Seth Pancoast

Dr. Seth Pancoast, M.D., of Philadelphia was a professor of medicine, mystic, and occultist. He was one of the founding members of the Theosophical Society.

Personal life and career

Seth Pancoast was born in 1823.

Dr. Pancoast was a professor of Microscopic Anatomy and Physiology at the Institute of Medicine at Penn Medical University in Philadelphia. He wrote medical books and articles, including one on "the therapeutic and occult properties of the blue and red rays of the spectrum."

He collected a very valuable library of occult books. One of the books was Cabala, Speculum Artis Et Naturae, in Alchemia printed by Andrea Erffurt in Augusburg Germany in 1654.

He died in 1889.

Theosophical Society involvement

Col. Olcott described Dr. Pancoast as "a most erudite Kabbalist". The doctor was present at meeting of September 7, 1875, that eventually lead to the forming of the Theosophical Society. Although his name is not among the sixteen people that the next day met to form the Society, he was elected as Vice-President on the meeting held on October 30, previous to the inaugural one on November 17.

According to Josephine Ransom,

DR. SETH PANCOAST, of Philadelphia, was a theistic mystic and a great alchemist... He was present at Felt's lecture and questioned him closely. H.P.B. always spoke with great respect of his erudition But when it came to putting theory to the test by evoking the unseen elemental races which guard the threshold of knowledge, he confessed he lacked courage, though H.P.B. frequently offered to assist in the ceremonies and, if necessary, face the worst of the phantoms alone. Under the names of "Lex" and "Lex et Lux" he wrote for the Spiritualistic papers on kabalistic and other matters. He remained a member till he passed away in 1889.

He was also present at the cremation of Baron de Palm.

Writings

• "Curability of Consumption".
• "Boyhood's Perils and Man's Curse".
• Blue and Red Light, or, Light and Its Rays as Medicine. Philadelphia: Stoddart, 1877. Subtitled: showing that light is the original and sole source of life, as it is the source of all the physical and vital forces of nature, and that light is nature's own and only remedy for disease, and explaining how to apply the red and blue rays in curing the sick and feeble: together with a chapter on light in the vegetable kingdom." 312 pages.
• The Ladies' Medical Guide. Philadelphia: John E. Potter, 1865. Sixth 1865 edition available at Hathitrust and also at University of Michigan. Published 1869 under title: The Ladies' medical guide and marriage friend. Includes a portrait of the author. 1869 edition available at Wellcome Library. 1875 edition was subtitled: "a complete instructor and counsellor, embracing a full and exhaustive account of the structure and functions of the reproductive organs, the diseases of females and children, with their causes, symptoms and treatment, the toilet considered in reference to female health, beauty and longevity, etc., etc., etc., with an appendix containing startling facts in plain words for mothers and the young." According the 1865 sixth edition, Dr. Pancoast applied for copyright in 1859. Other editions were published in St. Louis and San Francisco.

Biographies and other resources

• Herringshaw, Thomas William. "Pancoast, Seth" in Herringshaw's national library of American biography: contains thirty-five thousand biographies of the acknowledged leaders of life and thought of the United States V4.. Chicago: American Publishers' Association, 1914. Illustrated with three thousand vignette portraits.
• Austin, Benjamin W. Autograph Collection, 1885-1894. "Collection assembled by Benjamin W. Austin as secretary of Trinity Historical Society, Dallas, Tex., 1885-1894, includes letters from physicians, several eclectic or homeopathic, accepting honorary or non-resident membership in society."