Search Results
7/8/2025, 11:52:16 PM
>>509866065
>D'Allonville's informer prefaces his account with a strange ghost story, which seems a complete non sequitur. Over three successive evenings immediately prior to the appearance of the Jewish magician, Orléans and his hunting party encountered a man dressed in white, mounted on a white horse. The figure eluded their pursuit and was apparently immune to bullets. Locals said that he was the spirit of a murdered miller
>There are odd details in the narrative, notably the mention of a supernatural fire and the inclusion of an iron ring. Neither fires nor rings are unknown to the Kabbalistic tradition - indeed Falk is recorded as conjuring up a flame in one of his treasure quests. However, there are no very clear magical precedents
>Madame Gontaut [Reading 3] confirms that the duke did indeed own a iron ring (presumably a finger-ring) which he wore tied round his neck. She relates a curious incident in which he brandished it against a wild, almost naked man who surprised him in his carriage. (Was this perhaps the magician himself?)
>What about Falk?
>Thanks largely to the researches of Marsha Schuchard, we now know a great deal more about Samuel Falk who was mentor to Swedenborg and a well-known figure among London Freemasons and occultists. At one stage Falk even attempted to use ritual magic to restore the fortunes of Theodore von Neuhof, the deposed king of Corsica. However, there seems little reason to identify him with Orléans's Kabbalistic magician. Falk died in 1783 and, besides, what on earth would Falk have been doing in the Île-de-France? William Beckford, who knew his disciple Loutherbourg, makes no mention of Falk in his discussion of Orléan's encounter [Reading 4]
>D'Allonville's informer prefaces his account with a strange ghost story, which seems a complete non sequitur. Over three successive evenings immediately prior to the appearance of the Jewish magician, Orléans and his hunting party encountered a man dressed in white, mounted on a white horse. The figure eluded their pursuit and was apparently immune to bullets. Locals said that he was the spirit of a murdered miller
>There are odd details in the narrative, notably the mention of a supernatural fire and the inclusion of an iron ring. Neither fires nor rings are unknown to the Kabbalistic tradition - indeed Falk is recorded as conjuring up a flame in one of his treasure quests. However, there are no very clear magical precedents
>Madame Gontaut [Reading 3] confirms that the duke did indeed own a iron ring (presumably a finger-ring) which he wore tied round his neck. She relates a curious incident in which he brandished it against a wild, almost naked man who surprised him in his carriage. (Was this perhaps the magician himself?)
>What about Falk?
>Thanks largely to the researches of Marsha Schuchard, we now know a great deal more about Samuel Falk who was mentor to Swedenborg and a well-known figure among London Freemasons and occultists. At one stage Falk even attempted to use ritual magic to restore the fortunes of Theodore von Neuhof, the deposed king of Corsica. However, there seems little reason to identify him with Orléans's Kabbalistic magician. Falk died in 1783 and, besides, what on earth would Falk have been doing in the Île-de-France? William Beckford, who knew his disciple Loutherbourg, makes no mention of Falk in his discussion of Orléan's encounter [Reading 4]
Page 1