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This article uses the concept of 'transimperial' history to show how religious transformations within then between different empires led to the development of new religious geographies and the alteration of existing religious centres. Combining examples from Asian, African, European and American empires, the article points to common patterns across four categories of religious space: steam ports (such as Bombay), railway towns (such as Harbin), preexisting pilgrimage places (such as Bodhgaya), and imperial borderlands (such as Hawaii). These transimperial sites spaces enabled doctrinal, ritual, linguistic, and organizational changes to Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism, enabling the propagation of such new religions as Theosophy and Baha'ism. Further attention is paid to architectural and organizational change, as well as the use of printing and translation in promoting new versions of these religions to different population groups. In this way, transimperial tranformation paved the way for more familiar globalized forms of religiosity in the later 20th century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Logos: A Journal, of Religion, Philosophy Comparative Cultural Studies & Art (08687692) is the property of Logos and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In 1923 Guatemalan author Carlos Wyld Ospina gave a speech celebrating the induction of members to the Theosophic lodge he co-founded in 1922. This article studies this address as a call to action that advocated for an inclusive nation at a time when the hegemonic discourse perpetuated the positivist ideology of exclusion. To begin, I contextualize the author and locate him in the evolution of Guatemalan Literary Studies. Next, I trace the global route of Theosophy and outline how Wyld Ospina funnelled this ideology into Guatemala. Then, I read Wyld Ospina's speech delineating his plan of nation building, and I point to ideological continuities he was to voice in two articles in 1938. Finally, I suggest that this continuity of thought recontextualizes Wyld Ospina's literature and opens it to new interpretations, and I define the epistemic value of these rereadings as one that will allow for the further study of the pivotal and dynamic role of race throughout Guatemalan national history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fundamental principles of constitutional law are outlined concisely, though they are reinterpreted in this work through the philosophical lens of Sufism. While these principles are traditionally embedded in constitutional texts, they are reconceptualised here based on Sufi thought. Key concepts such as popular sovereignty, limitations on power, accountability of the governing bodies, separation and independence of powers, power equilibrium, central authority supremacy, transparency in governance, adherence to legal norms, and the mechanisms of checks and balances are critically examined. This study investigates the theoretical underpinnings of constitutional law from the theosophical and mystical perspectives of Islamic Sufism. By introducing ten foundational principles, the research aims to establish a robust framework for formulating and enhancing constitutional systems. Comparative analyses with Gnostic traditions from other religions could provide further insights. These principles offer valuable perspectives for academic discourse and have practical implications for advancing constitutional law and its reinterpretation. The inherent subtlety, sincerity, and ethical depth of Islamic Sufism provide a compelling perspective that may intrigue legal scholars and researchers. Despite its richness, the Sufi viewpoint still needs to be explored within public law studies. This paper introduces a novel and intellectually stimulating domain, inviting further scholarly inquiry.

The reflection of mystical elements presented by W.B. Yeats in his poetry is extraordinary and legendary. As an Irish poet, W.B. Yeats put mystical thoughts in to his poetry through which he discovered the truth about the universe. Therefore, the study in hand, analyzes Yeats' use of mystical symbols, imagery, and concepts, viz. fate, God, death, love, paradise, and hell among others. Correspondingly, this research reveals that Yeats' poetry reflects his interest in mysticism, and Theosophy. Furthermore, the current study employed qualitative research approach and utilized thematic analysis to achieve objectives of the study. For this purpose, W.B. Yeats numerous poems are analyzed as a primary source with special reference to authentic sources, research papers and websites etc. Likewise, this research hopes to contribute some meaningful insights to the existing literature, by offering different interpretations to W.B. Yeats' mystical and philosophical perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The matriarch of Theosophy, Helena P. Blavatsky (1831--1891), wrote a short devotional text called The Voice of the Silence (1889) towards the end of her life that she intended as scripture and which has been endorsed with enthusiasm by individuals both within and outside the parent Theosophical Society. This article approaches the production of The Voice of the Silence as a case study in the construction of scripture, outlining the work's doctrines (particularly regarding kundalini and the higher idhhis), describing the controversies that impelled Blavatsky to publish it, and exploring some of her key literary sources. It reveals that Blavatsky strategically rewrote an earlier publication, Light on the Path (1885), by the English Theosophist Mabel Collins (1851-- 1927). Blavatsky enriched her writing of The Voice of the Silence with material taken from a handful of articles on Hindu thought, including Yoga, written by Indian Theosophists and others. She responded to challenges to her authority by producing a new Theosophical scripture that addressed issues of spiritual and temporal power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we aim to provide a summary of the development of modern psychological astrology over the past century in terms of its esoteric and scientific historical antecedents, highlighting the contributions of the Theosophists on the one hand and C.G. Jung on the other, while discussing not only the complex interrelationships between the two but also other important authors and relevant historical aspects. By tracing the links between psychology and Western esotericism we also try to illustrate that, although being apparently two very separate fields, they are connected in several ways, both because of the similar questions they pose, because of certain historical processes that have influenced them, and because of the common subject matter they address—the human mind or soul. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses W.S. Reymont's novel Vampire as a modern esoteric text, focusing mainly on the motif of the double (Doppelgänger). References to theosophical interpretative tropes shed light not only on Reymont's interest in esotericism, but also on its practical application in diagnosing the modern subject. Reymont's characters suffer as a result of the vagueness and elusiveness of their own selves, which is reflected in the figure of the double. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reconstructs the concept of J. Strube, a leading representative of the younger generation of esotericism researchers. In the first part of the article, his critical program is analyzed, it is established that he systematically deconstructed the existing ideas about Western esotericism with the help of a large source base. Starting with the demythologization of the story of the occult energy of Vril, he turned to the origins of the French esoteric community, finding them in the first generation of socialists. The second part examines the positive research program of Strube: having criticized global ideological attitudes (poststructuralism, postcolonialism, cultural relativism), he proceeded to substantiate a new religious studies program – global religious studies. To reveal its heuristic potential, Strube conducted a systematic reconstruction of the Western reception of Tantrism, including the identification of the esoteric background of Indian culture of the XIX century, the specifics of the activities of the theosophical society in India and the "Arthur Avalon project", which combined the efforts of the Shivachandra tantric school. Strube's research shows that the colonial process of appropriation of Indian doctrines by the West did not exist, in fact, esoteric discourse was a global form of constructing ideologies and identities around the world. Indians at the beginning of the XIX century used it to modernize the language of ancient religious doctrines, and later Bengalis with its help made a successful attempt to legitimize Tantra. In conclusion it is shown that the program of global religious studies is a revival of religious comparativism, but on a solid foundation based on new empirical material.

Allan Bennett was one of the first British people to be ordained as a Buddhist monk (bhikkhu) in Asia, taking the name Ananda Metteyya. He was a liminal figure who stretched across different nineteenth and early twentieth-century contexts. He was well-educated but experienced poverty and chronic illness. He was able to live in colonial Ceylon and Burma because of British imperialism but mercilessly critiqued the failings of Britain’s imperial ambitions. Before gaining higher ordination (upasampadā), he was a Theosophist and a ceremonial magician within the Order of the Golden Dawn, becoming a close friend of Aleister Crowley, and he never gave up the yogic practices he learnt from a Hindu teacher in Ceylon. For Buddhists in Ceylon, he became a symbol of the developing confidence of Buddhism under imperialism, but for some Westerners, he was a dubious figure and a ‘sham’ monk. For yet others in the West, he remained essentially a magician and a master of esotericism. After his death he was claimed and appropriated both by occultists, followers of Crowley, and by Asian and Western Buddhists. Allan Bennett/Ananda Metteyya preferred to refer to himself as Ananda M, even after he disrobed toward the end of his life. He was a prolific and fluent writer, convinced that the West could only be saved from its consumerism, individualism, and violence through Buddhism. Both from Yangon and after he returned to Britain in 1914, he sought to communicate the teaching of the Buddha in ways Westerners might be able to understand. His representation of Buddhism combined sensitivity to lived Buddhism in Asia and a conviction that the Buddha’s teaching was compatible with the contemporary science of his day. He drew from the Pāli canon and commentaries such as the Visuddhimagga but did not fall into the orientalist trap of seeing texts as the sole bearer of meaning within Buddhism. One of his main priorities was to contest misconceptions of Buddhism, for example that it was pessimistic (an accusation beloved by Christian missionaries), essentially esoteric (a view advocated by some Theosophists) or unsuitable for the activist West. In contradistinction to these views, he argued that Buddhism was rational, devotional, ethical, and centred on the practice of compassion. He defended devotion as a legitimate response to the self-sacrifice of the Buddha and resisted modernist reductions of the Buddha’s life and significance. This article contextualizes Allan Bennett/Ananda Metteyya within the spiritual seekership of the late nineteenth century. Its main focus is Ananda Metteyya’s representation of Buddhism and the factors that conditioned it, together with his role in the early transmission of Buddhism to the West.

Nationalistic interpretations of history were prevalent in Finland until the Second World War. A unifying past for Finns was sought in antiquity, often influenced by interpretations of the Kalevala, regarded as the Finnish national epic. The Kalevala also inspired writers in the Theosophical Society, who promoted various alternative views of humanity’s past. In this article, I analyse the late 1930s writings of Wilho “Willie” Angervo (1875–1938), a medical colonel and author who had a central role in the Finnish Order of the Star in the East and the Theosophical Society in his time. Inspired by the Kalevala, Angervo traced the origins of the Finns to the lost continent of Atlantis and aimed to revitalize the pre-Christian “faith of the forefathers”. Dialogical narrative analysis is employed to explore how Angervo portrayed the Finns’ past, combining Theosophical and nationalistic ideas to construct an ideal Finnishness. I argue that Angervo utilized the Theosophical timeline and concepts to construct a spiritually oriented national narrative for the Finns that would surpass any polit-ical quarrels and challenge both the Church and more military-oriented nationalism.

This article provides a diachronic panorama of the nineteenth- and twentieth-century Euro-American esoteric images of Confucius. After selected appraisals capturing the polyphony of nineteenth-century notions of Confucius, emphasis is given to spiritualist and Theosophical appropriations. Next, his soteriological elevation and the introduction of fellow Chinese Masters within the Ascended Masters context are explored in relation to the I AM Activity and, specifically, the post-Second World War groups The Bridge to Freedom (present-day The Bridge to Spiritual Freedom) and The Church Universal and Triumphant. Overall, this article traces the transformation of the esoteric Confucius trope, which substantially contributed to the wider public perception of Confucius and Confucianism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the last decades of the eighteenth century, knowledge about Siberia inspired Catherine II to create the main character of one of her comedies, The Siberian Shaman. Taking Foucault's dispositif -concept as its theoretical premise, the present paper discusses the historical context in which The Siberian Shaman was written, deconstructs the identity of the comedy's main character, and explores the socio-political purposes for which the comedy was written. By utilising the perspective of entangled history of religions and the methodology of historical discourse analysis, this paper shows that the comedy's alleged "shamanic" content and "anti-shamanic" purpose cannot be taken for granted. Rather, the discourse in The Siberian Shaman should be read as Catherine II's own engagement with the themes of unreason and madness within the philosophical, socio-political and religious context of the period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As initially published by Aleister Crowley (1875–1947) in 1909, his book 777 contained tables of correspondences between the Tarot, qabalistic Tree of Life, divine pantheons and other aspects of Western esotericism. Unsatisfied with the original edition, in 1925 he commissioned artist Oskar Hopfer (1892–1966) to produce diagrams to illustrate the correspondences contained in the tables. Unfortunately, no publisher was found to issue the revised work, and the project went unfulfilled. Hopfer's original work for Crowley is no longer extant. His designs were considered lost until the recent discovery of set of the diagrams in a German museum. This discovery has shed light on Crowley's plans for the revised edition of 777 , his attempts to publish the work, and his belief in the power of the visual arts to communicate complex esoteric principles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Contributions to Contemporary History / Prispevki za Novejšo Zgodovino is the property of Prispevki za Novejso Zgodovino and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Recial is the property of Universidad Nacional de Cordoba, Centro de Investigaciones, Facultad de Filosofia y Humanidades and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Starting from sites of yogic and Buddhist learning connecting Indonesia and India this article explores the politics, practices, transformation, dissemination and uses of knowledge on yoga and meditation in late colonial and postcolonial Indonesia, and their relation to moral geographies of Greater India. It follows, across (violent) regime changes, the trajectories of learning of a number of self-made experts and entrepreneurs in this field who were also involved in the postcolonial Buddhist reform movement in Indonesia: the Chinese Indonesians Souw Tjiang Poh (b.1929), better known, also as yoga guru, under his Buddhist name Yogamurti; and his meditation teacher, Tee Boan An (1923–2002), who, as Ashin Jinarakkhita, is more famous as motor behind the Buddhist reform movement in Indonesia from the 1950s onwards. Yogamurti's and Tee Boan An's histories of 'yogic' transformation reach back to 'alternative' spiritual reform trajectories of the Theosophical Society of late colonial times, and continue, across decolonization and the violent regime change of 1965, to those of the hippie trail of the 1970s. These spiritual and 'Indic' religious revivalist entrepreneurs provide alternative perspectives to the grand narratives of political history, yoga, 'Indian religion' or 'Greater India'. Across regime changes, their paths crossed and they exchanged knowledge, thereby changing and reshaping social hierarchies as they moved within an 'alternative present' in which spirituality seemed a way to move forward to 'alternative futures'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The theoretical framework presented in this article makes it possible to understand religions as constantly changing networks of actors and infrastructures that incorporate, modify, discard, and reformulate numerous "elements" in terms of specific conceptualizations often rooted in concrete contexts of application, and "structures," i.e., larger conceptual contexts such as evolution, cosmogonies, or anthropological views of humanity, in a necessary ongoing creative process. Such a process, and the usefulness of the tool, will be illustrated in this article through discussion of the work of Robert T. Browne, particularly his book The Mystery of Space. To date, research has assumed that Browne derives all of his theory from Theosophy. By applying the above theoretical framework and situating Browne's work within a broader network of discourses, the article challenges this conclusion and is able to paint a more complete picture. This illustrates the usefulness of the analytical tool presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay explores Nahmanides' teachings concerning the holy spirit. It demonstrates that he elevated the holy spirit to the highest possible gradation in the godhead—conceived as the divine essence that flows through the various gradations of the godhead and into the perfected individual, inducing a variety of revelations: subprophetic, prophetic, and eschatological. The holy spirit in Nahmanides' thought is the driving force behind his conceptualization of the godhead, the community of Israel and its leadership, and the individual Jew—throughout their various phases of self-actualization, that is, becoming spirit. He placed the holy spirit along a spectrum of spirituality—the least spiritual stage is that of people who glimpse the future and those men of the holy spirit, while the most spiritual stage is that of the eschatological state of being, in which the spiritual faculties permanently overtake the corporeal faculties. Furthermore, Nahmanides crafted spaces structured by the spirit in the forms of the Jerusalem temple and contemporary rabbinic courts. This essay concludes by drawing attention to the similarities between Nahmanides' conception of the holy spirit and the common conception of the holy spirit in medieval Christianity, thereby analyzing Nahmanides' conception of the holy spirit in its historical and religious context: situated between mystical, philosophical, and polemical tensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

First Theodor Adorno in 1965, and then a second wave of scholars in the 1980s, noted that the philosopher Ernst Bloch (1885–1977) engaged substantially with theosophy, particularly when young. This included Bloch's critique of the new religious movement anthroposophy, which some see as an offshoot of theosophy, and of anthroposophy's founder, Rudolf Steiner (1861–1925). I address the lack of English publications on the content of this engagement, and integrate other current questions about Steiner, including the centrality of racism to his whole philosophy. Comparing Bloch's epistemology with Steiner's ultimately reveals much that is irreconcilable, alongside significant points of convergence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Wielogłos is the property of Jagiellonian University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Cahiers Victoriens & Edouardiens is the property of Presses Universitaires de la Mediterranee and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The goddess Isis continues to be an influential figure for the notion of the Divine Feminine in contemporary esoteric and popular thought. However, looking back into the history of modern esotericism, the image of the goddess Isis has been used by Theosophists such as Florence Farr and Frances Swiney to argue for their feminist and more importantly eugenic interpretations of the power of that goddess. This article examines the writings of these two Theosophists together to highlight the eugenics aspects of their vision of Isis as the perfect mother and the superwoman. Through this, Isis became a symbol for a specific gendered aspect of religious eugenics by changing the meaning of the Divine Feminine. This is one of the roots of contemporary Isis interpretations leading to a prevalent idea of fertility and the gendered divine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sherlock Holmes is often oversimplified as a secular modern professional, with a remorselessly scientific outlook. This hypothesis overlooks late-nineteenth-century English society's pursuit of new social possibilities for spiritualism, following challenges from Darwinist biological determinism to orthodox biblical mythology and morality. If we see Holmes in a default empirical scientism affiliated to imperial ideologies, we will remain blind to the effects of multiple countercultural and spiritual tones that also underpin the "science of deduction." Holmes' methods were subliminally informed by theosophy, as Doyle gleaned much of his spiritual knowledge from first- or second-hand readings on Blavatsky. Thus, Vedantic and Buddhist philosophy find inadvertent—but not coincidental—traces in Holmes through theosophy. An intellectual offspring of the trinity of Darwin, Huxley, and Tyndall, Holmes was also a child of Blavatsky's occult philosophy. Adopting a decolonial praxis, this paper argues that comparisons between the materialistic principles of Darwin, Huxley, and Tyndall, on the one hand, and Holmes on the other, are as useful as comparing the detective's work to Blavatsky's theosophy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article surveys the reception of the Gnostic text Pistis Sophia in esoteric milieus in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Europe. The first part of the article contains an overview of the text and scholarship on it. Then follows a study of the reception of Pistis Sophia in a broader array of esoteric circles. It becomes clear that the text was hailed as an example of ancient and great spiritual wisdom, although seldom discussed in detail theologically. Next, this is compared to the academic reception at the same time where it was, as previous scholars have made clear, discarded due to what was understood as a discrepancy with "Gnostic" characteristics. This article shows that Pistis Sophia was not discarded in esoteric circles but rather read in light of already established esoteric trajectories, for example Blavatsky's, Krumm-Heller's, or Papus' particular spiritual evolutionary perspectives. Lastly, it is argued that the understanding of Gnosticisms that both these receptions reflect is still very much active today: academics and esoteric groups are guided by similar trajectories vis-à-vis Gnosticism, seeing it as a representative of a "universal religious essence" associated with progressive attitudes (for example regarding sex and gender), which allows/forces them to renegotiate the ancient sources themselves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines transreligiosity in the context of the transmission of South Asian concepts of spirituality to the UK in the 20th century. Between the 1920s and 1990s, Indian teacher and author Phiroz Mehta (1902–1994) crossed borders in a colonial and postcolonial shuttling between India and the UK but also transgressed conceptual and practice borders of religion, teaching Indian religious concepts to post-Christian spiritual seekers in 1970s–80s South London. Mehta cultivated an elasticity between many religious and philosophical traditions, recognising the post-institutional fatigue of subjects who sought alternative forms of 'belonging without believing'. Privileging the domestic space for teaching, as well as transitory 'camp' gatherings in the UK and Germany, Mehta often operated in the social margins, combining teachings from Hinduism, Buddhism, and Christianity with Zoroastrianism, Judaism (specifically Kabbalah), and Daoism. He offered his tutees the freedom to practice religion in whatever way they chose by drawing on a broad range of traditions concurrently to create a transreligiosity. This paper examines Panagiotopoulos and Roussou's 'transgressional webs of practising individualised forms of alternative spirituality' in relation to Mehta's followers in the 1970s-1980s and asks how transreligiosity relates to other theoretical analyses, such as religious exoticism, bricolage, religious appropriation, cultural re-articulation or assemblage. This paper focuses on qualitative interviews with original members of the Mehta community conducted between 2021 and 2022. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Tibetan Book of the Dead is one of the most popular Eastern scriptures in the West, in part because it has been framed outside of religion, as a kind of psychology. And yet its translators have also used it to stake claims in the debate about the relationship between psychology and religion, generally Buddhism, but also Theosophy, a religious and philosophical system founded in 1875, which tried to unify all religions. The first major English translation of the Book of the Dead was published in 1927, by W. Y. Evans-Wentz, who was a Theosophist, with the assistance of Kazi Dawa-Samdup. Evans-Wentz framed the text as supporting the existence of a universal religion grounded in science, altered terms to support Theosophical beliefs, and also opened the way to psychologized interpretations. Carl Jung's 1937 introduction to the Evans-Wentz-Samdup translation solidified a psychologized reading. In 1975, Francesca Fremantle and Chogyam Trungpa produced a more accurate translation, which continued the psychologizing trend. The 2005 translation by Gyurme Dorje, with Graham Coleman and Thupten Junpa, is the most traditional and technically accurate, yet also shades meaning towards universal appeal. My evaluation of the orientation of these three translations--Theosophical (Evans-Wentz, 1927), psychological (Fremantle-Trungpa, 1975) and traditional (Dorje, 2005)--highlights the difficulty of translating religious terms. The translation history also sheds light on the ongoing debate about the compatibility of the aims of psychology (self-development) and Buddhism (self-eradication) and provides a foundation for my argument that psychologized renderings are simply a part of theological drift, a process that is continual and ongoing in religious traditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the early twentieth century, an esoteric interpretation of Zoroastrianism known as Ilme kṣnum became popular among the Parsis of India. Although research on the subject is scant, most scholars suggest that Ilme kṣnum draws largely upon the ideas promoted by the Theosophical Society in India. By examining primary sources in Gujarati, the present article illustrates the interpretation of the Zoroastrian cosmology proposed by Ilme kṣnum. Through a comparative analysis of its main concepts and terms, Ilme kṣnum is historicized in the context of the relations of the Parsi community with the Persianate and Western worlds. By framing Ilme kṣnum as a reconciliation between Persianate and Western forms of knowledge, the present article looks at historical entanglements as resources for the Parsi quest for religious authenticity, placing Zoroastrianism in global religious history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Bohemistyka is the property of Instytut Filologii Slowianskiej Uniwersytetu im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Montessori is one of the most fascinating and controversial pedagogues of all time. On the one hand, the naturalists reproached her for the rigidity and artificiality of her method, as well as her rejection of productive imagination and fantasy. On the other hand, progressive educators reproached the individualist and prescriptive character of her method. The modernists reproached her for her religiosity. Some criticized her for accelerating learning or for not respecting the freedom of the child, others for the contrary. Christians branded her a secularist, positivist, naturalist, and theosophist, while theosophists defined her as Catholic. These paradoxical criticisms are due, among other reasons, to the context of the antimodernist frenzy in which she developed her method, to her network of friends in Freemason circles, to the numerous nuances of her method, to her resistance to fitting in with existing educational currents, to the instrumentalization of her method by third party interests, to her sometimes entangled and not very clear language and to the lack of knowledge of her method in action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Avicenna is renowned as a rational philosopher, often regarded as the leader of peripatetic scholars. In addition to his philosophical acclaim, he was a skilled physician. Moreover, he held noteworthy views in mysticism and theology. This research aims to delve into his theological perspectives using a descriptive-analytical approach, which involves investigating his writings and the views of his contemporaries. It becomes evident that Avicenna’s extensive body of work, his reputation as a peripatetic philosopher, and his strongly rationalistic approach, which extends beyond the confines of religion, pose challenges when examining his inter-religious and theological views. Despite his unwavering commitment to his philosophical methodology and propositions, Avicenna did adopt certain conspicuous theological positions and religious approaches that extend beyond his philosophical thinking. This research seeks to explore the various dimensions of these theological and religious views comprehensively. It approaches Avicenna as a devoted Muslim philosopher, shedding light on this intriguing aspect of his intellectual legacy.

The study of divinity in ancient religious perceptions introduces us to the reality of the impact of the sacred, which is full of stories of gods and mythological worlds, in the formation of the traits of religious consciousness and in the explanation of the beginnings of creation and of the eschatological ends of the world, which makes us close to the question of the immortality of man after death, this idea could be the reason for the existence of religion. This impact of the sacred has opened to religious consciousness significant interpretation spaces revealing how one of the religious groups represents the truths of their common religion and eschatological beliefs despite the differences between them. This justified the interest of these ancient religious beliefs in the rituals of salvation, even if they were based on the same eschatological conception, namely immortality after death. There is no doubt that these ritual practices, although they express a form of communication between humans and the world of the gods, are at the same time the supreme expression of the purpose of human existence, be it to appease the Gods and avoid their wrath, or to obtain ways of salvation and deliverance from this world, which is an acknowledgment of what man disputes about the impulses of good and evil connected with the sin and salvation. We find these facts in the idea of Emancipation in the Brahmin religion, the conception of Nirvana in Buddhism, the Zoroastrian Law of Faith, and the law of Just Reward for the dead among the Egyptians. All these conceptions are the foundations of faith for these doctrines of salvation and as an expression of the sacred, it directs the gaze of believers to the real problems of man and his individual and social behaviors, these behaviors find their highest expression in all binding legislation and ethical systems oriented towards behavioral education and the instructions of the wise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dating from the middle of the nineteenth century, prominent paranormal researchers in Britain and the United States began to claim that they could see through time. Using clairvoyant powers, they proposed to solve the mysteries of geology and palaeontology, not least by filling in the missing links in the evolution of life. This article explores the literary outputs of these figures, with an especial focus on the Anglo-American 'psychometers' William and Elizabeth Denton and selected members of the Theosophical Society, including Helena Petrovna Blavatsky. I argue that clairvoyants' narratives of exploration in the prehistoric past were heavily indebted not just to the technical concepts of mainstream palaeoscience, but also to the figurative language and visual iconography used by palaeoscientists and science writers, including their metaphors of necromancy and visual spectacle. The vivid language of Victorian palaeoscience, crafted to see the unseeable events of prehistory, has been studied in depth by students of literature and science; recently, literary scholars have paid increasing attention to the imaginative prose of occult science writing. I bring these bodies of scholarship together, contesting that Romantic conceptions of science motivated paranormal researchers to literalize the figurative language of time-travel deployed by more orthodox palaeoscientists. Examining the work of the Dentons, Blavatsky, and others, I show that that the vivid literature of palaeoscience inspired a realm where practitioners on the fringes of elite science could make bold if precarious claims, instilling individual agency into the abysm of deep time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reflects on the intertwining of research and curating in relation to the Eastern Spirituality exhibition and presents its main themes and theoretical starting points. The research-based exhibition, which ran at the Museum Villa Gyllenberg from April to August 2023, explored how artists in Finland imagined and depicted "Eastern spirituality" from the late nineteenth century to the end of the twentieth century. The project brings forth artists' conceptions of Asian religions and the more vaguely defined "East" as a positive "Other", marked by a particular aura of spirituality. Discourses on Eastern spirituality contain many challenging and problematic dimensions, such as those intertwined with colonialism. Additionally, "Eastern spirituality" is closely intertwined with esotericism, the role of which has recently been actively discussed in relation to modern art. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examining the idea of initiation in Hanna Krzemieniecka’s novel Fatum. Studium psychologiczne [Fate. A Psychological Study], this paper aims to show how the Polish modernist writer uses this topos. I try to highlight the role of the occult in Polish literary modernism, noting that Krzemieniecka attempts to outline a scenario of difficult initiation characteristic of the modern world by using theosophical concepts and other esoteric tropes in an original way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study will focus on core parallels and nodes of theopolitical exchange between the two most politically and theologically consequential jurist "theosophers" of the twentieth century, the Religious Zionist founding father, the Jewish Rav Avraham Yitzchak Hacohen Kook (1865–1935), and the Shia Islamic Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (1900–1989). Unquestioned masters of the tradition of both medieval philosophy and mysticism, as well as the theosophies of the early-modern and modern eras, both Kook and Khomeini attempted to embed the rhetoric of theosophy within revolutionary notions of both clerical religious authority and the necessity of their respective nomoi to assume political form. The study will also correlate contemporary Shia reformist theosophies undergirded with anti-theocratic exoteric postures with pre-WW2 German-Jewish "existence philosophies" as represented by Franz Rosenzweig, noting a common appreciation for what the study will term "theopolitical risk". It argues that the retrieval of medieval Judeo-Islamic political philosophy for the successful negotiation of reason and revelation in modernity against both theocratic juridical extremism and the iron cages of positivistic-realist secularism must be rethought in light of the theopolitics coursing through Iran and Israel, two states at the geographic periphery though fully within the horizons of the Modern West. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Doctor Montagu Lomax was a retired General Practioner, whose service in English lunatic asylums during the First World War inspired him to write The experiences of an asylum doctor: with suggestions for asylum and lunacy law reform. Published in 1921, the book acted as a catalyst for lunacy reform and stimulated improvements in the mental health services in the United Kingdom. Lomax spent the remainder of his retirement campaigning for lunacy reform. He suffered financial and personal hardship following the publication of the book and was castigated by his own profession. On the centenary of the publication of Experiences, this article explores the background and motivation of a remarkable man. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Polaire Brotherhood (La Fraternité polaire) was an occult society active in interwar Paris. Some of the important names of the French occult scene of the period were among its members. According to the reports in the bulletin of the society, there was also a branch operating in Belgrade in the 1930s. However, this has not previously been confirmed. Archive materials used for this paper attest to the existence of the Belgrade group for the first time. Its most important figure was Ksenija Atanasijević (1894–1981), a prominent philosopher. Therefore, attention is also paid to her involvement with Theosophy and co-masonry and the place of esotericism in her work. The activity of the group reminded of the Theosophical—it included meetings, lectures and meditations. They were also familiar with The Oracle of Astral Force (the Fraternité's key method). The existence of a branch of the French brotherhood in this period can be understood in the context of the French-Serbian cultural relations. This interest in the "alternative" helps us get a better understanding of the history of Serbian intellectuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As an expression of the complex global religious entanglements, esoteric knowledge did appeal also to Eastern Europe, in Romania being particularly imprinted by the local religious discourses and practices characteristic to Orthodox Christianity. This paper attempts to briefly sketch the indigenization of esoteric "currents" such as alchemy, spiritualism, Theosophy, Anthroposophy, Traditionalism etc. in Romania. Apart from these historical formations, various aspects of the contemporary occulture in Romania are also considered, especially the Orthodox occulture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses the construction of religious origin myths for Islam within 'universal religion' and esoteric frameworks in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century South Asia and beyond, and sheds light on the role of 'Western' and Anglo-Indian converts in this process. At its core is a case study of the elusive Hamid Snow, founder of the so-called 'Church of Islam' in 1891 in Sikanderabad, Deccan. On the following pages, I reconstruct Snow's biography from little-known Urdu and English sources, analyse his writings, and place him within a context of religious modernist, esoteric, and convert networks encompassing South Asia, Europe, the United States, the Philippines, and other parts of the world. By focusing on the nature of the scholarship of religion at the time, and the reconstruction of religious pasts under the influence of esotericism and religious modernism, the article traces the influence of Orientalist and Eurocentric views on perceptions of the Islamic tradition and contributes to larger debates about the role of laypeople, especially those with an interracial background, in interpreting religious history and acting as cultural mediators between different communities during a time of 'hybrid transnational occultism'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study offers a fresh view on one of the fundamental problems concerning the history of Jewish thought and religious discourse, namely, the cause for the sudden appearance of the Kabbalistic theosophy of the sefirot in the turn of the 13th century. Based on testimonies of 13th-century Kabbalistic and non-Kabbalistic authors, I show that the wide reception and rapid development of the sefirotic system in this period were due to the fact that it provided theological solutions to two acute difficulties with which contemporary believers and theologians struggled: first, rejection of the notion of divine providence over individuals, and second, enhancement of the Jewish worship of divine mediators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, such prominent figures as Helena Blavatsky, MacGregor Mathers, Aleister Crowley, Israel Regardie, and Dion Fortune shaped Western occultism and esotericism. Blavatsky's reshaping of the esoteric perspective of his predecessors by giving priority to oriental elements is accepted as the beginning of the modern period. After him, although they did not reject Blavatsky's teaching, they were applying their experiences to new fraternities by changing them to some degree. With her famous pseudonym, Dion Fortune has become a distinct personality among the people who steered the twentieth-century Western esoteric movements with her strong pen, unique style and new acceptances. Her work is related to many modern Western esoteric societies. She studied many modern Western esoteric societies, took lessons from influential occultists, and eventually established her community. These show her undeniable contributions to the field. This study focuses on Fortune's method and a new perspective while examining Blavatsky and later Western Esotericism in its general terms. It aims to convey and interpret the contribution in question from a comparative perspective.

Feminist historians have long recognised the symbiotic relationship between personal autonomy and a woman's capacity to earn her own living. This paper draws on legal and press documentation to examine how one woman navigated the difficult path of wage-earning during the 1890s. It argues that Catherine Kirchner saw herself as an autonomous economic entity and conducted herself with equal autonomy within her marriage and an extra-marital love affair. The paper concludes that despite the rhetoric of increasing emancipation and opportunity for women in 1890s New South Wales, the path to economic autonomy remained a difficult one to traverse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New religious movements in modern western culture often emphasize experience at the expense of reason; for that reason, some scholars have described their teachings as "flights from reason." This description has been rightly criticized. Nevertheless, it is not entirely wrong. Many founders of new religious movements do claim immediate insight into a (divine) reality that transcends the intellect. And yet, they and their followers often spendmuch of their lives building an intellectual frame around this anti-intellectual claim. Why did such paradoxical "reasoned flights beyond reason" emerge? Based on the life and teachings of Franklin Merrell-Wolff (1887-1985) and his Assembly of Man, the intellectualization of anti-intellectual claims by founders and followers of new religious movements in twentieth-century North America can be partly explained by three sociohistorical developments: (1) increasing access to an academic education, (2) increasing demand for a reflexive spirituality, and (3) increasing competition between eastern and western esoteric movements that answered this call for a reflexive spirituality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With Schelling’s move to Munich in 1806, one can observe his growing reception of mystical-theosophical texts, which was not least inspired by his Munich colleague and friend Franz von Baader. On the one hand Schelling clearly distances himself from the supposed immediacy of theosophical-mystical texts, since no distinction and differentiation are possible in the uninterrupted ‘mere vision’ (bloßes Schauen) of the absolute and thus no consciousness of the divine or absolute. On the other hand, however, Schelling recognizes as the ‘advantage of theosophical systems’ that there is ‘at least one nature’ in them and that they grasp the ‘abundance and depth of life’ that remains unknown to an autosufficient science. Analogously, with regard to Schopenhauer’s early philosophy of the ‘better consciousness’ (besseres Bewusstsein), it can be shown that the latter-especially in temporal proximity to Schelling’s Ages of the World-also seeks to discover a privileged way of cognizing the supersensible and the extratemporal, which transcends the subject-object correlation of ‘empirical consciousness’.

This study is devoted to the educational examination of Mowlavi’s theosophy and ideology to the modern existentialism philosophy of the 20th century. Using the story of the parrot and the merchant in the first chapter of Masnavi as the basis of the work and comparing the principles, rules, and sayings of the existential philosophers, the similarities and overlaps of this school are assessed by the gist of Mowlavi’s words. The descriptive method is used to meet the aim of the study. Based on the evaluations performed herein, there are similarities in nine essential principles and beliefs between Mowlavi’s theosophical thought in the heart of the concepts introduced in the story of the parrot and the merchant and the ideas and principles of existentialism with the former being originated from the Islamic theosophy hence older and the latter being a modern west-stemmed philosophy.