ABSTRACT
Occultism is a religion of ecstasy, and like all ecstatic religions it offers its adherents
the possibility of undergoing ‘those transports of mystical experience in which
man’s whole being seems to fuse in a glorious communion with the divinity’.1 We
might therefore attempt to understand the sociology of the occult in terms of loan
Lewis’s analysis of ecstatic religions. Lewis regards these as ‘religions of the
oppressed’ which function to enable marginalised groups, and especially women,
‘to advance their interests and improve their lot by escaping, even if only
temporarily, from the confining bonds of their alloted stations in society’.2 The
occult philosophy could indeed offer the appearance of an immediate power to the
powerless. Nor was this power always illusory. At the very least, any religion, and
magical religion in particular, can build confidence in its adherents. This is why
magic flourishes in uncertain circumstances: even its illusions offer an avenue of
escape from the debilitating doubts of sober realism.
