Description
Book SynopsisAries Book Series: Texts and Studies in Western Esotericism is the first professional academic book series specifically devoted to a long-neglected but now rapidly developing domain of research in the humanities, usually referred to as “Western Esotericism”. This field covers a variety of “alternative” currents in western religious history, including so-called “hermetic philosophy” and related currents in the early modern period; alchemy, paracelsianism and rosicrucianism; Jewish and Christian kabbalah and its later developments; theosophical and illuminist currents; and various occultist and related developments during the 19th and 20th centuries, up to and including popular contemporary currents such as the New Age movement. Published under the auspices of the European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism (ESSWE). For the journal Aries - Journal for the Study of Western Esotericism please click here. The series has published an average of two volumes per year over the last five years.
Table of ContentsList of Figures Notes on Contributors Introduction Or, What We Talk about When We Talk about Deviance Manon Hedenborg White and Tim Rudbøg Part 1 Theorizing Deviance 1 On the Social Organization of Rejected Knowledge Reassessing the Sociology of the Occult Egil Asprem 2 On the Concept of a Deviant Movement Olav Hammer 3 Disrupting Sanctified Deviance The Benefits of Boredom Jay Johnston 4 “The Judges of Normality Are Everywhere” Has Esotericism and the Ideas of H. P. Blavatsky’s Ever Been Normal? Tim Rudbøg Part 2 Historical Cases 5 Constructions of Religious Deviance in the Greek and Roman Worlds Richard Gordon 6 The Deviance of Toz The Reception of Toz Graecus and Magical Works Attributed to Toz in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries Lauri Ockenström 7 Forgotten Knowledge, Deviance and Esotericism The Eternally Burning Lamps of Fortunio Liceti Martin Mulsow 8 Strategic Deviance and Conflicting Loyalties The Spiritualist Interests of Bishop Ghenadie Petrescu (1836–1918) Ionuț Daniel Băncilă 9 Jewish Kabbalah, Christian Onomatodoxy (Imyaslavie) and Theological Flexibility in Russia at the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Konstantin Burmistrov 10 Vasily V. Nalimov – A Scientist, Philosopher and “Mystical Anarchist” from Komi Birgit Menzel 11 Haṭhayoga as “Black Magic” in Early Theosophy and Beyond Keith E. Cantú 12 Philology as an Epistemological Strategy to Claim Higher Knowledge Translational Endeavors within the Theosophical Society; A Case Study of Annie Besant’s Bhagavad-Gita Yves Mühlematter 13 “I Would Not Have Left Your Platform Had I Not Been Compelled” Annie Besant’s Exclusion from the National Secular Society (1891) Muriel Pécastaing-Boissière 14 Dismissing the Occult The Links between Esoteric Currents and French Homeopathic Medicine during the First Half of the Twentieth Century Léo Bernard 15 The Devil’s Popess The French Reception of Maria de Naglowska (1883–1936) in the Early 1930s Michele Olzi 16 Confessions of a Persian Opium Smoker Sadegh Hedayat, Esotericism, and The Blind Owl Kurosh Amoui 17 Fernando Pessoa’s Multiple Esoteric Deviances Fabio Mendia Part 3 Concluding Remarks 18 Afterword Rejected Knowledge as a Liberal Art Joscelyn Godwin Editors’ Conclusion Manon Hedenborg White and Tim Rudbøg Index
