| Victorien Sardou was a playwright and a renowned author
at the end of the 19th century. Involved with spiritualism since the age
of twenty-six, he connects with the spirits of Bernard Palissy and Mozart
and becomes a mediumistic artist. He describes the making of his drawing
La Maison du Prophète Elie sur Jupiter (The House of the Prophet
Elie on Jupiter) in 1857: "Around two o'clock I was sitting at my desk as
usual, I had laid in front of me a regular sized piece of paper. Instead
of drawing, my pen, following a sudden impulsion from my hand, made an abrupt
oblique line across the sheet of paper. Intrigued by this, I interrogated
Bernard Palissy through the usual process and I received this laconic response:
"Paper too small." When I told him I only had this paper, the spirit responded:
"Go and buy some." I complained that it was raining and that my stationary
store was far from the quai Saint-Michel where I lived. "Go place Saint-André-des-Arts!"
he answered. Very intrigued, I took my hat and left. I went around the square
and came back to the quai Saint-Michel, angry to have been misled by my
spirit, when I saw a sign which read: "Paper wholesaler." I went in and
found out that the manufacturer had sheets of paper in every possible size.
I chose what I needed and went back home. As soon as the tip of my pencil
touched the newly bought paper, my hand wrote swiftly: "You see, I was right."
Sardou also did etchings of the homes of Palissy and Mozart in Julnius,
a city that is supposed to be on Jupiter. These works - four of them have
been found - were made in a short time and in an automatic way. One can
see enchanted gardens filled with winged creatures and other beings. Sardou
is a strong believer in spiritualism and the fact that he is a famous writer
will play an important role in the recognition of this phenomenon. He writes
on December 4th, 1888: "For over forty years, I have been observing these
phenomena called at times magnetism, somnambulism, ecstasy, second sight,
that scientists used to laugh at when I was a young man. I can still hear
the laughter of my friend's old doctor when I told him about a girl who
went into a cataleptic state under the influence of magnetic vibrations.
Even when fire was shot near her ear and a hot iron came close to her neck,
she did not move! "Oh, he said, women are such liars!" |
