Some good research in French sources.
About "Etteilla & Freemasonry II" (
https://traditionaltarot.wordpress.com/ ... eemasonry/) It is good to know that the pages of the
L'Avant coureur for Aug. 13, 1770, p. 518, referred to in Wicked Pack are in Gallica. I will add that to the "Etteilla Timeline III" that I have as a blog (
https://etteillatimelineiii.blogspot.com/):
https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k61159041/f6.item. Then also a second review in 1773, p. 323, for which see
https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k ... r=Etteilla. Wicked Pack didn't mention that one. Another 1773 reference, which is in Wicked Pack, is in the farce
Le Comete, and I had given the link to Gallica:
https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k81534j/f35.item. What the current writer adds (although without giving a source) is that the editor of the journal was the same as the author of the play, Nicolas Bricaire de La Dixmerie, who was initiated into the elite Neuf Soeurs lodge in 1776 and therefore already probably a figure in French Freemasonry, it shows that by 1770 Etteila was known in Masonic circles. I remember reading about Dixmerie and Neuf Soeurs (Wikipedia), but not that he was a founding member or the editor of
L'Avant coureur. A source would be very useful.
To me what would also be interest is the period before 1770; that is to say, would the system of 1770 have been known in Masonic circles before 1770? Etteilla himself claimed to have developed it in 1753, in his "Abrege". And we have to wonder where Etteilla would have gotten the funds to publish in 1770 (in Amsterdam).
The third installment of "Etteilla & Freemasonry", which Ronan linked to, focuses on Etteilla's relationship to Cagliostro's rite. From what I have read about it, it was not very similar to that of the
Crata Repoa. Cagliostro's, regardless of its title, was more alchemical, with a figure named Mercurius dying in the middle. But I am prepared to be corrected. I can't remember where I read about it; perhaps it will come to me later. This leads me to wonder if some of Cagliostro's celebrated cures were due to the use of mercury compounds, which worked well in the short run (and if not in the long run, well, the patient would have probably been dead by then).
The author of "Etteilla & Freemasonry" does not seem to have read McCalum's
The Last Alchemist, where on p. 34 it is noted that in 1772 Giuseppi Balsamo (aka Cagliostro) arrived with his wife at Calais, from London, and in Paris, with funds rendered in exchange for his wife's favors, began experiments using Alesso Piemontese's 16th century "book of secrets". This Alesso (actually Alessio, according to bibliographic material on the web), whose name in the French translation of the work was rendered Alexis, of course has the same (French) name as that of the alleged (fictitious, in my view) old man whom Etteilla credits with teaching him the Egyptian tarot (Etteilla says the famous one was the later one's grandfather - a rather incredible claim of 2 generations in 200 years). This is only circumstantial evidence of a connection between Cagliostro and Etteilla, but it does suggest that future installments of "Etteilla & Freemasonry" may be worth reading.
Added a few hours later: re-reading the "Etteilla Timeline" of Jan. 20, 2020, I rewrote the first paragraph above, to clarify what was already known and what the blog added (who is the author?) that I could verify and what needs a source.