ESSWE Newsletter

Blog closed

2012-01-28T00:00:00.000+01:00

As part of a rationalization of the ESSWE's communications strategy

This blog has not been updated since 2010.
Announcements appear only on the ESSWE website.
News appears in the ESSWE Newsletter, published twice a year.
Many posts from this blog have been consolidated in a special issue of the ESSWE Newsletter, 2.1.
Posts on this blog remain accessible via the Index.

Call for Faculty

2010-06-24T19:22:00.003+02:00

Phoenix Rising Academy of Esoteric Studies and Creative Arts
(www.phoenixrising.org.gr) is a new independent, distance-learning academic initiative based in Athens and London. It is preparing to launch in the autumn-winter of 2010, and is seeking academic faculty for specific subjects in its curriculum:

- History & Principles of Magic (Antiquity - Early Modern, and Modern periods)
- History & Principles of Kabbalah (Antiquity - Early Modern, and Modern periods)
- Myth (selected topics)
- Freemasonry & Rosicrucianism (History, phenomenology)
- "Schools of Magic" (Golden Dawn, Thelema, etc: History, principles, phenomenology)
- Romanticism (History, principles, art and literature)
- Surrealism (History, principles, art and literature)
- New Age movement (history, phenomenology)
- Esotericism in the 21st century (historical background, influences, phenomenology)

Founding faculty members comprise scholars affiliated with the Universities of Kent, Exeter, Oxford and Indianapolis. The cross-disciplinary curriculum seeks to cover a wide range of topics within the Western Esoteric corpus, while it also extends into Philosophy and the Arts. The course structure is based on a flexible model which allows students to complete a full programme of study equivalent to a BA (accreditation will be sought from the ODLQC - the British distance-learning accreditation council), and also offers the freedom to select specific courses or modules. The academy will offer selected onsite courses in Athens, Greece, while the majority of courses will be offered online.

The Academy's structure and technical infrastructure allows faculty members to be situated anywhere in the world. Academic and/or scholarly excellence is a main criterion for proposal submissons, as is teaching experience, publications, familiarity with technology, and a working knowledge of English (or Modern Greek, or French).
For more information visit www.phoenixrising.org.gr. Submit a proposal using the online form at http://www.phoenixrising.org.gr/en/contact/teach-with-us/, or by writing to phoenix@phoenixrising.org.gr. Deadline for drafts: July 15th 2010 (deadline for draft course submissions: August 10th 2010).

ASE update

2010-06-24T19:18:00.000+02:00

The Association for the Study of Esotericism. is continuing with the third volume of it's book series, Esotericism, Religion, and Politics.
There is a new membership menu up at aseweb.org, including an offer to new members to receive a free copy of the book. (ASE now has permanent 501c3 status as a non-profit organization, so all contributions are tax-deductible in the United States). ASE is expanding the website, adding an updated announcements section, and a newsletter. If you have announcements, including forthcoming or recently published books, or events, please send them to aseoffice@gmail.com
A student worker is assisting with ASE matters, in particular with the new website. A meeting room is reserved during the AAR conference in Atlanta, and ASE will be holding a symposium there in late October 2010, with a focus on esotericism in the academy.

Witchcraft images

2010-05-01T14:36:00.003+02:00

Researchers studying the history of magic might be interested in the review of Claudia Swan, Art, Science, and Witchcraft in Early Modern Holland, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2005, in Kunstforum.

New Journal: Preternature

2010-05-01T14:17:00.003+02:00

Preternature: Critical and Historical Studies on the Preternatural is currently accepting manuscripts and book review requests/suggestions. Preternature is an interdisciplinary, peer-reviewed journal housed at The Pennsylvania State University, and published in Oxford, England.
Formerly known as the Journal for the Academic Study of Magic, Preternature publishes original scholarship and texts in edition/translation on magics, the occult, spiritualism, demonology, monstrophy, and the "preternatural" in all its cultural, historical, anthropological, artistic, literary, and folkloric iterations. Submissions pertaining to any time period and to any geographic area are welcome, though the language of publication is English.
Contributions should be roughly 8,000-12,000 words, including all documentation and critical apparatus. If accepted for publication, manuscripts will be required to adhere to the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition (style 1, employing footnotes).
For more information, consult www.preternature.org.
Queries about submissions, queries concerning books to be reviewed, or requests to review individual titles may be made to the Editors:
- Peter Dendle, Department of English, The Pennsylvania State University, Mont Alto, pjd11@psu.edu,
- Kirsten C. Uszkalo, English and Digital Humanities, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, circe@ufies.org
- Richard Raiswell, Department of History, University of Prince Edward Island, Canada, rraiswell@upei.ca

Call for papers: The Secret and the Manifest (December 2010, Dnipropetrovsk)

2010-04-29T11:45:00.001+02:00

The Association for the Study of Esotericism and Mysticism (Russian Federation)

announces its

Fourth International Conference on

Mystic and Esoteric Movements in Theory and Practice

The Secret and the Manifest:

The Variety of Representations of Esotericism and Mysticism

2 - 4 December 2010, Dnipropetrovsk (Ukraine)

Conference Languages: Russian, Ukrainian and English.

The presence of elements of esotericism and mysticism in contemporary culture can scarcely be overestimated. At the same time there is still the stereotyped view on esotericism as based on some ‘secret knowledge’. The various actual public (re)presentations of ‘esoteric knowledge’, however, question the notion of its secrecy; esoteric and mystic phenomena require more accurate categories for description.

The dynamics of the representation of these phenomena in different forms of media, in films or museums etc. on the one hand, and the dialectics of global and local dimensions in the history and the present of esotericism and mysticism on the other, are the issues to be discussed at the fourth annual conference ‘Mystic and Esoteric Movements in Theory and Practice’ organized by the Association for the Study of Esotericism and Mysticism. Special attention should be paid not only to the variety of manifestations of esotericism and mysticism in the contemporary media scene but also to their interrelations with other social formations and institutions such as the dominating forms of institutionalized religiosity, the political mainstream in the matter of religion and spirituality and last but not least the academic study of religions and culture.

The conference organizers hope that this scholarly forum will contribute significantly to the development of this promising area of research. The study of the representations of esotericism and mysticism circulating within the esoteric and mystic environment itself, in their public perception via mass media and within academic circles may lay the ground for further development in the field of the study of mysticism and esotericism in Russia and other post-Soviet countries.

We invite suggestions for possible sessions as well as paper proposals dealing with the study of this phenomenon through various academic disciplines. Papers can be submitted on, but are not limited to the following sub-themes:

esotericism, mysticism and media: theoretical aspects of interrelations;
global and local dimensions of esoteric imaginations;
theory & method in the study of mysticism and esotericism;
problems in the representation of mystic experiences;
hermeneutics of esoteric imagery;
historical development of esoteric symbolic forms;
symbolic language characteristics of esotericism and mysticism;
self-presentations of esoteric groups in the mass media and other media forms;
representations of mysticism and esotericism in museums;
esoteric and mystic images in film;
imagination and visualisation in mysticism and esotericism.

Application deadline: 1 October 2010. For further details, email conference.esot2010@mail.ru or see the homepage of the Association for the study of Esotericism and Mysticism (ASEM) http://asem.ucoz.org/.

Organizing Committee:
Chair: Prof. Dr. Julia Shabanova (Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine), Dr. Sergey Pakhomov (Saint-Petersburg, Russia). Members: Prof. Dr. Andrey Zabiyako (Blagoveshchensk, Russia), Prof. Dr. Igor Kozlovsky (Donetsk, Ukraine); Prof. Dr. Ludmila Filipovich (Kyiv, Ukraine), Prof. Dr. Birgit Menzel (Mainz, Germany); Dr. Yuriy Zavhorodniy (Kyiv, Ukraine); Dr. Sergey Kapranov (Kyiv, Ukraine); Vadim Zhdanov (Erlangen, Germany).

Arranged in collaboration with: National Mining University, Department of Philosophy (Dnipropetovsk, Ukraine), H. S. Skovoroda Institute of Philosophy (National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine), Ukrainian Association of Religion Researchers, Research Center for Mysticism and Esotericism (St. Petersburg, Russia), and the Centre for Religious Studies and International Spiritual Relations (Donetsk, Ukraine).

New Spanish online library of alchemical works

2010-04-02T18:57:00.000+02:00

A major new online library of alchemical works in Spanish libraries (including the National Library and the library of the Complutense University of Madrid) has been established at http://catalogochymico.icp.csic.es/.

"Hundred of works are already available in full digitalized versions, and many other will be available in the near future. The site is continuously updated by adding new titles and completing the information on authors and works. Comments aiming to improve the content of the site would be very welcome."

The Esoteric Crossroads: Intercultural Patterns in Early Modern Esotericism

2010-02-26T17:26:00.000+01:00

The Esoteric Crossroads: Intercultural Patterns in Early Modern Esotericism

7th April 2010, Villa San Michele, Capri, Italy

The conference focuses on cross-cultural exchange between Northern and Southern Europe in the fields of Western Esotericism. This is a small-scale, informal, inter-disciplinary conference with limited places for twenty participants.

This is the first step toward future projects that aim to foster the exchange of philosophical, scientific, cultural, religious and esoteric ideas between Northern and Southern Europe in general, and Sweden and Italy in particular.

The conference is being held at the legendary Villa San Michele, built by the Swedish physician Axel Munthe. San Michele is a Swedish cultural institution on the beautiful island of Capri in Italy.

On the day after the conference, the participants are invited to a guided tour of Capri’s Philosophical Park by its founder Professor Gunnar Adler-Karlsson.

For further information mail: thomas.karlsson@rel.su.se

Organizers: Dioscuri Institute in cooperation with Thomas Karlsson, Stockholm University, Sweden and Alberto Brandi, University of Naples L’Orientale, Italy.

Influencia de la Masonería en el Pensamiento Político de la Revolución de Mayo

2010-01-30T14:29:00.000+01:00

El Centro de Estudios para la Gran Reunión Americana

presenta

I Jornada de Estudios sobre Masonería en Argentina y América Latina

"Influencia de la Masonería en el Pensamiento Político de la Revolución de Mayo"

22 de Mayo de 2010

Sede de la Masonería Argentina, Pte. Perón 1242, CABA

Argentina

Nos proponemos en esta investigación analizar los componentes de las ideas masónicas a fin de relacionarlas en su influencia en las construcción del Estado Argentino. Haciendo una construcción analítica de fuentes históricas: documentos, escritos, proclamas y biografías, a fin de dilucidar cuáles fueron los componentes que marcan la influencia de la masonería en el Pensamiento Político de la Revolución de Mayo. Sosteniendo que el esquema de Logia permitió un accionar similar a un partido de cuadros en el proceso revolucionario.

Ver programa y convocatoria para presentación de ensayos, ponencias y artículos en: jornadamasoneria.blogspot.com.

Auspician:
Facultad de Ciencias Sociales - Universidad de Buenos Aires
Respetable Logia Gran Reunión Americana 452 - Gran Logia Argentina de Aceptados y Libres Masones

New Call for papers, IAHR--Seduced by Science

2010-01-20T11:36:00.000+01:00

The following Call is in addition to the one already published.

Call for papers
IAHR Quinquennial World Congress
"Religion: A Human Phenomenon"
Toronto, August 15-21, 2010

Panel: Seduced by Science: The culture of religion and science in the early 20th century

Panel Organizers: Egil Asprem and Tessel M. Bauduin, Centre for the History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Deadline call for papers: April 15th 2010

The first half of the 20th century saw a radical transformation and fierce expansion of the sciences in western society. Both developments have had considerable impact on the conceptualization and experience of religion in the modern world. The success and prestige of the modern sciences have not only changed the way we think about religion, magic, and humanity's place within the natural world, but it has also reformed the referential "common ground" of religionists, non-, and anti-religionists alike. This has had a large range of different and sometimes mutually exclusive implications, roughly following geographic as well as social and cultural boundaries: the perception of science and its relation to religion and religious meaning differed both from country to country, and between socio-cultural strata.

In some quarters, the 19th century "conflict between science and religion" continued as before, over the age of rocks and the origin of species. But in light of new scientific breakthroughs, old questions could also be asked in new ways. For example, controversies over vitalism, organicism and indeterminism provided fuel for intellectual as well as artistic, literary and even political re-appraisals of religion and spirituality. A blossoming of esoteric, occult and spiritualist notions sought alignment with recent scientific developments in the fields of biology, physics, chemistry, and psychology, while some scientists in these disciplines looked to esoteric subjects for metaphorical and conceptual resources. Meanwhile the discipline of parapsychology sought professional recognition, while offering itself as a scientific battle station against atheism and philosophical materialism. All these developments fostered an anticipation that science might lead to a new enc hantment of the world. The impact can, in various ways, still be felt in the contemporary religious landscape.

The panel seeks contributions from interdisciplinary scholars of religious studies whose work intersect with the history of ideas, science, literature, art and the broader cultural history of the early 20th century. The starting point is that the cultural history of science and religion in the modern world is complex, multi-layered, dynamic and many-faceted, displaying the whole range of relations from polemical hostility on the one hand, to mutual fascination and forging of alliances on the other. Science and religion is furthermore seen to engage in reciprocal relations of exchange, not only of esthetics and rhetoric, but of semantics as well. The panel welcomes papers that look at specific case studies of the early 20th century culture of science and religion and its reflections in e.g. art, literature, academia, and popular culture, as well as papers on theoretical and methodological problems. "Early 20th century" is taken in an extended sense to cover roughly the period of scientific and religious change from 1880-1945. Exploring methodology and research questions from disciplines not commonly incorporated in the field of religious studies is encouraged.

Suggested research topics include but are certainly not limited to:
- Metaphysical philosophy (e.g. Bergson and many others);
- Reactions to (perceived) mechanism and causality;
- Intuition, inspiration, the Eureka moment and the cult of the scientific genius;
- Parapsychology and the university/scientific establishment;
- Science, science-fiction and religion;
- Science mysticism;
- Science and the Occult Revival;
- Scientific discourses of Theosophy, Anthroposophy or New Age-movements;
- Wave and radiation phenomena in the cultural discourse;
- Religious responses to quantum mechanics and the theories of relativity;
- The discourses of electric fluids, unified fields and the universal ether.

Proposals of max 400 words, together with a brief curriculum, should be send to Egil Asprem (e.asprem@uva.nl) or Tessel Bauduin (t.m.bauduin@uva.nl) before April 15th 2010. At the conference, participants will be allotted 20 minutes to present their paper.

In addition to the abstracts, participants will be requested to submit their full paper before July 1st. The papers will be sent to all participants; at the panel session all participants are expected to have read each other's papers and to be able to comment upon their own paper in relation to the other papers. Pending the quality of the submitted full papers we may investigate the possibilities of publication afterward.

Vacancy: curator Dutch masonic collection

2010-01-07T15:00:00.000+01:00

The Order of Freemasons under the Grand East of the Netherlands is seeking a new curator for the Cultural Masonic Centre ‘Prince Frederik’ in The Hague, which houses the historical library, archives and object collection of the Order. The advert is published (in Dutch) here.
The text includes a preference for candidates ‘who are members of the Order, or a recognized Grand Lodge’.

The former curator of the CMC, drs. Evert Kwaadgras, unfortunately had to step down due to illness some time ago. The Order has used the opportunity to separate management and curator's tasks by appointing a director for the CMC, mrs. drs. Marijke de Vries, who will be supervising the work of the new curator.

Celestial Spheres

2010-01-07T14:55:00.004+01:00

The Sophia Centre at the University of Wales, Lampeter (UK) is organizing a promotional conference in the USA for its distance learning program, based upon the Medieval Cosmos module in the MA in Cultural Astronomy and Astrology program. More information is available here.

Calls: Panel for IAHR

2010-01-07T09:46:00.000+01:00

Call for Papers
Panel: "Western esotericism and its boundaries: Between discourses of identity and difference"

IAHR Quinquennial World Congress, "Religion: A Human Phenomenon," Toronto, August 15-21, 2010

Convenors: Allison Coudert (University of California at Davis), Cathy Gutierrez (Sweet Briar College), Marco Pasi (Universiteit van Amsterdam)

In the last twenty years it has become customary for specialists to define esotericism as "western." This has a series of implications that are usually left in the background and not addressed explicitly. The purpose of the panel is to discuss precisely these aspects, namely: Why should esotericism be defined as western in the first place? Where do we want to draw the boundaries of the "West"? Are Jewish and Islamic forms of esotericism to be included in "western" esotericism, and if not, why? Finally, if we want to reject the tag "western," what are the possible alternatives? In what way could we open up the study of esotericism to multiculturality? Could we do this by studying possible historical influences or rather by using a comparative approach that focuses on possible common patterns and analogies?

We welcome papers that address the use of esotericism as a theoretical designation in the construction of identity and difference while negotiating geographical and ideological boundaries. Proposals for papers on specific historical strains of esoteric thinking are also welcome, particularly those that address the formation of discourses of difference.

Deadline for proposal submission is 31 March 2010.

Proposals, together with a brief curriculum, should be sent to Cathy Gutierrez (cgutierrez@sbc.edu) and/or Marco Pasi (m.pasi@uva.nl).

For more information on the congress and registration procedure, see:
http://www.religion.utoronto.ca/resources/iahr/Home.htm.

Vacancy: Postdoc Groningen University

2009-11-20T17:05:00.002+01:00

The University of Groningen, Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies, invites applications for a Postdoc Position (1 fte, 3 years) with the chair of Religious Studies. The postdoc position is part of the larger research framework that addresses "The Transformation of the Religious Field since 1800".
Preference will be given to candidates whose research focuses on the relationship between modernization and religion. Projects may investigate discursive changes in the status of religion in Western societies, interactions between religious systems and other systems (such as the natural sciences, philosophy, politics, law, art, etc.), or related dynamics of modernization.
The candidate will need to hold a PhD in the Academic Study of Religion or in a related discipline. She/he will have demonstrated high-standing academic skills in her/his PhD dissertation and in subsequent publications, and she/he will have an international network of scholarly contacts.
The candidate will be expected to contribute to the research activities in the Department of Religious Studies of the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies, as well as to applications for research grants on national and international levels. She/he may also be asked to contribute to teaching in the BA and MA program.

For a detailed description of this opening, please see http://www.academictransfer.com/employer/RUG/vacancy/1954/lang/en/.

Conference: Astrologies

2009-11-20T17:01:00.000+01:00

The Sophia Centre for the Study of Cosmology in Culture at the Department of Archaeology, History and Anthropology of the University of Wales, Lampeter, has announced a conference on the theme of Astrologies. The event will take place on 24-25 July 2010 at the Bath Royal Scientific and Literary Institute, UK. The full announcement is available here.

Conference CCWE

2009-11-20T17:00:00.000+01:00

The Cambridge Centre for the study of Western Esotericism in Cambridge, UK, has announced its 4th annual conference to take place on 2 October 2010. A call for papers on the theme of Magic: signs sounds emanations - western esotericism and the arts is available at: www.ccwe.wordpress.com.

The Literary and Linguistic Context of the Zohar

2009-10-30T10:29:00.000+01:00

Conference on

Late Aramaic: The Literary and Linguistic Context of the Zohar

Monday, November 9th to Wednesday November 11, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1

This conference is part of a a project combining two areas of expertise which have never been put together before: Jewish mysticism and Kabbalah on the one hand, and Semitic languages, in particular Aramaic, on the other hand. The project sets out to examine the Aramaic language in which the bulk of the Zohar—Judaism"s most important Kabbalistic work—was originally written, either—as tradition has it—in 2nd century Palestine, or—as has been held by most scholars under the impact of pioneering work by the late Gershom Scholem—in late 13th century Spain. Scholem had argued that the Aramaic of the Zohar was an "artificial idom" made up from an indiscriminate mixture of Aramaic dialects found in earlier sources, such as the two Talmuds and the Aramaic translations of the Bible. This late medieval Aramaic concoction was produced, according to Scholem, by one man—the 13th century Castillian kabbalist, Moses de Leon, who authored the Zohar anonymously, and who wished to invest his work with the air and authority of antiquity by adopting the vernacular language of the 2nd century Palestinian Sages.

See the full program.

How dangerous is the Ir-rational?

2009-10-03T12:27:00.000+02:00

Symposium:

"How dangerous is the Ir-rational?"

ICI Berlin Institute for Cultural Inquiry
http://www.ici-berlin.org/

Friday, 30 October 2009, 2 – 9 pm

Doomed to a constant oscillation between the realms of the Unknown and the illusion of meaning, we advance regressing. Echoing various other scholars, the American philosopher William James marked “the recesses of feeling the darker, blinder strata of character” as the only places in the world in which “we catch real fact in the making.” Yet, instead of curiously exploring what cannot be known, we push it further away, enveloped with fear and anxiousness. The “darker strata” regularly produce angst, aversion, or awe. In this one day symposium, acclaimed scholars and artists will shed “light” on what has been relegated to the sphere of unreason: magic, the irrational, spectrality, the daemonic. Who is afraid of the irrational? What is “magic philosophy” and who needs it? How much reason is reasonable? The symposium ends with a keynote by the distinguished anthropologist Michael Taussig who will share with the audience his own private fear of the ir-rational.

Program

14.00 Welcome, Christoph Holzhey (Director ICI Berlin)
14.10 "Reasonable Ghosts: The Dream of Reason and Magic Philosophy in the 1790s," Sladja Blazan (Humboldt Universität zu Berlin)
14.50 "Non timebis a daemonio meridiano: Greek Irrational and the Construction of Modernity," Fabio Camilletti (ICI Berlin)
15.30 Coffee Break
16.00 Artist Presentation: "Visual Languages and Observable Planets," Jesse Bransford (New York University)
16.40 "Beyond Cognition? Emily Dickinson, Poetry, and the Brain," Sabine Sielke (Universität Bonn)
17.20 "Facing up to Magic: Fascination and Illusion in Bergman’s ANSIKTET (The Magician/The Face, 1958)," Brigitte Weingart (Universität Bonn)
18.00 Coffee Break
18.30 Keynote: "My Fear of the Rational," Michael Taussig (Columbia University)
19.30 Reception

Esotericism, Magic, and Radicalism

2009-09-01T14:47:00.002+02:00

Paper proposals are invited for the 4th North American international conference on esotericism, to be held June 17-20, 2010 at Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, USA. The conference is jointly sponsored by the Association for the Study of Esotericism, the Societas Magica, and JSR: Journal for the Study of Radicalism. The call for papers can be found on the ASE website.

Studying Interpretations of Esotericism and Mysticism

2009-08-24T19:17:00.002+02:00

Call for Papers

"Studying Interpretations of Esotericism and Mysticism"

Association for the Study of Mysticism and Esotericism

Ассоциация исследователей эзотеризма и мистицизма

3 - 5 December 2009, Vladimir, Russian Federation

Because of intense public interest in ‘new religiosity’, esoteric and occult currents as well as in consequence of changes in the Religious and Cultural Studies paradigms, new approaches towards the research of Esotericism and Mysticism have appeared and have been intensively discussed over the last two decades. Academic institutes and societies studying these topics and developing new categories, terms and classifications are on the rise. Western European scholars of religion particularly focus on the issues of appropriateness of phenomenological and hermeneutic methods, as well as on the application of various types of discourse analysis. At the same time, the humanities studying esotericism, mysticism and their implications in ‘new religiosity’ in the post-soviet world are just beginning to break ground upon this subject. Conference organizers hope that this scholarly forum will significantly contribute to the cause of development of this promising area of research. The study of the interpretations of esotericism and mysticism prevalent within the esoteric and mystic environment itself, in their public perception and within academic circles may lay ground for further development of the study of mysticism and esotericism in Russia and other post-communist countries.

See the Call for Papers

Conference: Religion, Nature & Progress

2009-07-14T16:04:00.004+02:00

The program of the conference Religion, Nature, and Progress (23-26 July at the University of Amsterdam) is now available online. The extensive program includes several papers which deal particularly with issues of Western esotericism:

- William R. Newman, Indiana University (USA): "Isaac Newton and the Perfecting of Nature" (keynote lecture);
- Nina Witoszek, University of Oslo (Norway): "Leonardo da Vinci Our Contemporary? The 'Other' Renaissance and Its Views on Religion and Progress" (keynote lecture);
- Egil Asprem, University of Amsterdam (Netherlands): "Utopia and the Paranormal: Degeneration and Progress in the Parapsychology of William McDougall and J. B. Rhine";
- Patrick Curry, University of Kent (UK): "Enchantment and the Paradox of Progress";
- Michael York, Bath Spa University (UK): "Full of Sound and Fury; Signifying Nothing: Earth Religion and the Experiential";
- Colin Campbell, York University (UK): "The Easternization of the West and the Rehabilitation of Nature" (keynote lecture);
- Graham Harvey, Open University (UK): "Progressive Animism: Sustaining Diversity among the Co-Creators of the World" (keynote lecture);
- Eric Katz, New Jersey Institute of Technology (USA): "The Paradox of Pro-gress: Domination and Autonomy" (keynote lecture).

The Conference Book (complete with introduction, paper abstracts, maps, etc.) will be available online on Friday, 17 July. Online registration for the conference is open until 21 July 2009, either for the entire conference or for a single day.

Conference: Hermes in the Academy

2009-07-07T15:19:00.004+02:00

How time flies! It is already ten years ago that the Chair for the History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents was founded at the University of Amsterdam. During the last decade, the chair has made a considerable contribution to the field of study by setting up a BA- and MA-trajectory on the history of Western Esotericism, by publishing the succesfull Aries journal and book series in cooperation with Brill Academic Publishers, by organizing numerous conferences and by stimulating the foundation of ESSWE. Not to mention the many publications produced by the chair's research team...
To mark this milestone, the chair will host a conference on the theme of Hermes in the Academy on 28th August 2009 in Amsterdam, and will also present a book on the subject.
More information and the full program are available at the chair's website. Please note that early registration is required.

Satanism in the Modern World

2009-06-08T17:50:00.000+02:00

Call for papers
Satanism in the Modern World
19-20 November 2009
To be held at the Department of Archaeology and Religious Studies,

The Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway.

This inter-disciplinary conference seeks to examine issues surrounding the phenomenon known as Satanism. We welcome papers on all aspects of Satanism, but the conference focus will be on Satanism as a practised religion or life-style, and to some extent on Satanism in culture and the arts, rather than on issues such as Satanic Ritual Abuse or Mass Media constructions of Satanism. Proposals for presentations are welcomed from postgraduates within all relevant academic disciplines. All presentations will be in English.

500 word abstracts (for presentations of no more than 20 minutes) should be submitted by Monday 31st August 2009. If an abstract is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper should be submitted by Monday 2nd November 2009. Please submit your abstract to both of the conference organisers, in Word or pdf format, following this order: author(s), affiliation, email address, title of abstract, body of abstract.

We will acknowledge receipt and answer to all paper proposals submitted, and will let all applicants know if their paper has been accepted by Monday September 14th.

Conference organisers:
Jesper Aagaard Petersen, The Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway
(jesper.a.petersen@hf.ntnu.no)
Per Faxneld, Stockholm University, Sweden
(per.faxneld@rel.su.se)

All papers accepted for and presented at this conference will be eligible for potential publication in the anthology we hope to compile, featuring the best contributions.

Esoteric Book Conference

2009-04-14T09:35:00.004+02:00

The Esoteric Book Conference is an annual international event to bring together authors, artists, publishers and bookmakers working in the field of esotericism. The next fair will take place 19-20 September 2009 in Seattle.
In addition to presentations by authors and scholars, the conference opens it doors to publishers and booksellers showcasing new & used books as well as rare and hard-to-find esoteric texts. Contemporary esoteric publishing, finepress book arts and antiquarian texts are offered to augment the libraries of readers, scholars and collectors alike. This multi-disciplined conference will feature presentations by scholars and authors researching and working in esoteric currents both East & West. Western Esotericism, Gnosticism, Theosophy, Mythology, Shamanism, Rosicrucianism, Sacred Sciences, Occulture and World Religions are among the subjects to be represented. An esoteric book fair and art show will also be on site allowing education, vending and networking in a unique field of literary, historical and cultural arts. Paper proposals are invited . For more information, see the book fair website.

Call for papers

2009-04-14T09:28:00.002+02:00

The Rosicrucian Order, AMORC, is organizing a conference for scholars and practioners on the theme of 'Hidden in Plain Sight: The Influence of Western Esoteric Movements on Modern Thought' in 2010. The conference is an open venue for the Western esotericism community, not restricted to members of AMORC. Papers will be evaluated according to academic merit. Authors are encouraged to submit proposals pertaining to esoteric movements such as the Mystery Traditions, Pythagoreanism, Hermeticism, Neo-Platonism, Gnosticism, Christian Theosophy, the Kabbalah, Alchemy, Freemasonry, Martinism and Rosicrucianism.
The call for papers can be found here. Deadline for proposals is July 15, 2009.

Conference: Cosmologies

2009-03-10T14:31:00.004+01:00

The Sophia Centre at the University of Wales, Lampeter, has announced its annual conference, this time of the theme of Cosmologies. The event will take place on Saturday 6 and Sunday 7 June 2009 at the Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institute (UK). Speakers will include (subject to alteration):

- Ronald Hutton (University of Bristol): 'The Wheel of the Year: The Major Traditional Festivals of Britain',
- Peter Forshaw (University of Cambridge): 'Astronomia Inferior et Superior: Some Medieval and Renaissance Instances of the Conjunction of Alchemy and Astrology',
- Martin Gansten (Lund University): 'Reshaping karma: Indic metaphysical paradigms in traditional and modern astrology',
- Mark Williams (University of Cambridge): 'Druidic Cloud-Divination in Medieval Irish Literature',
- Jane Ridder-Patrick (University of Edinburgh): 'Astrology in Early Modern Scottish Universities, ca. 1560-1700',
- Elizabeth Reichell (University of Wales, Lampeter): 'The Landscape in the Cosmoscape: cosmology, ethnoastronomy, and socio-environmental sustainability among the Tanimuka and Yukuna, Northwest Amazon',
- Helen Jacobus (University of Manchester): 'Calendars and Divination in the Dead Sea Scrolls: The Case of 4Q318 Zodiac Calendar and Brontologion',
- Lionel Sims (University of East London), TBA,
- Pauline Bambrey (University of Wales, Lampeter): 'An Ethnographic Study of Modern Calendar Festivals',
- Glenford Bishop (University of Wales, Lampeter): 'Decoding the Intertextual Literary 'Strata' of the Mummers' Play: Some Unexpected Astronomical Themes and a Pagan Fingerprint - Continuity or Reconstruction?',
- Martin Wells (University of Wales, Lampeter): 'Early Christian Responses to the Star of Bethlehem, Astrology and Astral Fate',
- Frances Clynes (University of Wales, Lampeter): 'Cyberspace and the Sacred Sky'.

See the conference website for updated information.

Call for book proposals: Suny Press

2009-03-10T14:26:00.003+01:00

The series Western Esoteric Traditions, published by SUNY Press, is now in its twentieth year and contains over fifty volumes. Authors include Antoine Faivre, Wouter Hanegraaff, and Arthur Versluis. The series is currently open to submissions. Send queries or proposals for books to David Appelbaum, series editor, Department of Philosophy, State University College, New Paltz, NY 12561, USA.

AAR conference 2009

2009-03-10T12:14:00.001+01:00

The Western Esotericism Group of the American Academy of Religion is preparing several sessions for the yearly conference, which in 2009 will be held in Montreal, Canada, on 7-10 November.
A first session will discuss the topic of science and Western Esotericism. A persistent theme, particularly in alchemical, pansophic, theosophical, and similar works from the Renaissance to the present is a longing for a universal science that would provide a holistic understanding of the varied dimensions of human experience. Papers will address the topic of esotericism and Western science either from a theoretical point of view or by studying specific historical cases from earliest times to the present.
The second session is cosponsored with the Religion, Media, and Culture Group. The chosen topic is the commodification of the esoteric, which will address the way various media, both in the past and present, promote the comodification and consumption of esoteric knowledge.
A third session deals with the supernatural and the demonic in popular culture, and is cosponsored with the Religion and Popular Culture Group.

More information: Allison P. Coudert (University of California, Davis), apcoudert@ucdavis.edu

Phoenix Rising: Death and Renaissance in Philosophy, Art, and Literature

2009-03-08T12:32:00.002+01:00

Call for papers

Phoenix Rising: Death and Renaissance in Philosophy, Art, and Literature
A Dying Society, or a Renaissance for the 21st Century?

Athens, November 6-7, 2009

Hosted by the Dept. of Academic Affairs, University of Indianapolis, Athens Campus Venue: University of Indianapolis Cultural Centre, 5 Markou Avriliou St., Plaka

The question this conference seeks to explore is a rather timely and certainly crucial one. All too often, studies in the humanities and arts may seem a luxury in the face of day-to-day survival. In a secular Western world where individualism and eclecticism characterise social and personal interactions, rigid religious platitudes have ceased to hold water for many. In the face of the current economic and environmental crises, what does the wisdom of esoteric and metaphysical philosophies have to offer?

The challenge here is to examine these philosophies and perspectives in terms of the relevance their message carries for the modern world. While their history and phenomenology is of vital and ongoing interest to scholars and practitioners, this conference is an attempt to bridge the gap between scholarship of the past and modern reality. Having visibly enriched the lives of so many through the centuries, the challenge is to demonstrate how that bridge can be translated into modern terms as a counterweight to the cynicism, consumerist/materialist mentality and uncertainty currently pervading the Western world.

Please send a proposal (no more than 300 words) and brief biographical statement to Sasha Chaitow at: sashanonserviat@yahoo.com before the closing date of April 30th.

Further information: http://sashanonserviat.typepad.com/phoenixrising

Vacancy at the University of Amsterdam

2009-03-02T19:43:00.003+01:00

The Center for “History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents” (GHF) at the University of Amsterdam, Faculty of Humanities, is looking for:

An Assistant Professor (m/f)
History of Western Esotericism in the Early Modern Period

The Center for “History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents” (Geschiedenis van de Hermetische Filosofie en verwante stromingen; GHF) at the University of Amsterdam (www.amsterdamhermetica.nl) is a pioneering institution for research and teaching in the academic study of Western Esotericism. It concentrates in particular on the history of Renaissance Platonism and Hermetism, prisca theologia and occulta philosophia in the early modern period and their later developments; alchemical, magical, astrological, Paracelsian and Rosicrucian currents; Jewish and Christian kabbalah; Christian theosophy and Illuminism; and various occultist and related developments during the 19th and 20th centuries, including the New Age movement.

GHF has currently a vacancy for the position of Assistant Professor (“Universitair Docent”) for the History of Western Esotericism in the Early Modern Period. A successful candidate will have a good record of high quality academic publications focused on one or more currents in this domain, and solid general knowledge of the domain as a whole. As a generalist in the study of Western Esotericism in the Early Modern Period s/he can teach all its main aspects on both undergraduate and graduate levels.
- Research. The Assistant Professor will be expected to initiate personal research projects in the field of esoteric currents in Western culture since the Renaissance, focusing on the early modern period (15th-18th cent.), and to publish actively in the appropriate scholarly media. S/he will also be expected to collaborate in common research activities with the other staff members of the subdepartment, and with staff members of other departements of the Faculty if the occasion calls for it.
- Teaching. GHF offers a “minor” Western esotericism in the context of the Bachelor program Religious Studies (in Dutch), and a full-time trajectory “Mysticism and Western Esotericism” in the context of the Master program Religious Studies (in English). The Assistant Professor will be expected to teach courses in both programs, both in lecture and in seminar settings. If necessary, s/he is expected to master the Dutch language during the first two years of the appointment.
- Organization/Administration. Within reasonable limits the Assistant Professor may be asked to be active in one or more special committees of the Faculty.

Candidates should fit the following profile:
- Ph.D. (or equivalent) in a discipline of the humanities.
- Specialization in, or relevant to, one or more areas of historical research belonging to the domain of “Western esotericism” in the early modern period (15th-18th century), having resulted in academic publications of high quality.
- Active interest in interdisciplinary research and teamwork in the context of the humanities and the social sciences.
- Good didactic qualities.
- Good command of Latin and English non-native Dutch speakers must achieve fluency in Dutch within two years.
- Willingness to develop in a multidisciplinary capacity in order to be able to participate in multiple areas of the Faculty's curriculum.

Appointment: this is a temporary appointment for two years, starting on 1 September 2009. Satisfactory performance is subject for a permanent appointment. The gross monthly salary will range from € 3195 (scale 11) to € 4970 (scale 12), based on a full-time appointment (38 hours a week).

Deadline for letters of application: 23 March 2009. Letters of application, with C.V. and list of publications, should be sent to: Prof. Dr. W.J. Hanegraaff, Fac. Of Humanities/Department of Art, Religion and Cultural Studies, Oude Turfmarkt 147, NL-1012 GC Amsterdam, The Netherlands, e-mail: w.j.hanegraaff@uva.nl. For general information, contact Mrs. H. Nobach (secretary) at the same address, or by e-mail: hermetica-fgw@uva.nl.

Call for papers IZEA

2009-02-08T16:27:00.005+01:00

The DFG Research Group 'Die Aufklärung im Bezugsfeld neuzeitlicher Esoterik' has announced an international conference on the theme of 'Enlightenment and Esotericism – Ways into Modernity'. The conference will take place at the Interdisciplinary Center for European Enlightenment Studies Interdisziplinäres Zentrum für die Erforschung der Europäischen Aufklärung (IZEA), in Halle, Germany, on March 9-12, 2010. The call for paper reads as follows:

Following the conferences “Enlightenment and Esotericism” (Aufklärung und Esoterik) in 1997 at the Herzog-August Library in Wolfenbüttel and “Esotericism in the Enlightenment” (Esoterik in der Aufklärung) in 2006 at the IZEA, now a third conference on this subject will pose the question: To what extent can the multi-faceted relationship between Enlightenment and Esotericism in the eighteenth century be considered as constitutive for Modernity?

The influence of the Enlightenment on Modernity has been much postulated and is an intrinsic constituent in the self-validation of Modernity. At the same time it is clear that Esotericism has also played an important role, right up to the present day. Yet what has been little known up to now is just what significance the mutual reciprocity between Enlightenment and Esotericism in the eighteenth century (and the resulting transformations from this relationship) have had.
Esotericism, as an aggregate of different historical streams of thought, can be identified through the reception of Hermeticism, Neo-Platonism and Cabbala, as well as through the assimilation of the so-called old sciences of Alchemy, Magic and Astrology from the Renaissance on. During the course of the Early Modern period, related movements such as Paracelsianism, Rosicrucianism, Theosophy and Freemasonry developed out of these streams of thought. As the first two conferences have shown, these various esoteric currents continued to have an impact during the Enlightenment, whether they were negated, integrated or transformed.
What role then did the Enlightenment play in the rise of “modern” Esotericism? What about the Enlightenment itself, which developed its profile not least by engaging with esoteric streams of thought? Through which paths – whether through continual or interrupted transmission – did the resulting manifestations of the encounter between the Enlightenment and Esotericism arrive at the later Modern period? What accounts for the affinity between Modernity and the artistic-literary, philosophical, theological, scientific or historical-political expressions of the exchange between Enlightenment and Esotericism?
The conference Enlightenment and Esotericism – Ways into Modernity would like to dedicate itself to these questions. Contributions are encouraged from all history-oriented disciplines which investigate the major issues, which reflect on methodical approaches to answering the questions posed or which offer concrete case studies for discussion. The main focus will be on the “long eighteenth century,” that is, on topics dealing with the age of the Enlightenment itself as well as on topics addressing the transition into the first decades after 1800. Nonetheless contributions which treat the nineteenth or twentieth centuries exclusively are also welcome if they take the main theme of the conference into consideration.

Proposals are requested by March 31, 2009 and should include a lecture title, a short abstract of one-half to a full page and a brief vita. Please address all submissions to: izea@izea.uni-halle.de

Albert von Keller: Salons, Séancen, Secession

2009-02-02T11:53:00.002+01:00

Albert von Keller (1844–1920), a Munich painter with Swiss roots, was a frequent participant in the Paris salon, from 1886 a member of Munich's Psychological Society, and, in 1892, a co-founder of the Munich Secession. Keller’s art constitutes a detailed account of Wilhelmian and Belle Époque society, registering with care the seductively elegant world of polite ladies as well as lending visual form to a range of occult phenomena. Keller’s paintings, considered modern by his contemporaries, offer today’s viewers a glimpse at the environment in which classical modernism was revolutionized. The painter’s acme came in the years prior to the First World War, when critics spoke of a veritable ‘Keller-mania’. The Kunsthaus was given Oskar A. Müller’s comprehensive Keller collection in 2006. The show offers a representative view of those works, enhanced with selected borrowings.

Kunsthaus Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland coming soon April 24, 2009 - October 4, 2009

Unbegreifliche Zeiten. Wunder im 20. Jahrhundert

2009-01-29T14:43:00.000+01:00

Internationale Konferenz in Zusammenarbeit mit dem Kulturwissenschaftlichen Institut (KWI), der Gerda Henkel Stiftung unddem Arbeitskreis Geschichte + Theorie (AG+T).

Unbegreifliche Zeiten. Wunder im 20. Jahrhundert

Mittwoch, 18. März - Samstag, 21. März, Bildungshotel im Bfz-Essen ("Raum Nixdorf"), Karolingerstraße 92, 45141 Essen

Auf den ersten Blick scheinen Wunder nicht mehr in das 20. Jahrhundert zu passen. Als Folge der viel zitierten „Entzauberung“ sind die überkommenen Wunderwelten aufgrund einer nie zuvor gesehenen Verbreitung von Wissen und der Einbeziehung selbst entlegener Gebiete in immer dichter werdende Kommunikationsnetze vermeintlich an den Rand gedrängt worden. Und doch sind Wunder aus der Moderne nicht wegzudenken. Die Zuschreibung eines „Wunders“ stellt noch immer eine zentrale Form der Verarbeitung und Aneignung ungewöhnlicher Ereignisse und außeralltäglicher Erfahrungen dar. Der Begriff des Wunders erlaubt es, das Exzeptionelle in modernen Gesellschaften, ihre soziale Konstituierung, Normalitätsannahmen und Wissensgrenzen zu thematisieren. Die Tagung spürt den im Begriff „Wunder“ kristallisierten Ereignissen, Wahrnehmungen und Praktiken nach. Die TeilnehmerInnen diskutieren die soziale Fabrikation von Wundern über gesellschaftliche Felder, politische Systeme und Zeiträume hinweg, um so neue Perspektiven auf die Geschichte des 20. Jahrhunderts zu erschließen.

Academic Society for Research into Freemasonry

2009-01-22T10:27:00.004+01:00

From the Newsletter of the Centre for Research into Freemasonry at the University of Sheffield:

Over the past few years discussions have taken place among scholars in the field concerning the need to establish an organisation for the advancement of academic research into freemasonry and related topics. This later broadening and opening towards a wider perspective, within which freemasonry can be contextualised, can be branded in different ways and we have not yet exactly agreed upon a final name and definition for the proposed society. However, we are proud to announce that under the working-title of “ASRFF” we have now taken steps to establish such a society. Membership is open to individuals within the academic community and will include a reduced subscription fee to Journal for Research into Freemasonry and Fraternalism, the first edition of which will be published in May 2009. The draft constitution of the society and a subscription form can be downloaded from our website. At present the acting board members are: Prof. Dr. Malcolm Davies, Prof. Dr. Cécile Revauger, Dr. Henrik Bogdan and Dr. Andreas Önnerfors.

Tarot in Culture--Call for Papers

2009-01-22T10:17:00.002+01:00

Dr Emily E. Auger has a contract with Edwin Mellen Press for Tarot in Culture: An Anthology and so is seeking scholarly papers for this book as an interdisciplinary anthology (tentative publication date 2010).

Papers on all aspects of Tarot will be considered, including Tarot in History, Psychology, Religion, Literature, Film, and Popular Culture. Papers on individual decks and artists and all aspects of Tarot making and use, including designing, marketing, reading, and divining are also welcome.

Prospective contributors should contact augere@canada.com.

Holy Inspiration: Religion and spirituality in modern art

2008-12-22T18:49:00.000+01:00

World religions, particularly Christianity and Islam, are the subject of sometimes fierce debate at all levels of the global community. Religion is accordingly once more at the centre of public discussion. The exhibition Holy Inspiration. Religion and spirituality in modern art reflects this situation, with outstanding works from the collection of the Stedelijk Museum by Mondrian, Malevich, Chagall, Schnabel, Rothko, Bacon, Gilbert & George, Mike Kelley and Marlene Dumas among others.

Stedelijk Museum in De Nieuwe Kerk, Amsterdam, 13 December 2008 - 19 April 2009, daily from 10 am to 6 pm. Thursday to 10 pm. www.nieuwekerk.nl

Conference at Leiden University

2008-10-09T14:31:00.001+02:00

Following on from the appointment of Professor Malcolm Davies to the Chair for the Study of Freemasonry at the University of Leiden, a large international conference has been planned. 17 researchers from various fields connected with European and American universities will be discussing ‘The Expression of Freemasonry: its ritual, oratory, poetry, music, literature, art and architecture’.

See http://www.h-net.org/announce/show.cgi?ID=162587

Freemasonry blog

2008-10-09T14:29:00.002+02:00

The OVN newsletter has now become a blog. See http://www.ovnnews.blogspot.com/ (or ww.stichtingovn.blogspot.com for the Dutch version).

Swedenborg symposium

2008-09-29T09:00:00.002+02:00

Announcing a Swedenborg symposium at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Stockholm, Sweden, Monday through Wednesday, June 7–9, 2010: "Emanuel Swedenborg–Exploring a “World memory”: Context, Content, Contribution."

In 2006 UNESCO designated Emanuel Swedenborg’s (1688–1772) archive to be preserved as part of their “World Memory” program. In the following year the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences started the project of producing a modern catalogue of the Swedenborg archive, in digital and bound formats. The Swedenborg Symposium in 2010 will celebrate the completion of this catalogue project.

The three-day Symposium will explore:

The 18th Century Swedish and European contexts of Swedenborg’s writings
The contents and form of his texts: scientific, philosophical, religious and linguistic aspects.
The contribution of his thoughts: cultural and religious.

Call for Papers: original contributions investigating some aspect of the themes listed above are invited for oral presentation at the Symposium. Deadline for abstracts (approx. 250 words) is January 31, 2009. Abstracts should be sent to Maria.Asp@kva.se.

New discussion group on Facebook

2008-09-11T13:39:00.003+02:00

With the aim of promoting the study of Hermetism, Western Esotericism, and related currents, Iván Elvira has created a new discussion group on Facebook, called Studia Hermetica like the website www.revistaazogue.com/hermetica.

If you want to participate, you have to create a Facebook account, and send Iván Elvira a message with your request. The languages of this new discussion group are Spanish, English and French. The discussion group is aimed at students and enthusiasts of Hermetism and Esoteric thought. The questions that will be dealt with are wide, and nothing will be avoided. People who profess a Hermetic or Esoteric belief are welcome, but are warned that "Studia Hermetica" is an academic discussion group. Bibliographical references and a correct way of expression are obligatory.

ESSWE PhD Thesis Prize

2008-09-10T15:35:00.004+02:00

Nominations are invited for the first biennial ESSWE PhD Thesis prize, awarded by the board of the European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism. The prize will be given for an outstanding European PhD thesis completed between 1 January 2007 and 1 March 2009 on any aspect of Western Esotericism (broadly conceived). The thesis may be European in the sense of having been submitted at a university in Europe, or in the sense of having been submitted by a European citizen at a university anywhere in the world. The thesis must have been approved formally by the nominee's thesis committee, but the degree need not have been formally awarded.

The prizewinner will be notified in May 2009 and will receive an award of €500 and a certificate, to be presented at the ESSWE conference in Strasbourg, 2-4 July 2009. The thesis will also be recommended for publication in the ARIES Book Series, though the final decision on publication will be taken by the ARIES Book Series editorial board, not the Prize Committee. If it deems that no thesis reaches an appropriate standard, the Prize Committee will not award a prize.

Nominations must be made by electronic mail to the Chair of the Prize Committee, Mark Sedgwick (Aarhus University, Denmark, mjs@teo.au.dk) by 1 March 2009. The nominator must be a faculty member at the institution that awards the nominee’s PhD degree, or a member of the nominee’s thesis committee. Each nominator may make only one nomination. The applications should consist of pdf files of the following material:

A letter of nomination
The nominee's thesis
A separate summary of the thesis, written by the nominee, of no more than ten pages (double spaced)
A brief biographical sketch of the nominee
Documentation to show that the thesis has been approved

Items 1, 3 and 4 must be in English. Item 2 may be in any one of the following languages: English, French, German, Italian, or Spanish. Item 5 may be in any language, so long as a translation into English is provided if it is not in English, French, German, Italian, or Spanish.

The Prize Committee consists of:

Mark Sedgwick, Aarhus (Chair)
Andreas Kilcher, Zurich
Jean-Pierre Brach, Paris

The Mysteries and Philosophy of Antiquity

2008-07-28T13:46:00.001+02:00

International scholars, writers and artists will gather on Samothrace for the seventh in the New York Open Centerʼs series of conferences on the Western Esoteric Tradition. Entitled "The Mysteries and Philosophy of Antiquity," the conference will take place between September 3rd-8th 2008. For a thousand years, the Sanctuary of the Great Gods on Samothrace was one of the most famous mystery centers of the ancient world, rivaling Delphi in stature and fame. The exploration of the roots of esoteric traditions will include plenary lectures, a variety of workshops and guided tours of sites of interest.

The conference will be followed by three optional journeys. Two will go to Turkey, the first to Istanbul and the second to Ephesus, Miletus and the Anatolian Coast. The other journey will visit Mystery Centers of Mainland Greece.

Featured lectures include:

Christopher Bamford: "The Samothracian Mysteries"
Scott Olsen: "Plato, the Mysteries, and the Golden Section"
Leonard George: "A Gift of Vision: Iamblichus and the Sanctification of the Senses"
Stanley Sfekas, Ph.D.: "Aristotle's Concept of God"

For information about all the lectures and registration visit www.esotericquest.org

Sufism and Transnational Spirituality

2008-07-24T11:25:00.000+02:00

PhD and Postdoc positions within research group on “Sufism and Transnational Spirituality,” Aarhus University

Applications are invited for one PhD position and one Postdoc position within a new research group on “Sufism and Transnational Spirituality” at Aarhus University, Denmark. Founded in 1928, Aarhus University is now the second largest university in Denmark, with approximately 35,000 students and a staff of about 9,000.

The research group has not yet received funding, and any appointment is therefore subject to funding being received. Successful applicants will be encouraged to develop an individual research project dealing with Sufism in both the West and the Muslim world (not just the West or just the Muslim world). The positions involve some teaching duties, but these are not onerous, and will start (subject to funding) in August 2009 or August 2010.

Applications are invited from any relevant disciplinary background, but candidates with a background in anthropology, Middle East/Islamic studies, or religious studies are especially encouraged to apply. Knowledge of Arabic or another appropriate language used in the Muslim world will be a distinct advantage. Knowledge of Danish is not required, and there are no restrictions concerning citizenship. Successful applicants will be expected to base themselves in Aarhus for the duration of their research, in either the Department of Anthropology and Ethnography or the Department of the Study of Religion. Residence and employment permits will be arranged by the university if necessary. Remuneration will be in accordance with the appropriate Danish Universities scale, and fieldwork expenses will be covered.

Applicants should email by August 22, 2008 a covering letter of no more than two pages describing in outline a possible research project, a full CV, and up to one writing sample, to Dr Nils Bubandt, Department of Anthropology and Ethnography, University of Aarhus, 8270 Hojbjerg, Denmark. Up to three letters of recommendation may also be submitted, but given the short time available before the deadline, such letters are not required. Any enquiries may be sent in advance of application to either Dr Bubandt (bubandt@hum.au.dk) or Dr Mark Sedgwick (mjs@teo.au.dk).

American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies

2008-07-06T17:18:00.002+02:00

Kathryn LaFevers Evans, Independent Scholar

During March 2008, in Portland Oregon, I participated in two Sessions on esoteric subjects at the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies (ASECS), an interdisciplinary meeting of eighteenth-century scholars.

The first of the two esoteric sessions, “The Use of the Supernatural,” included a paper by Kris Pangburn, recent doctoral recipient at UCLA, “The Science of the Supernatural: Late Enlightenment Vitalism and the ‘True’ Appearance of Johann Karl Woetzel’s Wife after her Death.” This dealt with Woetzel’s difficulties as a scholar of the supernatural within the Academy of his time. That marginalization demanded a good portion of Pangburn’s scholarship in our time as well, which he utilized as an argument for parity in the current Academy. Pangburn captivated the audience when reporting the satirical rebuttals written in response to Woetzel’s proof of his wife’s supernatural presence after her death, describing how Enlightenment authors had rebutted Woetzel’s claim with such satirical stories as, “The True Appearance of my Poodle after Death.”

During questions, Pangburn answered that there is support for esoteric studies at UCLA, through his doctoral advisor Peter H. Reill and the UCLA Center for Seventeenth- & Eighteenth-Century Studies.

The other presenters had equally impressive impacts. I will mention Bruno Forment’s (USC) paper, “Qual oracol tremendo! Operatic Responses to the Supernatural in Mid-Eighteenth-Century Berlin,” was presented in no less than five languages: his native German, English, Latin, French, and Italian. Truly a Renaissance man in that regard, Bruno Forment demonstrated the depth of scholarship that esoteric studies requires.

UCLA professor Dr. Peter H. Reill commanded the greatest respect in a session on “Symbols and Signs: The World of the Occult in Early Modern Europe,” presenting a paper on the Hermeticism of Johann Salomo Semler. Reill explained that one purpose of Semler’s Hermetic chemistry was to produce “air gold,” specifying the belief that Hermetical science could not be taught publicly, instead requiring a certain type of person to practice a science that deals not with the corporeal but with the imperceptible; creates a universal solvent; and probes the depths of nature through personal involvement. Occult issues of the day included: toleration; nature and theology; invisible nature; God as Logos; God as Will; subtle matter and perceptible matter; primary matter throughout all matter; emerging outer form; and embryonic substances. Practitioners sought true toleration for their research into “private religion,” versus joining organized religion.

Daniel Lupton, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, broke the spell of high seriousness with his animated delivery of “Wine, Women and Satan: Occult Rhetoric in Sir Francis Dashwood’s Hell-Fire Club.” This clandestine organization parodied religion through their satirical descriptions of sex, violence, baby-eating, and anti-Catholic erotica as allegedly found in Tantrism, Kabbalah, Paganism, and Magic. Lupton proposed the idea that perhaps the Hell-Fire Club was not merely a parody of religion, but instead we might wonder if its participants were indeed occultists.

Following this, my own performative reading of “Rabelais, Boehme, Rosicrucians, and Sterne: Hexagrams and Military Hobby Horses” was well-received. I closed with a food-for-thought comment that scholars of esotericism are choosing to utilize the term “esoteric” in Academia, rather than “supernatural” or “occult,” in part because of the negative connotations those terms have accrued in past Academic paradigms. Current scholars of esotericism strive for balance between subjectivity and objectivity, considering satirical constructs such as the true apparition of the poodle after death, Dashwood’s Hell-Fire Club, and Sterne’s Demoniacs for what they are—the esoteric satire of learned wit, a subject of serious study.

Crowley in Paris

2008-06-26T17:21:00.004+02:00

Just time to visit if you are in Paris: the paintings of Aleister Crowley!

Until June 29 at the Palais de Tokyo, as part of the general exhibition "Traces du sacré" at the Centre Pompidou until August 11.

Aleister Crowley settled at Cefalù (Sicily) in the 1920s. There he founded the Abbey of Thelema, the site of social experiments and research into the field of the occult. The series of paintings exhibited at the Palais de Tokyo was discovered a few years ago in a nearby village. Some of them of course conjure up the “Abbey”, or its wider context. The series makes explicit the importance of the image and symbol in the occult field. Recent study of the series demonstrates its connection to the Thoth Tarot cards, a form of the game devised by Crowley 20 years later (1938-1942).

Between oneiric visions, psychotropic hallucinations and the utopia of a primitive paradise, the whole of his work has influenced the counter-culture and pop music to an equal extent. The discovery of these paintings provides an opportunity to question the complexity of this heritage.

Alternative Expressions of the Numinous

2008-06-26T16:29:00.000+02:00

The Esoteric Studies Research and Teaching Group
in conjunction with the
School of History, Philosophy, Religion and Classics at the
University of Queensland

presents the

3rd annual
Alternative Expressions of the Numinous Conference

Friday 15 – Sunday 17 August 2008, School of History, Philosophy, Religion and Classics, University of Queensland, St Lucia Campus, Brisbane, Australia

Keynote Speakers

Doug Ezzy – ‘Religion as the Etiquette of Relationships’
Nevill Drury – ‘Black Magic, White Magic and the Cosmology of Rosaleen Norton’

Abstracts (250 words, by Monday 30 June 2008) are invited for, but not limited to, the following strands:

Esotericism
Mysticism
Alternative expressions of major religions
Religions of re-enchantment
Popular culture religions
Indigenous religions
Paganism and Neo-Paganism
New Religious Movements
Personalised religion
Alternative methodologies

Papers are also invited for a session to run in Second Life, to be run in parallel with the real life sessions.

Conference Website: http://www.uq.edu.au/hprc/index.html?page=64294&pid=0

Expression of Freemasonry

2008-05-29T09:37:00.003+02:00

Call for Papers and Preliminary Conference Announcement

The Expression of Freemasonry:
Its ritual, oratory, poetry, music, literature, art and architecture

27-28 November 2008, Leiden University, The Netherlands

Proposals for papers before 11 July 2008 (details below) to: f.m.conference.leiden08@gmail.com

For centuries freemasons have led a separate creative existence behind closed doors. The rituals, orations and poetry used in the lodge use words to express the society’s hopes, aspirations, philosophy and approach to religion and society. The music of the lodge includes songs and larger scale cantatas. Many lodges had an orchestra or at least and organist and a choir. Orchestral and piano pieces without words but incorporating Masonic symbolism have also been composed for lodge use. As well as musicians actors have always found a home in the lodge and some masonic plays even found their way onto the public stage as did some operas. These songs, poems, musical works and dramas range from the amusing to the serious, from the occasional to the esoteric, from bawdy to deeply religious.

Freemasonry and esoteric themes have been widely used by authors in the 19th century in Germany and elsewhere for literary works as well as in our own time in e.g. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. Masonic and esoteric influences are also to be seen in the visual arts; for example paintings and theatre scenery. Freemasonry has exerted an important influence on architecture in general and in the design of lodge buildings in particular. A perhaps unexpected influence is to be seen in garden design where some gardens take the visitor on a journey past masonic or esoteric symbols.

All of these various aspects of Masonic culture need to be recorded and interpreted. And when this vast creative effort by members of a closed brotherhood is set in the wider context of the time, place and the society in which masons wrote and created it sheds light on the evolving place of freemasonry in society as a whole. This causes us to ask questions such as ‘did freemasonry influence social development directly or indirectly or was it itself led by the great upheavals of the Enlightenment, revolutions and wars that have beset the last centuries?’

Organizers
The conference is organized by the Chair for the Study of Freemasonry as an Intellectual Current and a Socio-cultural Phenomenon at the Leiden University in the Netherlands. Speakers will be scholars and students from several academic disciplines. The conference has the support of The Order of Freemasons under the Grand East of The Netherlands, The Cultural Masonic Centre ‘Prince Frederik’ (CMC), The Foundation for the Advancement of Academic Research into the History of Freemasonry in The Netherlands (OVN), The Leiden Institute for the Study of Religions (LISOR), The Sub Department History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents (Univ. of Amsterdam) and departments in other universities.

Call for papers and registration
A summary of potential papers is invited, not exceeding 400 words. Papers on the cultural heritage of movements similar or related to freemasonry including esoteric groups are also welcome. A short CV of 250 words or less must be added. The closing date for submissions is Friday 11 July, 2008. The Conference committee will inform speakers if their concept for a paper has been accepted by 1 August 2008.

The conference will take place in the Lipsius Building of the Leiden University in the Netherlands. The event will be accessible to all who are interested in attending, but due to a limited number of seats registration will be required. Registration fees will be announced shortly. For more information or preliminary registration, please contact the conference organizers at: f.m.conference.leiden08@gmail.com

The conference will be preceded by the inaugural lecture of Professor Malcolm Davies, Chair for the Study of Freemasonry (as an Intellectual Current and a Socio-cultural European Phenomenon) at the University of Leiden on 25 November 2008. Scholars who are considering attending both events may also be interested in visiting (at their own opportunity) the important major historical collections for the study of freemasonry and western esotericism in The Netherlands: the Cultural Masonic Centre ‘Prince Frederik’ (The library of the Dutch Grand Lodge) in The Hague and/or the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica in Amsterdam. Seating at the inaugural lecture is limited. If you would be interested in attending the lecture please contact: m.g.davies@religion.leidenuniv.nl

Conference Rapport: Western Esotericism at the 2008 CESNUR Conference

2008-05-14T14:42:00.006+02:00

Kennet Granholm, University of Amsterdam

On April 16-19, 2008, a conference entitled “Twenty Years and More: Research into Minority Religions, New Religious Movements and the New Spirituality” was held at the London School of Economics.

The conference was arranged by CESNUR (Centre for Studies on New Religions) in cooperation with INFORM (Information Network Focus on Religious Movements) and ISORECEA (International Study of Religion in Eastern and Central Europe Association), and signalled the twentieth anniversary of both CESNUR and INFORM. The conference was large, involving over 150 speakers (with some delivering more than one paper) and an even larger audience. The Centre for History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents, University of Amsterdam, was well represented, as werethe Nordic countries. This increased interest in Esotericism in the Nordic countries is also reflected in the 2007 founding of the Scandinavian Network for the Academic Study of Western Esotericism.

The prominence of esoteric subjects in the programme was a drastic change from the CESNUR/INFORM conference arranged in London in 2001.

Of the 46 sessions at the conference (including three plenary sessions, a film screening and a discussion with a survivor of the 1993 Branch Davidian-tragedy) twelve dealt with matters related to Western Esotericism. This included sessions on neopaganism, “New Age”, Aleister Crowley and Western Esotericism in general.
The focus of the vast majority of the papers presented was on contemporary expressions of esoteric spirituality, interesting since the study of Western Esotericism has largely focused on historical manifestations of the phenomenon.
Many papers introduced social scientific theory and methodology to the existing historical perspectives.
The concept of Western Esotericism, as well as related theory and methodology, elicited substantial discussion.

The sessions with Esoteric subject matters were:

From Witchcraft to Wicca
20 Years of Pagan Movements and Studies – 1
Western Esotericism and New Religiosity – 1
20 Years of Pagan Movements and Studies – 2
Western Esotericism and New Religiosity – 2
20 Years of Studies on Pagan and Entheogenic Movements
20 Years of Studies on Western Esotericism
From Ancient Wisdom and Freemasonry to New Age
20 Years of Studies on Aleister Crowley
20 Years of Theosophical Studies
20 Years of Studies on the New Age and Spiritual Communities
If Not New Age, Then What?

Although esoteric subject matter was the theme in over a fourth of the sessions, this was perhaps not fully acknowledged by the conference organizers. During the last plenary session, which had as its aim to conclude draw together central themes discussed, Esotericism was barely mentioned. None of the speakers chosen for the plenary panel were researchers with a specific interest in Western Esotericism. Although Western Esotericism has become an acknowledged discipline in its own right, and is increasingly popular amongst young scholars, it seems that there is still a long way to go before the discipline attains the official scholarly status of issues such as religion and law or religion and conflict.

Those interested in knowing more can visit the homepage of CESNUR, where a large number of the papers presented are published in the cyberproceedings of the conference.

New Religiosity; If Not New Age, Then What?

2008-05-14T14:00:00.001+02:00

Kennet Granholm, University of Amsterdam

A report on three sessions at CESNUR 2008....

Two sessions on “Western Esotericism and New Religiosity” at CESNUR 2008 included papers dealing with everything from contemporary Satanism to terrorism with New Age undertones in Chechnya.

A reccurring theme was the critical assessment of different theories and perspectives on Western Esotericism, something included to some extent in almost all of the papers.
Of particular interest were

“Openings for Power-Oriented Conceptualizations of Western Esotericism” by Nina Kokkinen (doctoral student, University of Turku, Finland). This drew on critical studies of religion where the understanding of religion as a demarcated social institution is strongly criticized, and endeavoured to employ similar mechanisms in conceptualizations of Western Esotericism. In short, Kokkinen suggested that Esotericism should not be construed as a strictly separated domain, but rather a human undertaking which has close connections to material, political and social dimensions of human life.
“New Age Terrorists from Chechnya and Anthroposophist Presidents from Georgia: How ‘Western’ is Western Esotericism?” by Eduard ten Houten’s (University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands). This discussed the important issue of what “Western” means in conceptualizations of Western Esotericism. This is a question which too frequently remains overlooked, with the focus most often being on the second word of the concept, Esotericism.

Other interesting papers were

Gordan Djurdjevic (University of British Columbia, Canada), "The mage Aleister Crowley and his Thelema as a postmodern religion."
Fredrik Gregorius (University of Lund, Sweden), "The reawakened interest in 'tradition' as a legitimating tool in esoteric new religious movements."
Thomas Karlsson (University of Stockholm, Sweden), "The political implications of the worldview of the Rune-Gild."
Jesper Aagaard Petersen (Norwegian University of Science and Technology), "Contemporary Satanism and the interplay between the secular and the esoteric."

In a session on “If Not New Age, Then What?” George D. Chryssides (University of Wolverhampton, United Kingdom), Steven Sutcliffe (Edinburgh Divinity School, United Kingdom), Liselotte Frisk (Dalarna University, Sweden) and I discussed the “to be or not to be” of the New Age concept.

Whereas Chryssides defended the continuing use of the term, the rest of the speakers were more critical.
In my own opinion, New Age is in essence a “non-category” which brings with it far more problems than it has any chance of ever resolving. One of the central problems with New Age is that scholars have been generally unsuccessful in defining it in any satisfactory manner. This, in turn, has often resulted in the creation of cumbersome and all too inclusive lists of “Wittgensteinian family resemblances,” through which basically anything could be defined as being New Age. My suggestion for solving the problem is to forgo the term and concept altogether and instead shift the focus to the mass-popularization of esoteric discourse and themes. This shift of perspective to processes of religious change would provide many benefits, not least of which would be the discarding of the necessity to posit the coming into being of a “new” form of spirituality in the West.
One of the points in Steven Sutcliffe’s presentation was the critique of extensive, essentially normative, categories. For example, he discussed the problematic categories of "World Religions," and illustrated how they are the result of power relations where certain forms of religiosity are valued more highly than others. In addition, large categories such as these tend to have the effect of downplaying differences between phenomena while at the same time overstressing similarities (and at times even inventing non-existent similarities). Instead of being consumed by the allure of constructing categories we should focus on specific religious phenomena.

With the massive amount of papers on esoteric subject presented at the conference, it is impossible to provide even brief accounts of everything that was discussed. The above therefore focusses on three sessions that I convened.

Esoteric Migrations into the American Comparative Literature Association

2008-05-08T16:53:00.003+02:00

Kathryn LaFevers Evans, Independent Scholar, Chickasaw Nation

Esotericism has migrated—by invitation—from its erstwhile subterranean literary haunts into mainstream Comparative Literature, manifesting front-stage-and-center in two seminars at the ACLA 2008 Annual Meeting “Arrivals and Departures,” Long Beach, California.

This well-established international conference took place last year in Puebla, Mexico, where an intriguing professor from UNAM in Mexico City, Harold Gabriel Weisz Carrington, organized a Seminar entitled, “Magia y Literatura.”

The 2007 bilingual Seminar was devoured by attendees with an intellectual thirst for esoteric scholarship. Great interest was expressed amongst our Hispanic colleagues for continued dialogue, but from my own experience at least, channels of communication are inoperative. Undaunted, Carrington reports that, likewise this year, his “Magic Lands” seminar was well-received.

My own presentation on the role of the esoteric intellectual took place within the “Prophetic Migrations” seminar, organized by Walid A. El-Khachab of York University and co-chaired by Frank Runcie of Université de Montréal. The dynamic of this seminar, also bilingual, was propelled by the participants having read each other’s papers beforehand. Constructive comments after each presentation were focused, and helpful in formulating future presentations on esotericism. Again from an experiential perspective, the Seminar organizers and participants embodied a level of erudite presence that facilitated the exchange of scholarship on esoteric topics from Islam’s Prophet the figure, to a practicing Sufi’s architectural exploration entitled “Bridges and Channels: The Travels of Prophets,” to the suggestion, by a Religious Studies émigré into Comp Lit, of a “‘traveling theory’ continuum” as framework for understanding ideas associated with prophetic migrations, migrants, message and messenger. Of particular resonance with my paper, Mathieu E. Courville spoke of “increasing the existential charge” of knowledge through “initiato or transmission” and of “taking ideas that pre-exist us and using them to further free us,” to “take the resources and begin again from the ground level,” rather than settle for Religion’s normative model. Another presenter envisioned the Middle Eastern cosmology as the world of symbols and images—intermediary between East and West.

ESSWE at the EASR--Calls

2008-04-03T16:53:00.003+02:00

ESSWE has no conference in 2008. Instead, ESSWE is organizing two panels for the 2008 conference of the European Association for the Study of Religions (which will be held in Brno, Czech Republic from 7 to 11 September 2008).

Two calls for papers have been prepared for two panels:

‘Ex Oriente Lux: The Presence of Western Esotericism in Eastern Europe’

‘The Political Temptations of Western Esotericism’

Click on either link above for the Call for the panel in question.

Proposals for papers should be emailed to Osvald Vasicek, accompanied by a short personal description of the author with academic affiliation etc. Deadline for proposal submission is 24 April 2008.

2nd ESSWE conference--Call for Papers

2008-03-29T20:04:00.006+01:00

2nd International Conference of the

European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism (ESSWE)
Strasbourg, Thursday 2-Saturday 4 July, 2009

Maison interuniversitaire des Sciences de l’Homme-Alsace

Capitals of European esotericism and transcultural dialogue

International Conference organized by the University of Strasbourg (Equipe d’accueil d’Etudes germaniques, EA 1341/UDS) and the Maison interuniversitaire des Sciences de l’Homme-Alsace (MISHA) in partnership with the European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism (ESSWE).

During recent decades, the role and impact of esoteric currents within western culture has elicited a growing number of scholarly works. This study brings into play a complex pattern of intellectual discourses and historical phenomena, in close relationship not merely with political and religious spheres, but also with different fields of knowledge and their processes of elaboration.

In 1998, an international conference on the theme “Mystics, Mysticism and Modernity” was organized by the Marc Bloch University of Strasbourg with the aim of studying the impact of esoteric currents on the construction of modernity in society, art and literature at the start of the twentieth century. Following on this research into the connections between esotericism and culture, the present conference aims to make a lasting contribution to the writing of a “different” cultural history, integrating a detailed analysis of the part that esoteric currents have played in the building, development and interactions of national and of cross-national identities.

Esotericism and Spatiality
Scholarship in the field of esotericism has hitherto often been dominated by a “monographic” bias, a tendency to privilege the study of individual authors or specific currents considered particularly relevant to a given context or period, and therefore stressing the chronological dimension of the topic. Without forsaking historical methods, the conference on “Capitals of European Esotericism and transcultural dialogue” proposes a somewhat different approach, underlining the importance of geographical and intellectual patterns, networks, interactions and exchanges, with the purpose of illustrating the relevance of the “spatial” dimension of culture.

The goal of this conference is, thus, to contribute to the delineation of a landscape of Western esoteric currents by sketching a transhistorical map of their places of emergence and their main centers of diffusion. Following the inaugural conference of the ESSWE held in Tübingen in July 2007 and devoted to “The Construction of Tradition”, it has been decided to dedicate the conference in Strasbourg–itself an important “capital of European esotericism”–to the complementary themes of locality and spatiality.

The concept of “Capitals of European esotericism” finds support–inter alia–in research integrating the “spatial turn” in cultural sciences and history, as well as in geocritical approaches to the study of discourse, more particularly envisaged in their spatio-cultural rooting. The birth and development of a plurality of Western esoteric currents will accordingly be considered as essentially linked to certain privileged loci, where a number of diverse traditions, influences and activities have converged and crystallized, for complex historical and cultural reasons which it will be our task to investigate.

Focus-point: the city as a crucible of cultural identity for European esoteric currents.
The various threads of Western esotericism have evolved from and around a number of intellectual centers linked, on the one hand, to local and/or national cultures and, on the other hand, also subject to cultural transfers and exchanges involving elements belonging to foreign horizons, notably oriental ones. Urban communities have been shown to play a major part in these processes of cultural interaction. Certain capitals or cities have acted–sometimes over prolonged periods of time–as diffusion centers for specific currents or disciplines, such as alchemy or Freemasonry (for example, Venice, Avignon, and Marseilles ). Of particular relevance in this perspective is the case of “border-towns”, bearing the stamp of a dual culture or acting as intercultural foyers, which appear for these reasons to qualify even better as places of emergence of such currents (for example, Trieste, Strasburg, Prague, and Cordoba).

Interest may also focus on the common trajectories of economic centers and high places of esoteric thought and activity, and on their social imbrications, as well as on the related topic of patronage which, simultaneously attracting and stabilizing persons and activities in certain spots, nonetheless stimulates the circulation of people and ideas between them (the Medici in Florence, Gonzague in Mantua, Rudolf II in Prague, etc). In the same way, major printing and publishing centers (such as P. Perna’s office in Basel, the Beringos Brothers in Lyon, Diederichs in Munich), or the intellectual exchanges between rival cultural poles (such as Venice and Florence at the turn of the sixteenth century), also deserve attention.

The study of such cultural phenomena may be conducted at different levels:

On a regional or national scale, emphasizing the many links existing between local cultures, prevailing political conditions, and the historical development of esoteric currents.

On a cross-cultural and supranational scale, taking into consideration the successive phases of the process of globalization of esotericism, notably relations between East and West.

Another important issue is the literary activity fostered by these “capitals of European esotericism” throughout history, whether they have specifically given rise to a body of literature directly influenced by esoteric speculations and/or practices, or whether they are themselves the object of mythical/literary representation(s) in works of fiction dealing with, or influenced by, esotericism.

Contributors to the conference are invited to use various scholarly methods and approaches from different disciplines: cultural history, art history, history of ideas and of Western esotericism, investigation of the socio-economic conditions of the production of fictional and literary works, etc.

Examples of themes on which contributions will be welcome

Mapping of Western Esotericism: identification of greater or lesser urban cultural centers linked with one or more specific currents of European esotericism: “masonic capitals”, centers for the diffusion of theosophical doctrines and writings (such as Amsterdam, Berleburg, London, Dornach), etc.

Economic and cultural exchanges, esoteric currents and the city: investigation of the interactions between commercial, intellectual, artistic and publishing activities as linked to the presence, development and productions of European esotericism (Lyon, Venice, Berlin, Florence, Paris). Some attention should also be given to the role and operation of esoteric periodicals or journals per se, as well as-more generally-to the presence of esoteric themes or events in cultural media.

Capitals of European esotericism and multi-cultural dialogue: Western esotericism and the reception of oriental literature and traditions (New York, Paris, Cairo, London).

Esotericism, fictional imagination and the City: artistic and literary works which display an intimate connection between esoteric themes and the (fictional or real) depiction of a given (or imaginary) city (such as Prague in G. Meyrink’s The Golem, or London in A. Machen’s The Three Impostors).

Approaches combining several of these themes and/or perspectives are of course welcome.

It should also be kept in mind that “Western esotericism” is by no means construed as limited to Christianity, but includes esoteric speculations and practices belonging to other religious cultures (such as Jewish Kabbalah and Neo-Sufism), whose complex (often long-standing and influential) interactions with Christian culture make them an integral part of “European esotericism”.

Working languages: French, German & English.

Conference Committee: Jean-Pierre Brach (Ecole pratique des Hautes-Etudes, Vème section, Paris, vice-president of ESSWE), Sylvain Briens (UDS), Aurélie Choné (UDS), Christine Maillard (UDS).

Conference Chairman: Christine Maillard

Proposals (title and short abstract) should be send to Christine Maillard, christine.maillard@misha.fr, with your name, academic position, and titles of major publications.

Submission deadline : June 15th, 2008.

Conference: Alternative Expressions of the Numinous

2008-03-24T15:15:00.002+01:00

The Esoteric Studies Research and Teaching Group in conjunction with the School of History, Philosophy, Religion and Classics at the University of Queensland presents the 3rd Annual Alternative Expressions of the Numinous Conference. Friday 15–Sunday 17 August 2008, School of History, Philosophy, Religion and Classics, University of Queensland, St Lucia Campus, Brisbane, Australia.

Abstracts (250 words, by Monday 30 June 2008) are invited for, but not limited to, the following strands:

Esotericism
Mysticism
Alternative expressions of major religions
Religions of re-enchantment
Popular culture religions
Indigenous religions
Paganism and Neo-Paganism
New Religious Movements
Personalised religion
Alternative methodologies

New MA at the University of Kent

2008-03-24T15:07:00.003+01:00

New MA in the Cultural Study of Cosmology and Divination at the University of Kent

The study of contemporary astrology and the interpretation of astrological symbolism form a central part of this MA programme which involves taught and research elements, including four modules, a learning journal and a dissertation. It may be taken full-time (1 year) or part-time/modular (2+years).

Core modules on Thursdays, optionals Wednesdays or Fridays. Modules are:

Interpreting the Heavens: theories and methods (core)
The Imaginal Cosmos: interpreting symbolic texts & images (core)
Cosmology and the Arts (optional)
The Intelligible Cosmos (optional)
Nature, Culture and Religion (optional)

Themes include Egypt & alchemy, I Ching & Chinese philosophy, Renaissance astrology & magic, literature, art, music & cosmos, enchantment, tarot and the divinatory narrative.

For further information, contact Dr Angela Voss (director).

Dutch Masonic and Esoteric Archives

2008-01-29T09:59:00.000+01:00

By Andréa Kroon

The OVN, a Dutch foundation for the advancement of academic research into the history of freemasonry in the Netherlands, has published a guide to Masonic archives and documents in public collections in the Netherlands, Archiefwijzer maçonnieke archieven. Overzicht van historische archieven van Nederlandse vrijmetselaarsorden in openbare collecties, Den Haag 2007. ISBN 978-90-807778-4-2, 114 pages, 1st edition free while stocks last (stocks now exhausted); 2nd edition available March 2008, € 10,- excl. postage fees.

The presentation of this guide took place in the National Library at The Hague on Friday 25th January 2008. The presentation was accompanied by an afternoon of lectures on the theme ‘Geheime kennis. The bijzondere archieven en bibliotheken van maconnieke en esoterische organisaties’ (‘Secret knowledge: the unique archives and libraries of Masonic and esoteric organizations’).

Prof. Dr Ton van de Sande spoke about the history of the most important collection for the study of freemasonry: the historical archives, library and object collection of the Orde van Vrijmetselaren onder het Grootoosten der Nederlanden (Order of Freemasons under the Grand East of the Netherlands), located in the Cultureel Maçonniek Centrum ‘Prins Frederic’ in The Hague. The archive consists of the archives of the Grand Lodge from 1756 onwards, and the added archives of c. 50 lodges under its jurisdiction. The core of the library is the famous Kloss library, formed by George Burckhardt Kloss, a physician with a passion for the history of freemasonry. The Kloss Library was bought and donated to the order by former Grand Master Prince Frederik in the 19th century. The original collection was lost during the Second World War, but reformed and expanded through the efforts of curator Beitj Croiset van Uchelen after 1945. It is now one of the most important collections for the study of freemasonry in the world.
Prof. Dr Wouter Hanegraaff discussed the history and contents of the Bibliotheca Philosophioca Hermetica in Amsterdam. This private collection was formed in 1957 by Joost Ritman, whose interest in Hermetic philosophy and related subjects stems from his personal beliefs as a member of a Rosicrucian organization. The collection has been open to the public since 1984. In 1993 the collection was recognized as important national heritage under the Dutch Law for the Protection of Cultural Heritage, and in 2005 the core collection was acquired by the State. It is now one of the most important collections for the study of western esotericism in the world. The library is expanding its academic and research activities, and will be relocating to the ‘Huis met the Hoofden’, a 17th century monumental building in the heart of Amsterdam.
Drs Elly Verzaal, academic consultant for the collection on Esoteric Sciences of the National Library in The Hague, spoke about this collection. Although it is not yet widely known, it is of importance to students of western esotericism for its diversity. It contains pamphlets, written manuscripts and printed works on topics ranging from witchcraft, divination and superstition to 19th century occultism and current academic research on western esotericism. Especially relevant for those interested in the history of spiritism or spiritualism, for instance, is the subcollection on parapsychology, which contains the Zorab archive. A small but important collection on freemasonry was acquired from the legacy of Beitj Croiset van Uchelen, former curator of the Cultureel Maçonniek Centrum. The collection on Theosophy was formed in cooperation with the Library of the Theosophical Society in Amsterdam.
Drs Andréa Kroon, chairwoman on the OVN Foundation, discussed the results of the archive project which resulted in the publication of the Archiefwijzer. In 2006, the OVN approached all public archives in the Netherlands with a questionnaire. Based on the data received and on additional research, the OVN counted 57 relevant collections, containing the complete archives of 22 Dutch lodges and hundreds of documents from individual freemasons (both men and women), dated from the 18th to the 20th century. The Archiefwijzer also lists contact addresses of relevant private archives, specialized libraries and academic organizations, a total of 75 organizations. Thanks to the support of several cultural funds, the whole first edition can be distributed amongst students and scholars free of charge.

Drs Kroon also made a strong plea for stocktaking of the remaining archives of esoteric organizations in private ownership on a national level. Many (small) esoteric organizations find their historical collections a burden rather than a blessing. They are frequently contacted by students and scholars, as well as their own members, with requests for access to their archives. Although most organization wish to allow such access, they are forced to refuse because they lack the means, experience and personnel to accommodate visitors. Lack of storage space, conservation issues, lack of professional heritage-management skills, a lack of manpower and funds are some of the most frequently encountered problems. Donating an archive to a municipal archive can seem an ideal solution, but archives can then remain inaccessible for several years, as they await inventorying. And as the OVN project showed, there is so little knowledge of esoteric currents in the archive sector that simply identifying documents is a problem, let alone advising scholars.

This is why the OVN aims to coordinate a new project, aimed at preservation and accessibility of esoteric archives. Two mixed Masonic orders and one spiritualist organization in the Netherlands have already agreed to actively participate. Other Dutch esoteric organizations who wish to join in are welcomed. But the problem is one of a national, if not international scale. This is why cooperation between academic, heritage and esoteric organizations is necessary, if we want to ensure the preservation of esoteric archives, libraries and object collections for future generations.

Orders and more information: OVN, PO Box 92004, 1090 AA Amsterdam, the Netherlands, info@stichtingovn.nl.

Recent volumes in the Aries Book Series

2007-12-17T14:04:00.000+01:00

Wouter Hanegraff, Amsterdam

The Aries Book Series: Texts and Studies in Western Esotericism was launched by Brill last year as a companion series to the journal Aries. The editor-in-chief is Wouter J. Hanegraaff, and the Editorial Board presently consists of Jean-Pierre Brach and Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke.

Volumes in this series can be bought by members of ESSWE at a 25% discount.

Five volumes have been published so far:

Urszula Szulakowska, The Sacrificial Body and the Day of Doom: Alchemy and Apocalyptic Discourse in the Protestant Reformation (2006).
This study positions Paracelsian alchemy, medicine and medical physiology within the apocalyptic discourse of the Protestant Reformation, with special attention to the role of alchemical engravings notably in the work of Heinrich Khunrath, Stefan Michelspacher, Jacob Boehme, Abraham von Franckenberg and Robert Fludd.

Katherine Barnes, The Higher Self in Christopher Brennan’s Poems: Esotericism, Romanticism, Symbolism (2006).
This is the first major study of the important Australian poet Christopher Brennan, whose Poems were published in 1914. This study shows how Brennan melded Western esoteric currents such as alchemy and rosicrucianism with Romantic literature and French Symbolist theory.

F.M. van Helmont, The Alphabet of Nature (annotated translation with annotations, Allison P. Coudert & Taylor Corse) (2007).
This volume contains the Latin text of Franciscus Mercurius van Helmont’s Alphabeti vere Naturalis Hebraici (1667), with a annotated facing-page English translation. Van Helmont’s Alphabet of Nature is an important text for the debate on natural versus artificial or conventional language in the early modern period.

Renko D. Geffarth, Religion und arkane Hierarchie: Der Orden der Gold- und Rosenkreuzer als Geheime Kirche im 18. Jahrhundert (2007).
This is the most comprehensive study so far of the 18th-century Order of the Gold and Rosy Cross. On the basis of extensive archival research, it traces the history of the Order, its hierarchical and initiatory system, and its relation to the churches in the era of the Enlightenment.

Paracelsus, Essential Theoretical Writings (edited & translated, with introduction and commentary, by Andrew Weeks) (forthcoming).
This is the first English translation of some of the major writings of Paracelsus, alongside a critical edition of the German originals according to the authoritative 1589 Huser edition. Almost one thousand pages long, it makes this central figure in the history of Western esotericism available to the anglophone world.

Olav Hammer & Kocku von Stuckrad (eds.), Polemical Encounters: Esoteric Discourse and Its Others (2007).
This volumes engages the polemical structures that underlie both the identities within and the controversies about esoteric currents in Western history. Contributions by Konstantin Burmistrov, Dylan Burns, Renko Geffarth, Olav Hammer, Wouter J. Hanegraaff, Titus Hjelm, Boaz Huss, Brannon Ingram, Hanns-Peter Neumann, Peter Hanns Reill, Kocku von Stuckrad, and Steven M. Wasserstrom.

Among planned forthcoming volumes are Brendan French’s definitive study of the Theosophical Masters, and an updated edition of J.E. Fletcher’s classic but so far unpublished dissertation on Athanasius Kircher.

Appointments in research into Freemasonry

2007-12-17T13:38:00.000+01:00

Andreas Önnerfors, Ph. D., has been appointed the new director of the Centre for Research into Freemasonry at the University of Sheffield.

Önnerfors received his Ph.D. at Lund University, Sweden in 2003. The centre was established in 2000 as the first centre in a British university devoted to the study of Freemasonry. Önnerfors is succeeding Professor Andrew Prescott as the director of the centre.

Malcolm Davies, Ph.D., has been appointed as Professor of "Freemasonry as an intellectual current and a socio-cultural European phenomenon", Faculty of Theology (Godsdienstwetenschappen), University of Leiden, The Netherlands. Davies is succeeding Prof. Dr. Anton van de Sande in this post.

SNASWE blog opens

2007-12-13T15:24:00.000+01:00

SNASWE, the Scandinavian Network for the Academic Study of Western Esotericism, a regional subgroup of ESSWE, has launched a blog.

New theses at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes

2007-12-10T10:48:00.000+01:00

Three new theses were started at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes (Paris, Sorbonne) in 2006-07:

B. Bérard, "Un philosophe et théologien occultisant au XIX° siècle : l’abbé P.-F.-G. Lacuria (1806-90)."

F. Buzzeta, "Aspects de la Magia naturalis et de la Cabala practica dans les premières œuvres de J. Pic de la Mirandole (avec éd. & trad. de sources hébraïques)" (co-directed with Professor G. Palumbo, University of Palermo).

S. Salzani, "Histoire, thématiques et enjeux critiques d’une lecture « ésotérique » de Dante: l’oeuvre de Luigi Valli (1878 -1931) et ses continuateurs " (co-directed with Professor A. Cavarero, University of Verona).

Five theses started between 2003 and 2005 are still in progress:

F. Baroni, "Tommaso Palamidessi (1915-1983) et son école initiatique ‘archeosophica’ : recherches sur l’ésotérisme chrétien dans l’Italie contemporaine (thématiques, sociabilité)."

J.-C. Boucly, "Magnétisme, mystique et ésotérisme chrétiens chez quelques disciples de N.-A. Philippe (1849-1905)."

D. Jardin, "La construction d'une "tradition" maçonnique au XVIII° siècle : emprunts «opératifs», religieux et ésotériques dans les rituels et l'iconographie des Tableaux de Loge des systèmes français à ‘hauts-grades’" (co-directed with Professor P.-Y. Beaurepaire, University of Nice).

B. Barthet, "Les jésuites et les principaux courants ésotériques en France (1680-1750) : problématiques et enjeux."

E. Kreis, "Occultisme, antijudaïsme et antimaçonnisme en France, 1864 – 1939 : les enjeux d'un amalgame idéologique."

Why Esotericism? The Importance of a Newly Emerging Field

2007-12-06T16:08:00.000+01:00

The Western Esotericism Group of the American Academy of Religion is seeking proposals addressing the topic “Why Esotericism? The Importance of a Newly Emerging Field” for the AAR International Meeting, Auckland, New Zealand, July 6-10, 2008.

The study of Western Esotericism has developed rapidly over the past decade. It now has significant institutional support and two journals dedicated to research, Esoterica and Aries. The field, however, has yet to enter into the academic mainstream. It is the purpose of this panel to contribute to a broader appreciation of the scope and importance of Western Esotericism as a force in western history and religion.

We invite papers dealing with the ways in which the study of Esotericism has challenged mainstream historiography both in terms of methodology and by providing a more nuanced picture of major developments in western history as well as an understanding of the complex strands of esoteric thought in the work of key historical figures. Proposals should be sent by e-mail to Prof. Allison Coudert, apcoudert@ucdavis.edu.

American Academy of Religion 2007

2007-12-06T15:52:00.000+01:00

Cathy Gutierrez, Professor of Religion, Sweet Briar College, Virginia

The Western Esotericism Group of the American Academy of Religion had its most successful year at the 2007 meeting in San Diego, California.

In two sessions, one focused on esotericism as an act of transgression and the other jointly sponsored with the New Religious Movements Group, well over 100 people were in attendance at panels over the weekend.

The first session, chaired by Allison Coudert, presented papers ranging from the early fourteenth-century writings of Marguerite Porete, condemned as heretical by the Catholic church and ultimately leading to her execution, to contemporary fieldwork in Oregon on an Ordo Templi Orientis lodge. The five papers presented were all well-received and developed themes related to the interplay of transgression and hegemony in the creation and growth of esoteric currents.

While each incorporated the theme of transgression differently, the creation of a different definition of correct practice while maintaining the necessity of some boundary was a common motif throughout the panel. White versus black magic, esoteric versus exoteric, and antinomian versus orthodox, were among the topics examined that reflected on the creation of alternative practices and beliefs. One scholar discussed the process by which an experimental or marginalized religious expression becomes mainstream in relation to the Swedenborgian church in nineteenth-century America. Another argued that the cultural shift from seeing mysticism pejoratively to viewing it as a normal if not normative form of religiosity should be replicated in esoteric studies. The benefits and desirability of bringing the marginalized to the center were explored, and some concluded that at least for the purposes of academic study, such a move would both expand the academy’s field of vision and serve as a theoretical reflection on the function of boundaries in both lived experience and in scholarship. A lively discussion followed that touched on linguistic differences in relation to the history of terms like “mysticism” and whether esotericism easily lent itself to binary formations like insider and outsider distinctions.

The session jointly sponsored with the New Religious Movements Group was also extremely successful, with over seventy attendees for the panel chaired by Sarah Pike. Focusing on “exchange and innovation” in new religions, the four papers presented ranged from the melding of Asian enlightenment traditions with American psychological discourse to the esoteric underpinnings of Fourierist socialism. Another discussed the creation of Halcyon, an intentional community in California in the early twentieth century that was based on Blavatsky’s theosophical teachings in conjunction with speculation on the religious possibilities of electricity. Lastly, a paper was given on the suitability of the terms “outsider” or “visionary” art in relation to the work of Edith Tenbrink: the author argued that “initiatory” art was a more apt category and delineated what may usefully be considered initiatory in esoteric art forms.

The overwhelming success of all of the papers was the highlight of the AAR this year. The Western Esotericism Group had its first business meeting where the topic for next year and the length of terms for membership on the steering committee were discussed. The particular interest sparked by the discussion of esoteric art led the steering committee to dedicate its Western Esotericism session to the visual imagination and the call for papers for the 2008 meeting in Chicago has been submitted with this focus. Thanks to the quick diligence of Allison Coudert, several other groups have already expressed interest in jointly sponsoring an additional session at that meeting and at this writing the decision about which additional sessions will be offered has not yet been made. However, the success of this year’s panels and the multiple groups that have expressed an interest in working with the Western Esotericism Group suggest that it will continue to thrive at the AAR for the immediate future.

The Demarcation of Western Esotericism in Theory and Practice

2007-12-06T15:12:00.000+01:00

Sara M. Thejls, Amsterdam

When Western esotericism was established as an independent field of research it was necessarily much more clearly demarcated than is the case today. As a new field, it had to be positioned clearly in relation to other academic categories, so as to place the academic study of esotericism on solid foundations.

Since then the situation has gradually changed. More and more scholars have found a fruitful framework for their own studies in the concept of Western esotericism. One consequence of this is that the specific historical category that Western esotericism once was has been opened up. As Michael Stausberg noted in his response to Wouter Hanegraaff’s posting on the Tübingen conference, the borders of the field of Western esotericism are increasingly blurred. The definition of the field has been contested both explicitly and implicitly--explicitly in the theoretical discussions flourishing within academia, and implicitly by the research carried out under the umbrella of Western esotericism.

It is evident when looking at the wide range of topics and approaches presented at the Tübingen conference that the classic definition of Western esotericism as suggested by Antoine Faivre is challenged by the actual research presently carried out in the field. Borders were crossed in time, in space, in approaches and concepts and thus in the subjects studied and presented at the conference under the term Western esotericism. These included such diverse themes as Sufism, ancient platonisms, ancient Jewish magic, Chechen traditionalism, kabbalah in various guises, neo-paganism and contemporary magical orders. Of course, more traditional topics of Western esotericism were also covered, including theosophy, Christian kabbalah, rosicrucianism and alchemy.

That the “fringe” topics were central is by no means a surprise considering the age of Western esotericism as a more or less accepted academic field of study. Now that the field has been quite solidly consolidated in academia, we, as the students and scholars of Western esotericism, have an opportunity to turn our focus inwards and look at the state of the field itself. As is also happening all the time with the broader concept of religion, the limits of the concept of Western esotericism are being explored and challenged. And it is not only the term “esotericism” which is being evaluated, stretched, deconstructed and reassembled. Just as important is the question of what the ambiguous concept of “Western” denotes. Is it a cultural category, a geographical? And what does it imply?

To me at least, it is obvious that we cannot uphold the earlier christocentric demarcation of Western esotericism. Definitional problems are an essential part of the evolution of an academic field, without which a field would stagnate. Paradigms are there to be challenged in order to fruitfully develop and continually revisit the academic pursuit.

Viewed this way, the broadness of topics at Tübingen is indeed promising. It reflects the enthusiasm and curiosity which is necessary for a field to flourish. It is important, however, that we do not only challenge and explore the boundaries of our field in empirical research. We have to explicitly reconsider the premises for maintaining Western esotericism as a field in its own right. Whether one perceives Western esotericism as a historical or a typological category, the theoretical foundations should be considered and explicitly elaborated.

Retrospectively, it is difficult to see any obvious unifying factor for all the different papers presented at the conference. Then again, I am in no doubt that it all belongs to the field of Western esotericism. I wonder whether we are able to actually find a unifying definition, or whether the case is similar to that of the problem of defining religion--that either the definition is so broad that too much is included, or so narrow that borderline topics get excluded.

Nonetheless, the discussion itself is far more important than the eventual conclusions. Maybe it is possible to find some common denominator by considering the central topic of the conference: tradition and transmission. Can we trace a certain way of constructing tradition and transmitting knowledge which is different from religious movements in general? Revelation is too general a way of claiming religious authority to be of special significance for esotericism; initiation too. However, it seems there is a certain discourse involved in the transmission of knowledge--a dialectic of secrecy and revelation, and a claim to supremacy with regard to the knowledge transmitted. Though not necessarily elitist in the exact sense of the word, there is an air of elitism surrounding esoteric knowledge, making the possessor of knowledge feel privileged to have obtained that knowledge.

The special mode of transmission and the proclaimed secrecy and supremacy of esoteric knowledge is by no means enough for a proper definition of Western esotericism. For instance, it does not even address the problem of defining "Western." However, it might prove useful in the process. Furthermore, it is important that the concept of esotericism becomes more precise in the general study of religion, as in many instances it is used as a mere synonym for secrecy.

It is my hope that there will be many more discussions of this important issue and that our work contributes to the clarification of esotericism in general, and of Western esotericism in particular.

Intellectual Stendhalism in Tübingen

2007-12-04T14:34:00.000+01:00

A personal account of the Tübingen conference from Joyce Pijnenburg, Amsterdam

Together with a few fellow students of the MA in Mysticism and Western Esotericism, I arrived in Tübingen from Amsterdam by train. I had never been in the city before, and because I had been working so feverishly on my paper, I had not taken any time at all to dive into its rich history. I knew hardly more about it than its having been a centre of origin for Rosicrucianism, as well as of the scholarly tradition of the ‘Tübinger Schule’ – (in-)famous in the world of classical philosophy for its Plato-interpretation. These facts, added to the fame and age of the city’s university, would have been ample reason to hold the very first conference of the ESSWE in Tübingen. The first glances allowed to us of the city, during our walk from the station to the hotel, told me that it might be an even more fitting site for this event than I could have imagined. The park was quiet, the houses on our way up the hill were charming, and the streets full of students like ourselves. A sensation of scholarship dominated the atmosphere.

The conference started off with a lecture by the renowned Egyptologist Jan Assmann. Notwithstanding the evident relevance of his work for our field, I had not expected Assmann to expound on esotericism as such. But he did, in a clear and balanced elaboration on the Egyptian and also the Greek features of early esotericisms. Assmann was one of the few people to present on ancient esoteric discourses. This lecture was an appropriate start, not only because of the historical antecedence of its subject matter.

This was only the beginning of three inspiring days. Perhaps it was because this was the first get-together of so many scholars of esotericism in Europe for decades that, outside the keynote lectures, I myself, as well as almost everyone I met, seemed to have difficulties in choosing which presentations to attend. Yet we had to decide, and so, after having marked in my program the lectures I definitely did not want to miss, I sneaked in and out of halls, sometimes at the risk of disturbing a presentation. Luckily, this turned out to be possible, despite the squeaking floor of the middle room and notwithstanding the extremely tight conference schedule – or perhaps, rather, thanks to it.

Three days filled with lectures of generally high quality could not but lead to a form of intellectual Stendhalism: we learned very many, very interesting facts, in very little time. Let me freshen our memory in a brief overview of a number of presentations.

We were informed about the “double bind of secrecy” in the construction of esoteric traditions; about the role the concept of mnemohistory might be able to play outside the history of Egypt; about young Pico’s recognition of (non-traditional beauty) in discordia concors; about yet another inversion, the female side of Kabbalah as active principle; about the role of light and love in Ficino’s cosmology, as well as the role of Orphism in his discussions of love; about the reception history of the Giants of Genesis; about Kabbalah as contemplation in Reuchlin; about the westernness or non-westernness of western Sufism; about dolphins and sexual practice of Kabbalah; about the way in which Blavatsky connected the future to the past; about the esotericism of Hermes Trismegistus; about the rationale behind the order of saints of the Crowleyan Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica. And we also learned that Islam means nine mountains and thus stands for Chechnya; that the scarab with the human head is the key to knowledge of the world; that the four stands for Christ and for materialization; that English myths serve the construction of tradition of the Dutch goddess movement; that the writings of the Dutch novelist Couperus are full of esotericism; that the hierarchy of the Left Hand Path is based on kabbalistic demonology; that Leadbeater possibly took his information from Bailey rather than from a hidden master; that the mysterious Konx Om Pax originally marked the end of a mystery ritual; that esoteric constructions of tradition, in their pointing beyond the present, can be understood as divination. Most of the time these presentations did not only provide information, but also much food for thought and stimulus for discussion.

These discussions went on, albeit in a more leisurely pace, in the Biergarten amongst crowds of Tübinger students. Happy about the success of the conference, our symptoms of Stendhalism decreased while we relaxed over some pints of home-brewn Weizen (the nectar of the Neckar) and a plate of Spätzle or Knödel. Until the early mornings, young and established scholars merged in the merry-making, while we animatedly reflected on the rapid development of the field, on our various study projects and on the future of publishing.

All in all, the conference was a splendid official start-off ceremony of our society.

Esotericism in Scandinavia

2007-11-23T11:27:00.000+01:00

Olav Hammer, Professor of History of Religions, University of Southern Denmark

Report on the Conference on Western Esotericism held in Åbo/Turku, Finland, August 15-17, 2007

A sure sign of the vitality of esotericism studies is the fact that it was possible to attract scholars to two separate conferences on this topic, held within three weeks of each other. Almost immediately after the European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism had completed its first conference in Tübingen, the Donnerska Foundation hosted a conference on Western esotericism in Åbo/Turku, Finland (Åbo is the Swedish name, and Turku the Finnish name; the Donnerska Foundation uses Swedish).

The theme of the conference was linked to its geographical location. Besides accepting papers on any aspect of the study of Western esotericism (as exemplified by contributions on subjects as diverse as Christian theosophy, the legacy of Rudolf Steiner and new religious movements in Russia), the organizers particularly encouraged participants to present papers that dealt with esotericism in the Scandinavian countries. Papers on Freemasonry in Sweden and Finland, on symbolist art in Finland, on kabbalah in Sweden, on the theosophical movement in Denmark and on Swedish queen Christina’s esoteric interests are just a few examples of the latter.

The geographical focus was particularly reflected in the choice of keynote addresses. Scandinavia has throughout the centuries been a recipient of esoteric currents coming from the European continent. In the early modern period, Hermetic and Paracelsian ideas and practices were highly influential in Scandinavian intellectual milieus. Jole Shakelford has for years been researching the influence of Paracelsian medicine in Denmark and Norway, and presented some of his findings in a paper entitled “Western Esotericism and the History of European Science and Medicine in the Early Modern Period”.

The Scandinavian countries have also contributed original building blocks to the esoteric discursive repertoire. The best-known example is Emanuel Swedenborg, the topic of a paper by Jane Williams-Hogan entitled “The Place of Emanuel Swedenborg in the Spiritual Saga of Scandinavia”. Other figures may be of lesser international fame, but have nevertheless decisively influenced the course of religious history in Europe. Mark Sedgwick’s paper "Ivan Aguéli, Europe’s first Sufi shaykh" introduced the arguably first neo-Sufi in European history, as well as one of the formative influences on René Guénon.

Paracelsian, mystic and neo-Sufi currents such as these constitute just some of the many alternative and partly marginalized aspects of the larger European religious landscape. This is an ecology of coexisting and competing voices which has traditionally but erroneously been described as if one set of religious actors–mainstream, theological Christianities–had established an unquestioned hegemony. Kocku von Stuckrad’s paper “Esoteric Discourse and the European History of Religion: The Emergence of a New Interpretational Framework” served as a topical reminder that Western esotericism inscribes itself in the broader field of a plural European history of religions.

The study of Western esotericism has in the last decades developed from a narrow field dominated by a handful of scholars, to being a major area of research. Esotericism outside the geographical and linguistic centre of Europe, however, still remains an understudied area. Olav Hammer’s and Henrik Bogdan’s paper “On the Current Status of Research into Western Esotericism in Scandinavia” surveyed the existing literature on esotericism in Sweden, Norway and Denmark, and pointed out some of the main lacunae in the field. One reason for the scarcity of research has to do with the concentration of research activities on a few historical currents and the almost complete neglect of others. Another reason is the fact that Scandinavian scholars have tended to publish their findings in local languages, making them virtually inaccessible to their colleagues in other countries.

Hammer and Bogdan, however, also presented two initiatives that will go a considerable way toward improving this situation.

On the one hand, they have taken the initiative to edit a volume that will present state-of-the-art research on all major currents in the four Scandinavian countries, historically spanning from the late 16th century up to the present day.

On the other hand, researchers involved in the study of Western esotericism will become more aware of each others’ work and will be able to network more efficiently, thanks to a Scandinavian affiliate of the European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism, the Scandinavian Network for the Academic Study of Western Esotericism (SNASWE).

Olav Hammer’s closing address noted that the study of esotericism over the last three decades has unearthed a mass of historical data, but that scholars have with few exceptions been much more reticent to place these data in broader theoretical frameworks. Even the nature and identity of the very label ‘esotericism’ is far from settled. As this young field matures, the study of esotericism will no doubt continue to grapple with these and other truly fundamental theoretical issues.

Jubilee Symposium of the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica

2007-11-09T17:04:00.000+01:00

While riding his bike over the Amsterdam canals in the autumn of 1957, 16-year old Joost R. Ritman conceived the idea of founding a library devoted to the Hermetic tradition. Fifty years later, on October 26, 2007, the now famous Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica celebrated its 50-year jubilee with a splendid exhibition, Jacob Boehme’s Way into the World, preceded by a two-day conference for invited guests.

There was indeed much cause for celebration, for not only did the BPH survive a serious crisis during the 1990s when the invaluable collection of incunabula and other early prints risked being put up for auction, but it has emerged from those difficult years more strongly than ever before. The library staff was expanded, many new exhibition and research/publishing projects were initiated, and perhaps most spectacular of all, the BPH’s founder recently acquired one of the most famous monumental buildings from the 17th century Dutch Golden Age: the “Huis met de Hoofden” (House with the Heads), located on one of the Amsterdam canals, which will become the library’s future home.

The Huis met de Hoofden (image, right, courtesy of bmz.amsterdam.nl) carries special significance for the BPH both historically and symbolically. In 1634 it was acquired by the Dutch merchant Louis de Geer, whose collection of books on heterodox religious traditions showed many similarities with the present collection of the BPH. In the same house, de Geer offered hospitality to Jan Amos Comenius, whose beliefs and aspirations of spiritual reform strongly resonate with those that inspired the present library’s founder. It was therefore appropriate that the participants in the BPH’s Jubilee Symposium were received on this historical spot.

Speakers at the symposium were:

Roelof van den Broek (Professor emeritus, University of Utrecht)
Antoine Faivre (EPHE, Paris)
Katya Genieva (Library for Foreign Literature, Moscow)
Carlos Gilly (Senior Researcher, Ritman Institute)
Frans A. Janssen (former director of the BPH)
Jean-Pierre Mahé (EPHE, Paris)
Johannes van Oort (University of Nijmegen)
Esther Oosterwijk-Ritman (Director/librarian of the BPH)
A.W. Rosenberg (Librarian Ets Haim/Livraria Montezinos, Amsterdam)
Wilhelm Schmidt-Biggemann (Freie Universität, Berlin)
The BPH’s founder Joost R. Ritman (honorary speaker).

The symposium was followed by the official opening of the exhibition on Jacob Boehme, with a presentation of the first copy of the exhibition catalogue to the Dutch minister of Education, Culture & Science, R.H.A. Plasterk. This catalogue is in fact much more than a catalogue: it is also an important collection of scholarly essays on the history of the transmission of Böhme’s work and the crucial role that was played in this regard by the Dutch Abraham Willemsz van Beyerland.

The exhibition – including a unique collection of Böhme manuscripts – is open to visitors, and is warmly recommended to members of the ESSWE. Further information can be found at the BPH’s website.

Wouter J. Hanegraaff

Jacob Böhme’s Way into the World

2007-11-09T16:48:00.001+01:00

Just published in connection with the Jubilee Symposium of the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica:

Jacob Böhmes Weg in die Welt: Zur Geschichte der Handschriftensammlung, Übersetzungen und Editionen von Abraham Willemsz van Beyerland (Jacob Böhme’s Way into the World: On the History of the Manuscript Collection, Translations, and Editions of Abraham Willemsz van Beyerland). Edited by Theodor Harmsen and published by In de Pelikaan, Amsterdam.

Apart from the extensive documentary part, the volume contains fourteen articles, most of which are of considerable scholarly interest.

Translated into English, they are as follows:

Joost R. Ritman, "The Vision of Jacob Böhme"
Carlos Gilly, "On the History and Transmission of Jacob Böhme’s manuscripts"
Gerhard Wehr, "Jacob Böhme, Life and Work"
Carlos Gilly, "Ways of Transmission of Jacob Böhme’s writings in Germany and the Netherlands"
Carlos Gilly, "On the Emergence and Influence of Abraham Willemsz van Beyerland’s Manuscript Collection"
Frank van Lamoen, "With the Eyes of the Spirit: Backgrounds to the Translations of Abraham Willemsz van Beyerland"
Govert Snoek, "Abraham van Beyerland’s Library according to his Widow’s Inventory"
José Bouman & Frank van Lamoen, "Beyerland’s Manuscripts owned by Willem Gozewijn Huygens"
Frans A. Janssen, "The First Edition of Böhme’s Collected Works 1682"
Frank van Lamoen, "The Unknown Illustrator: Michael Andreae"
José Bouman & Frans A. Janssen, "Mercurius Teutonicus in Amsterdam"
Carlos Gilly, "On the History of Abraham van Franckenberg’s Böhme Biographies"
Günther Bonheim, "Johann Wilhelm Überfeld and the Community of the Angelic Brethren and Sisters"
Matthias Wenzel, "The Fate of the Linz Böhme Archive from 1941 to the Present"

Wouter J. Hanegraaff

Brill launches new Journal of Religion in Europe

2007-11-07T18:26:00.000+01:00

The academic publisher Brill (Leiden, The Netherlands) is launching a new journal that responds to the recent development in the study of religion and culture in Europe. From 2008 onwards, the Journal of Religion in Europe (JRE) will publish articles, book reviews, and thematic issues that address historical and contemporary issues related to religion in Europe from various disciplinary perspectives. For scholars of western esotericism, this will create a forum of interesting exchange of thoughts and interpretations. For instance, the question "what is 'western' in 'western esotericism'" is directly linked to problems of definition of 'Europe.'

The JRE, which will consist of three issues per year, has the following scope:

“The peer-reviewed Journal of Religion in Europe (JRE) provides a forum for multi-disciplinary research into the complex dynamics of religious discourses and practices in Europe, both historically and contemporary. The Journal’s underlying idea is that religion in Europe is characterized by a variety of pluralisms. There is a pluralism of religious communities that actively engage with one another; there exists a pluralism of societal systems, such as nation, law, politics, economy, science, and art, all of them interacting with religious systems; finally, in a pluralism of scholarly discourses religious studies, legal studies, history, anthropology, sociology, philosophy, and psychology are addressing the religious dynamics involved.
The JRE encourages new kinds of publications that respond to the changing European dimension of social and cultural studies.”

As Editors-in-Chief are serving Prof. Dr. Hans G. Kippenberg, University of Erfurt, Germany (kippen@religion.uni-bremen.de), and Dr. Kocku von Stuckrad, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands (c.k.m.vonstuckrad@uva.nl). Reviews Editor is Prof. Dr. Olav Hammer, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark (ohammer@ifpr.sdu.dk). The Editorial Board consists of distinguished scholars from various disciplines, including Mark Sedgwick and Lawrence Principe, two well-known scholars in the study of esotericism.

For details see the Journal's website at www.brill.nl/jre.

To submit an article for the Journal of Religion in Europe, please send your paper as a Word file per email to the Editors-in-Chief or to Ms. Regine Reincke, Acquisitions Editor Social Sciences and Religious Studies at Brill’s (reincke@brill.nl). For guidelines on submitting an article to the JRE, please contact the Editors-in-Chief or see the Journal's website.

ESSWE membership heavily concentrated

2007-11-06T11:00:00.000+01:00

November 2007 membership statistics, just released, show that the ESSWE membership is heavily concentrated in the Netherlands, the United States, and the United Kingdom.

In November 2007, the ESSWE had 217 members, of whom 52 (24%) were resident outside Europe (29 in the USA, and 23 elsewhere).

More than 5o% of the members resident in Europe came from just two countries: the Netherlands (44) and the United Kingdom (42). Adding three further countries (Germany, France, and Denmark) accounts for 80% of the European members. 12 other countries, with between 1 and 5 members each, made up only 20% of the membership.

Blog opened

2007-11-06T10:48:00.000+01:00

The access rules have been changed so that anyone can read this blog.

Esotericism in Jewish Thought

2007-10-26T14:36:00.000+02:00

New book:

Moshe Halbertal, Concealment and Revelation: Esotericism in Jewish Thought and its Philosophical Implications. Trans. Jackie Feldman. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007.

The Introduction may be downloaded from the publisher's website.

Announcing a forthcoming offline edition of the ESSWE Newsletter

2007-10-14T14:41:00.000+02:00

For archival purposes and for the sake of those members of the ESSWE who have not registered for this blog, an offline PDF Newsletter will be published in 2008, containing an edited selection of the most noteworthy articles that have been published here, on the online version of the Newsletter.

Change to submission procedures

2007-10-14T14:30:00.000+02:00

For reasons of efficiency, submission procedures have been changed. In future, members of the ESSWE should submit announcements and articles directly to the editor, Mark Sedgwick. Members of the board of ESSWE may still make posts to this blog directly for announcements of events, books, etc.

Grail legends

2007-10-07T13:13:00.001+02:00

I am moving here a discussion which started under a request for Feedback on this blog (not the right place--please, everyone, comments should relate to the original post. If you want to start a new topic, email the text to someone on the board so they can start a new post).

Nil wrote on September 28, 2007:

I should like to ask for views on whether we can regard the grail legends as esoteric? They seems to me to fall within Faivre's definitions. I'm thinking chiefly of the Mabinogien collection of Welsh stories and the many attendant mythic histories of Arthur of Britain. The grail procession itself may indicate practical magic and certainly the whole corpus comes under the order of signs...

IFAstudent responded on October 7, 2007:

With reference to Nil’s question, I am also interested in how the Grail legends could be classified. It would be useful to keep in mind not only their classic formulations, but also their development by modern writers, some of who are particularly sensitive to their dialectic of concealment and revelation, such as Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Avalon series, Deepak Chopra in The Return of Merlin, Stephen Lawhead in the Warlords of Nin, and thinkers in the modern esoteric tradition who have appropriated them, such as Katherine Maltwood’s work on Glastonbury and Dion Fortune's Society of the Inner Light.

The legends embody the notion of the coexistence of concealment and revelation, central to much esoteric thought[by the way Moshe Halbertal has just brought out what promises to be a fascinating book with that title in relation to esotericism in Jewish thought]The physical vessel becomes a hierophany for something beyond itself. The vessel also enables an initiation into possibilities of existence in the person who beholds or holds it which would otherwise have remained concealed. Again, the opening into something present but concealed. The Grail quest also operates at two levels-the basic level of a physical journey and the deeper level of an initiatory quest, where the events on the journey become symbolic doors that prepare one for perceiving the ultimate mystery. Perhaps this effort at characterising their esoteric character is rather general but could serve as a starting point. I am developing a blog at exploringspaces.blogspot.com which compares the use of Arthurian lore by Maltwood with a similar cosmographic effort in Africa which uses a different inspirational source.

Student networks

2007-10-02T15:26:00.000+02:00

As well as this blog, two discussion groups or ‘virtual hangouts’ have been created this year that are relevant to our field, on the website http://www.facebook.com/.

One is a group for students and former students of the MA Mysticism and Western Esotericism in Amsterdam (Western Esotericism MA).
The other, playfully called The Grand Lodge, is for scholars of Western Esotericism more generally, excluding university teachers and professors (for reasons of social ease and liberty of speech).

Both groups are accessible through facebook friends.

Those interested in joining one of the groups must have or create a facebook account. Then they can send a friend request to someone who is already a member, such as Ward (Eduard) ten Houten or myself, including a brief message stating they would like to join the particular group. You can find us in the facebook search engine under our full names.

Joyce Pijnenburg

Sub-fields

2007-10-01T08:26:00.000+02:00

Giovanna Costantini posted a comment to an earlier post which included the sentence

As an Art Historian, I would be interested in identifying others within my discipline working internationally on subjects related to esotericism and in a sub-affiliation/listserv of such scholars.

Would any others be interested? In Art history or in any other discipline/sub-field of the study of Western esotericism? Please reply by comment to this post.

Welcome! Please leave feedback

2007-09-25T17:28:00.000+02:00

I was glad to see that three members had signed up for the blog before I'd even finished sending out the invitations.

When you've had a look at the blog, please leave any feedback as a comment to this post.

Caucasian Esotericism

2007-09-16T13:48:00.000+02:00

As someone currently researching esotericism in the Caucasus I often wonder where Western esotericism is supposed to 'end.' That esotericism in the Caucasus exists needs little proof. Just take the Armenian Hermetic texts or the Georgian neo-Platonic school founded at the Gelati monastery in the 11th/12th century by Ioan Petritsi.

Contemporary examples of Caucasian esotericists are Zviad Gamsakhurdia, the Orthodox-Christian Anthroposophist who was also Georgia's first post-Communist president, and Khozh-Akhmed Noukhaev,the Chechen nationalist who turned to Traditionalism and the neo-Eurasianism of Aleksandr Dugin. These two examples especially arefairly unproblematic, since both men openly adopted and adapted esoteric currents with clear Western-European backgrounds. They are simply examples of Western esotericism imported to the Caucasus.

Petritsi's neo-Platonism is already much more difficult to judge -- if only because of the language barrier. Petritsi was a student at Psellus' academy before returning to Georgia. His translation of Proclus was a landmark in Georgian literary culture and gave rise towhat is called the Georgian Renaissance.

How should the Georgian neo-Platonic school be treated? As a priori part of Western esotericism? And why? Because it is Christian? Because it is neo-Platonic? Or perhaps for some other reason? (NB: Interestingly, Zviad Gamsakhurdia drew his inspiration not only from Steiner, but also from Petritsi.)

Ward ten Houten
[Posted by Kocku von Stuckrad for Ward ten Houten]

Sentimental thoughts on Tuebingen

2007-09-05T17:33:00.000+02:00

I remember very well how in the first half of the 1990s, Antoine Faivre and I were talking about the necessity of getting Western esotericism recognized as a field of research, and of the absence at the time of all those things that belong to an established field, such as academic chairs, teaching programs, peer-reviewed journals, monograph series, scholarly organizations on a national and international level, interdisciplinary exchange with other disciplines, and so on and so forth. At the time, there was nothing, or almost nothing.

That was no more than 15 years ago. And now I suddenly found myself standing on a podium in Tuebingen looking at a crowded lecture room full of scholars, including many students and ph.d. students, from many countries, who all shared a real, serious and enthusiastic commitment to Western esotericism as a field of research, and for all or whom (at least, so I imagine) the question of its academic legitimacy is no longer an issue on which to waste one's time.

This is how far we have come in so short a period of time.

The presence of so many young people - students who had taken the trouble to travel all the way to an academic conference like this - was particularly inspiring: it means that Western esotericism is no longer a pursuit dominated by a relatively small circle of "usual suspects" belonging to the older and middle generations (although it was obviously fantastic that almost of them were there as well), but that it has taken root among those who will take the field into the future.

In short, it was a historical event indeed: the moment, as far as I'm concerned, when Western esotericism has definitively "come of age".

Wouter Hanegraaff

Sufis, Kabbalists and Christian Philosophers in Medieval Spain

2007-09-03T14:59:00.000+02:00

The New York Open Center announces a conference entitled "An Esoteric Quest for The Golden Age of Andalusia: Sufis, Kabbalists and Christian Philosophers in Medieval Spain," to be held in Granada, Spain, September 15th to 20th, 2007.

Call for articles

2007-09-03T13:58:00.000+02:00

The ESSWE Newsletter calls for short articles (500-2,000 words) on any topic relating to Western Esotericism.

Topics
All topics to Western Esotericism will be considered. Articles may, for example, discuss individuals, groups or practices, or address theoretical issues. They may also present work in progress, or summarize conclusions that will later be published in full elsewhere.

Authors are advised to look at the excellent articles published in the ISIM Review, a review of contemporary Islamic studies which pioneered this format. Articles from the ISIM Review are available on the ISIM website.

Review and comments
Editorial changes for style and clarity may be suggested before publication, but no formal peer-review will be carried out. Instead, other members of ESSWE will be invited to comment on articles published on this blog, so long as comments are constructive, relevant, and courteous.

Submission
Authors may either contact the editor in advance, or send unsolicited work. Authors must be full or student members of ESSWE, and should provide information concerning their institutional affiliation when submitting articles or enquiries.

Format

Articles should include abstracts of no more than 80 words.
Titles should be short. Subtitles are not used.
Paragraphs should also be short. There should be several subheadings, usually one every three or four paragraphs.
Articles should be submitted either in Microsoft Word or as HTML text, with as little formatting as possible, save for italics for foreign words.
Bullet points may be used, sparingly.

Scandinavian network

2007-09-03T11:33:00.000+02:00

A new network has come into being within ESSWE: SNASWE, the Scandinavian Network for the Academic Study of Western Esotericism.

SNASWE was launched at a recent conference held in Turku, Finland. Its purpose is to bring together Scandinavian scholars interested in Western Esotericism and non-Scandinavian scholars interested in esotericism in Scandinavia, to share relevant information, and to assist applications for funding within Scanadinavia. It will soon launch either a ListServ or a blog similar to this one.

All members of ESSWE are invited to join SNASWE if they wish: please contact the co-ordinator of SNASWE, Henrik Bogdan of Goteborg.

All those who wish to join SNASWE and are not members of ESSWE will be requested to join ESSWE first.

The board of ESSWE is enthusiastic about SNASWE, which might be the first of a number of other such networks--for Central and Eastern Europe, for example, or for PhD students.

Using this blog

2007-09-03T10:40:00.000+02:00

Reading the blog
The blog is open to all to read.

Commenting on posts
All members of the ESSWE can comment on posts.

Making new posts
All members of the board of ESSWE may make posts to this blog for announcements of events, books, etc. Members of the ESSWE should submit announcements and articles to the editor, Mark Sedgwick.

Appropriate and inappropriate posts and comments

Announcements of conferences and books are normally made on the main ESSWE website. They may also be made on this blog if desired.
Short articles are especially encouraged, usually of about 1,000 words in length. Members might, for example, describe the nature and preliminary results of a current research project.
Discussions on any topic related to the objectives of the ESSWE are encouraged, so long as the tone is polite. Comments that are off-topic or impolite will be removed by the editor.
Questions concerning sources, information and so on are generally encouraged.

Languages

Postings and comments may be made in any language known to at least one member of the board. The use of English is encouraged in order to maximize the number of readers. The use of a spellchecker is also encouraged!

Panel: ‘The Political Temptations of Western Esotericism’

1970-01-01T17:00:00.001+01:00

Call for Papers

EASR conference Brno, 7.-11. September 2008

Panel: ‘The Political Temptations of Western Esotericism’

Convenors: Marco Pasi (University of Amsterdam) and Osvald Vasicek (University of Amsterdam), on behalf of the European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism (ESSWE)

The relationship between Western esotericism and politics is certainly not virgin territory. Just to mention two examples, Auguste Viatte in his classic work on illuminism (Les sources occultes du romantisme, 1928) had discussed the political significance of esoteric ideas in the period preceding the French revolution; and James Webb explored the interplay of esotericism and politics in the 19th and 20th centuries in two important books (The Occult Underground, 1974; and The Occult Establishment, 1976). Furthermore, since the mid-1980s the French academic journal Politica Hermetica has devoted its annual issues to this complex relationship. However, there is still much that academic research can say on this topic. One of the avenues which still have to be explored is the relationship that the research field itself may have with politics in the formation and the discussion of its object. How political is the study of esotericism? Which political assumptions may lead scholars to define esotericism in a certain way instead of another? How political is the choice of defining esotericism as specifically ‘western’, as opposed to ‘non-western’ in a cultural climate impregnated by discourses on the ‘clash of civilizations’? During the 20th century esotericism has been often associated to radical politics, both left- and right-wing, revolutionary and reactionary. If esotericism has been for a long time a suspect and sensitive field of research in the academia, its relationship with politics has often created an explosive mixture. Is it possible to study this relationship while avoiding the Scylla of apology and the Charibdis of sensationalist condemnation?

For this panel, we are looking for papers that will explore the politics of studying esotericism in all its possible aspects. Papers dealing with historical instances of the relationship between politics and esotericism will also be considered. Possible areas of interest may be, for instance, the use of esoterical themes in the construction of national identities in the 19th and 20th centuries or political theories of social regeneration based on esoteric thought.

If you are interested to propose a paper for this panel, please send an e-mail with abstract to: Osvald Vasicek, MA (o.vasicek@uva.nl). Abstracts should be limited to 200 words and should be accompanied by a short personal description of the author with academic affiliation and/ or other academic qualifications. PhD, and exceptionally MA, students are also encouraged to submit a proposal.

Deadline for proposal submission is 24 April 2008.

For more information on the conference and registration see: http://www.phil.muni.cz/relig/easr2008
For more information on the academic study of esotericism see: http://www.esswe.org/ and http://www.amsterdamhermetica.nl/.

Panel: ‘Ex Oriente Lux: The Presence of Western Esotericism in Eastern Europe’

1970-01-01T17:00:00.000+01:00

Call for Papers

EASR conference Brno, 7.-11. September 2008

Panel: ‘Ex Oriente Lux: The Presence of Western Esotericism in Eastern Europe’

Convenors: Marco Pasi (University of Amsterdam) and Osvald Vasicek (University of Amsterdam), on behalf of the European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism (ESSWE)

In recent decades the academic study of esotericism in the west (particularly France, the Netherlands, Germany and the Anglo-Saxon world) has experienced a rapid growth. In academic institutions in Paris, Amsterdam and Exeter, specific chairs have been created, while increasing attention is given to this area of research also from other fields of religious, cultural, historic, and sociological studies.

Due to several difficulties – mainly linguistic, but also political until 1989 – the status of research of esotericism in Eastern Europe is for the greater part unknown. For this particular panel we are therefore looking for papers that will discuss the development of the study of western esotericism in Eastern Europe and/or single topics related to the presence of western esotericism in the same geographical area. We would especially like to encourage Eastern European students and academics to share their research, knowledge and insight.
The academic study of esotericism has developed mainly in a historical perspective, but we will also consider proposals from others perspectives, such as sociology, psychology, and anthropology. Topics may likewise vary from alchemy, astrology, magic, hermetism, theosophy, spiritualism, occultism, and range from medieval sources to contemporary esoteric movements.

If you are interested to propose a paper for this panel, please send an e-mail with abstract to: Osvald Vasicek, MA (o.vasicek@uva.nl). Abstracts should be limited to 200 words and should be accompanied by a short personal description of the author with academic affiliation and/ or other academic qualifications. PhD, and exceptionally MA, students are also encouraged to submit a proposal.

Deadline for proposal submission is 24 April 2008.

For more information on the conference and registration see: http://www.phil.muni.cz/relig/easr2008
For more information on the academic study of esotericism see: http://www.esswe.org/ and http://www.amsterdamhermetica.nl/.

ESSWE Newsletter

Blog closed

Call for Faculty

ASE update

Witchcraft images

New Journal: Preternature

Call for papers: The Secret and the Manifest (December 2010, Dnipropetrovsk)

New Spanish online library of alchemical works

The Esoteric Crossroads: Intercultural Patterns in Early Modern Esotericism

Influencia de la Masonería en el Pensamiento Político de la Revolución de Mayo

New Call for papers, IAHR--Seduced by Science

Vacancy: curator Dutch masonic collection

Celestial Spheres

Calls: Panel for IAHR

Vacancy: Postdoc Groningen University

Conference: Astrologies

Conference CCWE

The Literary and Linguistic Context of the Zohar

How dangerous is the Ir-rational?

Esotericism, Magic, and Radicalism

Studying Interpretations of Esotericism and Mysticism

Conference: Religion, Nature & Progress

Conference: Hermes in the Academy

Satanism in the Modern World

Esoteric Book Conference

Call for papers

Conference: Cosmologies

Call for book proposals: Suny Press

AAR conference 2009

Phoenix Rising: Death and Renaissance in Philosophy, Art, and Literature

Vacancy at the University of Amsterdam

Call for papers IZEA

Albert von Keller: Salons, Séancen, Secession

Unbegreifliche Zeiten. Wunder im 20. Jahrhundert

Academic Society for Research into Freemasonry

Tarot in Culture--Call for Papers

Holy Inspiration: Religion and spirituality in modern art

Conference at Leiden University

Freemasonry blog

Swedenborg symposium

New discussion group on Facebook

ESSWE PhD Thesis Prize

The Mysteries and Philosophy of Antiquity

Sufism and Transnational Spirituality

American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies

Crowley in Paris

Alternative Expressions of the Numinous

Expression of Freemasonry

Conference Rapport: Western Esotericism at the 2008 CESNUR Conference

New Religiosity; If Not New Age, Then What?

Esoteric Migrations into the American Comparative Literature Association

ESSWE at the EASR--Calls

2nd ESSWE conference--Call for Papers

Conference: Alternative Expressions of the Numinous

New MA at the University of Kent

Dutch Masonic and Esoteric Archives

Recent volumes in the Aries Book Series

Appointments in research into Freemasonry

SNASWE blog opens

More from the EPHE...

New theses at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes

Why Esotericism? The Importance of a Newly Emerging Field

American Academy of Religion 2007

The Demarcation of Western Esotericism in Theory and Practice

Intellectual Stendhalism in Tübingen

Esotericism in Scandinavia

Jubilee Symposium of the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica

Jacob Böhme’s Way into the World

Brill launches new Journal of Religion in Europe

ESSWE membership heavily concentrated

Blog opened

Esotericism in Jewish Thought

Announcing a forthcoming offline edition of the ESSWE Newsletter

Change to submission procedures

Grail legends

Student networks

Sub-fields

Welcome! Please leave feedback

Caucasian Esotericism

Sentimental thoughts on Tuebingen