Lux Esoterica (Nifiluz)

The Hermit of the Pyramids and Napoleonic Occultism In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, as the fires of the Enlightenment burned across Europe, a parallel current of romantic occultism emerged, fascinated by the mysteries of the ancient East. The primary literary manifestation of this fascination was the grimoire titled La Poule Noire , translated into English as The Black Pullet or "The Hen with the Golden Eggs." Published anonymously in France, the text presents itself not as a compilation of medieval Solomonic conjurations, but as a dramatic, initiatory narrative set against the backdrop of Napoleon Bonaparte’s military expedition to Egypt. The framing narrative of the Black Pullet is one of the most elaborate in the entire history of grimoire literature. It tells the story of a French officer, a member of Napoleon's scientific and military expedition, who is attacked by local Bedouin forces in the deserts of Egypt. Wounded and left for dead, th...