Philippe I was, nevertheless, a notorious homosexual. During his childhood, Queen Anne would address Philippe I by such nicknames as “my little girl” and encouraged him to dress in feminine clothing as a young man, a habit retained all his life. A contemporary would refer to him as the “silliest woman who ever lived.”According to court gossip, Cardinal Mazarin’s own nephew Philippe Jules Mancini, the Duke of Nevers, had been the “first to [have] corrupted” Philippe. Among his lovers, Philip of Lorraine-Armagnac, Chevalier de Lorraine, was described as “insinuating, brutal and devoid of scruple.”

As Joscelyn Godwin explained in The Theosophical Enlightenment, “The whole Orleans family, ever since [Philippe I, Duke of Orléans], was notoriously involved in the black arts.”Philippe I was close to the wife of his brother Louis XIV, Madame de Montespan (1640 – 1707), who was involved in a scandal known as L’affaire des poisons (“Affair of the Poisons”), where Catherine Monvoisin, known as La Voisin, and the priest Étienne Guibourg performed Black Masses for human sacrifice for her.[16] Authorities rounded up a number of fortune tellers and alchemists who were suspected of selling divinations, séances, aphrodisiacs, and “inheritance powders,” an euphemism for poison. Some confessed under torture and provided authorities lists of their clients. La Voisin was arrested in 1679 and implicated several important courtiers, including Olympia Mancini, the Countess of Soissons, her sister, the Duchess of Bouillon, François Henri de Montmorency, Duke of Luxembourg and Madame de Montespan. La Voisin claimed that the Marquise bought aphrodisiacs and that she performed black masses with her in order to keep the king’s favor over rival lovers. The rituals were a mockery of the Catholic Mass, featuring the Marquise lying nude as an altar, with the chalice on her bare stomach, and holding a black candle in each of her outstretched arms. The witch and the Marquise would call on the devil (Astaroth and Asmodeus), and pray to him for the King’s love. They sacrificed a newborn by slitting its throat with a knife. The baby’s body was crushed, and the drained blood and mashed bones were used in the mixture. Louis’ food was tainted in this way for almost thirteen years, until La Voisin was captured after a police investigation where they uncovered the remains of 2,500 infants in her garden. It was alleged that La Voisin paid prostitutes for their infants for use in the rituals.