Esotericism, Art, and Imagination

Esotericism, Art, and Imagination PDF Author: Arthur Versluis
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781596500235
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 327

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Book Description
Originally published: East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, c2008.

Esotericism, Art, and Imagination

Esotericism, Art, and Imagination PDF Author: Arthur Versluis
Publisher: MSU Press
ISBN:
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 348

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Book Description
Esotericism, Art, and Imagination is a uniquely wide-ranging collection of articles by scholars in the field of Western esotericism, focusing on themes of poetry, drama, film, literature, and art. Included here are articles illuminating such diverse topics as the Gnostic fiction of Philip Pullman, alchemical images, the Tarot, surrealism, esoteric films, and much more. This collection reveals the richness and complexity of the intersections between esotericism, artistic creators, and their works. Authors include Joscelyn Godwin, Cathy Gutierrez, M. E. Warlick, Eric Wilson, and many others.

Theosophy, Imagination, Tradition

Theosophy, Imagination, Tradition PDF Author: Antoine Faivre
Publisher: SUNY Press
ISBN: 9780791444351
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 310

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Book Description
A historical and interpretive study of three aspects of Western esotericism from the Renaissance to the twentieth century.

Lost Knowledge of the Imagination

Lost Knowledge of the Imagination PDF Author: Gary Lachman
Publisher: Floris Books
ISBN: 1782504575
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 216

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Book Description
The ability to imagine is at the heart of what makes us human. Through our imagination we experience more fully the world both around us and within us. Imagination plays a key role in creativity and innovation. Until the seventeenth century, the human imagination was celebrated. Since then, with the emergence of science as the dominant worldview, imagination has been marginalised -- depicted as a way of escaping reality, rather than knowing it more profoundly -- and its significance to our humanity has been downplayed. Yet as we move further into the strange new dimensions of the twenty-first century, the need to regain this lost knowledge seems more necessary than ever before. This insightful and inspiring book argues that, for the sake of our future in the world, we must reclaim the ability to imagine and redress the balance of influence between imagination and science. Through the work of Owen Barfield, Goethe, Henry Corbin, Kathleen Raine, and others, and ranging from the teachings of ancient mystics to the latest developments in neuroscience, The Lost Knowledge of the Imagination draws us back to a philosophy and tradition that restores imagination to its rightful place, essential to our knowing reality to the full, and to our very humanity itself.

Access to Western Esotericism

Access to Western Esotericism PDF Author: Antoine Faivre
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 1438402236
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 388

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Book Description
This is the first systematic treatment of esotericism to appear in English. Here is also a historical survey, beginning with the Alexandrean Period, of the various esoteric currents such as Christian Kabbalah, Theosophy, Alchemy, Rosicrucianism, and Hermeticism. Common characteristics of these currents are the notion of universal interdependency and the experience of spiritual transformation. The author establishes a rigorous methodology; provides clarifying definitions of such key terms as "gnosis," "theosophy," "occultism," and "Hermeticism;" and offers analysis of contemporary esotericism based on three distinct pathways. The second half of the book presents a series of studies on several important figures, works, and movements in Western esotericism—studies devoted to some of the most characteristic and illuminating aspects that this form of thought has taken, such as theosophical speculations on androgyny, rosicrucian literature, and Masonic symbolism. The book is completed by a rich and selective Bibliography conceived as a means of orientation and a tool for research.

Western Esotericism

Western Esotericism PDF Author: Antoine Faivre
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 1438433794
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 139

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Book Description
Widely received in France, this brief, comprehensive introduction to Western esotericism by the founder of the field is at last available in English. A historical and pedagogical guide, the book is written primarily for students and novices. In clear, precise language, author Antoine Faivre provides an overview of Western esoteric currents since late antiquity. The bulk of the book is laid out chronologically, from ancient and medieval sources (Alexandrian hermetism, gnosticism, neoplatonism), through the Renaissance up to the present time. Its coverage includes spiritual alchemy, Jewish and Christian Kabbalah, Christian theosophy, Rosicrucianism, Illuminism, 'mystical' Free-Masonry, the Occultist current, Theosophical and Anthroposophical Societies, the Traditionalist School, and 'esotericism' in contemporary initiatic societies and in New Religious Movements. Faivre explores how these currents are connected, and refers to where they appear in art and literature. The book concludes with an annotated bibliography, which makes it an essential resource for beginners and scholars alike.

Hidden Intercourse

Hidden Intercourse PDF Author: Wouter J. Hanegraaff
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9047443586
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 566

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Book Description
From rumours about gnostic orgies in antiquity to the explicit erotic symbolism of alchemical texts, from the subtly coded eroticism of medieval kabbalah to the sexual magic practiced by contemporary occultists and countercultural translations of Asian Tantra, the history of Western esotericism is rich in references to the domains of eros and sexuality. This volume, which brings together an impressive array of top-level specialists, is the first to analyze the eroticism of the esoteric without sensationalism or cheap generalizations, but on the basis of expert scholarship and attention to textual and historical detail. While there are few other domains where the imagination may so easily run wild, the various contributions seek to distinguish fact from fiction--only to find that historical realities are sometimes even stranger than the fantasies. In doing so, they reveal the outlines of a largely unknown history spanning more than twenty centuries.

Esotericism and the Academy

Esotericism and the Academy PDF Author: Wouter J. Hanegraaff
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521196213
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 479

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Book Description
The neglected history of how intellectuals since the Renaissance have approached ideas of the occult which challenged biblical religion.

Arrernte Present, Arrernte Past

Arrernte Present, Arrernte Past PDF Author: Diane J. Austin-Broos
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226032655
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 343

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Book Description
The Arrernte people of Central Australia first encountered Europeans in the 1860s as groups of explorers, pastoralists, missionaries, and laborers invaded their land. During that time the Arrernte were the subject of intense curiosity, and the earliest accounts of their lives, beliefs, and traditions were a seminal influence on European notions of the primitive. The first study to address the Arrernte’s contemporary situation, Arrernte Present, Arrernte Past also documents the immense sociocultural changes they have experienced over the past hundred years. Employing ethnographic and archival research, Diane Austin-Broos traces the history of the Arrernte as they have transitioned from a society of hunter-gatherers to members of the Hermannsburg Mission community to their present, marginalized position in the modern Australian economy. While she concludes that these wrenching structural shifts led to the violence that now marks Arrernte communities, she also brings to light the powerful acts of imagination that have sustained a continuing sense of Arrernte identity.

Magic and Mysticism

Magic and Mysticism PDF Author: Arthur Versluis
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 9780742558366
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 192

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Book Description
Provides overview, from antiquity onwards, on various Western religious esoteric movements. This book includes topics such as: alchemy, Gnosticism, Hermeticism, Rosicrucianism, Theosophy and more.