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The Little Religions of Paris – Jules Bois (1894/2024)

Laura Gaie (V Bros publishing house) is not the first to translate and publish this book. She does not give much information about it though. The original book was called Les Petites Religions de Paris and was published in 1894 by Jules Antoine Henri Bois, who was born in Marseille in 1868 and passed away in New York in 1943.

Bois visited small esoteric and religious groups in Paris and makes reports of his visits. He has quite a ‘wooly’ language and had an open mind. You will read a few things about a variety of different groups. Mediterranean heathens, followers of Emanuel Swedenborgh (1688-1772), Theosophical type Buddists, “Theosophes”, but also Satanists (Paladians), Lucifereans, Gnostics and a few more. A few of the people who I have been reading recently are mentioned, usually in passing. It appears that around 1900 there was a lively esoteric ‘scene’ in Paris.

The book is an amusing read, but do not expect any in depth information. Rather the praises of an interested outsider.

2024 V Bros, isbn 978-2487364257

Hermetic Symbolism In Relation To Alchemy and Freemasonry – Owald Wirth (1910/2025)

Somebody finally took it upon herself (Laura Gaie) to translate some of the works of the emminent Swiss author Oswald Wirth (1860-1943).

Wirth was an esotericist and Freemason. He wrote some often referred books, but his books written in French, remained untranslated for some reason. In 1910 Le Symbolisme hermétique dans ses rapports avec l’alchimie et la franc-maçonnerie was published and 115 years later also people who are not too good with French can read the text.

The translation is 160 pages. Quite a large part are not really texts of Wirth though. There are lengthy texts from the archives of Baron de Tschoudy (Jean-Baptiste-Louis-Théodore de Tschudi (1734-1784) and the Kindle version of Gaie’s book does not make clear if Wirth only wrote short introductions to the text of that he also wrote elucidations within them. The texts are interesting in themselves though, as they represent an early ‘Egyptian’ type of Freemasonry.

Anyway, Wirth’s texts about Alchemy and related subjects are interesting and quite clear. Different subjects are deals with only here and there referring to Freemasonry and then towards the end we get the (Alchemical) Masonic texts of De Tschoudy.

An interesting and long overdue translation.

1910/2025 V Bros. Publishing, isbn 2487364440