This paper examines early modern theurgical techniques in the context of Christian anti-magical polemics and an associated marginalization of gnosticemanationist religiosity. Particular attention is directed to the ritual invocation of planetary spirits in the Rosicrucian tradition, which involved artefacts (spiritsummoning bells, animated statues, etc.) manufactured from Paracelsian electrum...
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...
This paper examines mystical experience amongst modern astrologers in the UK, using a seminar group at the London-based Centre for Psychological Astrology in 2006. It adapts previous research in the area, chiefly that by Greeley. The majority of respondents considered that mystical experience had influenced their religious perspectve, and that astrology had, in turn, allowed them to understand...