A Dark Muse: A History of the OccultThe occult was a crucial influence on the Renaissance, and it obsessed the popular thinkers of the day. But with the Age of Reason, occultism was sidelined; only charlatans found any use for it. Occult ideas did not disappear, however, but rather went underground. It developed into a fruitful source of inspiration for many important artists. Works of brilliance, sometimes even of genius, were produced under its influence. In A Dark Muse, Lachman discusses the Enlightenment obsession with occult politics, the Romantic explosion, the futuristic occultism of the fin de sièe, and the deep occult roots of the modernist movement. Some of the writers and thinkers featured in this hidden history of western thought and sensibility are Emanuel Swedenborg, Charles Baudelaire, J. K. Huysmans, August Strindberg, William Blake, Goethe, Madame Blavatsky, H. G. Wells, Edgar Allan Poe, and Malcolm Lowry. |
Contents
| 13 | |
Romantic Occultism | 64 |
Satanic Occultism | 127 |
Fin de siècle Occultism | 152 |
The Modernist Occultist | 226 |
Selected Texts | 271 |
Selected Bibliography | 381 |
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Common terms and phrases
19th century alchemical Aleister Aleister Crowley Andrei Bely appeared Balzac Baudelaire beautiful became Beckford believed Bely Blackwood Blake Blavatsky Briusov Cagliostro called Cazotte consciousness cosmic Crowley Crowley's dark Daumal death decadent Devil dreams early Eliphas Levi Enlightenment esoteric experience Fernando Pessoa fin de siècle freemasonry Gérard de Nerval Goethe Golden Dawn Gurdjieff heaven hermetic Hoffmann human Huysmans idea Illuminati influence Kabbalah kabbalistic later light literary living London Lowry Lytton Machen Madame Blavatsky magical magician Malcolm Lowry matter Maupassant Mesmer Meyrink Milosz mind mother mysteries mystical nature Nerval night Novalis novel obsessed occult occultist Ouspensky Ouspensky's P.D. Ouspensky Paris Pessoa philosopher Poe's poems poet poetry remarked Rimbaud Romantic Rosicrucian Rudolf Steiner Russian Saint-Martin Satan secret societies sense soul spiritual Steiner story strange Strindberg Swedenborg symbol theme Theosophical things thou thought tion truth universe Villiers vision Weishaupt's writing wrote Yeats