LibGuides: Staff Picks: Esoterica

Western Esotericism, Magic, and the Occult: Sources and Further Reading

The text for the ECU Library's Western Esotericism, Magic, and the Occult display (October 2022) drew on three main sources: Wouter Hanegraaff's Western Esotericism: A Guide for the Perplexed, Esotericism and the Academy by the same author, and the Scientific Revolution: A Short Introduction by Lawrence M. Principe.

While the ECU Library does not currently have access to these resources, they are recommended if you were interested in the content of the display. So is Antoine Faivre's Access to Western Esotericism. In that work Faivre identifies four core principles and two common elements of Esotericism:

1. Correspondences (both real and symbolic between things in the universe. 2. Living nature (a vital life force within the universe) 3. Imagination and mediations (such as rituals, symbolic images, mandalas, and intermediary spirits) 4. Experience of transmutation (self-transformation through practice) 5. The praxis of concordance (meaning there is an underlying unity to all religious systems) 6. Transmission (passage of knowledge from master to disciple).

Hopefully these resources will give you a little more insight into this fascinating field of study. We've also listed a number of books below that are available for check out in the ECU Library. There's tonnes of great material, and lots more in the stacks. So please explore and enjoy!

Postcolonial Astrology by Alice Sparkly Kat
Call Number: BF1708.1 .K38 2021
ISBN: 9781623175306
Publication Date: 2021-05-18
"Tapping into the political power of magic and astrology for social, community, and personal transformation-in a cross-cultural approach to understanding astrology as a magical language, Alice Sparkly Kat unmasks the political power of astrology, showing how it can be channeled as a force for collective healing and liberation"--Provided by publisher.
The Secret Life of Puppets by Victoria Nelson
Call Number: PN3433.6 .N45 2001
ISBN: 9780674006300
Publication Date: 2002-01-29
"In one of those rare books that allows us to see the world not as we’ve never seen it before, but as we see it daily without knowing, Victoria Nelson illuminates the deep but hidden attraction the supernatural still holds for a secular mainstream culture that forced the transcendental underground and firmly displaced wonder and awe with the forces of reason, materialism, and science." -- publisher's website
Techgnosis by Erik Davis
Call Number: BL265 .I54 D38 1998
ISBN: 9780517704158
Publication Date: 1998-10-13
"How does our fascination with technology intersect with the religious imagination? In TechGnosis—a cult classic now updated and reissued with a new afterword—Erik Davis argues that while the realms of the digital and the spiritual may seem worlds apart, esoteric and religious impulses have in fact always permeated (and sometimes inspired) technological communication.

Davis uncovers startling connections between such seemingly disparate topics as electricity and alchemy; online roleplaying games and religious and occult practices; virtual reality and gnostic mythology; programming languages and Kabbalah. The final chapters address the apocalyptic dreams that haunt technology, providing vital historical context as well as new ways to think about a future defined by the mutant intermingling of mind and machine, nightmare and fantasy." -- publisher's website
Phantasmagoria by Marina Warner
Call Number: BH301 .I52 W37 2006
ISBN: 9780199239238
Publication Date: 2008-05-30
"With over thirty illustrations in color and black and white, Phantasmagoria takes readers on an intellectually exhilarating tour of ideas of spirit and soul in the modern world, illuminating key questions of imagination and cognition. Warner tells the unexpected and often disturbing story about shifts in thought about consciousness and the individual person, from the first public waxworks portraits at the end of the eighteenth century to stories of hauntings, possession, and loss of self in modern times. She probes the perceived distinctions between fantasy and deception, and uncovers a host of spirit forms--angels, ghosts, fairies, revenants, and zombies--that are still actively present in contemporary culture." -- publisher's website
Mutants and Mystics by Jeffrey J. Kripal
Call Number: PN6725 .K75 2015
ISBN: 9780226271484
Publication Date: 2015-12-21
"Account of how comic book heroes have helped their creators and fans alike explore and express a wealth of paranormal experiences ignored by mainstream science. Delving deeply into the work of major figures in the field--from Jack Kirby's cosmic superhero sagas and Philip K. Dick's futuristic head-trips to Alan Moore's sex magic and Whitley Strieber's communion with visitors--Kripal shows how creators turned to science fiction to convey the reality of the inexplicable and the paranormal they experienced in their lives. Expanded consciousness found its language in the metaphors of sci-fi--incredible powers, unprecedented mutations, time-loops and vast intergalactic intelligences--and the deeper influences of mythology and religion that these in turn drew from; the wildly creative work that followed caught the imaginations of millions. Moving deftly from Cold War science and Fredric Wertham's anticomics crusade to gnostic revelation and alien abduction, Kripal spins out a hidden history of American culture, rich with mythical themes and shot through with an awareness that there are other realities far beyond our everyday understanding."--Jacket.
The Enchantment of Modern Life by Jane Bennett
Call Number: BJ301 .B46 2001
ISBN: 9780691088136
Publication Date: 2001-08-05
"It is a commonplace that the modern world cannot be experienced as enchanted — that the very concept of enchantment belongs to past ages of superstition. Jane Bennett challenges that view. She seeks to rehabilitate enchantment, showing not only how it is still possible to experience genuine wonder, but how such experience is crucial to motivating ethical behavior. A creative blend of political theory, philosophy, and literary studies, this book is a powerful and innovative contribution to an emerging interdisciplinary conversation about the deep connections between ethics, aesthetics, and politics." -- publisher's website
Caliban and the Witch by Silvia Federici
Call Number: HQ1147.E85 F444 2014
ISBN: 9781570270598
Publication Date: 2004-09-15
". . . a history of the body in the transition to capitalism. Moving from the peasant revolts of the late Middle Ages to the witch-hunts and the rise of mechanical philosophy, Federici investigates the capitalist rationalization of social reproduction. She shows how the battle against the rebel body and the conflict between body and mind are essential conditions for the development of labor power and self-ownership, two central principles of modern social organization."--Back cover.
The Way of Tarot by Alejandro Jodorowsky; Marianne Costa
Call Number: BF1879 .T2 V6513 2009
ISBN: 9781594772634
Publication Date: 2009-11-17
"Alejandro Jodorowsky’s profound study of the Tarot, which began in the early 1950s, reveals it to be far more than a simple divination device. The Tarot is first and foremost a powerful instrument of self-knowledge and a representation of the structure of the soul." -- publisher's website
Surrealism and the Sacred by Celia Rabinovitch
Call Number: NX456.5 .S8 R33 2002
ISBN: 9780813365572
Publication Date: 2002-04-14
"...Surrealism and the Sacred traces the conflict between the secular and sacred forces from prehistory and paganism through the Renaissance and the occult revival of the 19th century to the surrealist movement of the twentieth century. Against the tyranny of reason and the European bourgeoisie, Surrealists drew from occultism, Asian religions, mysticism, and psychoanalysis to create an uncanny and creative state of mind that continues to have a profound effect on the modern imagination. This remarkable book challenges conventional assumptions about modern art and its larger meanings in the history of knowledge.” -- from the publisher
Surrealism and the Occult by Nadia Choucha
Call Number: N6494 .S8 C36 1992
ISBN: 9780892813735
Publication Date: 1992-10-01
An art historian shows how many surrealists and their predecessors were steeped in magical ideas that were expressed in their art: the sorcery of Dali, the alchemy of Picasso, the Theosophy of Kandinsky, and the shamanism of Ernst and Carrington. -- from the publisher
The Perfect Medium by Andreas Fischer; Denis Canguilhem; Sophie Schmit; Crista Cloutier (Contribution by); Stephen E. Braude (Contribution by); Clement Cheroux; Pierre Apraxine
Call Number: TR646 .F72 T7613 2004
ISBN: 9780300111361
Publication Date: 2005-10-01
In the early days of photography, many believed and hoped that the camera would prove more efficient than the human eye in capturing the unseen. Spiritualists and animists of the nineteenth century seized on the new technology as a method of substantiating the existence of supernatural beings and happenings. This fascinating book assembles more than 250 photographic images from the Victorian era to the 1960s, each purporting to document an occult phenomenon: levitations, apparitions, transfigurations, ectoplasms, spectres, ghosts, and auras. Drawn from the archives of European and American occult societies and private and public collections, the photographs in many cases have never before been published.
Magic by Jamie Sutcliffe (Editor)
Call Number: N66 .M35 2021
ISBN: 9780262543033
Publication Date: 2021-12-14
The first accessible reader on magic’s generative relationship with contemporary art practice. From the hexing of presidents to a renewed interest in herbalism and atavistic forms of self-care, magic has furnished the contemporary imagination with mysterious and often disorienting bodies of arcane thought and practice. This volume brings together writings by artists, magicians, historians, and theorists that illuminate the vibrant correspondences animating contemporary art’s varied encounters with magical culture, inspiring a reconsideration of the relationship between the symbolic and the pragmatic.
Touch Me Not by Hereward Tilton (Editor); Merlin Cox (Edited and Translated by)
Call Number: BF1565 .T68 2019
ISBN: 9781527228832
Publication Date: 2019-07-23
"Touch Me Not is an Austrian manuscript compendium of the black magical arts, completed c. 1795. Unique and otherworldly, it evokes a realm of visceral dark magic. As the co-editor of this volume Hereward Tilton notes, the manuscript "appears at first sight to be a 'grimoire' or magician's manual intended for noviciates of black magic. Psychedelic drug use, animal sacrifice, sigillary body art, masturbation fantasy and the necromantic manipulation of gallows-corpses count among the transgressive procedures it depicts. With their aid hidden treasures are wrested from guardian spirits, and the black magician's highest ambition--an infernal transfiguration and union with the Devil--can be fulfilled." Hidden for decades within the Wellcome Library collection, Touch Me Not is published here as a full-color facsimile. The German and Latin texts have been translated by Hereward Tilton and Merlin Cox, scholars who have explored the sources for the various elements and provided copious references. Tilton provides an introduction that lays out the context for the survival of this extraordinary manuscript."
The Kabbalistic Tradition by Alan Unterman (Editor, Translator, Introduction by, Notes by)
Call Number: BM525 .A2 K34 2008
ISBN: 9780140437997
Publication Date: 2009-01-27
"'Kabbalah' is the general term for Jewish mysticism, specifically that which has been learned from a 'living master'. Not merely the passing on of mystical teachings, Kabbalistic thought has long been open to evolutionary developments and breakthroughs from discussion between students and teachers. The writings of the Kabbalistic tradition collected here feature texts from a variety of literary forms, ranging from medieval through to twentieth-century sources, as well as procedure and practical knowledge for the modern reader. The selection in this edition concentrates on the three main areas of Kabbalistic creativity: the literature of the Zohar, the Lurianic corpus and the Chasidic mystical tradition." "Alan Unterman's introduction places the tradition in its historical and philosophical context, examines the unique characteristics of Kabbalah, and relates specific theological features to Jewish mysticism. This edition also contains further reading, explanatory notes, a glossary and an index."--BOOK JACKET.
Alchemy in Contemporary Art by Urszula Szulakowska
Call Number: N7745 .A4 S98 2011
ISBN: 9780754667360
Publication Date: 2011-02-28
This text analyzes the manner in which 20th-century artists, beginning with French Surrealists of the 1920s, have appropriated concepts and imagery from the Western alchemical tradition.
The Message by Claudia Dichter (Editor); Hans Günter Golinski (Editor); Michael Krajewski (Editor); Susanne Zander (Editor); André Breton (Contribution by)
Call Number: N7745 .O55 M488 2007
ISBN: 9783865603425
Publication Date: 2008-03-01
"Occult practices, séances and magic have traditionally been met with suspicion in the world of high culture, but they are currently getting a fresh look. Turns out, they have long had a quiet influence on art--at least since the mid-1800s. The Message demonstrates this fascinating history with paranormal-influenced paintings, drawings and thought photographs, a term for the phenomenon of imprinting an image from one's mind directly onto a photographic medium--something we've all at least wished we could do... By the early eighteenth century, the occult had found a home in the arts with the advent of Surrealism--in 1933, André Breton discussed these inexplicable phenomena in his text, The Automatic Message. This publication borrows its name from Breton's text; and features early-twentieth-century photographs of séances from the archive of parapsychologist Albert von Schrenck-Notzing, which vividly illustrate Breton's ideas."
Haunted Bauhaus by Elizabeth Otto
Call Number: N332 .G3 O88 2019
ISBN: 9780262043298
Publication Date: 2019-09-24
The Bauhaus (1919-1933) is widely regarded as the twentieth century's most influential art, architecture, and design school, celebrated as the archetypal movement of rational modernism and famous for bringing functional and elegant design to the masses. In 'Haunted Bauhaus', art historian Elizabeth Otto liberates Bauhaus history, uncovering a movement that is vastly more diverse and paradoxical than previously assumed. Otto traces the surprising trajectories of the school's engagement with occult spirituality, gender fluidity, queer identities, and radical politics. The Bauhaus, she shows us, is haunted by these untold stories. With 'Haunted Bauhaus', Otto not only expands our knowledge of a foundational movement of modern art, architecture, and design, she also provides the first sustained investigation of the irrational and the unconventional currents swirling behind the Bauhaus's signature sleek surfaces and austere structures. This is a fresh, wild ride through the Bauhaus you thought you knew.