Quick Note: America is an Occult Nation
The Daily Grail alerts us to a forthcoming book by one of their contributors, Mitch Horowitz, concerning an often untold history of the United States of America. Entitled “Occult America: The Secret History of How Mysticism Shaped Our Nation”,Horowitz takes us on a unique journey through American history, from the mystical practices of Johannes Kelpius to the Spiritualist séances of Mary Todd Lincoln.
“In early 1871, the chamber invited the first woman to address a joint congressional committee. That winter day, it was a free-love advocate – and avowed trance medium – named Victoria Woodhull who took the floor. Poised and handsome, Woodhull delivered a rousing brief in defense of women’s suffrage, which she later said had been dictated to her in a dream by a ghostly, tunic-wearing Greek elder-a spirit guardian who had guided all of her public utterances ever since she was a young girl. By the time of Woodhall’s appearance, Spiritualism could not be hooted down, even in the Senate. Its acolytes included Mary Todd Lincoln and a range of industrialists, congressmen, and figures from everyday life. The year following Woodhull’s speech, suffragists nominated her as the first female candidate for president.”
“Occult America” sounds like it will not only be a fun read, but a welcome corrective to the idea that American history stayed well on the Protestant Christian theological straight-and-narrow until fairly recently. It brings to mind a book I’m currently reading, “Grimoires: A History of Magic Books” by Owen Davies. It too casts an entirely new light on “occult” and magical dealings through history.
“Davies traces the history of this remarkably resilient and adaptable genre, from the ancient Middle East to modern America, offering a new perspective on the fundamental developments of western civilization over the past two thousand years. Grimoires shows the influence magic and magical writing has had on the cultures of the world, richly demonstrating the role they have played in the spread of Christianity, the growth of literacy, and the influence of western traditions from colonial times to the present.”
You’ll hopefully be hearing more about “Grimoires” soon, as I’m in the process of trying to arrange an interview with Davies regarding the subject matter in his book. As for “Occult America”, it is being released September 8th in America and the UK. You can read more about Horowitz’s work at his web site, here. With this recent flurry of historical re-evaluation, how long before we see “America is an Occult Nation” bumper stickers?
2 responses so far
Woodhull was a remarkable character, one of the forgotten heroes of American history.
[...] Horowitz author of “Occult America: The Secret History of How Mysticism Shaped Our Nation” (which I mentioned recently here). So far he’s blogged about what the occult is exactly, classic esoteric texts, the American [...]