ISSN 1799-3121
13 papers in the library · 3 citations · publishing 2019-2025
Approaching Religion December 2, 2025 Rachel Denniston
The essay considers the seeker as weaver and positions relationality as central to the experiences of many at the intersections of esotericism and modern art. It invokes the metaphor of weaving to envision a non-static, dislocated and liminal relational positioning by which the seeker weaves worlds: the visible and invisible, material and immaterial, self and other, public and private, and...
Approaching Religion December 2, 2025 Chloë Sugden
This article examines the trans-disciplinary œuvre and hosting activities of the Swiss-based artist and archivist, Olga Fröbe-Kapteyn (1881–1962), founder of the Eranos Conferences and creator of the Eranos Archive. Drawn from my doctoral project’s findings, the text argues that Fröbe’s self-identification with the “Great Mother archetype” functioned as a strategy of feminine spiritual...
Approaching Religion December 2, 2025 Oscar Ortiz-Nieminen, Terhi Utriainen, Alexandra Bergholm
This article explores esoteric potentiality—the perceived possibility of accessing the otherworldly—through a hermeneutic framework that integrates artist intent, the photographic image and audience reception. The Finnish artist Hanne Kiiveri shot her first angel-themed photograph after a waking dream involving her late sister. As part of the Whose Angels? project—an initiative that combines...
Approaching Religion December 2, 2025 Nina Kokkinen
The special issue “The Witching of Art History” examines how women and artists beyond gender binaries have navigated artistic and occult subjectivities, identities and agency within art and occulture since the 19th century. The articles illuminate the mechanisms, structures and discursive distinctions that have shaped the experiences of artist women, as well as the strategies they have employed...
Approaching Religion December 2, 2025 Helen Bremm
This article proposes that approaching the work and practice of the British-born Mexican artist Leonora Carrington (1917–2011) and other women working at the intersection of art and esotericism necessitates revisiting some fundamental assumptions and approaches of the discipline of art history, namely the separation of material from meaning and the complete transmutation of the material into...
Approaching Religion December 2, 2025 Nina Kokkinen
This article explores the intersections of clairvoyance, mediumship and gender in early-twentieth-century art through the case of the Finnish artist and occultist Meri Genetz (1885–1943). While esotericism has played a pivotal role in modern art, visionary and mediumistic practices are still often seen as marginal phenomena within mainstream art history. This article traces Meri Genetz’s...
Approaching Religion April 30, 2024 Aaron M. French
This article seeks a better understanding of how Rudolf Steiner envisioned his reform pedagogy as a site of spiritual learning (for example through art, seasonal festivals, ritual drama, etc.), but also as a specific site intended to resist the encroaching influence of capitalism, materialism, and corporatism spreading in Germany following the First World War. Steiner’s ideas about education...
Approaching Religion December 18, 2023 Tero Heinonen 3 citations
In this article, based on my doctoral research, I discuss the appropriation of religious elements from South America by Finnish ‘mystical tourists’. The plant medicine ceremonies are approached as spiritual commodities. Imagining local beliefs and practices as ancient cultural heritage, essentially and authentically spiritual, Finnish mystical tourists adapt these practices for their own...
Approaching Religion March 20, 2021 Laura Hellsten
This article analyses ethnographic material gathered in Sweden amongst dancers in the Church of Sweden. With the help of the writings of Sarah Coakley and Simone Weil I explore if, and how, dancing could be considered a contemplative practice in the Christian traditions of the Latin West.
Approaching Religion January 16, 2019 Tiina Mahlamäki, Maarit Leskelä-kärki
The study of Western esoteric traditions and practices has been a growing research field since the 1990s. This thematic issue aims at opening this field particularly in the context of Finnish cultural history, although the articles cover also other parts of the long tradition of Western esotericism in the history of Europe.
Approaching Religion January 16, 2019 Hippo Taatila
Review of Tobias Churton's Deconstructioning Gurdjieff: Biography of a Spiritual Magician (Rochester, Inner Traditions, 2017).
Approaching Religion January 16, 2019 Marjo Kaartinen
This article discusses the theosophy of Vera Hjelt (1857–1947), who was inspired by Annie Besant. Hjelt led an active life as a schoolteacher, factory owner, writer, occupational safety inspector and member of parliament. Hjelt experienced a theosophic-al awakening at the latest during the summer of 1894, after which her theosophical endeavours in Besant’s spirit and in imitation of her are...
Approaching Religion January 16, 2019 Tomas Mansikka
Western esotericism appears to be a field most precarious in terms of positioning. This article will highlight the divide between ‘critics’ and ‘religionists’ from a pre-Enlightenment position by discussing René Descartes’ role within esotericism. The study attempts to show that a pro-Enlightenment predilection tends to blur its object of research as to the kinds of knowledges that are under...