Occultism, a History of France

From the first centuries of the Middle Ages to the splendor of the Renaissance, the history of France was written as much in the light of official chronicles as in the shadow of occult practices. Behind the kings, wars, and treaties stood seers, astrologers, alchemists, witches, and secret societies. These marginal figures nevertheless influenced political decisions and fueled popular fears. Far from being a folkloric curiosity or a mere counterpoint to religion, occultism wove its web through every corner of French society, from the people to the court, making our nation a stronghold of this hidden science. History.

Medieval Knowledge Between Faith and Witchcraft

In medieval times, France saw official Christian faith coexist with a multitude of occult practices in popular traditions. Long before the term occultism existed (it would not appear until the 19th century), the “occult” arts - astrology, magic, alchemy, and divination - were part of everyday life. Peasants consulted healers and used talismans and incantations to heal or cast the evil eye, while witches (or sorcerers, or magi) practiced secretly in villages. These practices continued ancient pagan traditions (mainly Celtic and Germanic) that had blended with Christianity over the centuries, intertwined with magical practices from the East inherited from Antiquity.

For the medieval Church, these popular practices represented a challenge. For a long time, religious authorities half-tolerated these “occult sciences” practiced on the margins, especially when it came to astrology or alchemy, perceived as forms of knowledge inherited from Antiquity. But from the 13th century onward, the tone grew harsher: the Inquisition broadened its persecution of healers and sorcerers, gradually equating their practices with heresy. A decisive turning point came in 1326, when Pope John XXII issued the bull Super illius specula, which explicitly equated sorcerers with heretics. Witchcraft thereafter became a religious crime: invoking spirits or concocting magical potions meant threatening the Christian order.

In this context, witch trials began appearing everywhere. One of the most famous of the Middle Ages was that of Joan of Arc. In 1431, the Maid of Orléans was tried in Rouen for “heresy and witchcraft” - largely political accusations, as the English judges sought to discredit her by portraying her as a witch inspired by the Devil rather than by God. She was even questioned about the use of an alleged mandrake she supposedly possessed. Joan vehemently denied any occult practice and asserted that her voices were divine in origin. Despite her defense, she was convicted and burned alive as a relapse, meaning someone who had fallen back into witchcraft and heresy. Her execution at the stake, one of the most famous of the Middle Ages alongside that of the Templars a century earlier, illustrates the fear inspired at the time by any supposed connection with the occult. In the eyes of her enemies, Joan embodied the medieval ambiguity whereby an inexplicable phenomenon - her voices and miraculous victories - could be attributed either to a divine miracle or to diabolical witchcraft.

Joan of Arc Entering Orléans

Witch trials multiplied especially at the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the modern era. Manuals of demonology circulated to guide judges and inquisitors. In 1486, the infamous Malleus Maleficarum (the “Hammer of Witches”) was published, a German treatise that influenced all of Europe. France was no exception: in 1580, the French jurist Jean Bodin published De la démonomanie des sorciers, a comprehensive work on witchcraft and demons. This book, which defined a witch as “anyone who, by diabolical means, knowingly seeks to accomplish something,” became a reference for the judicial repression of practitioners of black magic. Bodin asserted the reality of sabbaths and satanic pacts and advocated merciless severity against witches, including torture and burning at the stake. His ideas would have an immense impact on witch hunts in France, legitimizing the pursuit of occult evil in the eyes of the courts.

Thus, from the burning of the Templars to the execution of Joan of Arc, from village healers to Renaissance demonologists, the French Middle Ages were far from an age of naive credulity or total ignorance. On the contrary, the occult was omnipresent. It fascinated as much as it frightened. On the one hand, the people continued to turn to ancestral magical practices to ward off misfortune or cure everyday ailments. On the other, the ecclesiastical elite developed a genuine learned demonology to combat what it perceived as an infernal threat. This attraction-repulsion toward occultism would leave a lasting mark on French society - and it was far from limited to the common people.

Astrologers and Alchemists at the Side of Kings

A little-known but revealing fact: the attraction to occultism was not confined to peasant cottages - it extended to the castles of the kings of France. Many sovereigns and great figures of the kingdom relied on astrologers, seers, or alchemists to guide their decisions, from the High Middle Ages through the modern era. Kings who were nevertheless deeply Christian, such as Louis VII in the 12th century or Louis IX (Saint Louis) in the 13th, did not hesitate to consult the stars as well as their confessors. The presence of occultism at the summit of the state grew even stronger at the end of the Middle Ages: King Charles V the Wise (1338-1380) surrounded himself with astrologers and had numerous treatises on astrology and alchemy translated for his royal library. He even established a college of astrology in Paris. A few decades later, his grandson Charles VIII had a certain Simon de Phares as his official astrologer, and he would leave behind a manuscript chronicle of the most famous astrologers of his time.

It was during the Renaissance, however, that esotericism truly entered the circles of power. The invention of the printing press (around 1450) opened new perspectives for the educated elite: the hermetic texts of Antiquity reappeared, and treatises on alchemy, Kabbalah, and astrology circulated clandestinely. The Renaissance indeed fostered a pronounced taste for the occult: thinkers of the era sought to reconcile ancient knowledge, magic, and Christian faith. In Italy, Marsilio Ficino and Pico della Mirandola studied celestial magic and Kabbalah in order to attain a form of divine truth. This trend reached France: royal courts became the setting for esoteric experiments. Astrological almanacs and grimoires were exchanged, and the mysterious properties of nature were debated. Alchemy and the transmutation of metals into gold and the elixir of immortality; astrology to predict the outcome of wars or the health of princes; magic - white or black - for everyday concerns.

Catherine de' Medici

The emblematic figure of this alliance between power and the occult is undoubtedly Catherine de' Medici (1519-1589). Queen of France in the 16th century, Catherine was passionate about astrology and magic. She surrounded herself with seers and astrologers, including the Florentine Cosimo Ruggieri, her confidant, and the Provençal Michel de Nostredame, known as Nostradamus. Nostradamus, trained as a physician, became the official astrologer of the Valois court: he drew up horoscopes for King Charles IX and, beginning in 1555, published his famous Prophecies, a collection of enigmatic quatrains predicting the future of the world. These obscure verses enjoyed immense popular success - they would be reprinted for centuries - and made Nostradamus the most famous astrologer in French history. Catherine de' Medici, for her part, consulted her astrologers on matters of state as well as her family destiny. Legend surrounded her with an unsettling aura: people whispered that this Italian queen, an adept of poisons and occult sciences, pulled the strings from the shadows to protect her sons' throne. Although her image as a “poisoning queen” was partly the product of hostile propaganda, it is established that Catherine brought magi to her court, experimented with alchemical remedies, and took an interest in divinatory arts. A famous episode recounts that she had a private observatory built in Paris for Cosimo Ruggieri, and that together they conducted occult séances to learn the dynasty's future. It is even claimed that the astrologer Ruggieri organized bewitchment rituals using a dagyde - a practice consisting of harming an enemy by torturing a figurine in their likeness - aimed at political adversaries, and that he owed his salvation only to Catherine's protection when these deeds nearly came to light. Public opinion at the time was convinced that the premature death of young Charles IX (from a mysterious hemorrhagic tuberculosis) resulted from a malefice connected with these dark manipulations.

Ritual between Cosimo Ruggieri and Catherine de' Medici. Source

Among the figures who fueled the esoteric myths of the Renaissance, Nicolas Flamel must also be mentioned. This 14th-century Parisian bourgeois (who died in 1418) left behind the memory of a philanthropist who had hospitals built... but rumor made him much more than that. Shortly after his death, it was said that Flamel had discovered the secret of the philosopher's stone, the legendary alchemical substance capable of turning lead into gold and granting eternal life. His unexplained fortune, which he devoted to pious works, served as the starting point for this myth. Over the centuries, Nicolas Flamel became an essential hero of alchemical tales: esoteric treatises were attributed to him (apocryphal works published long after his death), and novels and later films portrayed him as an immortal keeper of the great secret. In the 16th century, numerous scholars and adventurers embarked on the quest for the philosopher's stone, sometimes with the discreet support of powerful figures. King Henry II himself is said to have financed alchemists' workshops, hoping to fill the kingdom's coffers through the production of gold.

In the upper echelons of French society, the boundary between recognized sciences and occult sciences remained porous for a long time. At the beginning of the 17th century, an astronomer as serious as Johannes Kepler (the originator of the laws governing planetary motion) could still practice astrology without damaging his reputation. For Renaissance scholars, exploring the hidden forces of nature was an integral part of understanding the world. It was only at the very end of the 16th century, and especially in the 17th, that the gap between official science and esotericism began to widen. The development of the scientific method, based on observation and reason, led a new generation of scholars to reject old occult bodies of knowledge, deemed too tainted by superstition. In France, the establishment of the Paris Observatory in 1672 symbolized this turning point: the astronomers working there were formally forbidden to cast horoscopes, as astrology was now banned from the supposedly serious scientific sphere. From then on, astronomy looked at the stars but no longer claimed to read destiny in their course.

The Shadow of the Occult over the Modern Era

Despite the rise of rationalist ideas, the attraction to the occult remained powerful in 17th-century French society. It simply became more clandestine. In public, people displayed a Cartesian spirit and mocked the credulity of earlier generations. But in the secrecy of private chambers, they continued to consult fortune-tellers, make potions, and invoke spirits. Toward the end of Louis XIV's reign, this hidden side of the court came into the open in what would be called the Affair of the Poisons. This scandal, which tainted the French nobility in the years 1679-1682, revealed the unsuspected scale of an occult network at the very heart of the capital. An investigation ordered by the king showed that “nobles, prosperous bourgeois, and common people secretly turned to fortune-tellers, then very numerous in Paris, to obtain drugs and poisons, for black masses and other criminal purposes.” In other words, every social milieu - from courtesans to artisans - called upon the services of witches and poisoners.

Catherine Deshayes, or La Voisin. Source

The central figure in this dark affair was Catherine Deshayes, known as La Voisin, a fortune-teller and poison supplier who allegedly sold her services to hundreds of clients. In her wake moved black magicians, defrocked priests celebrating dark masses, and a network of corrupt apothecaries. The revelations horrified the court: among those implicated was the Marquise de Montespan, Louis XIV's own favorite. According to testimony extracted from La Voisin's accomplices, Madame de Montespan had, for years, resorted to magic - love potions and black masses - to retain the affection of the Sun King and drive away her rivals. She allegedly even commissioned the poisoning of a young rival who had attracted too much attention, Mademoiselle de Fontanges, and considered drugging the king himself when his love waned. Although these accusations could not be formally proven (Louis XIV, terrified by the scandal, brought the public proceedings to an end as soon as Montespan was implicated), the affair revealed to everyone the real presence of the occult at the heart of power, both as a shock and as confirmation that yes, the occult existed. In the gilded salons of Versailles, witchcraft was practiced as well - but it was venal and criminal witchcraft, involving poisons distilled in secret. In total, the Chambre ardente (the special tribunal created for the occasion) held 210 sessions and issued 36 death sentences. La Voisin herself was burned at the Place de Grève (now the square in front of City Hall) in 1680, taking many secrets with her. Many prominent names mentioned during the investigation (including Montespan) escaped through exile or discreet confinement, as the king preferred to avoid a public eruption of the state affair it represented. Nevertheless, the most flamboyant court in Europe housed within it a genuine underground world of magic, sacrifices, and pacts.

Beyond this resounding scandal, the modern era saw the continued, diffuse persistence of occult practices. In the countryside of the Ancien Régime, people still feared witches and sorceresses. Sporadic witch hunts took place in certain regions of France - for example, in the Basque Country in 1609, when, under a commission from King Henry IV, Judge Pierre de Lancre led a fierce repression and sent dozens of people accused of sabbaths and black magic to the stake. Likewise, in Franche-Comté and Lorraine, witch trials continued to appear until around 1650. But gradually, the skepticism of the Enlightenment gained ground, and these persecutions declined.

In the intellectual circles of the 17th-18th centuries, the emphasis was increasingly on scientific experimentation. Certain occult practices were transformed and reborn under a more “rational” appearance. One example was the Austrian physician Franz-Anton Mesmer, who triumphed in Paris in the 1780s through animal magnetism: an invisible fluid he channeled in mysterious group sessions. Although Mesmer rejected the label of magician, many saw him as an occult healer, heir to the magnetizers and astrologers of old. Other esoteric adventurers traveled across Europe, fascinating the elites: Count Alessandro Cagliostro, grand master of a mystical Egyptomania, charmed Parisian nobles with his elixirs and rituals before becoming involved in the Affair of the Diamond Necklace. On the eve of the Revolution, the rationalist spirit thus existed alongside a lively curiosity about the irrational. It is no coincidence that many Masonic lodges - which appeared in France around 1725 - cultivated a taste for esotericism, multiplying alchemical symbols and Templar references in their rites. Likewise, from the end of the 17th century, mysterious manifestos attributed to the Rosicrucians, a secret brotherhood devoted to occult wisdom, circulated throughout Europe. Paris itself, in 1623, awoke covered with strange posters announcing the arrival of these invisible Rosicrucians, “masters of omnipotence” - enough to fuel every legend. Even when official science turned away from it, part of the elite continued seeking the hidden knowledge of ancient magi in the secrecy of the lodges.

The Occultist Revival in the 19th Century

After the revolutionary turmoil and the Empire, 19th-century France experienced a remarkable resurgence of occultism. In the age of triumphant positivism and industrialization, many minds yearned for mysteries deeper than those offered by materialist science. It was in this context that what would later be called “occultism” emerged as a distinct intellectual movement. “Occultism as a school of thought was born on the ruins of the revolutionary and imperial wars. It made its voice heard as a counterpoint to that of the Restoration in the first third of the 19th century,” observes historian Jean-Pierre Laurant. Indeed, from the 1830s to the 1850s, Paris once again became a major center of esotericism: literary salons grew enthusiastic about magnetism, the occult sciences were reassessed in the light of Romanticism, and attempts were made to establish a “new epistemology” merging mysticism and science.

Éliphas Lévi

It was during this period that the word “occultism” itself appeared in French (around 1842). A former seminarian named Alphonse-Louis Constant - better known by the pseudonym Éliphas Lévi - published Dogma and Ritual of High Magic in 1856, a foundational work that laid the foundations of modern occultism by synthesizing Kabbalah, tarot, alchemy, and magnetism. Éliphas Lévi proclaimed himself an heir to Paracelsus and Swedenborg, and claimed to reconcile faith and science through magic. His success reverberated throughout Europe. Soon, structured occultist circles formed: in 1888, Dr. Gérard Encausse, known as Papus, founded the Martinist Order and a Hermetic School in Paris. He defined occultism as “the collection of theories, practices, and paths of realization derived from Occult Science.” Under his pen and that of his contemporaries (Stanislas de Guaita, Joséphin Péladan,...), French occultism of the Belle Époque claimed its roots in esoteric Christianity, presenting itself as a complement to religion rather than its enemy.

At the same time, foreign influences nourished this revival. The Theosophical Society, founded in 1875 by Helena Blavatsky, introduced esoteric ideas from the East into France. Blavatsky, a colorful character, popularized the notion of a universal occult tradition blending Buddhism, Hinduism, Kabbalah, and spiritualism. Her works reached a considerable audience and laid the foundations for 20th-century esoteric movements, continuing into today's New Age. Spiritualism also flourished through Allan Kardec: communicating with spirits by means of turning tables became an imperial fashion (Napoleon III himself is said to have attended séances). All this testifies to a persistent thirst for mystery in French society, from the humblest to the most powerful.

The 19th century thus closed the circle of this long history: occultism, never eradicated, resurfaced openly, this time in the form of structured movements, journals, lodges, and initiatory orders. What had once been clandestine or reserved for royal courts was now displayed in bookstores and Parisian salons. In 1900, Paris was both the capital of the rational sciences and the capital of the occult sciences, hosting psychology congresses and conferences on Kabbalistic magic.

Thus, the history of France is linked to occultism, intimately and inseparably, not to glorify the irrational, but to remind us that the desire to uncover the secrets of nature and destiny is universal and timeless. This occult thread, woven through the centuries, forms part of the nation's intangible heritage - a shadowy part often hidden but never extinguished, which continues to fuel curiosity and the imagination.

Sources:

• Paul Lacroix, Sciences and Letters in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance

• Trial of Joan of Arc (historical transcripts, notably the version published by Jules Quicherat)

• Jean Bodin, On the Demon-Mania of Witches (1580)

• Key of Solomon (medieval grimoire translated by S.L. Mathers)

• Simon de Phares, Collection of the Most Famous Astrologers and Seers

• Pierre de Lancre, Tableau of the Inconstancy of Evil Angels and Demons (1612)

• Robert Mandrou, Magistrates and Witches in 17th-Century France

• Archives of the Affair of the Poisons (1679-1682), Chambre ardente

• Michel de Nostredame (Nostradamus), The Prophecies (1555)

• Jean-Pierre Laurant, Contemporary Esotericism and Its Readings of Tradition

• Éliphas Lévi, Dogma and Ritual of High Magic (1856)

• Papus (Gérard Encausse), Elementary Treatise on Occult Science

• Critical Dictionary of Esotericism, ed. Jean Servier (PUF)