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Dark Enlightenment Dark Enlightenment <UN> Aries Book Series Texts and Studies in Western Esotericism Editor Marco Pasi Editorial Board Jean-Pierre Brach Andreas Kilcher Wouter J. Hanegraaff Advisory Board Allison Coudert – Antoine Faivre – Olav Hammer Monika Neugebauer-Wölk – Mark Sedgwick – Jan Snoek György Szőnyi – Garry Trompf VOLUME 18 The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/arbs <UN> Dark Enlightenment The Historical, Sociological, and Discursive Contexts of Contemporary Esoteric Magic By Kennet Granholm LEIDEN | BOSTON <UN> Cover illustration: Woodcarving of an 11-pronged star, representing the realm of the Kliphoth. Reproduced with kind permission. © Timo Ketola, www.tentacula.org Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Granholm, Kennet, 1977- Dark enlightenment : The Historical, sociological, and discursive contexts of contemporary esoteric magic / by Kennet Granholm. pages cm. -- (Aries book series. Texts and studies in Western esotericism, ISSN 1871-1405 ; VOLUME 18) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-90-04-27486-0 (hardback : alk. paper) -- ISBN 978-90-04-27487-7 (e-book) 1. Occultism. 2. Magic. 3. Dragon Rouge (Society) I. Title. BF1411.G69 2014 133.4’3--dc23 2014014507 This publication has been typeset in the multilingual “Brill” typeface. With over 5,100 characters covering Latin, ipa, Greek, and Cyrillic, this typeface is especially suitable for use in the humanities. For more information, please see www.brill.com/brill-typeface. issn 1871-1405 isbn 978-90-04-27486-0 (hardback) isbn 978-90-04-27487-7 (e-book) Copyright 2014 by Koninklijke Brill nv, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill nv incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Nijhoff, Global Oriental and Hotei Publishing. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill nv provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, ma 01923, usa. Fees are subject to change. This book is printed on acid-free paper. <UN> Contents Acknowledgements vii List of Images xi Introduction 1 The Structure of the Book 4 1 The Study of Contemporary Magic 9 What is Magic? 9 The Study of Esotericism: Historiographical Approaches 12 The Study of Esotericism: Sociological Approaches 19 An Emerging ‘New Paradigm’ in the Study of Esotericism 24 Social Constructionism, Discourse, and Discourse Analysis 30 Esoteric Currents as Discursive Complexes 36 2 Major Trends in Post-Enlightenment Esotericism 40 The Theosophical Society 41 The Nineteenth Century ‘Occult Revival’ 43 Aleister Crowley and Ordo Templi Orientis 47 Neopaganism 52 Satanism and the Left-Hand Path 58 The ‘New Age Movement’ and the Popularization of Esotericism 66 3 Dragon Rouge: History, Philosophy, Structures 70 History 70 Basic Tenets 77 Structures 88 4 Ethnographies of Dark Magic 100 Course on Dark Ceremonial Magic 100 The Ceremonial Opening of Lodge Sinistra 109 Initiation into Degree 2.0 117 The Nature of Dragon Rouge Ritual Practice 125 5 The Discursive Formation of Dark Magic 129 The Left-Hand Path Discourses in the Context of Dragon Rouge 129 The Ideology of Individualism 129 <UN> vi contents The Goal of Self-Deification 134 Antinomianism 139 The Complex of Left-Hand Path Discourses 146 6 The Impact of Broader Societal Discourses 149 The Primacy of Nature 149 The Dark Feminine Divine 153 Discursive Realities 156 Ultimate Authority and Degree Structures - Non-Hierarchical Hierarchy? 157 Vegetarianism, Animal Rights, and Environmentalism 161 Feminism and Gender Equality 166 7 Esotericism in Late Modernity 173 Modernity and Esotericism 173 Late Modernity, Esotericism, and Dragon Rouge 182 Concluding Remarks 197 Bibliography 201 Index 226 <UN> Acknowledgements This book has been a long time in the making. Originally intended as a revised version of my PhD-thesis from 2005, it was supposed to be finished by late 2007. Other responsibilities kept coming in the way, and every time I picked up the manuscript to continue working on it I had learnt something new that forced me to make revisions. It was frustrating, but has no doubt resulted in the finished product being better. This book is no longer simply a revised version of my thesis. It is much more ambitious in its aim to explore theory and method and novel approaches and perspectives in the study of contemporary esoteri- cism more generally, by looking at a particular case study – the magic order Dragon Rouge. This book in many ways documents my academic journey in the eight years since I wrote my PhD thesis. Understandably, a great number of people have helped me along the way, so many in fact that I can in no way pay tribute to all who deserve it. My sincere apologies to all who feel left out. First, this book would not have been possible without the funding granted to me by the Donner Institute for Research on Religious and Cultural History and Stiftelsen för Åbo Akademis forskningsinstitut. I also wish to thank the Academy of Finland for making it possible for me to spend the lecture year 2007–2008 at the University of Amsterdam. This book started as my PhD thesis in Comparative Religion at Åbo Akademi University, and although it does not resemble the original thesis much my orig- inal supervisor deserves a great deal of credit. Thank you Emeritus Professor Nils G. Holm for invaluable support and advice, for providing a great atmo- sphere for work and study, and in general for helping me along the way. Also, the thesis – and indeed my academic career – would not have been possible without the many enlightening and rewarding discussions I had with Dr Jan Svanberg. I have remained active, in one way or another, in the Department. Most recently, I have participated in the centre of excellence project ‘Post- Secular Culture and Religious Change in Finland’ (pccr) since its start in 2010. While I have not had the chance to participate in the project seminars as much as I would have liked to, I have appreciated the discussions I have had the opportunity to partake in and have learnt much from the different perspec- tives presented and sub-projects involved. I wish to thank all the scholars involved in pccr, particularly the project leader Professor Peter Nynäs. Both within and beyond the project I have collaborated closely with Dr Marcus Moberg. Our focus in ppcr, and in other joint scholarly ventures, revolves around media, popular culture, and religious change, and the numer- ous lengthy discussions Marcus and I have had have been indispensable for my <UN> viii acknowledgements current research on esotericism and popular culture. I have been able to turn to Marcus for information and clarifications on the latest research in the field of media, popular culture, and religion, and the projects we have collaborated on have greatly expanded my perspectives on contemporary religion and sociological theory. In 2007 I was awarded funding by the Academy of Finland to spend the lecture year 2007–2008 as a visiting research fellow at the Center for History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents at the University of Amsterdam (hhp). My time at hhp has easily been the most academically and intellectu- ally stimulating in my career thus far. I enjoyed it so much, in fact, that I stayed in Amsterdam until early 2010. The centre is, of course, the leading research and teaching environment for the study of esotericism, and the faculty involves some of the greatest scholars in the field. During my time in Amsterdam I got to know Professor Wouter Hanegraaff, Kocku von Stuckrad (now professor at Groningen University), and Dr Marco Pasi. I am truly grateful to have had the opportunity to befriend and learn from the masters, and I hope that we will continue to engage in stimulating discussions. With no disrespect to the mas- ters, one of the most rewarding aspects of my stay in Amsterdam was that I got to know, and later collaborate, with a great number of brilliant young ma- students – many of whom are today PhD-candidates at various universities in Europe and North America, and some of whom have by this time been awarded their doctorates. I wish to in particular pay tribute to Colin Duggan (PhD- candidate at University College Cork), Christian Greer (PhD-candidate at hhp), Dylan Burns (PhD at Yale, now working at the University of Leipzig), Joyce Pijnenburg (PhD-candidate at hhp), Justine Bakker (PhD-candidate at Rice University), Jacob Senholt (PhD-candidate at Aarhus University), John Crow (PhD-candidate at Florida State University), Aren Roukema, Karen Meier, and Daniel Kline. Many, many more of you deserve mention, but I need to stop somewhere. Of all the scholars I have worked with, my collaboration with Dr Egil Asprem has been the most rewarding. I met Egil while working at hhp and we soon became friends, engaged in incredibly inspiring (and sometimes equally weird) conversations…and drew up plans for world domination. Working with Egil has been not only rewarding, but also extremely easy. Together we have edited the collected volume Contemporary Esotericism (2013), founded the Contemporary Esotericism Research Network (ContERN, operating under the European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism – esswe), and orga- nized the very successful (if I may say so) 1st International Conference on Contemporary Esotericism at Stockholm University in 2012. While I must admit to being intimidated by Egil’s keen intellect and extreme productivity, I hope that our collaboration will continue for a long time. <UN> acknowledgements ix Since 2010 I have been employed in History of Religions at Stockholm University.
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