Aries Book Series: Texts and Studies in Western Esotericism is the first professional academic book series specifically devoted to a long-neglected but now rapidly developing domain of research in the humanities, usually referred to as Western Esotericism. This field covers a variety of alternative currents in western religious history, including so-called hermetic philosophy and related currents in the early modern period; alchemy, paracelsianism and rosicrucianism; Jewish and Christian kabbalah and its later developments; theosophical and illuminist currents; and various occultist and related developments during the 19th and 20th centuries, up to and including popular contemporary currents such as the New Age movement.
Published under the auspices of the European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism (ESSWE).
For the journal Aries - Journal for the Study of Western Esotericism please click here.
The series has published an average of two volumes per year over the last five years.
List of Figures
Notes on Contributors
Introduction Or, What We Talk about When We Talk about Deviance
Manon Hedenborg White and Tim Rudbøg
Part 1
Theorizing Deviance
1On the Social Organization of Rejected Knowledge Reassessing the Sociology
of the Occult
Egil Asprem
2On the Concept of a Deviant Movement
Olav Hammer
3Disrupting Sanctified Deviance The Benefits of Boredom
Jay Johnston
4The Judges of Normality Are Everywhere Has Esotericism and the Ideas of
H. P. Blavatskys Ever Been Normal?
Tim Rudbøg
Part 2
Historical Cases
5Constructions of Religious Deviance in the Greek and Roman Worlds
Richard Gordon
6The Deviance of Toz The Reception of Toz Graecus and Magical Works
Attributed to Toz in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries
Lauri Ockenström
7Forgotten Knowledge, Deviance and Esotericism The Eternally Burning Lamps
of Fortunio Liceti
Martin Mulsow
8Strategic Deviance and Conflicting Loyalties The Spiritualist Interests of
Bishop Ghenadie Petrescu (18361918)
Ionu Daniel Bncil
9Jewish Kabbalah, Christian Onomatodoxy (Imyaslavie) and Theological
Flexibility in Russia at the Beginning of the Twentieth Century
Konstantin Burmistrov
10Vasily V. Nalimov A Scientist, Philosopher and Mystical Anarchist from
Komi
Birgit Menzel
11Hahayoga as Black Magic in Early Theosophy and Beyond
Keith E. Cantú
12Philology as an Epistemological Strategy to Claim Higher Knowledge
Translational Endeavors within the Theosophical Society; A Case Study of
Annie Besants Bhagavad-Gita
Yves Mühlematter
13I Would Not Have Left Your Platform Had I Not Been Compelled Annie
Besants Exclusion from the National Secular Society (1891)
Muriel Pécastaing-Boissière
14Dismissing the Occult The Links between Esoteric Currents and French
Homeopathic Medicine during the First Half of the Twentieth Century
Léo Bernard
15The Devils Popess The French Reception of Maria de Naglowska (18831936)
in the Early 1930s
Michele Olzi
16Confessions of a Persian Opium Smoker Sadegh Hedayat, Esotericism, and
The Blind Owl
Kurosh Amoui
17Fernando Pessoas Multiple Esoteric Deviances
Fabio Mendia
Part 3
Concluding Remarks
18Afterword Rejected Knowledge as a Liberal Art
Joscelyn Godwin
Editors Conclusion
Manon Hedenborg White and Tim Rudbøg
Index
