Aries

10/10/2024

Now available! Jason Ānanda Josephson Storm’s commentary - “Nightmen, Troglodytes, and Other Phantoms of the Classificatory Imagination” - on our latest issue’s target article “(Re)defining Esotericism: Fluid Definitions, Property Clusters and the Cross-Cultural Debate” (by Steven Engler and Mark Q. Gardiner):

Aligning with Engler and Gardiner’s advocacy of abandoning rigid definitions to instead formulate “pragmatic scholarly categories,” Storm notes his agreement with the target article, up until it's seventh section. Storm's main critique is Engler and Gardiner’s lack of consideration regarding what “practitioners might intend by ‘esotericism,’” as the authors focus instead on scholarly utilizations of the term. Storm concludes, “to focus only on scholarly definition without attempting to discuss the social kind(s) so defined is like trying to do zoology without discussing actual animals, prone to phantoms.”

Check out Storm’s commentary - with subscription - here:

16/09/2024

Check out Ioannis Gaitanidis and Orion Klautau’s commentary, “(Re)defining Esotericism: A Response from Two Scholars in Japan,” on our latest issue’s target article “(Re)defining Esotericism: Fluid Definitions, Property Clusters and the Cross-Cultural Debate” (by Steven Engler and Mark Q. Gardiner):

Framing their stance as being “less motivated to find ways of defining esotericism so as to include our research under this label” and more interested in examining figures or organizations that have been positioned under this label in a European context, Gaitanidis and Klautau discuss several East Asian terms that are linguistically adjacent to the meaning of esotericism. Following, the authors advocate for a focus on how such East Asian terms became “entangled” with esotericism, rather than “trying to find overall significations of concepts.”

Read Gaitanidis and Klautau’s commentary - with subscription - here:

02/09/2024

NEW SPECIAL ISSUE! - Presenting Aries’ first target article, Steven Engler and Mark Q. Gardiner’s “(Re)defining Esotericism: Fluid Definitions, Property Clusters and the Cross-Cultural Debate”

Engler and Gardiner’s “(Re)defining Esotericism” addresses the philosophical challenge of defining concepts, critiquing rigid approaches and advocating a more fluid “stable property cluster” definition of esotericism. This approach, Engler and Gardiner argue, is valuable for investigating both western esotericism(s) globally as well as intersections and presentations of esotericism within other cultures.

With a total of sixteen commentaries by prominent scholars, this landmark issue presents contrasting perspectives and conversations among scholars concerning the characterization(s) and demarcation of “esotericism.”

The issue concludes with Engel and Gardiner’s response to the commentaries, “Definition as Situated Interpretational Vector,” in which the authors reaffirm their initial approach and discuss “issues of disciplinary context, the nature of consensus and philosophical views of meaning.”

Read the new special issue - with subscription - here:

27/07/2024

Check out Frank Klaassen’s review of Magic, Science, and Religion in Early Modern Europe (by Mark A. Waddell, 2021)

Reviewing the third book in Cambridge’s series “New Approaches to the History of Science and Medicine” Klaassen acknowledges that a shorter text has certain limitations. He identifies - for instance - a lack of a more detailed discussion of early modern magic as one of the “casualties” missing from Waddell’s book, yet asserts that any shortcomings are the result of the text’s scope. Klaassen concludes by describing Magic, Science, and religion in Early Modern Europe as “lucid, accessible, engaging, and highly readable.”

Read this advanced review article with subscription - here:

https://brill.com/view/journals/arie/aop/article-10.1163-15700593-tat00017/article-10.1163-15700593-tat00017.xml

29/05/2024

New advanced article available! Read “The Perennial Solidarity of the East: René Guénon, Sufism and Easternist Anti-Colonialism in Early Twentieth-Century Egypt” by Mattias Gori Olesen.

Addressing a lacuna in the understudied topic of intersections “of esotericism and anti-colonial endeavors in the modern Arab world,” Olesen’s article focuses primarily on the engagement with René Guénon by “Easternist” Egyptian intellectuals in the early twentieth century. Complicating the narrative that positions Guénon as “on the margins,” Olesen demonstrates the nuanced ways in which Traditionalism and Guénon held a brief alignment with the Egyptian scene, promoting a reconsideration of “the entanglement of Western esotericism and Arab anti-colonial thinking generally.”

Check out Olesen’s article - with subscription - here: https://brill.com/view/journals/arie/aop/article-10.1163-15700593-tat00020/article-10.1163-15700593-tat00020.xml

19/04/2024

New advanced article available! Read « Ésotérique »: John Toland et le parcours historique d’un adjectif français (“Ésotérique”: John Toland and the Historical Journey of a French Adjective), by Tom Fischer.

While the first occurrence of the adjective “esoteric” in the French language seemingly occurred in historian Jacques Matter’s «l’Histoire critique du gnosticisme et de son influence» - published in 1828 - Fischer’s article takes the reader on an epistemological journey, tracing the use of the term prior to the nineteenth century. As Fischer demonstrates, the use of “esoteric” was introduced into the French language in the early eighteenth century, via an essay entitled “Clidophorus” (1720) by Irish philosopher John Toland.

Read Fischer’s article - without subscription - here:
https://brill.com/view/journals/arie/aop/article-10.1163-15700593-tat00019/article-10.1163-15700593-tat00019.xml

25/03/2024

Now available! Milan Reith’s review of War for Eternity: The Return of Traditionalism and the Rise of the Populist Right, by Benjamin R. Teitelbaum.

War for Eternity focuses primarily on Teitelbaum's interviews with three contemporary far-right figures - Steve Bannon, Aleksandr Dugin, and Olavo de Carvalho. Noting that this monograph’s publication is opportune considering the current “resurgence of the radical right,” Reith identifies the greatest strength of the book as the author’s discussion of the “geopolitical tensions which exist between different Traditionalist-inspired politicians.” While commending the book’s ethnographic approach for creating a “fresh and easily accessible” read, the reviewer suggests that the monograph would have benefited from a deeper engagement with primary sources and sociohistorical context. Overall, Reith believes War for Eternity is an informative asset for understanding frictions within contemporary Traditionalism.

Be sure to read more of Reith’s review here: https://brill.com/view/journals/arie/aop/article-10.1163-15700593-tat00018/article-10.1163-15700593-tat00018.xml

22/02/2024

New open-access advanced article! - “‘Book Zero’ through the Years: The First Two Editions of Peter Carroll’s Liber Null” by Vasileios M. Meletiadis

After providing a brief history of chaos magic and overview of Liber Null, Meletiadis provides an in-depth analysis of the White Edition (1978), as well as the Red Edition (1981). Exposing significant differences between these two versions - such as a discursive/cosmological shift from Tao to Chaos - Meletiadis presents the 1978 edition as representing “a theory and practice that is struggling to find an identity within the messy occultural landscape of the 1970s.” As such, the 1981 edition witnesses a removal of the “tantric and anarchistic” components, to be replaced with “a new orientation and clear central theme: Chaos.”

Read Meletiadis’s article - without subscription - here: https://brill.com/view/journals/arie/aop/article-10.1163-15700593-tat00004/article-10.1163-15700593-tat00004.xml

(Image: Fig 2: The red edition (1981), p. 7)

31/01/2024

Now available! Justine M. Bakker’s review of Awful Archives: Conspiracy Theory, Rhetoric, and Acts of Evidence, by Jenny Rice

Praising Awful Archives as “wonderfully generative, provocative, innovative, and timely,” Bakker notes that while Rice does not necessarily present “a ‘solution’ to the ‘problem’ of conspiracy discourse,” they do “profoundly” open up new avenues of thought. For instance, in presenting the archive as a “living process” rather than a “fixed, predetermined entity,” Rice demonstrates that the power of the archive does not lie within “individual artifacts,” but rather within the “aura such artifacts collectively create.” As for the reviewer's conclusion: “I highly recommend it.”

Check out the review here:

https://brill.com/view/journals/arie/aop/article-10.1163-15700593-tat00010/article-10.1163-15700593-tat00010.xml

09/01/2024

NEW ISSUE - Volume 24 Issue 1 out now!

This issue contains a comparison of Mircea Eliade and René Guénon’s works on the theme of initiation, an intervention in the study of Steiner’s “rac(ial)ism”, and a discussion of occult-fiction author Dennis Wheatley's ‘Black Magic Stories’ - to name a few contributions!

Check out the newest volume - with subscription - here:

"Volume 24 (2024): Issue 1 (Dec 2023)" published on 14 Dec 2023 by Brill.

18/12/2023

Now available! “Avalonian Bahaism: Esotericism, Orientalism, and the Search for Direction in Early Twentieth Century Britain” by Dell J. Rose

Rose’s article illuminates the reception and influence of Bahaism in “the imaginative world of several prominent esoterically-minded individuals” in the twentieth century. Specifically, Rose argues that Bahaism was an important component of the works of esotericist Wellesley Tudor Pole, a “master synthesizer” who believed that “the Baháʼí movement was the beginning of a worldwide spiritual revival that would reposition Britain’s Celtic traditions in the centre of a great spiritual age.” For readers interested in Spiritualist and Theosophical discourses, as well as the Celtic Revival, this article is for you!

Check it out, open-access, here: https://brill.com/view/journals/arie/aop/article-10.1163-15700593-tat00015/article-10.1163-15700593-tat00015.xml?ebody=pdf-89805

20/11/2023

Now available! - Alberto Alfredo Winterberg’s review of Ancient Egypt in the Modern Imagination: Art, Literature, and Culture (edited by Eleanor Dobson and Nichola Tonks)

An interdisciplinary collection divided into three main sections - ‘The Egyptological Imagery’, ‘Death and Mysticism’, and ‘Gender and Sexuality’ - Winterberg identifies the aim of this edited volume as “bringing together multiple accesses towards the reception of Ancient Egypt.” Winterberg’s main critique emerges through identifying that the contributions of this volume - at large - do not engage with previous research within the field of Egyptology, yet, while incorporating these existing frameworks would have been conducive to a more comprehensive volume, Winterberg does conclude that Ancient Egypt in the Modern Imagination “is successful in highlighting the virtue of approaching the reception of Ancient Egypt from several academic disciplines.”

Read Winterberg’s review here:
https://brill.com/view/journals/arie/aop/article-10.1163-15700593-tat00008/article-10.1163-15700593-tat00008.xml

24/10/2023

New advanced article available! “Esoteric Publishing in the 1920s: How to Read the Dockerill Texts in the Orbit of Aleister Crowley and William Seabrook” by Lukas Vogel

Examining these two sensational examples of confessional literature, Vogel advocates for a text-critical approach to the Dockerill texts. Although written as a first-person account of the author’s - identified as Marian Dockerill - first interaction(s) with occultist Aleister Crowley, Vogel concludes that these pieces were most likely written by the transgressive author and occultist William Seabrook. While the Dockerill texts make great source material for the study of “social ideas, collective fears, or even longings especially in the field of new religious movements,” Vogel argues that these texts are not consistent, factual, or biographical.

Check out Vogel’s article here:
https://brill.com/view/journals/arie/aop/article-10.1163-15700593-tat00014/article-10.1163-15700593-tat00014.xml

05/10/2023

Check out Keith Edward Cantú’s review of Global Ta**ra: Religion, Science, and Nationalism in Colonial Modernity (by Julian Strube)

In his enthusiastic review of Global Ta**ra, Cantú lauds Strube’s monograph as “a study that dares to navigate an oft-neglected frontier dating to a formative period in the history of Ta**ra.” His one criticism identifies the lack of a discussion regarding Ta***ic practices (or translations of practice material) that could potentially leave a more “practitioner-oriented” reader dissatisfied, yet overall, Cantú celebrates Strube’s “strident efforts to decenter Eurocentrism” and concludes that Global Ta**ra “appears intended to be—and chiefly succeeds as—a much-needed intervention in social historicization.”

Read this advanced review article here:

https://brill.com/view/journals/arie/aop/article-10.1163-15700593-tat00005/article-10.1163-15700593-tat00005.xml

19/09/2023

Check out Manon Hedenborg White’s review of Essays on Women in Western Esotericism: Beyond Seeresses and Sea Priestesses, edited by Amy Hale.

After highlighting the three main aims of this volume - to “rectify a gender imbalance in mainstream histories of Western esotericism” through examining historical contributions of women, to “forefront women’s scholarship,” and to engage with broader, intersectional discourses (such as race and gender) - Hedenborg White proceeds to call attention to some notable contributions. While identifying a lack of “conceptual dialogue between the individual contributions”, Hedenborg White nonetheless concludes by identifying Essays on Women in Western Esotericism as an indispensable contribution to the field.

Read this advanced review article here:
https://brill.com/view/journals/arie/aop/article-10.1163-15700593-tat00006/article-10.1163-15700593-tat00006.xml-

02/09/2023

New open-access advanced article! - “Initiation into Philosophy: An Introduction to Maine de Biran’s Freemasonry Speeches (c. 1810)” by Simone Kotva.

Presenting an introduction to the first English translation of influential French philosopher François Pierre Maine de Biran’s (two surviving) ‘Freemasonry Speeches’, Kotva additionally provides a timeline of Biran’s Freemasonry, as well as identifies components of Freemasonry within Biran’s philosophical works. As Biran “holds a place of unrivalled importance in [French] spiritualist philosophy,” Kotva demonstrates the ways in which Freemasonry influenced the development of French spiritualism.

Read Kotva’s article here:
https://brill.com/view/journals/arie/aop/article-10.1163-15700593-tat00012/article-10.1163-15700593-tat00012.xml

22/08/2023

Check out Jean-François Mayer’s review of New Age Spirituality: Rethinking Religion (edited by Steven J. Sutcliffe and Ingvild Saelid Gilhus).

While this collection does not read as an “introduction to New Age beliefs,” Mayer notes several “exciting” contributions, such as Mikael Rothstein’s chapter on ‘humanimal’ identities. While Mayer may be unconvinced that “New Age” is the appropriate term for this volume - arguing that the term should be used in more specific contexts “describing millenarian post-Christian desires for a world change (thus returning to the initial core of the meaning of New Age, before it started to be applied to all possible kinds of beliefs and practices)” - Mayer does conclude that this text is an important contribution that encourages scholars to consider alternative spiritual practices as worthy of examination.

Read the review - with subscription - here:
https://brill.com/view/journals/arie/16/1/article-p157_9.xml

28/07/2023

Check out Jesper Sørensen’s response article “Western Esotericism and the Cognitive Study of Religion”

Sørensen’s article analyzes the contributions of Egil Asprem, April DeConick, and Guðmundur Ingi Markússon in the 2017 special issue of Aries - Esotericism and the Cognitive Science of Religion. Sørensen notes that “western esotericism has its peculiarities” and “extreme cases” which are apt for informing and contributing to CSR and studies in comparative religion, and concludes with a hopeful call for interdisciplinary collaboration in which “ new generations of scholars tackle their subject matter with all theoretical and methodological tools available.”

Read Sørensen’s response, with subscription, here:

"Western Esotericism and Cognitive Science of Religion" published on 01 Jan 2017 by Brill.

07/07/2023

New advanced article available! – “‘He thinks he is inspired, and he is mad’: Superstition, Fanaticism, and Deceitful Folly in Catherine II’s Comedy The Siberian Shaman” by Piotr Sobkowiak

Within this ‘neo-classical’ comedy penned by Russia’s Catherine II in 1786, Sobkowiak argues that the ‘shamanic’ content of this comedy cannot be untangled from the ‘anti-shamanic’ authorial intent. Engaging with this text while considering the religious, socio-political, and historical contexts of the period, as well as applying a historical discourse analysis (specifically utilizing Foucault’s concept of dispositif-analysis), Sobkowiak demonstrates that The Siberian Shaman was a means for Catherine to disparage “certain individuals and groups in order to eliminate threats against socio-political order” via, as Catherine stated, “charming comedies as remedy for folly.”

Check it out here!: https://brill.com/view/journals/arie/aop/article-10.1163-15700593-tat00003/article-10.1163-15700593-tat00003.xml

11/06/2023

Check out Jay Johnston’s review of The Eloquent Blood: The Goddess Babalon and the Construction of Femininities in Western Esotericism (by Manon Hedenborg White)

Focusing primarily on the theoretical aspects of the Eloquent Blood, as well as its overall contribution to the field, Johnston notes the monograph’s ambitious “breadth of focus spanning historical analysis, contemporary theory, and contemporary ethnography.” Ultimately, Johnston identifies Eloquent Blood as “a rich, courageous book, with many layers of concept and debate” that should be “read, considered carefully, and debated” among scholars of esotericism.

Read Johnston’s review here:

https://brill.com/view/journals/arie/23/1/article-p161_9.xml

23/05/2023

New open-access article! - “Universalia, the Society of Czechoslovak Hermeticists: Between Occult Universalism and Nationalism” by Pavel Horák

Using the Czech occult society Universalia as a case study, Horák discusses the dynamics of universalism and nationalism within Czech occultism. Examining “a rather elitist political dimension embedded in the notion of initiation,” as well as “nationalistic and ethnic sentiments regarding the Czech nation and its national-political mythology,” Horák argues that the political component of French occultism influenced the Czech occult milieu.

Check out Horák’s article here: https://brill.com/view/journals/arie/23/1/article-p55_4.xml

08/05/2023

New open-access article! - “Addressing the Theory of the Family Unconscious in the Context of Esotericism” by Júlia Gyimesi

Providing further examination into the entanglements between esotericism and psychology, Gyimesi’s article contrasts Hungarian psychiatrist Leopold Szondi’s theory of “fate-analysis” with psychoanalyst Bert Hellinger’s “family constellation therapy.” In applying the taxonomy of esoteric thought - introduced by Antoine Faivre - as a model of comparison, Gyimesi argues that Hellinger’s approach “does not seem to live up to the standards of twentieth century science, but instead retains characteristics of ‘classical’ esotericism.” Alternatively, Szondi’s approach - specifically, his inclusion of genetic interpretation - ‘scientized’ the concept of the family unconscious.

Check out Gyimesi’s article here:
https://brill.com/view/journals/arie/23/1/article-p131_7.xml

20/04/2023

New open-access article! - “From the Universal Brotherhood to the Lodge of Soldiers: Theosophical Ideas of Service and Their Implementation in Poland” by Karolina Maria Hess

Providing a chronological overview of the Theosophical movement in Poland - noting, for instance, a small group initiated by director of the Warsaw School of Fine Arts, Kazimierz Stabrowski, as well as theosophist Wanda Dynowska’s activities in Warsaw - Hess primarily examines the ways in which “the abstract idea of a Universal Brotherhood” and the priority of service “was understood in Poland in the individual, social and national dimensions.”

Read “From the Universal Brotherhood to the Lodge of Soldiers” here:

https://brill.com/view/journals/arie/23/1/article-p106_6.xml

07/04/2023

New open-access article available! - “Esotericism in Romanian Religious History” by Ionuț Daniel Băncilă

In this article from the Special Issue - The Study of Esoterism in East-Central Europe - Băncilă discusses “the indigenization of esoteric ‘currents’” in Romania. Asserting that the study of esotericism within non-Western European cultures exposes global religious entanglements, Băncilă discusses topics ranging from Rudolf Steiner’s conference in Transylvania, the embrace of Spiritualism (as it relates to Romanian cultural and religious discourses that “privileged the continuous ritual remembrance of the dead”), the reception of René Guénon’s doctrine of Traditionalism, and the practice of yoga in Communist Romania.

Read “Esotericism in Romanian Religious History” here:

https://brill.com/view/journals/arie/23/1/article-p39_3.xml

(Image: Gregorian Bivolaru (b. 1952), one of the “most influential” Romanian yoga teachers)

27/03/2023

New article available! - “The Polaire Brotherhood (La Fraternité polaire) in Belgrade” by Nemanja Radulović

The existence of a branch of the French occult society La Fraternité polaire operating in Belgrade - while mentioned in the society’s bulletin - was not previously confirmed, until Radulović’s intervention through the utilization of archival materials (primarily, diaries and bibliographical data of philosopher and feminist activist Ksenija Atanasijević). Demonstrating that these entries provide “indubitable proofs of (a) the existence of the Belgrade branch of the group and (b) the fact that K. Atanasijević was an active member,” Radulović frames these findings within the context of Serbian-French relations, and ultimately presents a more complex understanding of “the history of Serbian intellectuals.”

Read Radulović's article here:
https://brill.com/view/journals/arie/23/1/article-p84_5.xml