Astral Ascent in the Occult Revival
Culture and Cosmos October 1, 2015 Joscelyn Godwin
The occult revival of the later 19th century inherited Neoplatonic and Hermetic ideas of astral ascent and commerce with the planetary spirits, but felt obliged to square these with contemporary discoveries in astronomy. In the 1850s, Andrew Jackson Davis adapted Swedenborgian ideas into a semi-scientific cosmology that served as the norm for spiritualists. In the 1870s, occultism separated...