Theos-Talk Archives (April 2004 Message tt00510)

--- In theos-talk@yahoogroups.com, Bart Lidofsky <bartl@s...> wrote:
> Blavatsky, I 
> believe, gave into temptation numerous times

What she described I have seen first hand. A small group starts 
experimentng and something interesting happens. Those present think 
it is a psychic phenomenon whether it is or not. Suddenly everyone 
in the place starts DEMANDING to see phenomena. Since the phenomena 
in question are quite fickle, sometimes someone starts to dudge, and 
then refuses to do anything.

> the fact is that Cagliostro was much clearly more interested in 
> getting in good with kings and those of wealth and power than he 
was in 
> spreading any kind of spiritual message. And, regardless of his own 
> spiritual advancement, that was his undoing.

Cagliostro was promoting Egyptian Masonry, which was more occult than 
spiritual. Although in his book Martinze de Pasqually, Papus 
describes a phenomenon which sits on the fence between those two. It 
has been pointed out that Louis Claude de Saint-Martin also walked 
with kings and yet was not a bad guy because of that. As for his 
undoing, historically, Cagliostro decided to start an Egyptian 
Masonic Lodge in Rome, bad move since that city was then under the 
rule of the pope. The custom then was for the Unquisition to send a 
wagon to your hotel in the middle of the night. The feet of the 
horses and the wheels of the carriage would be wrapped in leather to 
make them silent. You would be rousted out of bed and taken to the 
Castel San Angelo, which today is a tourist attraction. They used 
this same dungeon for Benvenuto Cellini (in another century) and Jews 
when they were able to find them. The pope was a siperstitious man, 
which is why he was pope after all, and he was afraid Cagliostro 
really COULD invoke the seven archangels, so he had him taken to a 
mountain he controlled and thrown into a cave, where he perished. Or 
so goes the version of the church.

Blavatsky (this according to Trowbridge) says Cagliostro escaped and 
performed a muracle in her presence, materializing a plate of 
strawberries for a woman who was craving them. I like to think he 
escaped, but the miravle was undoibtedly another example of hype, 
which is ehat B really engaged in rather than outright untruth.

I would use the Inquisition biography you quoted earlier with great 
caution, since if your fingernails were being pulled out you would 
say you were Joseph Balsamo as well.

Incidentally, you and netemara and Frank Reitmeyer will find 
something interesting that was reported on the radio the other day. 
If you use "jew" as a search key for google, they put an antisemitic 
web site called "Jew Watch" at the very top of the list. They have 
been criticized for displaying the site so prominently, but have donw 
nothing to correct the situation.