A Dark Muse: A History of the Occult

Couverture
Basic Books, 9 sept. 2009 - 378 pages
The 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.

À l'intérieur du livre

Table des matières

A Dark Muse
13
Romantic Occultism
64
Satanic Occultism
127
Fin de siècle Occultism
152
The Modernist Occultist
226
Selected Texts
271
Selected Bibliography
381
Droits d'auteur

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Expressions et termes fréquents

Fréquemment cités

Page 180 - I saw that all men are immortal; that the cosmic order is such that without any peradventure all things work together for the good of each and all ; that the foundation principle of the world, of all the worlds, is what we call love, and that the happiness of each and all is in the long run absolutely certain.
Page 329 - But he can never be thus divested — at least never will be — else we must imagine an action of God returning upon itself — a purposeless and futile action. Man is a creature. Creatures are thoughts of God. .It is the nature of thought to be irrevocable. P. I do not comprehend. You say that man will never put off the body ? V. I say that he will never be bodiless. P. Explain. V. There are two bodies — the rudimental and the complete ; corresponding with the two conditions of the worm and the...
Page 368 - Along with the consciousness of the cosmos there occurs an intellectual enlightenment or illumination which alone would place the individual on a new plane of existence — would make him almost a member of a new species. To this is added a state of moral exaltation, an indescribable feeling of elevation, elation and joyousness, and a quickening of the moral sense, which is fully as striking and more important both to the individual and to the race than is the enhanced intellectual power.
Page 86 - They arise in the soul (alas, how rarely!) only at its epochs of most intense tranquillity, when the bodily and mental health are in perfection, and at those mere points of time where the confines of the waking world blend with those of the world of dreams. I am aware of these " fancies " only when I am upon the very brink of sleep, with the consciousness that I am so.
Page 180 - Among other things he did not come to believe, he saw and knew that the Cosmos is not dead matter but a living Presence, that the soul of man is immortal, that the universe is so built and ordered that without any peradventure all things work together for the good of each and all, that the foundation principle of the world is what we call love and that the happiness of every one is in the long run absolutely certain.
Page 284 - Radtol (ordinal nnmbers) the first the second the third the fourth the fifth the sixth the seventh the eighth the ninth the tenth the eleventh the twelfth the thirteenth the fourteenth the fifteenth the sixteenth the seventeenth the eighteenth the nineteenth the twentieth the twenty-first...
Page 286 - THE LIPIKA CIRCUMSCRIBE THE TRIANGLE, THE FIRST ONE, THE CUBE, THE SECOND ONE, AND THE PENTACLE WITHIN THE EGG. IT IS THE RING CALLED "PASS NOT" FOR THOSE WHO DESCEND AND ASCEND. ALSO FOR THOSE WHO DURING THE KALPA ARE PROGRESSING TOWARDS THE GREAT DAY "BE WITH US.
Page 316 - For everyone has all things in himself and sees all things in another; so that all things are everywhere and all is all and each is all, and the glory is infinite.

À propos de l'auteur (2009)

Gary Lachman is the author of A Secret History of Consciousness and Turn Off Your Mind. He's written for TLS, Literary Review, Guardian, Independent, Mojo, and Bizarre, and is a regular contributor to Fortean Times. Aside from writing, Lachman has been a bass player and composer for the punk rock band Blondie, a guitarist with legendary rock 'n' roll wild-man Iggy Pop, and the leader of his own groups The Know and Fire Escape. He lives in London.

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