The Place of Enchantment: British Occultism and the Culture of the Modern » (1)

Alex Owen is professor of history and gender studies at Northwestern University. She is the author of The Darkened Room, also published by the University of Chicago Press.

By the end of the nineteenth century, Victorians were seeking rational explanations for the world in which they lived. The radical ideas of Charles Darwin had shaken traditional religious beliefs. Sigmund Freud was developing his innovative models of the conscious and unconscious mind. And anthropologist James George Frazer was subjecting magic, myth, and ritual to systematic inquiry. Why, then, in this quintessentially modern moment, did late-Victorian and Edwardian men and women become absorbed by metaphysical quests, heterodox spiritual encounters, and occult experimentation?

In answering this question for the first time, The Place of Enchantment breaks new ground in its consideration of the role of occultism in British culture prior to World War I. Rescuing occultism from its status as an "irrational indulgence" and situating it at the center of British intellectual life, Owen argues that an involvement with the occult was a leitmotif of the intellectual avant-garde. Carefully placing a serious engagement with esotericism squarely alongside revolutionary understandings of rationality and consciousness, Owen demonstrates how a newly psychologized magic operated in conjunction with the developing patterns of modern life. 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.

Through a remarkable blend of theoretical discussion and intellectual history, Owen has produced a work that moves far beyond a consideration of occultists and their world. Bearing directly on our understanding of modernity, her conclusions will force us to rethink the place of the irrational in modern culture.

Library Journal

While many enlightened individuals in Victorian England were ushering in the Modern Age, other upper-crust Victorians were delving into various aspects of the occult. These two extremes are what make this latest from Owen (history & gender studies, Northwestern Univ.; The Darkened Room) such a fascinating work. While Charles Darwin and Sigmund Freud were shaking up all of society with their new theories, Aleister Crowley, W.B. Yeats, and members of secret magical societies like the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn were exploring another realm altogether. In this respect, Owen argues, astral travel, mind-altering drug experimentation, sex magic, and alchemy were as important cultural phenomena in late Victorian England as were rationalism and science. Much of the interest in the occult, she explains, arose from a crisis in the Christian religion, which forced many to search for spiritual meaning outside the organized church. Owen's scholarly and unique look at Victorian England is highly recommended for academic and large public libraries, particularly those with special collections in religion and spirituality or British social history.-Mary E. Jones, Los Angeles Cty. P.L., Agoura Hills Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.