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Disenchanting enchantment: Occultism, Science and Religion in the Long Nineteenth Century

Module description

This module explores a wide range of occult and esoteric enterprises that flourished in Europe and North America from the late 1700s to the early 1900s. These include animal magnetism, astrology, Swedenborgianism, Modern Spiritualism, Modern Theosophy, ritual magic and psychical research.  You will examine the ways that these enterprises both challenged and aligned with developments in the sciences and organised religions, and how they related to the wider political, intellectual, social, and cultural contexts.  The module will equip you with ways of critically thinking about present-day relationships between the occult, science and religion.

Module aims - intentions of the module

In 1917 the eminent German sociologist Max Weber notoriously described the modern world as ‘disenchanted’.  It was world where people had accepted that everything was in principle explainable by science and rationality and where was no longer any need for supernatural and magical forces.  How credible was Weber’s perspective?  In this module you’ll assess the ‘disenchantment’ thesis through detailed studies of occult, esoteric and related enterprises that were either born or flourished in Europe, North America and elsewhere during the long nineteenth century.  These include animal magnetism, astrology, Swedenborgianism, Modern Spiritualism, Modern Theosophy, ritual magic and psychical research.  By a close and critical study of primary and secondary source materials you will develop an understanding of the complex relationship between these enterprises and the increasingly powerful sciences, and to organised religion, as well as the significance of the political, intellectual, social and cultural contexts.  You will develop abilities to question seemingly unproblematic terminology and concepts, and to critically engage with older and more recent historical approaches to occult and esoteric subjects, including those framed in terms of rigid distinctions between science and pseudo-science, rationality and superstition, natural and supernatural.  This module will equip you with many skills for better understanding the past but also the present.  The enchanted worldviews of nineteenth century occultism and esoterism are often seen as the mirrors or others of the now-dominant disenchanted, rational and scientific worldviews; this module will allow you to understand the fragility of that mirror.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. Demonstrate a detailed and critical understanding of occult and esoteric enterprises in the long nineteenth century.
• 2. Show an ability to interpret occult and esoteric enterprises in relation to scientific, religious and wider contexts.
• 3. Engage critically with the historiographical and theoretical debates relating to occultism and esotericism.

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 4. Locate, analyse and synthesise widely different kinds of historical material and evidence.
• 5. Demonstrate a critical understanding of key historical concepts and debate, and recognise the differences between different approaches and source types.
• 6. Develop practical research skills in primary and secondary source materials.

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 7. Demonstrate capacity for independent critical research, study and thought, including developing the ability to construct and defend a clear and coherent argument, both in written form and orally, using primary and secondary materials.
• 8. Work as an individual and with a tutor and peers in an independent, constructive and responsive way.
• 9. Apply key bibliographical skills to independent study.

Syllabus plan

• Whilst the content may vary from year to year, it is envisioned that it will cover some or all of the following topics:
• Historiographical and theoretical approaches to occultism and esotericism
• The occult, esoteric and supernatural in the Enlightenment
• The growth of the sciences and fragmentation of organised religion in the nineteenth century
• The ‘conflict’ between science and religion
• Secularisation and the ‘crisis’ of religious faith
• Animal magnetism and mesmerism
• Nineteenth century astrology
• Swedenborgianism
• Modern Spiritualism
• Modern Theosophy and the globalisation of Western Esotericism
• Ritual Magic and the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn
• Ghost stories and supernatural fiction
• Psychical Research and the ancestors of parapsychology
• ‘Supernatural’ beliefs, rituals and objects during the First World War
• Cultures of stage and secular magic
• Rethinking modernity, disenchantment and secularisation

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Re-assessment notes

Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 50%) you will be required to submit a further assessment as necessary. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 50%.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

• Bown, N., Burdett, C., Thurschwell, P.  (1998).  The Victorian Supernatural.  Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
• Brooke, J. (1991).  Science and Religion: Some Historical Perspectives.  Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
• Bruce, S. (1992).  Religion and Modernisation: Sociologists and Historians Debate the Secularisation Thesis.  Oxford: Clarendon Press
• Crabtree, A. (1993). From Mesmer to Freud: Magnetic Sleep and the Roots of Psychological Healing.  New Haven: Yale University Press
• Davies, O. (2018).  A Supernatural War: Magic, Divination and Faith During the First World War.  Oxford: Oxford University Press
• Dixon, T., Cantor, G. and Pumfrey, S. (2010).  Science and Religion: New Historical Perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
• During, Simon (2002). Modern Enchantments: The Cultural Power of Secular Magic. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
• Gabay. A. (2005).  The Covert Enlightenment: Eighteenth Century Counterculture and its Aftermath.  West Chester, Penn: Swedenborg Foundation Publishers
• Godwin, J. (1994).  The Theosophical Enlightenment.  Albany: State University of New York Press.
• Goodrick-Clarke, N. (2009). The Western Esoteric Traditions: A Historical Introduction. New York: Oxford University Press
• Gordin, M. (2021).  On the Fringe: Where Science Meets Pseudoscience.  Oxford: Oxford University Press

• Hanegraaff, W. (2013), Western Esotericism: A Guide for the Perplexed. London: Bloomsbury Academic
• Hanegraaff, W., Forshaw, P. and Pasi, M. (eds) (2019).  Hermes Explains: Thirty Questions about Western Esotericism.  Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.
• Noakes, R. (2019).  Physics and Psychics: The Occult and the Sciences in Modern Britain.  Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
• Lachapelle, Sofie (2011).  Investigating the Supernatural: From Spiritism and Occultism to Psychical Research and Metapsychics in France, 1853-1931.  Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press.
• Lamont, Peter (2013).  Extraordinary Beliefs: A Historical Approach to a Psychological Problem.  Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
• Moore, R. Laurence (1977). In Search of White Crows: Spiritualism, Parapsychology and American Culture.  New York: Oxford University Press.
• Owen, Alex (1989).  The Darkened Room: Women, Power and Spiritualism in Late Victorian England.  London: Virago.
• Partridge, C. (2010), The Occult World.  London: Routledge.

Key words search

Occult, esotericism, nineteenth century, science, religion, mesmerism; Swedenborgianism, spiritualism, theosophy, ritual magic, psychical research, rationality, superstition, paranormal