The · Esoteric · Librarian

Edited Collection: Alan Moore and the Gothic Tradition

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Abstracts should be approximately 500 words and should be emailed to Dr. Matt Green (matt.green@nottingham.ac.uk) on or before Friday, September 25, 2009.

from http://achadachad.livejournal.com/459903.html

"In 2009 it will be ten years since Ronald Hutton's "Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft" was published. To mark the tenth birthday of this extremely influential, provocative and seminal book, a volume of collected essays is planned.
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paradoxosalpha has posted the first review of John Crowley's forthcoming novel Four Freedoms on LibraryThing.

"In the 1960s as I was beginning to conceive of a career as a writer of fantastic fiction I thought of writing a series of occult detective stories, wherein a detective wise about world mythologies and magics would solve puzzles others could not. I think the idea was related to Avram Davidson’s Dr. Esterhazy, but the discoveries were to be grander, and the magician more capable of magic of her own. Well, she became Ariel Hawksquill, and the first story I planned to write about her was about how she figures out that an enigmatic/charismatic/trickster politician is the reawakened Emperor Barbarossa, whose tale I had come across I don’t know where. So I simply included her in a book that seemed to need a subplot, as huge books of its kind do." --John Crowley, from The Perpetual Interview


I don't know why I didn't read this before now, but I am gratified to know about it nonetheless. I should have liked to solve mysteries.

Libraries and the Occult

via stevensteven

European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism.

The Center for Studies on New Religions has an international conference. It is being held in London in 2008; session topics include "20 Years of Studies on Aleister Crowley".

Rice University Department of Religious Studies has added a PhD program in Mysticism, Gnosticism, Esotericism.

A portrait of the librarian to Rudolph II, royal patron of alchemists and esotericists.

"Cauda Pavonis: Studies in Hermeticism solicits scholarly articles on all aspects of Hermetic studies for upcoming issues. Interdisciplinary work is especially welcome from fields such as history, music, art history, philosophy, history of science, religious studies, and literature. In addition, we welcome book/ journal announcements and books for review, announcements of forthcoming conferences, and relevant notices of interest (such as informative Web sites). Inquiries should be sent to editor@caudapavonis.net."

Three years ago, The Austin Chronicle ran an interesting story about the history of this journal, its current funding woes, and the problems faced by hermeticists in academe.

"The primary mission of this organization is to support excellence in scholarship and to foster communication among scholars who, though their work originates from a wide range of fields, find esotericism a common theme of their research." They hold an annual conference.

http://www.aseweb.org/

Held annually at the Esalen Center for Theory and Research in California. Previous conferences topics: "The Varieties of Esoteric Experience" and "Hidden Intercourse: Eros and Sexuality in Western Esotericism".

http://www.esalenctr.org/display/ren.cfm

"The new MA in Western Esotericism at the University of Exeter represents the first major initiative in this subject at a UK university."

http://www.huss.ex.ac.uk/postgrad/ma/esotericism.htm

From their website: "This is an academic, peer-reviewed journal, and our goals are to be a resource for those encountering this field for the first time and considering teaching it in the college or university classroom, to encourage new scholars in this emerging discipline, and to act as a means for communication among existing scholars in the field."

All content is available online for free. Published by Michigan State University.

http://www.esoteric.msu.edu/

From their website: "Established at Bristol, England in 2002 by two postgraduates, Alison Butler and Dave Evans, the Society for the Academic Study of Magic (SASM) was created to further communication and exchange among scholars interested in the study of magic throughout the world and encompassing all eras. Its range of concerns includes, but is by no means limited to, the history, sociology, philosophy, psychology, anthropology of magic, magical practices and theories of magic, as well as magical objects, artifacts and texts. We are avowedly cross-disciplinary and thus would be interested to hear from anyone in ANY academic discipline, and freelance researchers involved in studies of such subjects."

This society publishes a peer-reviewed journal.

From their website: "Societas Magica was created to further communication and exchange among scholars interested in the study of magic during the middle ages as well as in antiquity and the early modern period. Its range of concerns includes the sociology of magic, magical practices and theories of magic, as well as magical objects, artifacts and texts."

http://brindedcow.umd.edu/socmag/main.html

They have 5 issues of their newsletter available online and sponsor the Magic in History book series published by Pennsylvania University Press ("Volumes include reprints of important works on magic, editions and translation of primary texts, and significant new research in the field.")

Swedish playwright (and author of an Occult Diary) August Strindberg was assistant librarian at the Royal Library in Stockholm for seven years.

http://www.strindbergsmuseet.se/english/life.html

One of the three founding members of The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and translator of numerous occult grimoires, Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers worked in London for a time as assistant librarian to Frederick Horniman, founder of the Horniman Museum.

http://www.hermeticgoldendawn.org/Documents/Bios/mathers.htm

Giacomo Casanova, best known for his love of women, was also an occultist and initiate of Freemasonry; he spent the last years of his life serving as librarian to Count Waldstein at Dux Castle in Bohemia, near Prague.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevalier_de_Seingalt_Casanova_Giovanni_Giacomo