Marco Pasi

The Modernity of Occultism: Reflections on Some Crucial Aspects

Marco Pasi-Associate Professor in History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents, University of Amsterdam (Netherlands). M. Pasi@uva.nl

In this article the author analyzes a number of popular concepts about the relationship between occultism and various phenomena of social life in the end of the 19th and in the early 20th century. The author shows that the idea of a link between occultism and fascism, which was popular in the middle of the 20th century, is largely false. As an alternative, the author suggests a perspective in which occult societies are described as a virtual space for social and cultural experimentation and innovation.

Keywords: Occultism, Western esotericism, modern esotericism, fascism, occultism and society.

WHEN I moved to Amsterdam in 2004 to take up a new position at the Center for the History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents, one of the tasks assigned to me was to organize a master's program called Occult Trajectories, focused on the following topics: the study of late modern times and modernity. Of course, I had the opportunity to adapt it according to my own research interests, but in general, the idea of the program was that-

Оригинал см.: Pasi, M. (2009) "The Modernity of Occultism: Reflections on Some Crucial Aspects", in Hanegraaff, W. J. and Pijnenburg, J. (eds) Hermes in the Academy: Ten Years' Study of Western Esotericism at the University of Amsterdam, pp. 59 - 74. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. Translation and publication rights are granted by the author.

page 276
I would like to give you a thorough, in-depth knowledge of the development of esotericism from the XVIII century to the present day. I soon came up with the idea of using this opportunity to explore how esotericism interacted at this time with the society within which it existed and with its contemporary culture. I decided to devote every year to studying one aspect or another. Thus, at the end of this series, I would not only gain a deeper understanding of the history of the development of modern esotericism - which would help me put the study of particular topics in a broader context - but also gain enough material to write a general introduction to the history of Western esotericism in the late Modern period and modern times. My first five years in Amsterdam were devoted to the following topics: Oriental1; magic; feminism and gender; politics; literature and the visual arts. I plan to continue this project, focusing on other aspects in the future, after which the cycle will be completed, and I will be able to draw some conclusions, which I hope will be framed in the form of a book that I planned to write from the very beginning. Since more than half of the journey has been completed to date, it is already possible to draw some conclusions about how Modern esotericism interacted with modern Western society and culture. I will focus on some of these findings below, focusing in particular on the role played by occult organizations. 2
Occultism and politics

Esotericism and occultism are often associated with right-wing, reactionary political forces and irrationalism.3 This association became particularly influential after the work of Teodo-

1. Despite the fact that this course belonged to the specified cycle, it was planned to turn it into a separate course for bachelors.

2. When I use the term "occultism", I mean a specific trend within Western esotericism that began to develop in the mid-nineteenth century and has continued to exist, with a number of changes, to the present day. I gave an overview of this trend in an article for the Brill Dictionary of Religion, see Pasi, M. (2005) "Occultism", in K. von Stuckrad (ed.) The Brill Dictionary of Religion, vol. III, pp. 1364-1368. Leiden and Boston: Brill.

3. In this case, I use the two terms esotericism and occultism interchangeably, as this reflects the confusion that exists in non - specialist literature on this subject. The problem in this case is obviously not only terminological, but also conceptual.

page 277
ra Adorno's" Theses Against Occultism " (Theses Against Occultism), written in 1947 and included in the book Minima Moralia, published in 19504. But Adorno was not the only one, or even the first, to promote such an association in the post-war years. Another prominent example is George Orwell, who formulated the same idea in his essay on Williams Butler Yeats, first published in 1946 but actually written in 1943.5 It is well known that Yates was not only interested in the occult throughout his life, but also during the First World War showed sympathy for the nascent fascist movement.6 Even before Orwell, another famous English author, W. H. Auden expressed his confusion about Yeats 'interest in the occult in an essay published in the Partisan Review in 1939 shortly after Yeats' death. [7] However, Orwell seems to have been the first to explicitly link Yeats ' personal interest in the occult with his political sympathies for the right, and at the same time to draw a general conclusion about the deep connection between occultism and fascism. Orwell argued that there are at least three aspects that can explain this connection

4. Adorno, T. W (1994) "Theses against Occultism", in Adorno, T. W The Stars down to Earth and Other Essays on the Irrational in Culture, pp. 128 - 134. London and New York: Routledge. A critical analysis of this important text can be found in Versluis, A. (2006) The New Inquisitions: Heretic Hunting and the Intellectual Origins of Modern Totalitarianism, pp. 95 - 104. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. You can also refer to the discussion in Wasserstrom, S. M. (2007) "Adorno's Kabbalah: Some Preliminary Observations", in O. Hammer and K. von Stuckrad (eds) Polemical Encounters: Esoteric Discourse and Its Others, pp. 66 - 69. Leiden and Boston: Brill.

5. Orwell, G. W B. Yeats. Whether explicitly or implicitly, some authors have made these claims about the connection between occultism and right-wing totalitarianism even before the war (for example, we can recall Hermann Rauschning's book "Hitler Speaks", first published in 1939), but in this case I do not set out to reconstruct the history of this concept.

6. Already in the 1920s, Yates admired Mussolini and Italian fascism, which can also be seen as an influence of his younger friend Ezra Pound. Yeats also flirted, albeit relatively briefly, with the pseudo-fascist movement that was created in his native Ireland in the 1930s by the Eoin O'duffie Association of Army Comrades, also known as the Blue Shirts. See Foster, R. F. (2005) W. B. Yeats: A Life. II: The Arch-Poet 1915 - 1939, pp. 358, 466 - 495. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press; North, M. (1991) The Political Aesthetic of Yeats, Eliot, and Pound, pp. 70 - 73. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

7. Auden, W. H. (2002) "The Public v. the Late Mr William Butler Yeats", in Auden, W. H. The Complete Works of WH. Auden: Prose, vol. II (1939 - 1948), pp. 4 - 5. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

page 278
between "hatred of democracy" 8 (expressed in reactionary political ideas) and occultism.

First, Orwell connects "hatred of the idea of equality of men"9 with the theories of cyclical time, which, in his opinion, are generally accepted in the occult. The belief that everything has already happened and will happen again makes it impossible to believe in progress, and with it, science. Analyzing this statement, it should be noted that cyclical theories of time were indeed quite influential in Western esotericism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries (for example, among followers of the theosophical movement, as well as in perennialism) .10 After the First World War, Yates developed his own cyclical theory of time, which was described in The Vision (1925, 1937). But Orwell's arguments, when applied to the occult as a whole, are no longer so convincing. On the one hand, not all forms of occultism understood as a definite trend in history (let alone esotericism in general) are based on a cyclical model of time; on the other hand, the direct connection between cyclical models and right - wing political ideas is by no means indisputable and obvious.

Second, occultism seems inextricably linked to elitism:

...the very concept of occultism includes the idea that knowledge should be a secret accessible to a narrow circle of initiates. But the same idea is inherent in fascism. Opponents of the idea of universal suffrage, national education, freedom of thought, and women's emancipation begin by turning to secret cults.11
If you accept the idea that knowledge and power are closely related to each other - and it should be noted that esotericists in most cases

8. Orwell, G. (1946) "W. B. Yeats", in Orwell, G. Critical Essays, p. 117. London: Seeker and Warburg.

9. Ibid.

10. In this context, it is synonymous with traditionalism. - Note. perev.

11. Ibid., 118. It is interesting to note that the same quotation was used a few years after Orwell's book was published as an epigraph by T. H. Robinson-Gibbings in Mona Lisa's Mustache, an excellent (but now almost forgotten) indictment of contemporary art. In this case, the association between occultism and fascism was used as a starting point for a scathing critique of the main trends in contemporary art.

page 279
others share this view - these arguments will look more convincing, because examples of elitism in relation to knowledge in Western esotericism are not difficult to find.

The third aspect seems to have been added by Orwell as an afterthought and was not particularly developed: "There is another connection between fascism and magic, which is their deep hostility to the Christian code of ethics."12 Again, this argument, while it may be used in the case of Yeats (although even about him I am not sure), does not stand up to criticism when it is attempted to be extended to occultism in general. First of all, Orwell does not explain why fascism must necessarily imply hatred of Christianity. In fact, a number of historical forms of fascism have been far from sowing hatred against the Christian churches and their "ethical code" .13 Second, as will be shown below, the relationship between occultism and Christianity is much more complex than a banal rejection.

Leaving aside Orwell's specific arguments, it should be noted that the most interesting thing here is the idea that a person who adheres to progressive social and political ideas (freedom of thought, emancipation of women, etc.) can hardly be an occultist. Orwell's position on this point is similar to Adorno's, who also postulated an inextricable link between occultism, irrationalism, and fascism. The idea that underlies this is that occultism is necessarily opposed to the project of Enlightenment, reason, progress, and democracy - in a word, the whole of Modernity. This idea can be expanded upon-

12. Orwell, G. "W B. Yeats".

13. Fascism was often viewed in Europe by various Christian denominations as a possible means of combating atheistic Bolshevism, which was perceived as a major threat between the two World Wars. In a number of European countries, fascist regimes were able to establish relations with the dominant Christian denominations. The most obvious example, perhaps, is the Italian fascist regime, which in 1929 was able to reach an agreement (the so-called "Lateran Pact") with the Catholic Church. This allowed the conflict that began with the unification of Italy and the capture of Rome in 1870 to be resolved, and the Pact received the approval of the hierarchs of the Catholic Church. In other countries, such as Spain and Portugal, the local dictatorships of Franco and Salazar openly supported the Catholic Church and its values. To get an idea of the discussions on the problem of European fascism, which also touch on this topic, see: Corni, G. (1989) Fascismo e fascismi: Movimenti partiti regimi in Europa e nel mondo. Roma: Editori Riuniti; Davies, P. and Lynch, D. (2002) The Routledge Companion to Fascism and the Far Right. London: Routledge.

page 280
to see it as an expression of the feelings that people felt after the Second World War, when the desire to understand "what went wrong" with Western civilization was pressing and pressing. As a result, the association in question has become entrenched in the minds of more or less progressive intellectuals and has become an almost automatic reflex - it has become so entrenched that it remains very influential today. A striking example is Umberto Eco, who in a number of his publications and public statements insisted on the close relationship between fascism and esotericism and, accordingly, spoke about the cultural, social and political harm that the latter brings 14.

Here we need to stop and make a few general comments. Identification of esotericism/occultism, along with the evils of right-wing totalitarianism, can be interpreted, among other things, as a reanimation of the old polemical discourse in a new form. As an absolute evil from which Western civilization sought to dissociate itself, and whose return was still a frightening threat, fascism was naturally associated with what had been perceived as harmful and illegal for centuries. 15 From this point of view, fascism and esotericism can be seen as symptoms of the same evil that returns again and again, from which Western civilization must protect itself.

If we accept this interpretation, we can see the association of esotericism with fascism as a form of projection that is not necessarily based on any empirical/historical facts. But it turns out that in reality everything is more complicated. On the one hand, some of the arguments put forward by authors like Orwell cannot be dismissed so easily. The idea that knowledge is - or should be-the prerogative of a small circle of the elite, or even a small group of the elite, has become increasingly popular.-

14. In support of this, we can point out several texts, the most significant of which (in fact, a manifesto) is Eco's work "Eternal Fascism" (Ur-Fascism). Even his famous Foucault Pendulum can be interpreted in this way.

15. V. Hanegraaff has shown that the image of esotericism in Western culture is closely related to a long polemical discourse. See: Hanegraaff, W. J. (2005) "Forbidden Knowledge: Anti-Esoteric Politics and Academic Research", Aries: Journal for the Study of Western Esotericism 5 (2): 225-254; Hanegraaff, W. J. (2007) "The Trouble with Images: Anti-Image Politics and Western Esotericism", in O. Hammer and K. von Stuckrad (eds) Polemical Encounters: Esoteric Discourse and Its Others, pp. 107 - 136. Leiden, Boston: Brill, 2007; Hanegraaff, W. J. (2008) "La nascita dell'esoterismo dallo spirito del Protestantesimo", in: Alessandro Grossato (ed.) Forme e correnti dell'esoterismo occidentale, pp. 125 - 144. Milano: Medusa.

page 281
one of the initiates, indeed, is a constant theme in the history of esotericism, which makes the claim of its connection with elitism plausible. On the other hand, this problem can also be considered at a deeper historical level. In fact, it seems certain that some esoteric movements and authors took extremely conservative and, in some cases, even authoritarian or totalitarian positions in politics between the two World Wars.16 And if we take into account only this period and only these trends and authors, it will be difficult to resist the temptation to view the connection between esotericism and right-wing radicalism as obvious and to deny their opposition to the modernization, secularization and democratization of Western society and culture. However, such a picture can be called into question by a sufficiently large number of contradictory examples from history, which are easily accessible to the researcher who wants to expand his boundaries and include other periods and contexts in his analysis. From this point of view, the mutual attraction of esotericism and right-wing radicalism is more likely to be the result of a random reaction.reorientation of esotericism's political attitudes, rather than its inherent, structurally necessary feature. In the remainder of this article, I will offer a brief overview of this question, in particular what concerns the period between the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in the context of occult organizations at that time, especially in England.

New perspectives on occultism and modernity

First of all, it should be noted that academic ideas about esotericism and its cultural and / or social impact

16. The first example that comes to mind is perennialism, whose anti-modern orientation has led some authors associated with it to adopt radically reactionary views, and sometimes even to show their sympathy for fascist regimes (as in the case of one of its most representative and influential supporters, Julius Evola). For political aspects of perennialism, see Sedgwick, M. (2004) Against the Modern World: Traditionalism and the Secret Intellectual History of the Twentieth Century. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. You can also give other examples of esotericists who were based on other views and belonged to other trends. In addition to the obvious case of Yeats, to which we have already referred, we can also mention Aleister Crowley, whose ambiguous attitude to the establishment of totalitarian regimes of the XX century I analyzed in Pasi, M. (2006) Aleister Crowley und die Versuchung der Politik. Graz: Ares Verlag, especially ss. 109-126.

page 282
They have changed significantly over the past ten years due to new historical research. If we consider, for example, James Webb's groundbreaking research on the history of Western esotericism in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, we may notice that his views are very similar to Adorno and Orwell's two books on the subject, The Occult Establishment and The Occult Underground.), belong to the same project, which was called "The Flight From Reason" (The Flight From Reason)17. This title alone makes clear Webb's underlying belief in the revival of occultism in the nineteenth century. For Webb, nineteenth-century esotericism was nothing more than "an unexpected reaction against the methods [of the Age of Reason] that had brought success to mankind, a wild return to archaic forms of belief, and, among intellectuals, a sudden reversal of superstitions that seemed to have been finally buried."18 In Occult Underground, Webb shows how this reaction in the next century led to a dangerous association with fascism and anti-Semitism.

Much has changed since Webb's books were published in the 1970s. As this publication proves, the historical study of Western esotericism has an increasingly strong place in academic institutions. Research in recent years has shown that while Adorno and Orwell's views on the occult may not be entirely wrong, they were at least one-sided and fragmentary. The most important book published in 1994 by the Anglo-American researcher Jocelyn Godwin, entitled "The Theosophical Enlightenment", showed (as can be seen from its title) to what extent the ideas of esotericism of the XIX century absorbed ideas belonging to the cultural heritage of the Enlightenment. This makes it clear that the history of esotericism in the late Modern period cannot be viewed in terms of a banal "reaction" to Enlightenment rationalism. A similar idea was expressed a few years later by Wouter Hanegraaf in his work "New Age Religion and Western Culture", which showed how late modern esotericism sought to "reach a consensus".-

17. Webb, J. (1971) The Flight from Reason: The Age of the Irrational. London: Macdonald (in other editions - The Occult Underground); Webb, J. (1976) The Occult Establishment. La Salle: Open Court.

18. Webb, J. The Flight from Reason, p. x.

page 283
the scientific, rational, and secular culture of their time, and that these relationships cannot always be understood as conflicting or hostile.19 Since then, a significant number of studies have been published that have led to a new understanding of the complex relationship between esotericism and modern culture at different times and in different regions. They have generally focused on spiritualism, psychic research, and the occult. 20 There have also been more ambitious attempts, such as Olav Hammer's Claiming Knowledge, to uncover some of the mechanisms of such interaction, based on occultists developing specific cultural strategies to adapt to transformations western culture 21.

19. См.: Hanegraaff, W. J. (1996) New Age Religion and Western Culture. Esotericism in the Mirror of Secular Thought. Leiden: Brill (in particular, pp. 411-513). For my part, I have tried to analyze these issues by focusing on a particular author, Aleister Crowley, who has played an important role in the history of Western esotericism, which makes him a significant starting point for a broader discussion on this subject. See: Pasi, M. Aleister Crowley und die Versuchung der Politik; Pasi, M. (1998) " L'anticristianesimo in Aleister Crowley (1875-1947)", in P. L. Zoccatelli (ed.) Aleister Crowley: Un mago a Cefalu, pp. 41 - 67. Roma: Edizioni Mediterranee; Pasi,M. (2000) "LoyogainAleisterCrowley" [http://homepage.sunrise.ch /homepage/prkoenig/pasi/pasi. htm, accessed on 16.03.2009].

20. List only the most recent and significant studies in chronological order: Baffler, M. and Chatellier, H. (eds) (1998) Mystique, mysticisme et modernite en Allemagne autour de igoo/Mystik, Mystizismus und Moderne in Deutschland um igoo. Strasbourg: Presses Universitaires de Strasbourg (on Occultism, Mysticism and Spiritualism in Germany); Thurschwell, P. (2001) Literature, Technology and Magical Thinking, 1880-1920. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (о психических исследованиях); Owen, A. (1990) The Darkened Room: Women, Power and Spiritualism in Late Victorian England. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press (об оккультизме в Англии); Treitel, C. (2004) A Science for the Soul: Occultism and the Genesis of the German Modern. Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press (on Occultism and Spiritualism in Germany); Gutierrez, C. (ed.) (2004) The Occult in Nineteenth-Century America. Aurora: Davies Group Publishers (on Mesmerism, Spiritism, and the Occult in the United States); Sharp, L. L. (2006) Secular Spirituality: Reincarnation and Spiritism in Nineteenth-Century France. Lanham: Lexington Books (on spiritualism in France); Monroe, J. W. (2008) Laboratories of Faith: Mesmerism, Spiritism, and Occultism in Modern France. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press (on Mesmerism, Spiritualism, and the occult in France). The opposite example can be found in Harvey, D. A. (2005) Beyond Enlightenment: Occultism and Politics in Modern France. Dekalb: Northern Illinois University Press, which, on the contrary, attempts to follow the stereotypical view of esotericism as a prelude to the emergence of fascism or a phenomenon naturally associated with it. To do this, the author focuses on Martinism, the dominant esoteric tradition in France.

21. Hammer, O. (2001) Claiming Knowledge: Strategies of Epistemology from Theosophy to the New Age. Brill Academic Pub.

page 284
The social dimension of occultism

We can now turn to the question of how occultism, through the formation of specific groups and societies, engages in its uneasy relationship with modernity. The turn of the XIX-XX centuries shows a noticeable development of occult and esoteric organizations. One of the most famous among them was, of course, the Theosophical Society, founded in 1875 in New York by Elena Petrovna Blavatsky, an emigrant from Russia, together with several like-minded people. In 1888, another group, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, was established in England. Unlike the Theosophical Society, this group was mainly focused on magical practices and on the perception of the Western esoteric tradition as distinct from the Eastern one and not secondary to it. These two groups were only the most well-known and successful among many others, and the growth of occult organizations in the second half of the nineteenth century is of particular interest not only to esoteric historians, but also to those who study the cultural history of this period.

I will not now delve into the history and structure of these groups, which is currently covered in detail in a large body of specialized literature.22 We are now interested in something else, namely the fact that at the turn of the 20th century these occult organizations represented a social space where new models of culture and society could be formulated and tested. This alone is reason enough - even if there were no others-to argue that occultism, as part of the broader social field of esotericism, has made a major contribution to shaping the project of Modernity, often leaning towards the progressive, liberal edge of the cultural and political spectrum. Curiously enough, W. B. Yeats, whom Orwell rightly used as an obvious example of the link between the occult and fascism, was deeply and actively involved in the activities of both the Theosophical Society and the Order of the Golden Dawn. All of this seems to support my hypothesis that the link between occultism and fascism was not the result of structural necessity, but rather an accidental, unique process of reorientation.-

22. For brief but succinct bibliographies on these and related topics, I refer the reader to the relevant articles in Hanegraaff, W. (ed.) (2005) Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism. Brill.

page 285
The First World War was the time of the Great Patriotic War, which took place - for reasons that have yet to be investigated - in the years leading up to the First World War.

I have identified at least five aspects in which occult sociality provided a space for cultural and social experimentation: gender, body and sexuality, personality, colonialism, and religion. I will now proceed to a brief review of each of them.

Paul

It is important to remember that in the last quarter of the nineteenth century - that is, at the time when these occult organizations were established - an influential movement for the emancipation of women was formed in England and other regions. 23 In 1889, Ibsen's A Doll's House premiered in London, and its main idea was the uncompromising emancipation of women - made a huge impression. As one astute historian who specializes in this period notes, "Nora's slamming of the door at her husband's house echoed in the public life of the decade. "24 The" new woman " of late Victorian feminism, of which Nora is the epitome, was a fairly common type in Anglo-American occultism, where women played a prominent role 25. Some of them actually slammed the doors (sometimes literally) of their husbands ' homes, as H. P. Blavatsky, Anne Kingsford, or Lady Caithness did.26
23. For the status of women and nineteenth-century feminism, see Fraisse, G. and Perrot, M. (eds.) (1993) A History of Women in the West: 4. Emerging Feminism from Revolution to WorldWar. Cambridge, MA and London: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. For the history of feminism in England, see Caine, B. (1997) English Feminism: 1780 - 1980. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, and specifically for the Victorian era, see: Levine, P. (1994) Victorian Feminism: 1850 - 1900. Gainesville et al.: University Press of Florida; Caine, B. (1992) Victorian Feminists. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.

24. Ensor, R. (1992) England: 1870-1914, p. 339. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.

25. For the relationship between English occultism and feminism, see Basham, D. (1992) The Trial of Woman: Feminism and the Occult Sciences in Victorian Literature and Society. Basingstoke: Macmillan. Also see Owen, A. (2004) The Place of Enchantment: British Occultism and the Culture of the Modern, pp. 85-98. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, for a more general discussion of occultism and gender.

26. Questions related to Lady Caithness and her extraordinary ideas on exegesis of the Bible, as well as questions about the occult and sexuality in general

page 286
This connection between occultism and contemporary feminism was no doubt prepared by women who participated in the spiritualist movement, where feminist ideas were quite widespread.27 However, it can be argued that occultism went even further. In the end, the role of women in spiritualism was often (although there were some notable exceptions) reduced to remaining a passive medium. In Anglo-American occultism, women were not only accepted as full members of organizations such as the Theosophical Society or Golden Dawn, but they often held positions of responsibility and sometimes became leaders of these organizations. In this respect, the importance of H. P. Blavatsky's work can hardly be overstated.28 Even though all her invisible teachers - the famous Mahatmas - were men, Blavatsky published her works under her own name and it was with her name that the teaching of theosophy was associated. It seems that Blavatsky, along with her friend and assistant Henry Cecil Alcott, became the prototype for a new model of relationships in which the woman occupies a dominant role, and the man is her companion, and which will be repeated again and again in the theosophical movement. It is enough to recall in this respect the couples formed by Anna Kingsford and Edward Maitland, as well as Annie Besant and Charles Webster Leadbeater. But the Theosophical Society was not the only group where women were given a key place. In the Golden Dawn, women were also given - at least in some cases-authority and leadership roles.29
The exclusive status that women received in these occult groups can be interpreted on different levels. On the one hand, groups such as the Theosophical Society and the Golden Age

I reviewed in: Pasi, M. (2006)" Exegese et sexualite: l'occultisme oublie de Lady Caithness", Politica Hermetica 20: 73-89.

27. For the role of women in the spiritualist movement in America, see Braude, A. (1989) Radical Spirits: Spiritualism and Women's Rights in Nineteenth-Century America. Boston: Beacon Press; в Англии: Owen, A. (1990) The Darkened Room: Women, Power and Spiritualism in Late Victorian England. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

28. For the relationship between the Theosophical Society and the contemporary feminist movement, see Dixon, J. (2001) Divine Feminine: Theosophy and Feminism in England. Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press.

29. For the most significant female figures in the history of the Golden Dawn, see Greer, M. K. (1995) Women of the Golden Dawn: Rebels and Priestesses. Rochester, NY: Park Street Press.

page 287
Zarya created a space where women not only worked on a par with men to achieve common goals, but also could experiment with roles that implied authority and power, which were still forbidden for them in society as a whole. On the other hand, occult groups such as Golden Dawn also served as educational institutions of some sort. In fact, we must not forget that at that time women's access to university education was still very limited, if at all possible. Joining an esoteric society, such as the Theosophical Society or Golden Dawn, could be an alternative way to satisfy curiosity and intellectual interests. Summing up the above, it should be noted that in the limited, protected space of the occult group, women could play such roles and do such things that society as a whole was not ready for.

Body and sexuality

The attitude to the body and sexuality is related to gender issues, but at the same time it is a completely independent issue. At the turn of the century, the attitude to the body became more attentive. Hygiene and health issues began to attract the attention of the general public, and the Lebensreform movement took shape in Germany, whose supporters insisted on the importance of returning to nature in order to overcome urbanization and bad urban habits. This has led, among other things, to the development of naturalism and nudism, and has been linked to the popularity of new dietary regimes such as vegetarianism.30
Outside of esotericism, this change in mentality was expressed in the writings of a philosopher like Friedrich Nietzsche, who emphasized the importance of returning Dionysian elements to Western culture, which he saw as neglected (if not suppressed) Christianity for centuries 31.

30. Romein, J. (1978) The Watershed of Two Eras: Europe in igoo, pp. 504 - 506. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press. The main place for expressing such ideas was the Mente Verita pension, located near Ascona in the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland. For more information, see Green, M. (1986) Mountain of Truth: The Counterculture Begins. Ascona, 1900 - 1920. Hanover and London: Tufts University and University Press of New England; Barone, E., Riedl, M. and Tischel, A. (eds) (2003) Eranos, Monte Verita, Ascona. Pisa: Edizioni ETS.

31. On the influence of Nietzsche's ideas in England at the initial stage, when they were warmly received exclusively in progressive (often esoteric) media.-

page 288
Nietzsche, like some occultists, held Christianity responsible for suppressing what they thought should be taken into account and even dominated, what constituted a healthy attitude to nature.32 According to the proponents of this point of view, such a healthier approach was presented by pagan religions that existed before the emergence of Christianity. This explains why some occultists have tended to associate their belief systems and practices with various forms of neo-paganism.

It can be argued that in occult groups such as Golden Dawn, attention to the body was initially embedded in some types of ritual work they practiced. Unlike mainstream Freemasonry, in these organizations, men practiced rituals together with women. And it is certainly no coincidence that some members of the order were theatre actors by profession, including one of the most notable members, Florence Farr.

Yet it seems that in both the Theosophical Society and the Golden Dawn, attitudes towards sexuality remained ambivalent: on the one hand, the importance of abstinence was emphasized, and on the other, bold attempts were made to combine sex with the search for spiritual enlightenment.33 In other groups, such as the Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor (established around 1884) and Ordo Templi Orientis (established around 1910), and especially through the influence of such a key figure as Pascal Beverly Randolph, these attempts took explicit form, resulting in the emergence of special teachings and techniques in which sex played a key role role 34. Such personalities as Aleister Crowley, in the distance-

Thatcher, D. S. (1970) Nietzsche in England 1890-1914: The Growth of a Reputation. Toronto and Buffalo: University of Toronto Press.

32. The most striking example of this approach, of course, is Aleister Crowley. For this aspect of his work, see my work Pasi, M. (1998)" L'anticristianesimo in Aleister Crowley (1875 - 1947)", in P. L. Zoccatelli (ed.) Aleister Crowley: Un mago a Cefalu, pp. 41-67. Roma: Edizioni Mediterranee.

33. Owen, A. The Place of Enchantment, pp. 92 - 113.

34. О Герметическом братстве Луксора см.: Godwin, J., Chanel, C. and Deveney, J. P. (1995) The Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor: Initiatic and Historical Documents of an Order of Practical Occultism. York Beach: Samuel Weiser. Об О. Т. О. см.: Pasi, M. (2005) "Ordo Templi Orientis", in W. J. Hanegraaff et al. (ed.) Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism, pp. 898 - 906. Leiden and Boston: Brill. For a more general discussion of the development of sexual magic in the context of esotericism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, see Urban, H. B. (2006) Magia Sexualis: Sex, Magic, and Liberation in Modern Western Esotericism. Berkeley, Los Angeles and London: University of California Press

page 289
The Neisham developed some forms of sexual magic that challenged the norms of bourgeois morality.35 In this context, sex could be used for purposes other than procreation and even outside the traditional bonds of marriage. The high spiritual values associated with these practices could protect occultists from the guilt of participating in them.

Personality

The rise of occult groups at the turn of the century coincided, of course, with another important cultural phenomenon: the birth of psychoanalysis. Freud's Dream Interpretation, which is generally regarded as a reference point in the history of this movement, was published in 1900. Several scholars have shown that some of the cultural presuppositions of psychoanalysis are related to animal magnetism and mesmerism.36 This movement, which has its roots in the medical theories of Franz Anton Mesmer created in the second half of the eighteenth century, highlighted the problems of classical psychological models such as Cartesianism, demonstrating the possibility of reaching levels of consciousness that could not be explained by existing theories.

To a certain extent, the occult practices of the Theosophical Society, the Golden Dawn, and other occult groups were also developments in the ideas and practices of animal magnetism-in a very different direction from psychoanalysis, of course. But it is quite possible to see in occultism, as in psychoanalysis, a desire to explore deeper levels of oneself, levels of consciousness that are inaccessible to a person under normal conditions.37 Some of the" magical " techniques taught in the Golden Dawn, such as astral projection, can also be interpreted as

Hanegraaff, W. J. and Kripal, J. J. (eds) (2008) Hidden Discourse: Eros and Sexuality in the History of Western Esotericism. Leiden and Boston: Brill.

35. Pasi, M. (2005)"Aleister Crowley", in W. J. Hanegraaff et al. (ed.) Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism, pp. 281 - 287. Leiden and Boston: Brill; Urban, H. B. Magia Sexualis, pp. 109 - 139.

36. Ellenberger, H. F. (1970) The Discovery of the Unconscious: The History and Evolution of Dynamic Psychiatry. London: Allen Lane and Penguin Press; Crabtree, A. (1993) From Mesmer to Freud: Magnetic Sleep and the Roots of Psychological Healing. New Haven: Yale University Press; Meheust, B. (1999) Somnambulisme et mediumnite, 2 vols. Paris: Synthelabo.

37. Owen, A. The Place of Enchantment, pp. 148 - 185.

page 290
research of your own psyche. This explains why some occultists were particularly receptive to the new theories of psychoanalysis and why they actively developed their own psychological theories, in which the idea of the "Higher Self"played an important role. The analogies between this idea and the unconscious of psychoanalysis may shed new light on the role that occultism played in the last quarter of the nineteenth century.

Colonialism

European colonialism flourished at the end of the 19th century. At this time, England not only held sway over a very substantial part of the globe, but also, more importantly, two countries that were traditionally considered the cradle of esoteric wisdom: Egypt and India. At that time, Oriental studies created conditions for studying and popularizing these countries, their exotic cultures, history, and religious doctrines in the West.38 Oriental studies of the time emphasized a deep, fundamental contrast between" East "and" West", which were considered to have completely different natures.39 In groups such as the Theosophical Society or Golden Dawn, occultists internalized this idea of the difference between East and West and made a choice as to which of them should take precedence. If the Golden Dawn was part of what is sometimes called the "hermetic reaction"40, which was expressed in a "Westernized" bias in the construction of esoteric systems, the Theosophical Society, for its part, demonstrated the opposite approach.41 It is important to remember that theosophists were mostly convinced of the primacy of the Eastern esoteric tradition over the Western one. This idea had some interesting ideas

38. Two" classics " of this topic (despite significant differences in their approaches) are, of course: Schwab, R. (1984) The Oriental Renaissance: Europe's Rediscovery of India and the East, 1680-1880. New York: Columbia University Press; Said, E. W. (1995) Orientalism. London: Penguin Books.

39. In addition to Said, see King, R. (1999) Orientalism and Religion: Postcolonial Theory, India and "The Mystic East". London and New York: Routledge, which provides a critique of some of the controversial aspects of Said's book.

40. Godwin, J. (1994) The Theosophical Enlightenment, pp. 333 - 362. Albany: State University of New York Press.

41. Godwin, J. The Theosophical Enlightenment, pp. 307 - 332; Bevir, M. (1994) "The West Turns Eastward: Madame Blavatsky and the Transformation of the Occult Tradition", Journal of the American Academy of Religion 62 (3): 747 - 767.

page 291
It called into question the advantage of the West as a whole, including whether the West had the right to establish political and military power in a region that they perceived as much more culturally and spiritually advanced.

Religion

In England, the emergence and early development of these occult groups coincided with the final period of the Victorian era, which is often associated with a crisis of religious beliefs. 42 Evangelicalism, which dominated the early Victorian era, faced serious challenges and entered a period of deep crisis. Historian Robert Ensor points out that there were at least three factors that caused this crisis: the development of Anglo-Catholicism in the Church of England, new scientific discoveries (the most famous of which, of course, is associated with the publication of Darwin's Origin of Species in 1859) , and hedonism, which implied a rejection of social models of asceticism and seriousness. related to Puritanism and Evangelicalism 43. To these three factors we can add a fourth - occultism. One of the key aspects of occultism's challenge to Christianity was that even when it did not involve a radical rejection of Christianity (as was the case with Aleister Crowley), it still required a non-literal, non-dogmatic reading of sacred texts. In reality, this has brought esotericism into conflict not only with Evangelicalism, but also with most traditional forms of Christianity. This hermeneutical approach, of course, was based on a long tradition in esotericism and, in the context of English occultism, was explicitly expressed by authors such as Anna Kingsford. As Jocelyn Godwin points out, "Kingsford Insight Christianity was not historically grounded, did not recognize Jesus as God's only Son or personal savior, and refused to claim that Christian revelation was the only one or superior to all other religions."44
42. McLeod, H. (1995) Religion and Society in England 1850 - 1914, pp. 169 - 220. Basingstoke: Macmillan; Turner, F. M. (1993) Contesting Cultural Authority: Essays in Victorian Intellectual Life, pp. 73 - 100. Cambridge University Press.

43. Ensor, R. England, pp. 140 - 143.

44. Godwin, J. The Theosophical Enlightenment, p. 345.

page 292
With this approach to Christianity, occultism effectively promoted the relativization of Christian revelation, which no longer had a unique status relative to other religious traditions. Far from showing a conservative or reactionary approach to religion, in this case occultism should rather be seen as serving - consciously or not - the goals of incipient secularization.

Concluding remarks

This brief survey of Anglo-American occultism in these five areas should help the reader understand the complex relationship between occultism and modernity in the early twentieth century. I have focused on a very special case, the Anglo-American occult organizations of the late nineteenth century, but it is important to remember that much of what I have said about them is also true in other contexts and currents, particularly in Spiritualism in the second half of the same century. From the particular cases I have discussed here, it is clear that occult organizations such as the Theosophical Society and Golden Dawn offered, among other things, a virtual space for social and cultural experimentation and innovation. Such characteristics as secrecy made such experimentation less problematic. The result of their actions was that the occult was in conflict with the rest of society, not because they were opposed to innovations, but because they were sometimes ahead of their time. This, of course, contradicts the position of such authoritative thinkers as Adorno. The idea expressed by Orwell immediately after the Second World War, according to which supporters of esotericism must necessarily be "opponents of the idea of universal suffrage, public education, freedom of thought, and the emancipation of women", can no longer satisfy anyone who studies the history of esotericism in the XIX century. From looking at these occult organizations, it is clear that they had an intellectual openness that mainstream institutions could not afford simply because they were too large, or even because they represented broader interests. If this is indeed the case, then the idea that there is an original contradiction between esotericism and the Enlightenment legacy, and that there is an indissoluble contradiction between esotericism and the Enlightenment legacy.-

page 293
Any connection between esotericism and fascism will prove historically untenable. These complex questions require further study, and those who deal with them should remember that there are no simple solutions that will allow us to grasp the full complexity of occultism as a historical phenomenon.

Translated from English by Stanislav Panin

Bibliography/References

Adorno, T. W (1994) "Theses against Occultism", in Adorno, T. W. The Stars down to Earth and Other Essays on the Irrational in Culture, pp. 128 -134. London and New York: Routledge.

Auden, W H. (2002) "The Public v. the Late Mr William Butler Yeats", in Auden, W. H. The Complete Works of W. H. Auden: Prose, vol. II (1939-1948), pp. 3 - 7. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Barone, E., Riedl, M. and Tischel, A. (eds) (2003) Eranos, Monte Verita, Ascona. Pisa: Edizioni ETS.

Basham, D. (1992) The Trial of Woman: Feminism and the Occult Sciences in Victorian Literature and Society. Basingstoke: Macmillan.

Baffler, M. and Chatellier, H. (eds) (1998) Mystique, mysticisme et modernite en Allemagne autour de igoo/Mystik, Mystizismus und Moderne in Deutschland um 1900. Strasbourg: Presses Universitaires de Strasbourg.

Bevir, M. (1994) "The West Turns Eastward: Madame Blavatsky and the Transformation of the Occult Tradition", Journal of the American Academy of Religion 62 (3): 747 - 767.

Braude, A. (1989) Radical Spirits: Spiritualism and Women's Rights in Nineteenth-Century America. Boston: Beacon Press.

Caine, B. (1992) Victorian Feminists. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.

Caine, B. (1997) English Feminism: 1780-1980. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.

Corni, G. (1989) Fascismo e fascismi: Movimenti partiti regimi in Europa e nel mondo. Roma: Editori Riuniti.

Crabtree, A. (1993) From Mesmer to Freud: Magnetic Sleep and the Roots of Psychological Healing. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Davies, P. and Lynch, D. (2002) The Routledge Companion to Fascism and the Far Right. London: Routledge.

Dixon, J. (2001) Divine Feminine: Theosophy and Feminism in England. Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press.

Eco, U. (1989) Foucault's Pendulum. Orlando etc.: Harcourt.

Eco, U. (1995) "Ur-Fascism", The New York Review of Books 42 (11): 12 - 15.

Ellenberger, H. F. (1970) The Discovery of the Unconscious: The History and Evolution of Dynamic Psychiatry. London: Allen Lane and Penguin Press.

Ensor, R. (1992) England: 1870-1914. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.

Foster, R. F. (2005) W. B. Yeats: A Life. II: The Arch-Poet 1915-1939. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.

page 294
Fraisse, G. and Perrot, M. (eds.) (1993) A History of Women in the West: 4. Emerging Feminism from Revolution to World War. Cambridge, MA and London: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.

Gauld, A. (1992) A History of Hypnotism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Godwin, J. (1994) The Theosophical Enlightenment. Albany: State University of New York Press.

Godwin, J., Chanel, C. and Deveney, J. P. (1995) The Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor: Initiatic and Historical Documents of an Order of Practical Occultism. York Beach: Samuel Weiser.

Green, M. (1986) Mountain of Truth: The Counterculture Begins. Ascona, 1900-1920. Hanover and London: Tufts University and University Press of New England.

Greer, M. K. (1995) Women of the Golden Dawn: Rebels and Priestesses. Rochester, NY: Park Street Press.

Gutierrez, C. (ed.) (2004) The Occult in Nineteenth-Century America. Aurora: Davies Group Publishers.

Hammer, O. (2001) Claiming Knowledge: Strategies of Epistemology from Theosophy to the New Age. Brill Academic Pub.

Hanegraaff, W. J. (1996) New Age Religion and Western Culture. Esotericism in the Mirror of Secular Thought. Leiden: Brill.

Hanegraaff, W. (ed.) (2005) Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism. Brill.

Hanegraaff, W. J. (2007) "The Trouble with Images: Anti-Image Polemics and Western Esotericism", in O. Hammer and K. von Stuckrad (eds) Polemical Encounters: Esoteric Discourse and Its Others, pp. 107 - 136. Leiden, Boston: Brill, 2007.

Hanegraaff, W. J. (2005) "Forbidden Knowledge: Anti-Esoteric Polemics and Academic Research", Aries: Journal for the Study of Western Esotericism 5 (2): 225 - 254.

Hanegraaff, W. J. (2008) "La nascita dell'esoterismo dallo spirito del Protestantesimo", in: Alessandro Grossato (ed.) Forme e correnti dell'esoterismo occidentale, pp. 125 - 144. Milano: Medusa.

Hanegraaff, W. J. (ed.) in collaboration with A. Faivre, R. van den Broek and J. -P. Brach (2005) Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism, 2 vols. Leiden and Boston: Brill.

Hanegraaff, W. J. and Kripal, J. J. (eds) (2008) Hidden Intercourse: Eros and Sexuality in the History of Western Esotericism. Leiden and Boston: Brill.

Harvey, D. A. (2005) Beyond Enlightenment: Occultism and Politics in Modern France. Dekalb: Northern Illinois University Press.

King, R. (1999) Orientalism and Religion: Postcolonial Theory, India and "The Mystic East". London and New York: Routledge.

Levine, P. (1994) Victorian Feminism: 1850-1900. Gainesville et al.: University Press of Florida.

McLeod, H. (1995) Religion and Society in England 1850-1914. Basingstoke: Macmillan.

Meheust, B. (1999) Somnambulisme et mediumnite, 2 vols. Paris: Synthelabo.

Monroe, J. W. (2008) Laboratories of Faith: Mesmerism, Spiritism, and Occultism in Modern France. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press.

Monte Verita: Antropologia locale come contributo alia riscoperta di una topografia sacrale moderna. (1978) Locarno and Milan: Armando Dado Editore and Electa Editrice.

North, M. (1991) The Political Aesthetic of Yeats, Eliot, and Pound. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

page 295
Orwell, G. (1946) "W B. Yeats", in Orwell, G. Critical Essays, pp. 114 - 119. London: Seeker and Warburg.

Owen, A. (1990) The Darkened Room: Women, Power and Spiritualism in Late Victorian England. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

Owen, A. (2004) The Place of Enchantment: British Occultism and the Culture of the Modern. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Pasi, M. (1998) "L'anticristianesimo in Aleister Crowley (1875 - 1947)", in P. L. Zoccatelli (ed.) Aleister Crowley: Un mago a Cefalu, pp. 41 - 67. Roma: Edizioni Mediterranee.

Pasi, M. (2000) "Lo yoga in Aleister Crowley" [http://homepage.sunrise.ch/homepage/p rkoenig/pasi/pasi. htm, accessed on 16.03.2009].

Pasi, M. (2005) "Ordo Templi Orientis", in W. J. Hanegraaff et al. (ed.) Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism, pp. 898 - 906. Leiden and Boston: Brill.

Pasi, M. (2005)"Aleister Crowley", in W. J. Hanegraaff et al. (ed.) Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism, pp. 281 - 287. Leiden and Boston: Brill.

Pasi, M. (2005) "Occultism", in K. von Stuckrad (ed.) The Brill Dictionary of Religion, vol. III, pp. 1364 - 1368. Leiden and Boston: Brill.

Pasi, M. (2006) Aleister Crowley und die Versuchung der Politik. Graz: Ares Verlag.

Pasi, M. (2006) "Exegese et sexualite: l'occultisme oublie de Lady Caithness", Politico Hermetica 20: 73 - 89.

Robsjohn-Gibbings, T. H. (1948) Mona Lisa's Mustache: A Dissection of Modern Art. New York: AlfredA. Knopf.

Romein, J. (1978) The Watershed of Two Eras: Europe in igoo. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press.

Said, E. W. (1995) Orientalism. London: Penguin Books.

Schwab, R. (1984) The Oriental Renaissance: Europe's Rediscovery of India and the East, 1680 - 1880. New York: Columbia University Press.

Sedgwick, M. (2004) Against the Modern World: Traditionalism and the Secret Intellectual History of the Twentieth Century. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.

Sharp, L. L. (2006) Secular Spirituality: Reincarnation and Spiritism in Nineteenth-Century France. Lanham: Lexington Books.

Thatcher, D. S. (1970) Nietzsche in England 1890 - 1914: The Growth of a Reputation. Toronto and Buffalo: University of Toronto Press.

Thurschwell, P. (2001) Literature, Technology and Magical Thinking, 1880 - 1920. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Treitel, C. (2004) A Science for the Soul: Occultism and the Genesis of the German Modern. Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press.

Turner, F. M. (1993) Contesting Cultural Authority: Essays in Victorian Intellectual Life. Cambridge University Press.

Urban, H. B. (2006) Magia Sexualis: Sex, Magic, and Liberation in Modern Western Esotericism. Berkeley, Los Angeles and London: University of California Press.

Versluis, A. (2006) The New Inquisitions: Heretic Hunting and the Intellectual Origins of Modern Totalitarianism. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.

Wasserstrom, S. M. (2007) "Adorno's Kabbalah: Some Preliminary Observations", in O. Hammer and K. von Stuckrad (eds) Polemical Encounters: Esoteric Discourse and Its Others, pp. 55 - 79. Leiden and Boston: Brill.

Webb, J. (1971) The Flight from Reason: The Age of the Irrational. London: Macdonald.

Webb, J. (1976) The Occult Establishment. La Salle: Open Court.

page 296

Permanent link to this publication: