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How Hermetic was Renaissance Hermetism?
Aries 15:2 (2015), 179-209.
A new reconstruction and critical edition by Maurizio Campanelli of Marsilio Ficino's famous Latin edition of the Corpus Hermeticum combined with what we now know about its other translator Lodovico Lazzarelli, leads to definitive proof that Frances Yates' narrative of the Hermetic Tradition must be revised completely.
The Globalization of Esotericism
Correspondences 3 (2015), 55-91.
In this article I discuss the implications of understanding "esotericism" as a global rather than just a Western phenomenon. While such an approach could be advisable on the basis of conceptual theory, I defend the notion of "Western" esotericism for reasons of historical method.
Freeing the Ancient Wisdom from Catholic Crusts:
Stefan George and Incognito Paganism
Wolfgang Braungart (ed.), Stefan George und die Religion, Berlin / Boston 2015, 113-125.
Stefan George (1868-1933) was one of the most influential poets of the first part of the twentieth century and exerted a strong influence on esotericism in that period. Here I argue that he instituted a cult of philosophical paganism grounded in homo-erotic spirituality modeled after Plato's Phaedrus and Symposium.
Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa
Christopher Partridge (ed.), The Occult World, Routledge 2015, 91-98.
An introductory article about the Renaissance's most influential author on "magic" or "occult philosophy." With reference to an article from 2009, I argue that Lodovico Lazzarelli's understanding of Hermetic spirituality is at the very heart of Agrippa's "magical" worldview.
Jacob Boehme and Christian Theosophy
Christopher Partridge (ed.), The Occult World, Routledge 2015, 119-127.
An introduction to the basic worldview of the great Protestant visionary Jacob Boehme (1575-1624), the foundational figure of the tradition of Christian Theosophy. What does it mean that our world is "the Third Principle" caused by the Fall of Lucifer from an archetypal world composed of Love and Wrath?
Trance
Robert A. Segal & Kocku von Stuckrad (eds.), Vocabulary for the Study of Religion, Brill : Leiden / Boston 2015, 511-513.
A short introduction to trance and altered states of consciousness as key factors in the study of religion.
From Imagination to Reality: An Introduction to Esotericism and the Occult
Kurt Almqvist & Louise Belfrage (eds.), Hilma af Klint: The Art of Seeing the Invisible, Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation: Stockholm 2015, 59-71.
This introduction to the study of Western esotericism takes its relation to art and the imagination as point of departure for arguing that the implications of serious research in this domain has explosive implications for our common textbook assumptions about such important topics as human culture and modernisation.
Open Access to the Absolute : Some Remarks on the Concept of Religion
Kurt Almqvist & Alexander Linklater (eds.), Religion : Perspectives from the Engelsberg Seminar 2014, Axel and Margaret Ax :son Johnson Foundation: Stockholm 2015, 89-102.
A step-by-step conceptual analysis and deconstruction of our common understandings of "religion," with suggestions for how to develop better alternatives.
