David Mann and Dr. Michelle James, Germanic and Slavic Languages

I was awarded my mentored research project in order to contribute to an ongoing project known as the Sophie Project, directed by Dr. Michelle James. The Sophie Project is an ongoing mentored research project that collects and makes available the creative works of early German-language women. For the past three years, the Sophie researchers have been preparing a critical edition of the collected works of Elisa von der Recke. The first volume of this series is now nearing completion. Reckes works are being published as part of the Sophie Project because of the tremendous intellectual and social impact she had during her lifetime (1754-1833) and due to her connection with a number of the most influential authors, intellectuals, and political leaders across Europe. However, as has been the case with most woman authors, her texts have been largely neglected in spite of the fact that they contribute significant perspectives to the discourse of the Enlightenment.

The Cagliostro exposé, to which I wrote the introduction, plays a fundamental role in Recke’s writings, since it was the publication of this text that rocketed the author to prominence in European intellectual society. Although the story of Recke and her unmasking of Cagliostro took great hold in the public imagination, the original text by Recke has received very little critical or scholarly attention, and it has not been published in its entirety since the end of the eighteenth century. The introduction to the original publication addresses an audience in 1787. The task of my introduction has been to try and critically address the Cagliostro text and make it accessible to a 21st century audience. I am currently in the final stages of editing and my introduction will be published along with the original 1787 Recke text by the University of Michigan Press next year.

There is a real ambivalence in Recke’s Cagliostro expose, firstly in Recke’s intent and secondly in the man Cagliostro himself. Recke was emotionally distraught after the death of her brother and accordingly sought solace from her pain in Cagliostro and his teachings. After clashing time and again with his methods, Recke eventually, encouraged by her friends, published the expose against Cagliostro. What remains ambiguous is whether Recke was simply offended by Cagliostro’s brazen teaching methods, or whether she really had unmasked a genuine charlatan. Perhaps there was a little of the charlatan in Cagliostro, but close observation of the man and his interactions with Recke also reveals a character who held a high standard for his pupils, recommended meditation, serenity and patience and worked without monetary gain for a Christian Utopia. What we find in Recke’s expose is not only then a typical attempt at enlightenment philosophy but inadvertent support for an alternative method of enlightenment. The idea of spiritualism, occultism or mysticism being another form of enlightenment is a hypothesis which I discuss in my project, but one that could easily open the gates to further in-depth study.

The questions that arise out of Recke’s text are enduring questions regarding the ways we search for truth. Study into the fields of occultism, spiritualism and mysticism reveal that there have consistently existed such strains of thought throughout history. Even with the enlightenment movement in Western culture from the seventeenth century and onwards, there has always been the demand for the mystical and the spiritual in our methods for finding truth. The traditional form of enlightenment that Recke endorses in her text is the one most often referred to as high enlightenment, and is categorized by firm belief in reason and an abhorrence of exaggerated sentiment, mysticism and spiritualism. The traditional enlightenment discourse has shaped modern western value systems, western politics and contributed in part to the increasingly secular world we live in. In our post-modern society in general, we, like Recke have come to view skeptically any idea that has the pretension to higher truth. In spite of this, however, we still have an aversion to give ourselves to that which cannot be explained. We cling to the hope of something divine, spiritual and unexplainable. Running alongside the fashionable rational modes of thought in Recke’s day, there too was that counter culture that favored emotions and personal, spiritual experiences above purely rational thought. The traditional enlightenment thinkers in Germany often referred to this counter culture as “Schwaermerei” – unrestrained enthusiasm. Interestingly, many of the fundamental figureheads of rationalist thought, specifically Immanuel Kant and Friedrich Nikolai were at one point drawn to the spiritual ideas they later condemned. Recke too, after in-depth, personal experiences with Cagliostro eventually fought against the unique blend of Occultism and freemasonry that he offered her. The fundamental question that my research has led to is why people like Recke, Kant and Nikolai were attracted to the spiritualist figures we now often label as Charlatans? In a broader sense we may even ask why we too, even in our skeptical post-modern world often turn to the spiritual or the mystical to provide answers to our fundamental questions. Perhaps human beings will never cease to search for answers in those things our reason cannot fully comprehend.

Upon starting my project I had not hypothesized that there could be any redemptive qualities in the ideas against which Recke is fighting. The notion that there is something fundamentally human and enduring in the desire to search the depths of the spiritual and the mystical is one which could be much further explored, but given the constraints of my assignment was impractical. Being only an introduction to Recke’s text, I think I have sufficiently raised some enduring questions, which should give the readers a base from which to formulate their own answers and conclusions.