Table of Contents

Illustrations Foreword Preface Acknowledgments 1. Early Years On the Streets of New York The Black Man Upstate New York, Spiritualism, and Free Love John Murray Spear Randolph the Spiritualist Randolph's Medical Specialty: Sex 2. Randolph Abroad: 1855-1858 The World Convention of 1855 English Occultism and Spiritualism in the Mid-1850s The Scryers Emma Hardinge Britten's World Randolph and the British Spiritualists and Mirror Magicians The French Occult Milieu at Mid-Century Return to America Second European Trip: 1857 3. The Fruits of Randolph's Travels in the 1850s Hashish Clairvoyance Magic Mirrors 4. Randolph's Recantation of Spiritualism The Utica Philanthropic Convention Recantation of Spiritualism Gerrit Smith 5. Dealings with the Dead: The Mature Visionary Cosmology and Soul Monads Soul and Spirit Beginnings of Practical Occultism The Blending Practice and Blending 6. The Rosicrucian Disclaimers Rosicrucians on Both Sides of the Grave Ravalette History behind the Myth? Reuben Swinburne Clymer's Myths Randolph's First Rosicrucian Foundations The Orient, 1861-1862 Pre-Adamite Man 7. The Civil War Years 8. The Post-Civil War Years in Boston The Rosicrucian Rooms in Boston After Death; or Disembodied Man Randolph Publishing Company Sexual Happiness The Rosicrucians Again 9. The Great Free-Love Trial Arrested The Great Boston Fire and Toledo Last Visit to Europe The Revelation of Sexual Magic 10. The Coming of the Nusa'iri The Nusa'iri The Ansairetic Mystery and the Mysteries of Eulis The Brotherhood of Eulis Finale Suicide 11. Post-Mortem 12. Randolph and Madame Blavatsky The Occult Duel The Reality behind the Myth The "Half-Initiated Seer" The Rosicrucians Yet Again Brothers of Luxor Madame Blavatsky and Spiritualism The Primordial Central Sun Reincarnation and the Sleep of Sialam 13. Randolph, Blavatsky, and Occult Practice The Original Purpose of the Theosophical Society The Enigmatic G. H. Felt Occult Practice in the Early Years Blending and Tulku Sex Epilogue Appendix A. The Ansairetic Mystery. A New Revelation Concerning Sex! Appendix B. "The Mysteries of Eulis" Appendix C. Bibliography of the Works of Paschal Beverly Randolph Notes Works Cited Index

Reviews

"This is a superb piece of work. It is the only book that I know of about Randolph, who is generally considered a notable curiosity of nineteenth-century esotericism, but whom the author establishes as an absolutely central and pivotal historical character. This historiography is masterful-meticulously detailed and coherently presented. This is an important book, filling a gap that wasn't previously known to have been so substantial. It's well written, a tour de force at amassing the data. It is a must read." - Dan Merkur, author of Gnosis: An Esoteric Tradition of Mystical Visions and Unions "It is fascinating, because the subject's life was filled with dramatic adventure and hardship, and touched upon so many issues of the day. Deveney's work is important in itself as a ground-breaking study of an intriguing character. I can think of no figure in nineteenth-century Western esotericism who has been more unjustly ignored than Randolph. Deveney rescues him from obscurity in this biography, which will be regarded as authoritative for many years to come." - K. Paul Johnson, author of Initiates of Theosophical Masters and The Masters Revealed: Madame Blavatsky and the Myth of the Great White Lodge