ABSTRACT

The study of the ideas and practices associated with occultism is a rapidly growing branch of contemporary scholarship. However, most research has focused on English and French speaking areas and has not addressed the wider spread and significance of occultism. Occultism in a Global Perspective presents a broad international overview. Essays range across the German magical order of the Fraternitas Saturni, esoteric Satanism in Denmark, sexual magic in Colombia and the reception of occultism in modern Turkey, India and the former Yugoslavia. As any other form of cultural practice, the occult is not isolated from its social, discursive, religious, and political environment. By studying occultism in its global context, the book offers insights into the reciprocal relationships that colour and shape regional occultism.

chapter |15 pages

Introduction

Occultism in a global perspective

chapter |20 pages

Locating the West

Problematizing the Western in Western esotericism and occultism

chapter |21 pages

“In Communication with the Powers of Darkness”

Satanism in turn-of-the-century Denmark, and its use as a legitimating device in present-day esotericism

chapter |22 pages

Hidden Wisdom in the Ill-Ordered House

A short survey of occultism in former Yugoslavia

chapter |19 pages

Occultism and Christianity in Twentieth-Century Italy

Tommaso Palamidessi's Christian magic

chapter |16 pages

Sexual Magic and Gnosis in Colombia

Tracing the influence of G. I. Gurdjieff on Samael Aun Weor

chapter |26 pages

Occultism in an Islamic Context

The case of modern Turkey from the nineteenth century to the present time

chapter |25 pages

Reception of Occultism in India

The case of the Holy Order of Krishna

chapter |28 pages

Transnational Necromancy

W. B. Yeats, Izumi Kyôka and neo-nô as occultic stagecraft

chapter |24 pages

An Australian Original

Rosaleen Norton and her magical cosmology