  We construct infinite families of regular normal Cartan geometries with
nonvanishing curvature and essential automorphisms on closed manifolds for many
higher rank parabolic model geometries. To do this, we use particular elements
of the kernel of the Kostant Laplacian to construct homogeneous Cartan
geometries of the desired type, giving a global realization of an elegant local
construction due to Kruglikov and The, and then modify these homogeneous
geometries to make their base manifolds compact. As a demonstration, we apply
the construction to quaternionic contact structrures of mixed signature, among
other examples.
