num_pages: 368
description: 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  as well as novels by Alexandre Dumas a drama by Goethe and Mozarts opera The Magic Flute. Count Alessandro Cagliostros 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 Cagliostros 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.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 secrets of the movement but of the mysterious hostility it continues to attract.
language: English
title: The Masonic Magician: The Life and Death of Count Cagliostro and His Egyptian Rite
publisher: Watkins Publishing