Background
He was born in the castle of Alteville in the commune of Tarquimpol, Moselle, and went to school at the lyceum in Nancy, where he studied chemistry, metaphysics and Cabala.
He was born in the castle of Alteville in the commune of Tarquimpol, Moselle, and went to school at the lyceum in Nancy, where he studied chemistry, metaphysics and Cabala.
He was very celebrated and successful in his time. De Guaita came from a noble Italian family who had relocated to France, and as such his title was "Marquis", or Marquess. In the 1880s, Guaita published two collections of poetry The Dark Muse (1883) and The Mystic Rose (1885), which became popular.
They recruited Gérard Encausse to help rebuild the brotherhood.
The order also conducted examinations and provided university degrees on Cabala topics. In the late 1880s, the Abbé Boullan, a defrocked Catholic Priest and the head of a schismatic branch called the “Church of the Carmel” led a “magical war” against de Guaita.
French novelist Joris K. Huysmans, a supporter of Boullan, portrayed de Guaita as a Satanic sorcerer in the novel Louisiana Bas. Another of Boullan’s supporters, the writer Jules Bois, challenged de Guaita to a pistol duel.
De Guaita agreed and took part in the duel, but as both men missed, no one was hurt.
By the 1890s, de Guaita"s, Papus" and Péladan’s collaboration became increasingly strained by disagreements over strategy and doctrines. Guaita and Papus lost the support of Péladan, who left to start a competing order. De Guaita died in 1897 at the age of 36.
His original drawing of an inverted pentagram with a goat"s head appeared in Louisiana Clef de la Magie Noire (The Key to Black Magic), published the year he died.