Franz Anton Mesmer (May 23, 1734 – March 5, 1815)

I have always wondered why this whole ‘thing’ about Mesmerism should be the cause of so much concern. Today, we call it Hypnosis, but in the early stages it was referred to as “Animal Magnetism”. (We still refer to ‘something’ attractive as having animal magnetism…)

This chart is rectified to reflect the age when Mesmer married (Venus @ 27° Aries) at age 33. Then he ‘discovered’ Animal Magnetism (Saturn @ 8° Taurus) at age 40. I believe this chart is now correct, because that timing places Pluto @ 20° Libra in his First House (of personality). There are two inconjuncts, one of which is dependent on a correct time, the other is not.

Mercury Inconjunct Pluto

You have a rather complicated and sometimes tricky mind. You usually prefer to do things in roundabout and involved ways instead of being simple and direct.

On the positive side, this means that you enjoy solving puzzles, tracking down mysteries and finding out about hidden matters. You have a natural ability to understand how peoples’ minds work, what makes them act as they do, and what they are thinking.

On the negative side, however, you might misuse this ability by trying to control peoples’ thoughts and words. Also you may love mysteries so much that you get involved in complicated plots and arrangements with your friends. You may enjoy working in secret and creating an air of mystery about yourself, but this could backfire and make others misunderstand you or even fear what you are doing. It is important to show people that you are honest and that you are not hiding anything. Otherwise they will probably suspect you, even if you are totally innocent. And if you aren’t, they will know it for certain.

Saturn Inconjunct Ascendant

With this aspect you probably have a rather serious attitude toward life and other people. It may be quite difficult for you to simply go out and have a good time. You want to be serious and to spend all your time performing significant tasks. This attitude may have developed because you were discouraged from enjoying yourself when you were younger. You may have been made to feel that only work is important, that play serves no useful purpose. This is not true, however, because playing has a positive and useful function in the development of the adult mind and body. Not only does it serve to release tensions, but it also actually helps train you in social and physical skills hat will be useful in any work you do later.

What P.P. Quimby Wrote about Mesmerism

It has been remarked, (and with what truth our readers will hereafter decide), that Animal Magnetism is a stupendous humbug, that it is a species of polite deception held up to the community as something strange, wonderful and real–a delusion played upon the credulity of honest citizens by artful and designing operators. The facts resulting from experiments, in this enlightened age, cannot be refuted; but I am aware that the oddity and unreasonable methods of accounting for them by the writing and lectures of the advocates of a Fluid theory are so inconsistent with many experiments performed by the followers of Mesmer, themselves, that not only the animal fluid, but all the strange phenomena of mind, arising from the mesmeric state, are rejected at once and passed over to the grave of delusion.

Quimby, Phineas. Phineas Parkhurst Quimby: His Complete Writings and Beyond (p. 58). Phineas Parkhurst Quimby Resource Center. Kindle Edition.

Quimby was not denigrating the process, just the explanation of how it works. He even takes to task the terminology that the Royal Academy of Medicine in Paris used as an explanation:

The results, however, and the facts witnessed, were more difficult to reject. They were thought to be “singular and wonderful” and were finally attributed to the power of the imagination. The mysterious influence of ‘mind over mind,’ was readily conceded; yet they supposed the medium to be (not a magnetic fluid), but “Imagination.” We find no fault with this report except in the term used as its cause, namely, the “Imagination,” believing that even the facts disclosed before the honorable committee were such as to require another expression.

Quimby, Phineas. Phineas Parkhurst Quimby: His Complete Writings and Beyond (p. 57). Phineas Parkhurst Quimby Resource Center. Kindle Edition.

You can see why I find reading Quimby’s words so interesting. He, in his own opinion, is the only one who knows how Mesmerism works, so everyone else is mistaken. It takes a foolhardy individual to be that certain of their own omniscience.

Now this quote (above) is something I can agree with.