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Cagliostro, Count Alessandro
(1743-95)
An Italian adventurer and self-styled magician who became a glamorous figure in the royal
courts of Europe where he reputedly excelled in various occult arts, such as psychic
healing, alchemy and
scrying.
It was the fashion during the latter half of the
19th century to regard Cagliostro as a charlatan and impostor, and this point of
view was greatly aided by the savage attack perpetrated on his memory by
Thomas Carlyle, who alluded to him as the
" Prince of Quacks." Recent researches, however, and especially those made by
Mr. W. R. H. Trowbridge in his
Cagliostro: the Splendour and Misery of a Master of Magic, go to show that if Cagliostro was not a man of unimpeachable
honor,
he was by no means the quack and scoundrel that so many have made him out to
be.
His real
name was Giuseppe Balsamo and he came from a poor family in
Palermo,
Sicily. From infancy Giuseppe
showed himself averse to proper courses, and when placed in a local religious
seminary, he more than once ran away from it, usually to be recaptured in
undesirable company. Sent next to a
Benedictine convent, he was
under the care of a Father Superior, who quickly discovered his natural
aptitude. Giuseppe became the assistant of an apothecary attached to the convent, from
whom he learned the principles of chemistry and medicine.
Eventually young Giuseppe succeeded in escaping from
the convent, and betook himself to Palermo where he associated with rascals and
vagabonds. He was constantly in the hands of the police, and a kind uncle
(mother's brother) of his who tried to assist him was rewarded by being robbed
of a considerable sum. Engaged in every description of rascality, the youngster
was even said to have assisted in the assassination of a wealthy canon. At this
time it is asserted that he was only fourteen years of age.
After a crooked affair involving a stupid,
superstitious and avaricious goldsmith named Marano, the young Giuseppe managed
to escape to
Messina, where he adopted the name
of Alessandro Cagliostro and the title of " Count."
It was in Messina that Cagliostro met the mysterious
Althotas, a mystical figure
presumed to be his "master" and companion. In his company Cagliostro embarked in
a great journey, going to Egypt, visiting the
Pyramids, making the acquaintance of the priests
of different temples, and receiving from them much hidden knowledge. Following
their Egyptian tour they visited the principal kingdoms of Africa and Asia, and
they are subsequently discovered at
Rhodes pursuing alchemical
operations.
When Cagliostro was 23 they went to
Malta where he was initiated into
the
Order of the Knights of Malta. At
Malta they assisted the
Grandmaster Pinto, who was infatuated with alchemical
experiments. Cagliostro studied alchemy,
the Kabbalah
and other occult secrets. From this time on Althotas completely disappears ―
the memoir of Cagliostro merely stating that during their residence in Malta he
passed away.
Later, in
London, Cagliostro joined the Freemasons, and subsequently spent his life
roaming the royal courts in Europe performing various occult arts and peddling magic
potions and an 'elixir of immortal life' with the aid of his beautiful wife
Lorenza Feliciani.
In 1785 Cagliostro became involved with the
'Queen's Necklace Affair': he was set up by
Countess de Lamotte who swindled 1.6 million francs for a diamond necklace —
supposedly for
Marie Antoinette — and then accused Cagliostro of stealing it. He was
sent to the
Bastille and then tried for fraud.
After his release,
Cagliostro ended up in Rome,
where he attempted to create an 'Egyptian Freemasonry' order. He was imprisoned
by the church, questioned by the Inquisition, and sentenced to death in 1791.
His sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment by Pope Pius VI. After his
death rumors that he had miraculously escaped and was still alive persisted for
years throughout Europe, Russia and America.
See
Rosicrucians,
The Chakra Store,
Casting Black Magic Spells,
Commanding Spirits,
The Tarot Store and
Divination & Scrying Tools and
Supplies.
Sources: (1)
Shepard, Leslie (editor),
Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology,
Thomson Gale; (2)
Dictionary of the
Occult, Caxton
Publishing; (3) Steiger, Brad and Sherry Hansen,
The Gale Encyclopedia of
the Unusual and Unexplained,
Thomson Gale; (4) Trowbridge, W. R. H.,
Cagliostro: the Splendour and Misery of a Master of Magic,
Banton Press.
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