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Books > Mind, Body & Spirit > The Occult > General
Germany's painful entry into the modern age elicited many
conflicting emotions. Excitement and anxiety about the
"disenchantment of the world" predominated, as Germans realized
that the triumph of science and reason had made the nation
materially powerful while impoverishing it spiritually. Eager to
enchant their world anew, many Germans in the late nineteenth and
early twentieth centuries responded by turning to a variety of
paranormal beliefs and practices--including Theosophy, astrology,
psychical research, graphology, dowsing, and spirit healing. No
mere fringe phenomenon, the German occult movement had a truly
national presence, encompassing hundreds of clubs, businesses,
institutes, and publishers providing and consuming occult goods and
services.
In "A Science for the Soul," historian Corinna Treitel explores
the appeal and significance of German occultism in all its
varieties between the 1870s and the 1940s, locating its dynamism in
the nation's struggle with modernization and the public's
dissatisfaction with scientific materialism. Occultism, Treitel
notes, served as a bridge between traditional religious beliefs and
the values of an increasingly scientific, secular, and liberal
society. Drawing on a wealth of archival materials, Treitel
describes the individuals and groups who participated in the occult
movement, reconstructs their organizational history, and examines
the economic and social factors responsible for their success.
Building on this foundation, Treitel turns to the question of
how Germans used the occult in three realms of practice: Theosophy,
where occult studies were used to achieve spiritual enlightenment;
the arts, where occult states of consciousness fueled the creative
process of avant-garde painters, writers, and dancers; and the
applied sciences, where professionals in psychology, law
enforcement, engineering, and medicine employed occult techniques
to solve characteristic problems of modernity. In conclusion,
Treitel considers the conflicting meanings occultism held for
contemporaries by focusing on the anti-spiritualist campaigns
mounted by the national press, the Protestant and Catholic
Churches, local and national governments, and the Nazi regime,
which after years of alternating between affinity and antipathy for
occultism, finally crushed the movement by 1945.
Throughout, "A Science for the Soul" examines German occultism
in its broadest cultural setting as a key aspect of German
modernism, offering new insights into how Germans met the challenge
of pursuing meaningful lives in the modern age.
Taking both Zen and Druidry and embracing them into your life can
be a wonderful and ongoing process of discovery, not only of the
self but of the entire world around you. Looking at ourselves and
at the natural world around us, we realise that everything is in
constant change and flux - like waves on the ocean, they are all
part of one thing that is made up of everything. Even after the
wave has crashed upon the shore, the ocean is still there, the wave
is still there - it has merely changed its form. The aim of this
text is to show how Zen teachings and Druidry can combine to create
a peaceful life path that is completely and utterly dedicated to
the here and now, to the earth and her rhythms, and to the flow
that is life itself.
"The Secret Language of Destiny" addresses the question we all ask
at some point during the course of our lives: "What is the purpose
of my life?" It identifies, based on birthdate, what, on a soul
level, someone came into this lifetime to achieve-in other words,
their karmic signature.
Carry the Rock is a memoir for every spiritual seeker who signs on
for a shamanic apprenticeship with their whole heart and soul, yet
they find that something is wrong. The apprenticeship feels like a
failure, but no one is talking. What's an apprentice to do if
failure is not an option?
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