Lucie Poujoulat was born in 1839, in Saint-Étienne. During the Second French Empire, she was a Republican and her husband, Adolphe Grange,[2] was a freemason. Both joined the spiritist movement in 1876, and in 1882, founded the monthly paper, La Lumière, a type of Republican spiritist publication. Advertised as a journal set on covering spiritualism in all its aspects, it boasted that highly competent writers contributed to its pages.[3] Readers could not become subscribers but could join a "knighthood" offering free subscriptions to the publication for those who were not able to pay.[4] She was part of the governing body of the "Societe de Librairie Spirte".[5] Grange also wrote articles for La Lumière, such as "Dathan de Saint-Cyr, Publiciste, Poète, Explorateur." (February, 1904).[6]
After she was widowed in April 1886, Grange became a medium and created her own movement, a kind of religion for the communion of love based on fluidic energy.[7] She then declared herself a prophet and affirmed that Mary, Moses, and Saint John had called her "Lumière" (Light) and charged her with guiding men using the mystic name, "Habimelah", or shortened to "Hab".[8]
Grange saw the poet Virgil very distinctly, and published this account in the 25 September 1884 issue of her magazine:—"Virgil, crowned with laurels. A strong face, rather long, prominent nose with a lump on one side, dark grey eyes, dark brown hair. He is clothed in a long robe. Virgil has the appearance of a strong healthy man. As he appeared to me he repeated the Latin line: 'Tu Marcellus eris'."[9] She believed in the coming of a "new Eve" responsible for restoring her primitive androgenism to God, and she campaigned for women's rights.[10] She died 31 December 1908, in Paris.
