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Mysticism In The 18th Century

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The eighteenth century is best known for the being the birth of the enlightenment movement. Deemed the age of reason due to the scientific revolution that occurred, a shift from the mystic to scientific fact occurred. Despite this shift in beliefs, mysticism was still present due to the methods that were used to spread scientific discovery also allowed for the spread of mystic ideologies. According to Sir Micheal Drummett, a British philosopher, mystics objects such a Tarot cards, thrived during the eighteenth century into the early nineteenth century. Tarot cards were able to be incredibly popular during this time because of the social climate of the long eighteenth century. In order to understand why Tarot was popular during the long eighteenth century, one must look a …show more content…
During his reign he we go on to invade and raid many countries in Europe and beyond. One of his major conquests was invading Egypt in 1798. His invasion allowed him to bringing ancient artifacts that he raided from the country back home to France. The French people became interested with these artifacts and the Egyptian folklore. Hieroglyphics were fascinating, and they had not been translated during the eighteenth century which only added to their mystery. They believed that the hieroglyphics contained information about an ancient knowledge regarding magic. Books such as Hieroglyphica, written by the fifth century Egyptian priest Horapollo, became a source for occults to study and use to drive mystic beliefs. Another book that occults studied was Life of Sethos, Taken from Private Memoirs of the Ancient Egyptians written by Jean Terrason in the mid eighteenth century. The fascination with books about Egyptian folklore during the eighteenth century is very similar to the rediscovery of ancient Greek texts that people studied during the

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