John V. Fleming's The Dark Side of the Enlightenment: Wizards, Alchemists, and PDF

Why non secular and supernatural yearnings, even investigations into the occult, flourished within the period of rationalist philosophy.

In The darkish aspect of the Enlightenment, John V. Fleming exhibits how the impulses of the eu Enlightenment—generally linked to nice strides within the liberation of human proposal from superstition and standard religion—were challenged by way of tenacious spiritual rules or channeled into the “darker” targets of the esoteric and the occult. His enticing subject matters contain the obdurate survival of the awesome, the Enlightenment roles of Rosicrucianism and Freemasonry, and the frequent pursuit of magic and alchemy.

Though we have a tendency to not affiliate what used to be known as alchemy with what we now name chemistry, Fleming indicates that the adaptation is purely one in all linguistic modernization. Alchemy used to be the chemistry, of Arabic derivation, and its practitioners have been one of the significant scientists and physicians in their a long time. No aspect is extra very important for realizing the unusual and interesting figures during this booklet than the status of alchemy one of the realized males of the age.

Fleming follows a few of these complexities and contradictions of the “Age of lighting fixtures” into the biographies of 2 of its outstanding offspring. the 1st is the debatable wizard referred to as count number Cagliostro, the “Egyptian” freemason, unconventional healer, and alchemist identified such a lot infamously for his ambiguous organization with the Affair of the Diamond Necklace, which background has seen as one of the attainable harbingers of the French Revolution and an incredible contributing consider the transforming into unpopularity of Marie Antoinette. Fleming additionally reports the occupation of Julie de Krüdener, the sentimental novelist, Pietist preacher, and political mystic who may later develop into infamous as a prophet.

Impressively researched and fantastically erudite, this wealthy narrative heritage sheds gentle on a few lesser-known psychological extravagances and ideology of the Enlightenment period and brings to existence the most impressive characters ever encountered both in historical past or fiction.