Eclectic and esoteric religions and belief systems Books

Book SynopsisRecent years have seen a spectacular rise of the New Age movement and an ever-increasing interest in its beliefs and manifestations. This fascinating work presents the first-ever comprehensive analysis of New Age Religion and its historical backgrounds, thus providing the reader with a means of orientation in the bewildering variety of the movement. Making extensive use of primary sources, the author thematically analyses New Age beliefs from the perspective of the study of religions. While looking at the historical backgrounds of the movement, he convincingly argues that its foundations were laid by so-called western esoteric traditions during the Renaissance. Hanegraaff finally shows how the modern New Age movement emerged from the increasing secularization of those esoteric traditions during the 19th century. This ground-breaking publication is compulsive reading for all those involved or interested in the New Age movement.Trade Review'This is a formidable book…It is an indispensable manual for all those studying the New Age phenomenon…an interesting, informative, illuminating and accurate depiction of New Age thought and practices.' John A. Saliba, Bulletin of the Royal Institute for Inter-Faith Studies, 2000. 'This is a must for all students of religion...' Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, Ambrix, 2002.Table of ContentsPart 1: Orientation: Major Trends in New Age Religion. Preliminary Demarcation of the Field - Channeling - Healing and Personal Growth - New Age Science - Neopaganism - New Age in a Restricted and in a General Sense. Part 2: Exposition: The Varieties of New Age Experience. The Nature of Reality - Meta-Empirical and Human Beings - Matters of the Mind - Death and Survival - Good and Evil - Visions of the Past - The New Age. Part 3: Interpretation: New Age Religion and Traditional Esotericism. Towards a Historical Perspective on New Age Religion - A Historical Framework - The Mirror of Secular Thought - Conclusions: The New Age Movement and the Nature of New Age Religion.

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Book SynopsisThis is the third volume of the immensely useful Nag Hammadi Bibliography, the first volume of which covered 1948–1969 and was the first publication in the Nag Hammadi Studies series. The second volume covered 1970–1994. This third volume provides a complete integration of Supplements II/1–II/8 to the Bibliography as published in Novum Testamentum 1998–2008, with additions and corrections. This latest update contains 3,063 entries, with the set of three volumes containing 11,580 entries. Nag Hammadi and Gnostic studies continue to be of critical importance for the study of ancient religions in the Graeco-Roman world and for the study of the world of early Christianity, and the present bibliography provides an indispensable reference tool for work in these fields.Trade Review"Again Scholer has produced an invaluable reference tool. The attention to detail is superb and the arrangement of material facilitates easy use. The index is arranged by author name and refers back to individual item numbers. This system enables the location of the specific item with ease. This work is to be highly praised." – Paul Foster, University of Edinburgh, in: Expository Times, May 2009 "All of us working in the study of ancient Gnosticism owe a debt of gratitude to Scholer for producing such a valuable tool for research. One can only hope that someone else will pick up where he left off." – Birger A. Pearson, in: Religious Studies Review, 2009

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Book SynopsisNew Light on Manichaeism provides the latest discoveries and insights into the Manichaean religion throughout its more than one thousand year history, ranging from glimpses into the life and thought of Mani himself, to developments in doctrine and practice in the religion's North African, Iranian, Central Asian, and Chinese settings. The volume includes contributions from the leading scholars in the field, offering new reconstructions of Manichaean literary and artistic productions, and innovative analyses of the religious, social, and political dynamics that shaped the rise and fall of this world religion.Table of ContentsCONTENTS A Religion of Deeds: Scepticism in the Doctrinally Liberal Manichaeism of Faustus and Augustine Jason David BeDuhn The Conversation of John the Orthodox with a Manichaean: An Analysis of Its Sources and Its Significance for Manichaean Studies Byard Bennett The Mani Logion: ‘The purification that was spoken about is that which comes through gnosis’ (CMC 84, 9-12) Luigi Cirillo Manichaeism Among the Uygurs: The Uygur Khan of the Bokug Clan Larry Clark Manichaean Time-Management: Laymen between Religious and Secular Duties Iris Colditz Characteristics of Manichaeism in Roman Africa J. Kevin Coyle Mani’s Account of Other Religions According to the Coptic Synaxeis Codex Wolf-Peter Funk How We Know the Exact Year the Archegos Left Baghdad Cyril Glassé An Experiment with Digital Reconstruction with a Manichaean Book Painting: The Work of the Religion Scene (MIK III 4974 recto) Zsuzsanna Gulácsi The Manichaean Church between Earth and Paradise Claudia Leurini Medieval Manichaean and Nestorian Remains in the Zayton (Quanzhou) of Marco Polo Samuel N. C. Lieu Sukhāvatī and the Light-world: Pure Land Elements in the Chinese Manichaean Eulogy of the Light-world Gunner Mikkelsen The Beginning of Mani’s Psalm Wuzurgān Āfrīwan in Parthian and Middle Persian Enrico Morano The Sogdian Version of Mani’s Letter of the Seal Christiane Reck Snatches of the Middle Iranian “Tale of the Five Brothers” Christiane Reck A Manichaean Collection of Letters and a List of Mani’s Letters in Middle Persian Werner Sundermann

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Book SynopsisThis book analyzes the relationships that exist between esotericism and music from Antiquity to the 20th century, investigating ways in which magic, astrology, alchemy, divination, and cabbala interact with music. Ce livre offre un panorama des relations entre l’ésotérisme et la musique de l’Antiquité au 20ème siècle et montre comment la magie, l’astrologie, l’alchimie, la divination et la cabale interagissent avec l’art et la science des sons.Trade ReviewHaving read the book with much pleasure, I would like to applaud the authors for their expedition into this intriguing field of relations between music, science and ‘esotericism’. I hope that the essays will be read not only by scholars interested in the individual philosophers and musicians analysed, but also by those concerned with general patterns within the European history of religion and the theoretical considerations arising from a study of this researchfield. - Isabel Laack, Universität Heidelberg in: Religion, Volume 42 (2012), Issue 1.Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Introduction Laurence Wuidar PART ONE EARLY MODERN OCCULT KNOWLEDGE AND MUSIC Music and Magnetism, from Abu Ma‘shar to Kircher Charles Burnett Le medecin et les sons : Musique et magie dans Le Livre des eschez amoureux moralisés d’Evrart de Conty Amandine Mussou Prophecy, Harmony, and the Alchemical Transformation of the Soul: The Key to Lasso’s Chromatic Sibyls Marjorie A. Roth Dwelling in Darkness: Dowland’s Dark Songs as Hermetic Pessimist Gnosis, and Could this be ‘Evidence’ of the Esoteric ‘School of Night’? Anthony Rooley Orpheus “Recured”: The Healing Art of Thomas Campion Barbara Kennedy Giovambattista della Porta e l’efficacia terapeutica della musica Concetta Pennuto Tommaso Campanella (1568–1639) e la musica Marta Moiso Representation esoterique et pensee scientifique. Le cas de la vibration par sympathie chez les savants et theoriciens de la premiere moitie du 17e siecle Brigitte Van Wymeersch Musical Theory and Astrological Foundations in Kepler: The Making of the New Aspects David Juste PHILOSOPHICAL INTERMEZZO Apercu sur le role de l’harmonie musicale dans l’oeuvre de Proclus Maël Mathieu and Daniel Cohen Quelques philosophes du XIXe siecle et la musique comme esoterisme moderne Jacques Amblard PART TWO NINETEENTH AND TWENTIETH CENTURY MUSICAL ESOTERICISM The Mysteries of Sound in H. P. Blavatsky’s ‘Esoteric Instructions’ Tim Rudbøg Evoking the Mystical: The Esoteric Legacy of Ferruccio Busoni Judith Crispin Musica pietrificata, sculture sonore: Aleksandr Skrjabin tra estasi e teosofia Barbara Aniello The Unspeakable and the Law: Esotericism in Anton Webern and the Second Viennese School Wouter J. Hanegraaff Music, Magic and Postmodern Historical Metafiction: Helmuth Krausser’s Melodien (1993) György E. Szönyi Index

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Book SynopsisThis book examines the lives of the famous Russian painter, thinker, and mystic Nikolai Roerich and his wife, Elena Roerich, the “mother” of Agni Yoga esoteric teaching. Extensively researched, it focuses on the couple’s spiritual quest, resulting in their gradual transformation under the influence of theosophy, spiritualism and Elena’s psychic “fiery experience” into mystics and gurus who fashioned their new version of the “myth of the Masters,” the invisible guides of humanity. Special attention is given to N. Roerich’s travels in Central Asia and Far East, his cultural and public activities and particularly his Buddho-Communist utopia. The myth of the Masters revived will appeal to those interested in New Age esotericism, mysticism, and Russian thought in the first half of the 20th century.Table of ContentsList of Illustrations and Color Plates Preface Acknowledgements Prologue: Blavatsky and Her Masters 1. The artist’s roots and formative years 2. Elena, Nikolai’s Muse and Life’s guide 3. The time of fulfillment 4. Visions of the Beyond 5. A strange encounter at Hyde Park 6. In New York: Haunted by spirits 7. The Great Plan 8. The Apparition of the Black Stone: a miracle or a hoax? 9. Dreaming of New Russia 10. In India: Mahatma’s second coming 11. An alliance with Bolsheviks 12. The Transhimalayan Journey 13. The Moscow Mission and the trip to Altai 14. In New Mongolia 15. Leading the “Western Buddhist Embassy” to Tibet 16. Between the Himalayas and New York City 17. Suspected of Red sympathies 18. The Manchurian Expedition and the Kansas Project 19. The “chalice of poison” 20. The final years in Kulu Epilogue: Inquiring into the phenomenon of the Roerichs’ Masters Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisIn Esotericism in African American Religious Experience: “There is a Mystery” …, Stephen C. Finley, Margarita Simon Guillory, and Hugh R. Page, Jr. assemble twenty groundbreaking essays that provide a rationale and parameters for Africana Esoteric Studies (AES): a new trans-disciplinary enterprise focused on the investigation of esoteric lore and practices in Africa and the African Diaspora. The goals of this new field — while akin to those of Religious Studies, Africana Studies, and Western Esoteric Studies — are focused on the impulses that give rise to Africana Esoteric Traditions (AETs) and the ways in which they can be understood as loci where issues such as race, ethnicity, and identity are engaged; and in which identity, embodiment, resistance, and meaning are negotiated.Trade Review"Overall, the book is well worth the read. For one, its transdisciplinary nature makes it appealing to scholars in the fields of visual and performing arts, history, anthropology, religious studies, African American studies, and business. Moreover, while it does not quite succeed in decentering Christianity, it certainly shows the importance of esoteric traditions alongside and within the religion. Perhaps most importantly, it refuses to reduce the African American experience to a simple narrative of the struggle for political equality. On the contrary, it enriches the realm of scholarly interpretation by persuasively arguing that secrets can drive culture and religion just as well as politics." Jeffrey E. Anderson, University of Louisiana Monroe, Nova Religio, Vol. 20, No. 4Table of ContentsCONTENTS Foreword Jeffrey J. Kripal Preface Introduction: Africana Esoteric Studies: Mapping a New Endeavor Stephen C. Finley, Margarita Simon Guillory, and Hugh R. Page, Jr. Part I: (Pre-) 19th Century 1 Esoteric Writing of Vodou: Grimoires, Sigils, and the Houngan’s Notebook Yvonne Chireau and Bon Mambo Vye Zo Kommande 2 Paschal Beverly Randolph in the African American Community Lana Finley 3 The Self Divine: Know Ye Not that Ye are Gods? Darnise C. Martin Part II: Early to Mid 20th Century 4 Working Roots and Conjuring Traditions: Relocating ‘Cults and Sects’ in African American Religious History Elizabeth Perez 5 Spiritual is Universal: Development of Black Spiritualist Churches Mary Ann Clark 6 The Harlem Renaissance as Esotericism: Black Oragean Modernism Jon Woodson 7 Mathematical Theology: Numerology in the Religious Thought of Tynnetta Muhammad and Louis Farrakhan Stephen C. Finley 8 On the Knowledge of Self and Others: Secrecy, Concealment, and Revelation in Elijah Muhammad’s Nation of Islam (1934-1975) Justine Bakker 9 Post-Imperial Appropriation of Text, Tradition, and Ritual in the Writings of Henri Gamache Hugh R. Page, Jr. 10 Mystery Matters: Embodiment and African American Mystics Chad Pevateaux 11 Show and Prove: Five Percenters and the Study of African American Esotericism Biko Mandela Gray 12 The “Nu” Nation: An Analysis of Malachi Z. York’s Nuwaubians Paul Easterling 13 Sacred Not Secret: Esoteric Knowledge in the United Nuwanbian Nation of Moors Julius Bailey Part III: Late 20th Century to Present-day 14 Astro-Black Mythology Marques Redd 15 Conjurational Contraptions: Techno-hermeneutics, Mechanical Wizardry, and the Material Culture of African American Folk Magic Stephen Wehmeyer 16 Portraying Portraits: The Intersectionality of Self, Art, and the Lacanian Gaze in the Nahziryah Monastic Community Margarita Simon Guillory and Aundrea Matthews 17 Those Mysteries, Our Mysteries: Ishmael Reed and the Construction of a Black Esoteric Tradition Marques Redd 18 Rocking’ for a Risen Savior: Bakongo and Christian Iconicity in the Louisiana Easter Rock Ritual Joyce Marie Jackson 19 Pole Dancing for Jesus: Negotiating Movement and Gender in Men’s Musical Praise Alisha Lola Jones 20 Wonder Working Power: Reclaiming Mystical and Cosmological Approaches to Africana Spiritual Practices Barbara A. Holmes Conclusion: The Continuing Quest to Map Secrecy, Concealment, and Revelatory Experiences in Africana Esoteric Discourse: “There Is a Mystery…” Stephen C. Finley, Margarita Simon Guillory, and Hugh R. Page, Jr. Afterword Anthony B. Pinn Bibliography

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Book SynopsisLux in Tenebris is a collection of eighteen original interdisciplinary essays that address aspects of the verbal and visual symbolism in the works of significant figures in the history of Western Esotericism, covering such themes as alchemy, magic, kabbalah, angels, occult philosophy, Platonism, Rosicrucianism, and Theosophy. Part I: Middle Ages & Early Modernity ranges from Gikatilla, Ficino, Camillo, Agrippa, Weigel, Böhme, Yvon, and Swedenborg, to celestial divination in Russia. Part II: Modernity & Postmodernity moves from occultist thinkers Schwaller de Lubicz and Evola to esotericism in literature, art, and cinema, in the works of Colquhoun, Degouve de Nuncques, Bruskin, Doitschinoff, and Pérez-Reverte, with an essay on esoteric theories of colour. Contributors are: Michael J.B. Allen, Susanna Åkerman, Lina Bolzoni, Aaron Cheak, Robert Collis, Francesca M. Crasta, Per Faxneld, Laura Follesa, Victoria Ferentinou, Joshua Gentzke, Joscelyn Godwin, Hans Thomas Hakl, Theodor Harmsen, Elke Morlok, Noel Putnik, Jonathan Schorsch, György Szönyi, Carsten Wilke, and Thomas Willard.

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Book SynopsisEsotericism and Narrative: The Occult Fiction of Charles Williams situates the life and fiction of the Inkling Charles Williams in the network of modern occultism, with special focus on his initiatory experiences in A.E. Waite’s Fellowship of the Rosy Cross. Aren Roukema evaluates fictional projections of magic, kabbalah, alchemy and ritual experience in Williams’s seven novels of supernatural fantasy. From this specific analysis, he develops more broadly applicable approaches to the serious expression of religious experience in fiction. Roukema shows that esoteric knowledge has frequently been blurred into fiction because of its inherent narrativity and adaptability, particularly by authors already attracted to the syncretism, multivalence and lived fantasy of the modern occult experience.Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Abbreviations Introduction: Through the Portal  Williams and the Occult: Some Discursive Complications  Encountering the Occult in Williams’s Fiction: A Literary/Historical Method 1 Life and Times: Christian Occultism in Modern England  A Life in Myth  “But about This Reality of Yours …”  The “Dead Master”  Arthur Edward Waite  Occult Imagination and the Secret Tradition  Constructing a Cordon Sanitaire  Christian Occultism 2 The Fellowship of the Rosy Cross: A Modern Occult Experience  Masonic Rosicrucianism  The Paths of the Tree of Life  The F.R.C. and the Golden Dawn: The Adeptus Minor Rituals 3 Fiction and Experience  The Unbearable Lightness of Fiction  Fantastic Narratology: The Liminality of Esoteric Knowledge  The Novels—Intrusions of the Supernatural  The Gothic Occult  In the Network of Occult Fiction  The Novels of an Adeptus Exaltatus  “The End of Desire”—The Discovery of the Higher Self  Occult Fiction, Occult Life 4 Kabbalah: Charles Williams and the Middle Pillar  A.E. Waite and Modern Occult Kabbalah  Becoming Shekinah: Charles Williams and the Middle Pillar  The Greater Trumps  Kabbalistic Eros and Romantic Theology 5 The High-Priestess: Charles Williams and Modern Magic  Magic in the West  The “High-Priestess of Heaven”  Ritual Semiotics and the Magical Imagination 6 A Magical Life in Fiction  Active Imagination  Active Will  The Way of P’o-lu  Art Magic: Sex, Poetry, Consciousness  Reanimation: Enchantment and Empowerment  Interpretive Drift: The Development of a Modern Christian Magic 7 The Transmutation of Charles Williams: Spiritual and Literary Alchemy  From Metallurgy to Particle Physics: A Brief History of Alchemy  Influences: Lee, Waite, Atwood  Rosicrucian Alchemy  The Great Work in Fiction  A Literary Alchemist Epilogue: The Coagulation of Belief Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisIn Esoteric Images: Decoding the Late Herat School of Painting Tawfiq Daʿadli decodes the pictorial language which flourished in the city of Herat, modern Afghanistan, under the rule of the last Timurid ruler, Sultan Husayn Bayqara (r.1469-1506). This study focuses on one illustrated manuscript of a poem entitled Khamsa by the Persian poet Nizami Ganjavi, kept in the British Library under code Or.6810. Tawfiq Daʿadli decodes the paintings, reveals the syntax behind them and thus deciphers the message of the whole manuscript. The book combines scholarly efforts to interpret theological-political lessons embedded in one of the foremost Persian schools of art against the background of the court dynamic of an influential medieval power in its final years.Trade Review"L’auteur nous offre une belle synthèse des travaux antérieurs à ce sujet tout en proposant une interprétation nouvelle de certaines images." - Aïda El Hiari, Sorbonne-Université, in: Bulletin critique des Annales islamologiques 35 (2021) "Daʿadli’s book gives a good impression of the process of “decoding” paintings of the late Timurid period during more than forty years of scholarship and provides some new interpretations." - Ilse Sturkenboom, University of St Andrews, UK, in: Der Islam 97: 1 (2020)Table of ContentsAcknowledgments List of Figures Introduction 1 Historical and Cultural Contexts  1 The Timurid Empire  2 The City of Herat  3 The Kitāb-khāna in Herat  4 Niẓāmī Ganjāvī 2 Focusing the Gaze in Late Timurid Painting  1 Hārūn al-Rashīd in the ḥammām  2 The King Who Turned into a Parrot  3 The Garden Master and the Maidens  4 Conclusion 3 The Iskandar Cycle  1 Iskandar and the Philosophers  2 Iskandar Beats the Drum  3 Iskandar Meets the Dervish  4 Conclusion 4 Making Justice  1 Khusrau before His Father Hurmuz-Shāh  2 Sultan Sanjar and the Old Lady 5 Death and Annihilation  1 Farhād’s Death  2 Laylī’s Husband’s Death  3 The Death of Majnūn  4 Building the Khawarnaq Palace  5 Conclusion 6 Concluding the Poetics of Painting  1 Enhancing the Meaning  2 Observations on Space  3 Conclusion Epilogue Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisThis volume offers new approaches to some of the biggest persistent challenges in the study of esotericism and beyond. Commonly understood as a particularly “Western” undertaking consisting of religious, philosophical, and ritual traditions that go back to Mediterranean antiquity, this book argues for a global approach that significantly expands the scope of esotericism and highlights its relevance for broader theoretical and methodological debates in the humanities and social sciences. The contributors offer critical interventions on aspects related to colonialism, race, gender and sexuality, economy, and marginality. Equipped with a substantial introduction and conclusion, the book offers textbook-style discussions of the state of research and makes concrete proposals for how esotericism can be rethought through broader engagement with neighboring fields.Trade Review"The book argues for a global approach to the study of esotericism and emphasizes its relevance for broader theoretical and methodological debates in the humanities and social sciences to encourage an open and serious exchange with other perspectives. This is indeed an essential contribution to the study of esotericism, which will undoubtedly elicit fruitful further discussion within and beyond the field." - Nicole Maria Bauer, University of Innsbruck, in: Religious Studies Review 47.1 (2021).Table of ContentsContent List of Schematics Notes on Contributors Esotericism’s Expanding Horizon: Why This Book Came to Be Egil Asprem and Julian Strube Receptions of Revelations: A Future for the Study of Esotericism and Antiquity Dylan Burns Towards the Study of Esotericism without the “Western”: Esotericism from the Perspective of a Global Religious History Julian Strube “That I Did Love the Moor to Live with Him”: Islam in/and the Study of “Western Esotericism” Liana Saif The Occult among the Aborigines of South America? Some Remarks on Race, Coloniality, and the West in the Study of Esotericism Mariano Villalba “Don’t Take Any Wooden Nickels”: Western Esotericism, Yoga, and the Discourse of Authenticity Keith Cantú Rejected Knowledge Reconsidered: Some Methodological Notes on Esotericism and Marginality Egil Asprem Race and (the Study of) Esotericism Justine Bakker “What Can the Whole World Be Hiding?” Exploring Africana Esotericisms in the American Soul-Blues Continuum Hugh R. Page, Jr. and Stephen C. Finley Double Toil and Gender Trouble? Performativity and Femininity in the Cauldron of Esotericism Research Manon Hedenborg White What do Jade Eggs Tell Us about the Category “Esotericism”? Spirituality, Neoliberalism, Secrecy, and Commodities Susannah Crockford Interpretation Reconsidered: The Definitional Progression in the Study of Esotericism as a Case in Point for the Varifocal Theory of Interpretation Dimitry Okropiridze Afterword: Outlines of a New Roadmap Egil Asprem and Julian Strube Index

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Book SynopsisThe first scholarly book on Thomas Vaughan (1621–1666) draws from recent studies in Western esotericism to place his famously difficult writings in their proper context. It shows that they develop themes from a distinctively Rosicrucian synthesis of alchemy, magic, and Christian cabala. Vaughan introduced Rosicrucian documents to English readers and placed them in older philosophical contexts during the breakdown of censorship that followed the English Revolution against the old order in politics and religion. Willard’s book will appeal to students of early modern ideas about religion, science, and society as they were seen by an intelligent and eloquent outsider.Table of ContentsAcknowledgments List of Figures Abbreviations A Note on Quotations Introduction Double Obscurity 1 The Progress: A Life of Thomas Vaughan  1 Wales  2 Oxford  3 Civil War  4 London  5 Publishing  6 Profession  7 Marriage  8 Patronage 2 The Bookish Faith: Vaughan’s Reading and Influences  1 The Biblical Tradition  2 The Platonic Philosophy  3 Magic  4 Cabala  5 Alchemy  6 The Rosy Cross  7 Tradition and the Individual 3 Not Easily Apprehended: Vaughan’s Language and Writings  1 Part One: The Alphabet of Nature  1.1 Magical Writing  1.2 Alchemical Rhetoric  1.3 Oracular and Vernacular  1.4 Center and Circumference  2 Part Two: The Key to the Lock  2.1 Anthroposophia Theomagica  2.2 Anima Magica Abscondita  2.3 Magia Adamica  2.4 Coelum Terrae  2.5 Lumen de Lumine  2.6 Aula Lucis  2.7 Preface to The Fame and Confession  2.8 Euphrates  2.9 Preface to The Chymists Key  2.10 Flint, Fire, and Tears: Vaughan’s English Poetry 4 Numbered amongst Ranters: Vaughan’s Reputation  1 The Pamphlet Debate  2 The Stylist, Rival, and Source  3 The Satiric Butt  4 The Legendary Adept  5 The Research Subject Conclusion Invisible History Appendix 1 Annotations in Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum Appendix 2 Preface to Humane Industry Appendix 3 Excerpts from The Ladies Champion Appendix 4 The Term “Spiritual Alchemy” Bibliography Index of Names Index of Subjects Index of Bible Citations

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