Joseph Smith: America's Hermetic Prophet

Part 4.

Though a work still very much "in progress", Joseph Smith's story is now being pieced together in a new and entirely unorthodox fashion. ⁵

Beginning in his late-adolescent years Joseph was first recognized by others to have paranormal abilities, and between 1822 and 1827 he was enlisted to act as "seer" for several groups engaged in treasure digging. Not only did he possessed a "seer stone" into which he could gaze and locate things lost or hidden in the earth, but it has recently became evident this same stone was probably the "Urim and Thummim" later used to "translate" portions of the Book of Mormon. According to contemporary accounts of the book's writing, Joseph would place his "seer stone" in the crown of his hat, and then bend forward with his arms upon his knees and his face buried in the hat. Gazing into the stone while in this posture, he would visualize and then dictate the words to a scribe seated nearby.

The treasure digging activities also had involved magical rituals, and it is likely Joseph Smith was cognizant of at least the rudiments of ceremonial magic during his adolescent years. A possible occult mentor to the young Smith has also been identified--a physician named Dr. Luman Walter. Walter was a distant cousin of Smith's future wife and a member of the circle associated with Smith's early treasure quests. By contemporary reports he was not only a physician, but a magician and mesmerist who had traveled extensively in Europe to obtain "profound learning"--probably including knowledge of alchemy, Paracelcian medicine, and hermetic lore. Other pieces of evidence added to the picture. Three very curious parchments and a dagger owned by Joseph Smith's brother, Hyrum, have been careful preserved by his descendants as sacred relics, handed down from eldest son to eldest son after his death. Family tradition maintained they were religious objects somehow used by Hyrum and Joseph. When finally allowed scrutiny by individuals outside the family, it was recognized they were the implements of a ceremonial magician.

The dagger bears the sigil of Mars. The three parchments, each apparently intended for a different magical operation, are inscribed with a variety of magic symbols and sigils. Another heirloom also fell into perspective: a "silver medallion" owned by Joseph Smith and carried on his person at the time of his murder in Carthage jail, was identified to be a talisman. It is inscribed front and back with the magic square and sigil of Jupiter, the astrological force associated with the year of Joseph Smith's birth. All of these items could have been constructed using the standard texts of ceremonial magic available in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century: Agrippa's Occult Philosophy, Sibly's Occult Sciences, and Barrett's The Magus.

In this light, the visit of the angel Moroni took on unusual aspects. The angel had appeared on the night of the Autumnal equinox, between midnight and dawn--hours auspicious for a magical invocation. On the day of the equinox Joseph had subsequently made his four annual visits to the hill. When finally he retrieved the plates, it was the eve of the equinox, in the first hour after midnight. Accounts suggested he had been required to take with him that night a consort (his wife), to ride a black horse, and to dress in black--all lending a further magical tenor to the operation.

Historians puzzled over how this information fit into the more commonly recounted story of Smith. Had the magical parchments been used to invoke the Angel Moroni or other of the angelic visitors seen by Joseph? And above all, how did this relate to the doctrinal substance and evolution of Mormonism, which seemed outwardly devoid of a magical tenor?