Among kings and necromancers

Another Amazon review I forgot to post here...until now!

This is a slightly bizarre book, only available in Swedish, about the occult pursuits of a group of aristocrats in late 18^th century Sweden. Their leader was Gustaf Adolf Reuterholm, who was de facto ruler of Sweden for a few years after the assassination of King Gustav III. The group also included Duke Karl, who later became King of Sweden under the name Karl XIII. For a short period, Gustav III was also interested in matters occult. I knew that King Gustav and Duke Karl had been Freemasons, but clearly, I didn´t know half of it!

Those familiar with the confusing world of “Scottish” Masonry, Rosicrucians, alchemists, Mesmerists and magicians, will feel right at home in this material, which until recently was kept in the secret archives of the Swedish Masonic Order. Christian heresy-hunters and anti-Masonic conspiracy theorists will also have a field day, since many of the rituals described in this volume have a “Satanist” flare. That upper class people dabbled in what can only be described as black magic could be seen as slightly problematic even from a purely skeptic angle.

Duke Karl and Reuterholm seem to have been interested in all aspects of the occult: Hermetic and Cabbalistic speculations, the mysticism of Jacob Böhme, “Templar” Freemasonry and Rosicrucianism, alchemic experiments, treasure-hunting, animal magnetism and hands-on divination, including tasseomancy. Many aristocrats (including Gustav III) consulted a “wise woman”, Ulrika Arfvidsson, who lived in a small hut in the poorer part of Stockholm and divined with the help of coffee grounds. I admit I was surprised by this mixture of sophisticated esotericism and a more folkish version. The two main preoccupations of the Reuterholm circle were attempts to contact the angels through ritual magic, and necromancy. It´s the latter activity that make the activities of Reuterholm and his associates seem downright sinister. The necromantic work was carried out at cemeteries, and involved actual human remains procured specially for the occasion. According to the documents collected in this volume, the skull and wishbone of a 12-year old boy child should be used for the best effect, and apparently *were* used, which raises the question whose grave the aristocratic magicians had desecrated! Contact with “angels” involved animal sacrifice (of doves) or blood-letting from the magician himself.

The main purpose of these rituals was, as already noted, divination. Reuterholm claimed to hail from a family with prophetic abilities, who had supposedly predicted Swedish history correctly until the year 1720. His private reflections contain many references to precognitive dreams (alongside poltergeists, meetings with nature spirits, etc). Reuterholm, a notoriously vain man, also believed himself to be destined to greatness, a belief with apparent occult undertones. On this point, at any rate, he was to be sorely disappointed. When Gustav III´s son became king under the name Gustav IV Adolf, Reuterholm fell from favor and in 1799, he went into voluntary exile. He died at the estate of Danish prince Carl af Hessen, an esoteric Freemason who also protected the famed Count de St Germain. During his last years, Reuterholm used the telling pseudonym “Tempelkreutz”. A portrait painting shows him standing in full Templar (or pseudo-Templar) regalia alongside the symbolic coffin of Jacques de Molay!

Reuterholm´s erstwhile ally Duke Karl continued with occult pursuits alongside his wife Charlotta and the Rosicrucian Karl Adolf Boheman. Their initiation ritual included laying on top of a painting of a nude woman, symbolizing Nature. When Gustav IV Adolf (by all accounts a somewhat fanatical Lutheran) heard about the occult goings-on, at the Royal Palace no less, he had Boheman banished from the country and forced Karl and Charlotta to shut down their operations. It seems they were never taken up again, not even when Gustav Adolf was overthrown and banished, replaced by none other than Karl at the royal throne.

As for Reuterholm, his magical writings met with a varied fate after his death, a substantial portion eventually ending up in the hands of the Swedish Freemasons, which promptly decided to place them under lock and key…until now, when the non-Masonic part (ironically, the most sensational part) has been published in this volume, under the title “Gustaviansk mystik” (The Mysticism of the Gustavian Age).

Since this work is currently unavailable from Amazon, it might be of interest to know that the publisher, Vertigo Förlag, has a website…