Almost famous

A E Waite 

"Famous Mystics" is a book about Saint-Martin, Jacob Boehme and Emanuel Swedenborg. The article on the French mystic and Freemason Louis Claude de Saint-Martin is written by Arthur Edward Waite, who was both a scholarly expert on occultism and an occultist himself (Golden Dawn and its split-off Fellowship of the Rosy Cross). The pieces on Boehme and Swedenborg are penned by W.P. Swainson, an author about whom I know nothing, except that he is obviously sympathetic to the two men and their ideas.

Waite's article on Saint-Martin is rather bad, saying almost nothing about "the unknown philosopher's" actual philosophy (or mysticism). Instead, Waite concentrates on the pre-mystical part of Saint-Martin's life, tediously detailing every grade of the obscure Masonic groups to which the Frenchman or his friends had been affiliated. Apparently, Saint-Martin had originally belonged to a group which had conjured "Jesus Christ" through white ritual magic (!) and received a substantial amount of communications from the same. I suppose this is of great interest to a member of the Golden Dawn, but what about Saint-Martin's independent career?

Swainson's presentations of "the Teutonic philosopher" and the "Swedish seer" are better, since they actually attempt to introduce the reader to Boehme's and Swedenborg's respective messages. Unsurprisingly, the weirdly literalist revelations of Swedenborg ("the angels dress like humans", etc) are easier to describe than the Christian Kabbala of Boehme. Still, Swainson's descriptions of the latter's speculations are neither better nor worse than anybody elses. He emphasize the specifically Christian traits in Boehme: Jesus as literal historical figure who died and rose again in order to redeem the world, prayer, sacraments, etc. Of course, I suppose non-Christian admirers of the shoe-maker from Goerlitz can claim that this was just clever allegory...

I'm not sure why anyone would want to read this book, rather than the innumerable other books on the famous mystics, but I nevertheless give it three stars.