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Fulcanelli

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Fulcanelli is almost certainly a pseudonym assumed, in the early XXth century, by a French alchemist and esoteric author, whose identity is still debated.[1] The name Fulcanelli seems to be a play on words: Vulcan the ancient Roman god of fire plus El, a Canaanite name for God and so the Sacred Fire.[2] He is also called the Master Alchemist. The appeal of Fulcanelli as a cultural phenomenon is partly due to the mystery that surrounds most aspects of his life and works; one of the anecdotes pertaining to his life retells, in particular, how his most devoted pupil Eugène Canseliet performed a successful transmutation of 100 grams of lead into gold in a laboratory of the gas works of Sarcelles at the Georgi company with the use of a small quantity of the "Projection Powder" given to him by his teacher, in the presence of Julien Champagne and Gaston Sauvage.

Life

Fulcanelli was undoubtedly a Frenchman, widely and profoundly educated, and learned in the ways of alchemical lore, architecture, art, science, and languages. Fulcanelli wrote two books that were published after his disappearance in 1926, having left his magnum opus with his only student, Eugène Canseliet. Le Mystere des Cathedrales first edition consisted of 300 copies and was published by Jean Schemit at 52 Rue Laffitte, Paris, France.[3]

Theories about Fulcanelli speculate that he was one or another famous French occultist of the time: perhaps a member of the former Royal Family (the Valois), or another member of the Frères d'Heliopolis (Brotherhood of Heliopolis, a society centred around Fulcanelli which included Eugène Canseliet, Jean-Julien Champagne and Jules Boucher). Canseliet's only student, Patrick Rivière, believes that Fulcanelli's true identity was Jules Violle, famous French physicist.[4] In a 1996 book, samples of writing by Jean-Julien Hubert Champagne (born January 23, 1877) and Fulcanelli are compared, and show considerable similarity.[5] In any event, by 1916, Fulcanelli had accepted Canseliet, who was then only sixteen, as his first student. In 1921, he accepted the sons of Ferdinand de Lesseps as students and in 1922, two more students, Jules Boucher and Gaston Sauvage. In 1925, Fulcanelli moved to 59 rue Rochechouart where he allegedly was successful in transmuting base metals into gold.[6]

In the book Beyond Painting, published in 1936, surrealist Max Ernst hints at the existence of Fulcanelli as many surrealist painters were influenced by Alchemical lore but then, even the great American occult historian Manly Palmer Hall fails to mention the Master Alchemist.[7]

In 1960, with the publication of the international bestseller The Morning of the Magicians, Pauwels and Bergier brought the mystery of the Master Alchemist into the limelight of the public eye.[8]

Fulcanelli's Master

Without overlooking the belief of some researchers that Canseliet himself could have been Fulcanelli, Canseliet believed Fulcanelli's Master was Basil Valentine, the theoretical Master in any case, for Fulcanelli's true initiator was his own wife. As Fulcanelli describes in a strange letter he practically kept as a talisman about the completion of the Great Work by someone who is presumably Basil Valentine, he also mentions his own wife: "...When my wife told me the good news" and "...my wife, with the inexplicable intuition of sensitives, had a really strange dream." In other words, when referring to something as important as the Great Work, he mentions his wife as someone important to the Magnum Opus.[9] [10] Canseliet points out the mistake made by the Abbé Villain spelling Flamel's wife's name as "Pernelle". Nicolas Flamel himself knows her as "Perrenelle" or the eternal almighty Lady of the Great Work, Mother Nature herself. According to Canseliet, she is "... La Dame par excellence."[11]

Nazi interest in Alchemy

In the 1920s Franz Tausend, the German alchemist, was involved in a gold-making project at the same time as General Erich von Ludendorff was involved in the same project presumably to help finance the Nazi Party. [12].

It is believed that on the verge of World War II, the Abwehr was in active (but fruitless) pursuit of Fulcanelli because of his alleged knowledge of the technology of nuclear weapons.

Conclusion

According to Louis Pauwels, Fulcanelli survived World War II and disappeared completely after the Liberation of Paris. Every attempt to find him failed. In August 1945, G-2 Army Intelligence asked Bergier to contact a certain Army major who was in charge of the operation of searching and discovering German research reports on atomic energy. The anonymous U. S. Army major wanted to know the whereabouts of Fulcanelli. Bergier could not say and the army major seemed satisfied Fulcanelli could not be found.[13]

Alchemy in modern times

In 1980, Glenn Seaborg transmuted several thousand atoms of bismuth into gold at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory. His experimental technique, using nuclear physics, was able to remove protons and neutrons from the bismuth atoms. Seaborg's technique would have been far too expensive to enable routine manufacturing of gold, but his work is the closest achievement, so far, to the mythical Philosopher's Stone of the ancient Alchemists. Alchemy is very much alive today. [14]

Rendez-vous à Paris

Walter Lang reports that Fulcanelli contacted Jacques Bergier (Яков Михайлович Бергёр) to warn French atomic physicist André Hellbronner of man's impending use of nuclear weapons. According to Fulcanelli, nuclear weapons had been used before against humanity, being the Abyss pandemonium as noted much later by Dr. Albert Einstein on the front page of the New York Post after the detonation of the first Hydrogen bomb in the early 50s (October 31, 1952). Dr. Hellbronner and Chevillon among others were assassinated by the Gestapo towards the end of World War II.[15]

The meeting between Jacques Bergier and Fulcanelli took place in June 1937 in a laboratory of the Gas Board in Paris. According to Neil Powell, the following is a translation of the original verbatim transcript of the rendezvous. Fulcanelli told Bergier:

"You're on the brink of success, as indeed are several other of our scientists today. Please, allow me, be very very careful. I warn you... The liberation of nuclear power is easier than you think and the radioactivity artificially produced can poison the atmosphere of our planet in a very short time, a few years. Moreover, atomic explosives can be produced from a few grains of metal powerful enough to destroy whole cities. I'm telling you this for a fact: the alchemists have known it for a very long time... "I shall not attempt to prove to you what I'm now going to say but I ask you to repeat it to M. Hellbronner: certain geometrical arrangements of highly purified materials are enough to release atomic forces without having recourse to either electricity or vacuum techniques... The secret of alchemy is this: there is a way of manipulating matter and energy so as to produce what modern scientists call 'a field of force'. The field acts on the observer and puts him in a privileged position vis-à-vis the Universe. From this position he has access to the realities which are ordinarily hidden from us by time and space, matter and energy. This is what we call the Great Work." [16]

When Bergier asked Fulcanelli about the Philosopher's Stone, the alchemist answered: "...the vital thing is not the transmutation of metals but that of the experimenter himself. It is an ancient secret that a few people rediscover each century. Unfortunately, only a handful are successful..."[17]

Aftermath

In December 1938, the German chemists Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann sent a manuscript to Naturwissenschaften reporting they had detected the element barium after bombarding uranium with neutrons.[18] Lise Meitner and her nephew Otto Robert Frisch correctly interpreted these results as being nuclear fission.[19] [20]

Rendezvous in Spain

According to Canseliet, his last encounter with Fulcanelli happened in 1953 (years after his disappearance), when he went to Spain and there was taken to a castle high in the mountains for a rendezvous with his former master. Canseliet had known Fulcanelli as an old man in his 80s but now the Master had grown younger: he was a man in his 50s. The reunion was brief and Fulcanelli once again disappeared leaving no trace of his whereabouts.[21]

The Phonetic Cabala

According to Fulcanelli, the Phonetic Cabala is not the Hebrew Kabbalah; even the derivation is different: Cabala is derived from the Latin caballus, a horse, as in the Horse of Troy in the Iliad. It is basically homophonic and symphonic rather than numerical; it is based on phonetic assonance and resonance to echo the Gay Science in the words of the Hellenic gods spoken in sacred Ancient Greek nomenclature.[22] According to Walter Lang, who wrote an introduction to the English translation of Fulcanelli's Le Mystère des Cathédrales, the basic principles of the Phonetic Cabala are fully restored in Fulcanelli's Magnum Opus.[23]

Works

The two books by Fulcanelli are

  • Le Mystère des Cathédrales (The Mystery of the Cathedrals), written in 1922 and published in Paris in 1926. [24]
  • Les Demeures Philosophales (Dwellings of the Philosophers), published in Paris in 1929.[25]

The books are written in a cryptic and erudite manner, replete with Latin and Greek puns, alchemical symbolism, double entendres, and lectures on and in Argot and Cant, all of which serve to keep "puffers" in the dark.

A third book, Finis Gloriae Mundi[26] (End of the World's Glory),[27] was also reportedly being prepared for publication. The notes for the book were left for a time with his only student, Canseliet. Fulcanelli decided that the timing for publication of the book was not right and so it was never in fact published. However, a book by the same name, citing Fulcanelli as the author, was published in more recent times. That book has been shown to be a counterfeit.[28]

Finis Gloriae Mundi
  • The mystery thriller novel The Alchemist's Secret by Scott Mariani deals with the subject of the alchemist's disappearance and what may have happened to his manuscript.[29]
  • Fulcanelli is mentioned in Paulo Coelho's 1993 bestseller, The Alchemist (book).[30]
  • The hunt for Fulcanelli by Allied and Nazi intelligence services during World War Two is a major theme in Martin Langfield's 2009 novel The Secret Fire.[31]
  • There is a song entitled "But who was Fulcanelli?" on the second disc of Frank Zappa's album Guitar".
  • There is a song entitled "Fulcanelli" on Lagartija Nick's album "Lo imprevisto".
  • Daniel Brummel's album "Speak Easy" includes the song "Mystery of the Cathedrals."
  • In the DC Comics Universe, "Evan Fulcanelli" was referred to as the uncle of Zatanna. His relation to Zatara is uncertain.
  • Dario Argento's 1980 horror film Inferno features a book written by a mysterious architect and alchemist named Varelli, both the alchemist and the book clearly being modelled upon Fulcanelli and Le Mystère des Cathédrales. In 1989's La Chiesa (The Church), directed by Michele Soavi and produced by Argento, the main character has a copy of Le Mystère des Cathédrales, which he quotes from.
  • The video game Haunting Ground makes a reference to a book written by a "Furkanelli", which may be a reference to the alchemist.
  • Paul McGann plays a character that is suspected of being Fulcanelli in the final episode of Sea of Souls Series 3, BBC, 2006.[32]
  • There's a track of electronic music by dj Balli in the ep "Trasmutations" Sonic Belligeranza 02

References

  1. ^ Patrick Riviere Fulcanelli, p. 29, Red Pill Press Ltd, 2006 ISBN 978-1-897244-21-0
  2. ^ Mark Stavish The Path of Alchemy, p. 171, Llewellyn Worldwide, 2006 ISBN 978-0-7387-0903-1
  3. ^ Patrick Riviere Fulcanelli, p.31
  4. ^ Rivière, Patrick. Fulcanelli. Red Pill Press ISBN 1-897244-21-5
  5. ^ Dedicaces De Julien Champagne - Julien Champagne
  6. ^ Dennis William Hauck Sorcerer's Stone, p. 172, Citadel Press, 2004 ISBN 978-0-8065-2545-7
  7. ^ Weidner, Jay; Bridges, Vincent (2004). The Mysteries of the Great Cross of Hendaye. Bear & Co. pp. 17–19. ISBN 0892810840. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: checksum (help)
  8. ^ Weidner, Jay; Bridges, Vincent. The Mysteries of the Great Cross of Hendaye. p. 4.
  9. ^ Patrick Riviere Fulcanelli, p. 47, Red Pill Press, 2006 ISBN 978-1-897244-21-0
  10. ^ Samael Aun Weor The Perfect Matrimony, ch. I, Glorian Publishing, 2008 ISBN 978-1-934206-03-4
  11. ^ Dr. Faustroll (2004). Pataphysica 2. iUniverse. p. 78. ISBN 0595337453. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: checksum (help)
  12. ^ Neil Powell Alchemy, the Ancient Science, pp. 132-3, Aldus Books Ltd, London 1976 SBN 490 00346 X
  13. ^ Alchemy, the Ancient Science, ibid. p. 53
  14. ^ Physical Review Online Archive
  15. ^ Fulcanelly Le Mystère des Cathédrales, p. 29, Neville Spearman Ltd, London, 1971
  16. ^ Powell, Neil Alchemy, the Ancient Science, p. 53, Aldus Books Ltd, London, 1976 SBN 490 00346 X
  17. ^ Dennis W. Hauck Sorcerer's Stone, p. 174, Citadel Press, 2004 ISBN 978-0-8065-2545-7
  18. ^ Natturwissenschaften, v. 27, # 1, pp. 11-15, 1939
  19. ^ Nature, v. 143, #3615, pp. 239-240, Feb. 11, 1939
  20. ^ Disintegration of Uranium by Neutrons: a New Type of Nuclear Reaction
  21. ^ Patrick Harpur Mercurius, p. 336, Blue Angel Gallery, 2007 ISBN 978-0-9802865-8-8
  22. ^ Patrick Riviere Fulcanelli, p. 42, Red Pill Press Ltd., 2006 ISBN 978-1-897244-21-0
  23. ^ Fulcanelli Le Mystère des Cathédrales, Neville Spearman, London, 1971
  24. ^ Riviere, Patrick. Fulcanelli: His True Identity Revealed. p. 95.
  25. ^ Riviere, Patrick. Fulcanelli: His True Identity Revealed. p. 95.
  26. ^ Wikimedia: Finis Gloriae Mundi
  27. ^ Fulcanelli Finis Gloriae Mundi, 125 pages, Obelisco, 2004 ISBN 84-7720-937-5 (Spanish ed.)
  28. ^ Fulcanelli revealed, p. 8: Finis Gloriae Mundi
  29. ^ Mariani, Scott. The Alchemist's Secret. ISBN 978-1-84756-079-7
  30. ^ Coelho, Paulo. The Alchemist. ISBN 0-06-250218-2, p. 82.
  31. ^ Langfield, Martin. The Secret Fire. ISBN 0-14-102507-7.
  32. ^ BBC press release
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