Freemasonry, Christian theosophy and Illuminism
Cagliostro
Giuseppe Balsamo · Alessandro, Count of Cagliostro
Healer, adept and Masonic initiator who developed an Egyptian Rite of Freemasonry, including forms admitting women.
- Dates
- 1743 – 26 August 1795
- Dating
- documented dates
- Born
- Palermo
- Died
- San Leo fortress prison
The life
He travelled through Europe in those roles. His involvement on the margins of the Affair of the Diamond Necklace damaged his reputation. Arrested by the Roman Inquisition in 1789, he was convicted for his Masonic activities; a death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment, and he died incarcerated.
Place in the tradition
His importance is ritual and organisational rather than literary, and his posthumous legend became almost larger than his life.
a note on the record
History and later legend
He left nothing comparable in secure authorship and scale to Agrippa's Occult Philosophy. Ritual manuscripts and supposed teachings circulate under his name.