Towards a Golden Dawn: Esoteric Christianity and the Development of Nineteenth-Century British Occultism

Abstract

The emphasis often given to the 'turning East' aspect of the fin-de-siècle 'occult revival' overlooks the importance of the occidental occult tradition. There was an occidental esoteric tradition operating throughout the nineteenth century which fed directly into the activity of groups like the Golden Dawn, and I argue that this hierarchical and often politically reactionary stream was as influential at the time as the propagation of Buddhist and other Eastern mystical traditions. The 'occult revival' should perhaps therefore be seen, at least in part, as another expression of the wider nineteenth-century project of the reinvigoration of Christianity, rather than of its rejection.