The Occult Imagination in Britain, 1875–1947 ed. by Christine Ferguson and Andrew Radford

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Occult Imagination in Britain, 1875–1947 ed. by Christine Ferguson and Andrew Radford S. Brennan Kettelle Britain, Scotland, Ireland, occult, magic, imagination, Golden Dawn, Celtic revival, Theosophy christine ferguson and andrew radford, eds. The Occult Imagination in Britain, 1875–1947. London, New York: Routledge, 2018. Pp. 278. In the instructional paper "Flying Roll No. V," one V. H. Frater Resurgam of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn writes, "to practice magic, both the Imagination and the Will must be called into action."1 The imagination has consistently featured as a central component of esoteric practices and traditions, so much so that arguing its importance within esotericism is practically moot. Instead, Christine Ferguson and Andrew Radford's collection Occult Imagination studies how the imagination functioned within Britain's Occult Revival. The twelve chapters of the edited volume are [End Page 261] organized into four subcategories, investigating the 'occult imagination': 1) beyond the metropole, 2) within the public sphere, 3) in regard to gender, and 4) within art and fiction. In total, these four categories provide nuanced insight into the numerous entanglements of Britain's 'occult imagination' during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In the first chapter, Michael Shaw argues that most scholarship concerning Britain's Occult Revival focuses on urban centers, overlooking the occult currents within other regions of the United Kingdom. Focusing on Scotland, Shaw expands Britain's occult geography, highlighting Scotland's prominent and unique role in movements such as the Celtic Revival. In the second chapter, Nicholas Daly studies esoteric themes of magic and ritual within the plays of the Anglo-Irish playwright Lord Dunsany. The wide-reaching popularity of Dunsany's plays exemplifies an intriguing case of public enchantment with the strange and magical. In the third chapter, Claire Button discusses the folk dance practices of Rolf Gardiner, calling for an expansive approach to studying this occult figure beyond political contexts. It would seem, however, that Gardiner's politics affected his esoteric practices; for instance, his involvement in interwar fascist youth organizations bled into his views of nature, power, and folk dance. In fact, Gardiner used a "blood and soil" argument to refute modernizing or reinterpreting folk dance rituals (62). While Button does note that these influences likely impacted Gardiner's amalgam of ecstatic dance with discipline and purity, the study would have benefited from further engagement with Gardiner's proto-Nazi sympathies, elitism, and eugenic beliefs. Gardiner offers an intriguing study of the intersections of right-wing politics and occultism—a subject of increasing importance today. Exploring the weaponization of the imagination, Jake Poller discusses how critics of Annie Besant and Charles Leadbeater's neo-Theosophy accused the pair of being 'under a glamour,' effectively dismissing Besant and Lead-beater's heterodox doctrines and claims of occult powers as figments of the imagination. In the sixth chapter, Elsa Richardson also polemicizes the imagination, and who may lay claim over it, by investigating occult rebuttals against psychoanalysis' aims of occult delegitimization. Occult journals such as The Occult Review disputed Freud's authority, labeling him as an "ill-equipped charlatan," while other periodicals challenged psychoanalysis's encroachment upon dream analysis—a territory previously under the "jurisdiction of spiritual and magical authorities" (119). While Freud attempted to guard psychoanalysis from occultism, occult periodicals would not be so easily dismissed. [End Page 262] Nick Freeman's chapter presents an especially intriguing study of the enmeshment of the 'occult imagination' with the general public. Freeman discusses the cultural appetite for 'black magic' tales of tantalizing villains who expose the consequences of seeking occult knowledge, which journalists and fiction writers obliged. The 1901 trial of Theo and Laura Horos—accused of drugging and hypnotizing young women in order to assault or perform magical rituals upon them—embodied this black magic villain, satiating the public and establishing a link between sex, crime, and magic. Decades later, the public's occult fascinations pivoted to the 'wickedest man in the world'—Aleister Crowley's transgressive sexual and occult practices further solidified associations between magic and perversion. Public consumption of Crowley's reviled image sensationalized and vilified his persona, creating the ultimate occult 'bogeyman.' Next, the collection shifts attention to...