Home > Posts tagged ‘nineteenth century’

Posts tagged ‘nineteenth century’

Yogis, Magic and Deception – I

This post is an extract from a recent lecture at Treadwells Bookshop, entitled “Flying through the air, entering other bodies: Yoga and Magical Powers”. The lecture examined the relationship between yoga and magical or extraordinary abilities. When I began reading for the lecture, I was very familiar with the anti-Yoga views of 19th century scholars such as Max Muller or H.H. Wilson, but less so regarding how attitudes to yoga and yoga powers intersected with popular culture. So here is a brief examination of how yogic powers became associated with stage magic, duplicity and deception. Continue reading »

December 2nd 2019

Posted by Phil Hine in History, Occult, tantra

Tags: nineteenth century, Orientalism, Treadwells, yogis

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What Theosophy did for us – III: Cartographers of the Occult – II

“Each man travels through space enclosed within a case of his own building, surrounded by a mass of the forms created by his habitual thoughts. Through this medium he looks out upon the world, and naturally he sees everything tinged with its predominant colours. … until the man learns complete control of thought and feeling, he sees nothing as it really is, since all his observations must be made through this medium, which distorts and colours everything like badly-made glass.”
Thought-forms 1901

The concept of Thought-Forms – the belief that thoughts can exist independently of mind and cognition and can become entities in their own right is, of course, a staple of popular occult belief, and although it featured in early Theosophical texts, it was the writing of Annie Besant and Charles Webster Leadbeater that did much to popularise and systematize the concept. Many of the assertions concerning the nature of thought made by Besant and Leadbeater have become the explanatory logic behind a wide range of occult phenomena ranging from Tibetan Tulpas, ¹ group Egregores, to Chaos Servitors. Continuing from the previous post I will examine Theosophical theories of Thought-Forms and how they reflected wider cultural concerns in the early twentieth century. Continue reading »
Notes:
1. primarily due to the influence of Walter Y. Evans-Wentz and Alexandra David-Neel. ↩
January 7th 2019

Posted by Phil Hine in History, Occult

Tags: nineteenth century, Theosophy

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What Theosophy did for us – III: Cartographers of the Occult – I

For this essay, I’m going to look more closely at some of the occult theories associated with Theosophy – and in particular, the contributions of Charles Webster Leadbeater and to a lesser extent Annie Besant, as it is the collaborative work of these two individuals that did much to popularise the beliefs of the Theosophical Society, yet at the same time, introduced ideas which were at variance from those of Blavatsky – differences of doctrine – sometimes described as “Neo-Theosophy” or “Pseudo-Theosophy” – which are still being discussed by contemporary Theosophists. Furthermore, it is in the works of Leadbeater such as The Astral Plane, The Inner Life, Man Visible and Invisible, and The Chakras, that we can find the basis of much contemporary occult thought, although the Theosophical sources are, more often than not, unacknowledged. Continue reading »

December 16th 2018

Posted by Phil Hine in History, Occult

Tags: nineteenth century, Theosophy

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What Theosophy did for us – II: Places of Power – ii

Continuing from the previous post in this series which examined how Theosophical ideas about race reflected wider discourses of the period; I will now look in broad terms at the Theosophical Society’s relationship with Egypt, India and Tibet. Continue reading »

November 5th 2018

Posted by Phil Hine in History, Occult

Tags: nineteenth century, Orientalism, Theosophy

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What Theosophy did for us – II: Places of Power – i

In this essay, I will examine the three countries which, for Blavatsky and her followers were particularly associated with occult wisdom – be it a secret tradition, or the home of spiritual masters: namely, Egypt, India, and Tibet. For each of these “places of power” I will try and examine the Theosophical relationship with them, and, with respect to India and Tibet, the legacies of that relationship. This first post will deal with issues related to racial theories, and I will examine the Theosophical relationship with India, Egypt, and Tibet in the second part. Continue reading »

November 1st 2018

Posted by Phil Hine in History, Occult

Tags: nineteenth century, Orientalism, Theosophy

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What Theosophy did for us – I: Introduction

This series is based on lectures I gave at Treadwells Bookshop of London in 2006, examining the Theosophical Society and its legacy on contemporary occulture.

The Theosophical Society (TS) was the most influential of modern esoteric movements, not only for its role in shaping the contemporary occult subculture but in influencing the modern world as we know it. Over the course of this series of posts, I’ll be exploring different aspects of the Theosophical Society’s teachings and activities, and examining some of the more notable personalities associated with the Society, such as Annie Besant and Charles Webster Leadbeater. What I also want to attempt is to examine some of the beliefs which became associated with the Theosophical movement and place them in the context of wider currents stirring within the period. Continue reading »

October 24th 2018

Posted by Phil Hine in History, Occult

Tags: nineteenth century, Orientalism, Theosophy

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2016 Lectures in London

A quick post to announce two forthcoming lectures: Continue reading »

August 28th 2016

Posted by Phil Hine in Announcements, Lectures

Tags: naths, nineteenth century, Richard Payne Knight, yogis

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Book Review: Fanny & Stella

The arrest of Ernest “Stella” Boulton and Frederick “Fanny” Park in drag, at London’s Strand Theatre on 28th April 1870 led to one of the most sensational trials of the Nineteenth century. Charged with not only “the abominable crime of buggery” but also conspiracy to commit “said crime” and – “to disguise themselves as women and to frequent places of public resort, so disguised, and to thereby openly and scandalously outrage public decency and corrupt public morals.” The arrest of Fanny & Stella is the opening act in Neil McKenna’s uproarious account of the affair in Fanny & Stella: The Young Men Who Shocked Victorian England (Faber & Faber, 2014). Continue reading »

April 30th 2016

Posted by Phil Hine in Book reviews, Gender, History, Queer

Tags: nineteenth century

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Group Book Review: Modern Yoga Studies – I

“Whether a Brahmin, an ascetic, a Buddhist, a Jain, a Skull-Bearer or a materialist, the wise man who is endowed with faith and constantly devoted to the practice of yoga will attain complete success.”
Dattātreyayogaśāstra (transl. James Mallinson)

Modern Yoga has been going through some “interesting times” of late. There has been a wave of sex scandals – most recently in Australia and there are growing calls for a Decolonisation of Yoga Practice, including some strident claims that Yoga was banned under the Raj. I thought it’d be timely, then, to review some of the scholarly works on Modern Yoga. Continue reading »

April 7th 2015

Posted by Phil Hine in Book reviews, History, Occult, tantra

Tags: nineteenth century, Theosophy, yoga

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Krishna in the dock: the 1862 Maharaja libel case and its consequences – III

“Through a long night of superstition and darkness, vile creatures like this Maharaj have been able to make their dens of vice and debauchery seem to their spell-bound followers to be the holy temples of God. But as soon as the morning light comes, the place is found in full corruption and uncleanness; magical spells lose all effect; and men of a better sort rise disgusted, and at any cost break loose from such a haunt.”
Times of India May 2, 1862

Some recent correspondence has reminded me that I had more to say about the Maharaja libel case. For this post, I’m going to examine some of the intersecting factors which allowed Gujurati social reformers to enter into a strategic alliance with Imperial law, with far-reaching effects. Continue reading »

September 16th 2014

Posted by Phil Hine in History, tantra

Tags: colonialism, libel case, nineteenth century, Orientalist, Pustimarg, Vaisnava

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