book: The Place of Enchantment: British Occultism and the Culture of the Modern

[Craig Smith]

> The radical ideas of Charles Darwin had
> shaken traditional religious beliefs. 

> She details
> such fascinating examples of occult practice as the
> sex magic of Aleister Crowley, the pharmacological
> experimentation of W. B. Yeats, and complex forms of
> astral clairvoyance as taught in secret and
> hierarchical magical societies like the Hermetic Order
> of the Golden Dawn.

This, to my mind, is ignorant of history.

The root of most "Western" occultism is in gnostic and/or Hindu beliefs.

Those are more traditional than Christianity, at least!


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