Western esotericism

And I just I really liked his introduction to the book, and I think it'll help kind of place it for some folks.

As a young student of the Western mysteries, I was thoroughly enchanted by stories of the celebrated magicians of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.

The dramatis personae of this modern myth could not have been more colorful.

The dashing young Irish poet, William Butler Yeats, the beautiful actress, Florence Farr, the fabulously wealthy tea heiress, Annie Horniman, the brilliant magus, MacGregor Mathers, and let's not forget the devilishly naughty Alistair Crowley.

This guy is insane.

so much in

one life which I love and so the person to talk about me to talk about this book and this translation is Dee Norman who's you all know because she's been on the show before so I'll tell you a little bit about Dee Dee Norman has studied magic and Western mystery tradition for over 30 years.

She is the author of Burn a Black Candle from Watkins in 2022 and a contributor to a complete book of North American folk magic and also the Golden Grimoire and a book on Le Normand.

to the Occult Rejects.

At the end of Part 1, we reached a point where the old assumption that Christianity and Western occultism developed as entirely separate enemies had become almost impossible to maintain.

Because by the 16th century, Christian thinkers had already spent more than a thousand years absorbing, transforming, transmitting, and arguing over philosophical and mystical ideas that later occultists would inherit.

Augustine had drawn deeply upon Platonic philosophy while rejecting pagan theurgy.

This is the distinction running through part two.

Christianity did not invent astrology, alchemy, spirit conjuration, or all the ideas later classified as occult.

Yet many recognizable forms of modern Western occultism took shape as Christians adapted older traditions, explored hidden properties of creation, and disagreed about which practices could legitimately claim divine authority.

The story is not simply one of Christianity versus magic.

Also, one of the most interesting points that you make is that male esotericists have often been framed as philosophers, initiates, magicians and intellectuals, whereas women have more readily been associated with mediumship, witchcraft, intuition and practical forms of knowledge.

So what has that distinction done to our understanding of Western esotericism operating by, you know, your theory and assumption?

Oh, I think a lot.

For example, I have to be like in a case of Mary Jennings, for example, this is wonderful finnish occultist and artist who was yeah contemporaries really appreciated her as a kind of a great colorists and she was really really deep into occultism but somehow it seems that when her contemporaries and the later art historical narratives on her are at play.

And if you would like to read my post on the whole knight, king, prince debate, that is available on Patreon at patreon.com/thetarotpodcast, where you'll be able to see all the bonus content if you're a paid member.

In the history of Western esotericism, there are a lot of these sort of things where people do things differently.

Like, the fire and air correspondences generally are often, you know, mixed up, swords and, uh, wands.

It's so true, and it does show something that people may not like what I'm about to say, and, you know, take it or leave this-

I'm very pleased to be with, once again, Arthur Versluis, who is a professor of religious studies at Michigan State University.

Among his many books are American Gnosis, Political Religion and Transcendence, Platonic Mysticism, Magic and Mysticism, An Introduction to Western Esotericism, The New Inquisitions, Heretic Hunting and the Intellectual Origins of Modern Totalitarianism Wisdom's Children, a Christian Esoteric Tradition American Transcendentalism and Asian Religions Alchemical Lightwork, a Guide to Creating Cultures of Light and Spiritual Awakening Today we will be focusing on his book, American Gurus, From Transcendentalism to New Age Religion.

Arthur, of course, lives in Michigan, and now I'll switch over to the internet interview video.

Welcome, Arthur.

These are all core content areas here at Esoterica.

Also, if you want to support the creation of accessible, free content and topics on Western Esotericism, I hope you consider supporting us on Patreon or with a one-time donation.

Your support of Esoterica helps to make the channel possible, and I really appreciate your support of our work.

I thought I'd mention some of the texts that I found useful in preparing this episode, although I'm going to hold off with the text specifically on Kabbalah and the Dybbuk for the next episode.

As you'll probably remember, Belascon House is the Scottish estate that Aleister Crowley purchased at the dawn of the 20th century and began the Abramelin ritual there.

Of course, Boleskine House is wonderfully interesting for its link to Scottish history, its connection to Western esotericism in the form of Aleister Crowley, but also Jimmy Page, and all of the developing ideas that have come in the wake of the rise of modern occultism.

So by understanding a bit about Boleskine House, its history, its connection to Western esotericism, its destruction by fire, and its reconstruction and renovation, I think we get an interesting glimpse onto the contested nature of heritage, of Western esotericism, and many of the ideas that are central to us here at Esoterica.

So I hope you enjoy this interview as a companion to our episode on the Abramelin Ritual, and I hope you'll go take a look at the Boleskine House Foundation and consider supporting their work of reconstructing this amazing piece of history with so many connections to many of the ideas that we find interesting here at Esoterica.

So let me turn to the interview.

So as a part of our exploration of the famed Abramelin ritual, perhaps the most famous instance of that ritual, of course, was the one performed by Aleister Crowley at Boleskine House.

And without any doubt, I'm joined by two folks who have a great deal of expertise about Boleskine House.

And we're going to talk a good bit about the house, its relationship to Western esotericism, and the future of Boleskine House, which I understand is going to be very much tied in many ways to developments, perhaps, in the study of Western esotericism more generally.