Esotericism Unit

For all proposals, we especially encourage papers that employ innovative theoretical or methodological approaches and that consider cross-cultural perspectives.

In addition, we will consider proposals for pre-arranged panels on a specific topic. We encourage panel organizers to consider the composition of panels which reflect diversity, which can include gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, class, and academic rank.

This year we invite proposals for the following themes:

ESOTERICISM ON TRIAL

Throughout history, esoteric beliefs and practices have been frequently outlawed, criminalized, and scandalized. The Satanic panic in the 1980s (and its lingering traces, for example in contemporary conspiracy theories), the burning at the stake of philosopher and alchemist Giordano Bruno in 1600 and astrologer Cecco d'Ascoli in 1327, the witchcraft trials, and the various court cases Aleister Crowley was involved in are poignant examples. Esotericisms have also entered the courtroom in other ways: anthropologist Paul Christopher Johnson observes, for example, the use of so-called “spirit-testimonies” in court cases in Brazil.

What is the relationship between law and esoteric practice? This panel invites scholars to consider “esotericism on trial” in a variety of contexts. Topics to consider include:

• The use of court records and trial transcripts as archival source material;
• Accusations of esoteric religious practice as themselves a crime, like witchcraft accusations;
• How race, sexuality, gender, and class play a role in the criminalization of esoteric belief and practice;
• The role of secrecy and public perception of private religious practices;  
• Public perception of esoteric belief as socially deviant, othering, and a potential motivation for criminal behavior

ESOTERICISM IN PRINT

Books, periodicals, pamphlets, and other forms of texts play a substantial and central role in (the dissemination and representation of) esoteric belief and praxis. This panel invites scholars to engage explicitly with “esotericism in print.” Such engagement invites a host of theoretical, methodological, and conceptual questions around reading cultures, publishing strategies, collecting practices, and authorship. Consider Francis Barrett’s The Magus, or, Celestial Intelligencer (1801), a text in ceremonial magic that borrowed heavily from Agrippa’s Three Books of Occult Philosophy (1531) and, in turn, would be plagiarized by occultist and publisher Lauron William de Laurence in his The Great Book of Magical Art, Hindu Magic and East Indian Occultism (1910). De Laurence would sell his version via mail order, a business he advertised in newspapers: to this day, ritual specialists in the US, the Caribbean, and West Africa experiment with the text. Members of the Nation of Islam, in turn, would have to consult a newspaper, The Final Call, if they were interested in the esoteric writings of Mother Tynnetta Muhammad, one of the movement’s most important theologians--decades prior, the movement’s leader Elijah Muhammad also used a newspaper as central form of communication. And  occult bookstores, like Treadwell’s Books in London, remain central loci for both scholars and a general readership, to access esoteric texts, equipment, and social netoworks.

We invite papers that look at:

• Various textual forms, including books, periodicals, pamphlets, newspapers, etc.
• Various genres, including poetry, science fiction, grimoires, etc
• Reading cultures, examining for example book inscriptions, forms of collective reading, ritual reading, secrecy, etc.;
• Publishing, considering the role of esoteric presses, bookstores, mail order companies, catalogs, newspapers in the dissemination and circulation of esoteric belief and practice;
• Collecting practices, looking for example at the importance of personal and public libraries and (digital) archives;
• Authorship, including concerns around translation, plagiarism, and copy-right issues, as well as the use of pseudonyms;
• The materiality of texts
• Esotericism studies in print: rigorous engagement with journals, book series, and newsletters in the field

Co-sponsored session with the Esotericism Unit and the Religion and Ecology Unit:

Ecology and Esotericism

During a paper for the Religion and Ecology Unit at the 2024 Annual Meeting of the AAR, Bron Taylor noted with regret that the world's major religious traditions—with some exceptions—have not embraced environmentalism or serious attention to the ecological crisis. By contrast, it seems, many new religious movements and esoteric groups seem to have embraced environmentalism as a matter of religious concern. What is it about these new and esoteric religious movements that enable them to embrace environmental concern in a way that the major religious traditions apparently cannot? We welcome papers for a co-sponsored session with the Esotericism Unit and the Religion and Ecology Unit on ecology and esotericism. Possible subjects could include but are not limited to:

• Esoteric cosmologies that locate divinity within the natural world rather than as a transcendent reality,
• The moral status of nonhumans in esoteric and new religious movements,
• The sacredness and moral status of the natural world in New Age, Wiccan, Pagan, and Neopagan communities,
• The intersection between new and esoteric religious groups and the radical environmental movement.
• The viability (or lack thereof) of new and esoteric religious groups as effective political actors.
• Analyzing esoteric or new-religious movements that are more conducive to greening than world religions
• Esoteric ecological communities as spaces of freedom and liberation
• Elemental symbolism, paranormal experiences in nature (e.g tree spirits, UFOs/UAPs, familiars) and their ecological significance.
• How esoteric traditions intersect with posthumanist and speculative realism theories, particularly in their exploration of the agency of nonhuman and material entities.
• Analyses of esoteric cosmologies or ontologies that propose alternative conceptions of nature or the nonhuman world  (e.g., nature as a living organism, the interconnectedness of all beings, or the sacredness of nonhuman entities) as potential resources for rethinking human-nature relationships in the face of ecological crises.
• Studies of esoteric communities actively engaging with issues of environmental justice, including their responses to the disproportionate impacts of climate change on marginalized communities.