Obercit, Johnan Hermann

An Encyclopaedia of Occultism (1920)

Swiss Mystic and Alchemist, 1725-1798. Born in 1725 at Arbon, in Switzerland , Johann Obercit was the son of a scientist keenly interested in Hermetic philosophy, and no doubt the boy's own taste therefore developed the more speedily on account of the parental predilection. Very soon Johann became determined to discover the philosopher's stone, hoping thereby to resuscitate the fortunes of his family, which he found at a low ebb, presumably because the elder Obercit had expended large sums on his alchemistic pursuits; and the young man worked strenuously to gain his ends, maintaining all along that whoso would triumph in this endeavour must not depend on scientific skill, but rather on constant communion with God. Notwithstanding this pious theory of his, he soon found himself under the ban of the civic authorities, who came to his laboratory, and forced him to forego futher operations, declaring that these constituted a danger to public health and safety. That, at least, they gave as their reason; but the likelihood is that, in their ignorance, they looked askance upon all scientific researches. Obercit, bitterly incensed, appears to have left his native place, and to have lived for some time thereafter with one Lavater, a brother of the noted physiognomist of that name; while it would seem that, at a later date, he renounced the civilised world altogether, and took up his abode in the lofty fastnesses of the Alps. No hermit's life did he live here, however; for, according to his own recital, he took to himself as bride a seraphic shepherdess named Theantis, with whom he dwelt peacefully during a number of subsequent years. Whether children were born of this union between the terrestrial and the ethereal is not recorded, and the alchemist's account of the affair reads rather like Joe Smith's tale about receiving sacred books from an angel on the summit of a mountain overlooking Salt Lake City; nor is there much to be said for two further works from Obercit's pen, the one entitled Les Promenades de Gamaliel, juif Philosophe, and the other La Connexion Originaire des Esprits et des Corps, d'après les Principes de Newton (Augsburg, 1776). Still, if our alchemist cannot be called an able writer, he must be hailed as a picturesque character; and it is matter for regret that so little is known about his life, which extended to the year 1798.