, combining traditional Catholicism with esoteric Talismans and Sacramentaries which predated Robert Ambelain’s famous ‘Sacramentaire de […]
Is the Scottish Rectified Rite “Martinezist”?
OK. Today’s blog is a little heavy if you don’t know much about the Scottish Rectified Rite!!! However, this important nugget was recently published on a French website, and given it discusses comments by one of the world experts on this topic, Jean-Marc Vivenza, I felt it my duty to translate it. The original may […]
What does Hypnosis and Chocolate have in common?
As I come toward the end of translating Papus’ book “Treatise on Practical Magic”, I am struck by how earnestly he wants Magic to be taken seriously and sit alongside the other sciences. It is unfortunate that Hypnosis will suffer the same fate as Psychology in trying to get a seat at the scientific table. […]
Immanuel Velikovsky – past iconoclast
When I was in school in the late 1960s I came across Worlds In Collision by Immanuel Velikovsky. I was totally hooked! Born in Russia in 1895, he published a number of books which rocked the scientific world from 1950 onwards, eventually settling in Princeton, NJ, where he died in 1979. If he had been […]
A Bohemian Ghost (Part 2)
For those who found A Bohemian Ghost (Part 1) interesting, here is the conclusion, which is included in the 1893 book by Papus entitled “An Elementary Treatise on Practical Magic”, in a section about the use of the magical sword: The fluid accumulations formed by the union of astral powers acting like a soul […]
A Bohemian Ghost
The story below appeared in one of the 1893 editions of L’Initiation, Papus’ magazine on esoteric subjects. It is a letter written by a reader concerning his experiences with a ghost in Czechoslovakia. While the tale is entertaining in itself, I reproduce it (in English) here as one of a number of background articles to […]