List of Sources
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LIST OF SOURCES T S S The sources listed here consist of the consulted texts belonging to the five positions in focus here: theosophy, anthroposophy, the “ageless wisdom” of Alice Bailey, the readings of Edgar Cayce and the various manifestations of the New Age. Bibliographic references to all other texts referred to in this study, especially those of a scholarly nature, can be found in the References section. Theosophy For first generation theosophy, the collected works of Helena Blavatsky have been consulted. These are referred to in the present study as BCW, a roman numeral identifying the volume in the series. The two main doctrinal statements, Isis Unveiled and The Secret Doctrine, are however referred to as IU and SD respectively. Roman numerals indicate the volume of each respective work. Besides these, four other founding texts have been chosen:1 the Mahatma letters as well as books by William Q. Judge and Alfred Sinnett. Charles Leadbeater, the chief ideologist of second-generation theosophy, was a highly productive writer. In his biography of Leadbeater, Gregory Tillett enumer- ates 85 works, not including journal articles. To these, another 13 can be added, which were written in collaboration with other writers. Annie Besant is also the author of numerous volumes. For the present study a subset, presented in the list of sources, has been chosen as particularly relevant to the discursive strategies in focus. Anthroposophy Rudolf Steiner’s Gesamtausgabe consists of well over 300 titles. Of these, two basic categories have been chose to illustrate his discursive strategies. The first category consist of books recommended by anthroposophists as introductions to his works. These are Die Philosophie der Freiheit, Theosophie, Wie erlangt man Erkentnisse der höheren Welten?, Umriss der Geheimwissenschaft and Mein Lebensgang. These have English trans- lations, sometimes under several different titles, authorized by the Anthroposophical Society, and it is from these translations that quotes are taken. The second consists of various cycles of Steiner’s speeches. Of these, fifty cycles were surveyed in a monumental study carried out by Adolf Arenson.2 From these categories, I have sought out passages where Steiner reads texts and traditions belonging to other religions, e.g. some of his numerous commentaries on the gospel texts; Steiner’s comments on contemporary science; and his thoughts on reincar- nation and karma, used in the concluding case study. Most of these lectures have not been translated; here, the German editions are used as source texts. 1 The present list gives the authors of respective work (or the title, in the case of anonymous works). Full bibliographic data can be found in the Sources at the end of this appendix. 2 Arenson (1961). Arenson’s invaluable Leitfaden has been liberally consulted to orient myself in the vast corpus of Steiner’s work. 510 Alice Bailey Compared to other Esoteric writers whose output tends to be truly staggering, whose texts appeared in a bewildering number of versions, or both, the work of Alice Bailey is relatively easy to survey. The entire corpus of Alice Bailey’s published writings has been consulted and most of her works are quoted here. Of her twenty- four books, nineteen are written as a channel for Djwal Khul, while five are pre- sented as her own works. Many were circulated among students of the Arcane School before appearing in book format, whence the posthumous year of publica- tion of several volumes listed in the bibliography. Edgar Cayce The Edgar Cayce material represents a somewhat different case than the other posi- tions. Cayce never published any books explaining his doctrines. His views can be found in three kinds of source material. Firstly, there is large collection of readings on various subjects edited as The Edgar Cayce Companion. Secondly, there are books of commented readings compiled by other writers, on a variety of topics from Atlantis to crystals. Thirdly, there are biographies with more or less extensive discussions of the doctrinal contents of Cayce’s readings. Books by Ernest Frejer, Glen Kittler, Noel Langley, Jess Stern, Thomas Sugrue and Gina Cerminara have been consulted. New Age The first generation of the New Age, i.e. doctrines advanced in books from the 1970’s and early 1980’s, has been extensively studied by Wouter Hanegraaff and will occupy a correspondingly smaller place here. Among the movement texts of this group, “New Age classics” by Marilyn Ferguson, David Spangler and Shirley MacLaine have been used as sources. A second generation of New Age movement texts, particulary those written in the 1990’s, includes books by James Redfield, Gary Zukav and Maguire Thompson. Beside such ideological texts, the present study has made liberal use of books describing particular doctrines, rituals and techniques relevant to the New Age world view, not least because these books have received only little attention in Hanegraaff ’s survey. Most of the books surveyed here can be roughly divided into the categories of healing (in the broadest sense, i.e. including personal, spiritual development), div- ination, channeling, the paranormal and New Age science. Books dealing with various techniques for healing and personal development can be further subdivided into categories. Best-selling authors on healing, personal and spiritual development represented here are Deepak Chopra, Wayne Dyer, Shakti Gawain and Louise Hay. Among books dealing with esoteric anatomy and the chakras, texts by Caroline Myss and Naomi Ozaniec have been chosen. Six par- ticular methods of ritual healing with a large following in the New Age milieu have been included: aromatherapy (Lawless), Aura-Soma (Wall and Dalichow & Booth), Bach flower remedies (Bach, Scheffer), crystal healing (Bravo, Rafaell, Simpson and Stein), Reiki healing (Stein, Horan, Honervogt, Milner and Petter), and past-life therapy (Fiore, Wambach, Weiss and Woolger). A few books represent other meth- ods or describe the life and activity of individual healers (Kilham, Shine). Three systems of divination are particularly prominent in the New Age milieu: astrology, the tarot and numerology. Books on astrology chosen for reading include titles by Arroyo, Greene, Merlin, Reinhart and Sasportas. The tarot is represented with titles by Giles, Gray, Greer, Hamaker-Zondag, Mann, Pollack and Ziegler. The texts on numerology included here are titles by Barrat and Ducie as well as an anonymous booklet entitled Ancient Wisdom for the New Age: Numerology. Books that involve channeling or reproduce channeled messages include titles by Roman & Packer, Carey, Marciniak, Hand Clow, Klein, Roberts, Solara, Walsh.