Quest News is produced to introduce you to our staff and faculty and as well to pass on exciting information about the upcoming Esoteric Quest Conference and Post Conference Tour. Our main conference will explore The History and Renewal of the American Soul. The Quest will be taking place August 24-28 just outside of Woodstock, in Phoenicia, New York. The conference will be followed by an optional journey to Esoteric Upstate New York and the Hudson Valley where we will discover Iroquois Nations, Feminists, Utopians and 21st Century Esotericists. Please see http://www.esotericquest.org/ for more information.
Our Website is Live!
Please see http://www.esotericquest.org/ for our full website for our upcoming conference. Created by Site Optimized , it is a beautiful tool for our upcoming conference and trip.
A few highlights of the website:
On the navigation at the top of the page you have the following options:
Past Conferences which tells you about our other Esoteric Quest conferences and gives you an opportunity to download brochures from them as well. There is also a page with audio from conferences in Weimar, Granada and Samothraki.
Presenters features bio’s of all of our speakers.
Schedule will take you to pages explaining our plenary sessions, workshops , evening events , afternoon activities , a sample schedule for the entire conference and a page explaining our conference theme.
Register has pages explaining the cost and accommodations and as well will lead you to the registration form for secure online registration.
Under Resources you will find our Quest News Newsletters helpful links , travel tips , Suggested reading and a packing list .
Our contact page will give you all of the information you need to reach our Registration Manager, Andrea Lomanto.
On the bottom of each page is an opportunity to download our full color brochure.
Please join us on Facebook: www.esotericquest.org/facebook and become a fan of The Esoteric Quest page. On this page you can ask questions, share photos and learn more about our conference!
Please feel free to send a link to our website to all of your friends and contacts
Faculty Spotlight
Mitch Horowitz is the editor-in-chief of Tarcher/Penguin in New York and the author of the forthcoming Occult America: The Secret History of How Mysticism Shaped Our Nation which has been called “a fascinating book” by Ken Burns and “a sparkling, down-to-earth, and often deeply touching account” by Jacob Needleman.
We know in your capacity as editor-in-chief of Tarcher/Penguin that you have published many classics of American Esoteric literature. What role did this play in your desire to write a book on occult America?
It was a huge factor in moving me toward the book. As I began to reissue works from the renaissance in American metaphysical thought, roughly from the late-19th and early 20th centuries, I was surprised to discover how widely esoteric thinkers participated in the nation’s political and social culture. For instance, Wallace D. Wattles, the author of the 1910 New Thought work The Science of Getting Rich, was also a socialist activist who saw “mind power” as a means to redistribute wealth to working people. In turn, Marcus Garvey, the black-nationalist hero, took up these kinds of ideas and framed New Thought as a liberating philosophy for black America. One would never ordinarily make the connection between New Thought and the dawn of Black Nationalism – but there it was just under the surface. In reissuing the books of figures like Manly P. Hall (The Secret Teachings of All Ages) and Paul Foster Case (The Tarot), I came to understand the hunger that existed among American occult thinkers in the early 20th century to spread esoteric ideas as broadly as possible. These figures had none of the airs of secrecy that sometimes existed among European occult thinkers; they wanted esoteric concepts to be widely accessible – and they helped lay the groundwork for the New Age culture that became popular decades later.
What were the most fascinating new discoveries you made about American spiritual life in your research for the book?
There were many, but two stand out for me. First was the impact of African magical traditions on America and, second, was the overwhelming influence of Theosophy on the nation’s mainstream spiritual and political life.
To start with the first example, the entire idea of Africa as a cradle of world civilization – today very popular, but once very marginal – began to enter the American mindset through the migration of African magical and esoteric ideas to the New World. By the early 20th century, the African-American magical system called hoodoo (often confused with the related but very different Afro-Caribbean religion of Voodoo) produced a literature and a spiritual counter-culture that challenged the West’s misconception that Africa lacked a deep mythological past. African traditions later gained a voice in America through the work of figures like Marcus Garvey and Alex Haley. But it was the magical tradition of hoodoo that first awakened the nation, or at least parts of it, to African culture. On a different tack, I was repeatedly surprised by the deep influence of Theosophy – the esoteric movement founded in New York in the late 19th century by Madame Blavatsky and Colonel Henry Steel Olcott. Early on, Theosophy’s founders relocated to India; but Theosophy’s influence was so bountiful that it actually reverberated from India back to America in unexpected ways. Martin Luther King’s belief in religious universality was influenced by Gandhi; as a young law student, Gandhi – and he was very specific about this – first encountered the principle of religious pluralism through his contact with Theosophy. Theosophy’s cofounder Colonel Olcott was American, and through his travels in the East, particularly in Sri Lanka, he helped ignite a Buddhist revival that deeply touched America in years ahead.
Tell us about the “Burned Over District” the stretch of land in Upstate NY that became a hot bed for spiritual innovation in the mid 19th century.
I began writing Occult America with the idea that California would form its epicenter; I saw Los Angeles, in particular, as the wellspring of American occultism. But I discovered that many years before the California Gold Rush helped settle the West, the real birthplace of alternative spirituality in America was Central New York State. In the early to mid-19th century, an astonishing range of alternative religious and social movements sprang from a narrow stretch of land called the Burned-Over District, which runs from Albany to Buffalo. It was called the Burned-Over District because of the religious passions that swept through area – the place was considered on fire with the Holy Spirit. Within a few decades, the Burned-Over District gave rise to the Shakers, the Mormons, Seventh-Day Adventism, Spiritualism, Suffragism, and American variations of utopianism (like the Oneida community). In the late 18th century, it was home to a religious settlement founded by America’s first female spiritual leader, Jemima Wilkinson. She was a spirit medium who called herself the Publick Universal Friend. In and around the Central New York area there appeared the nation’s first-known episodes of spirit-channeling and mental healing. The Burned-Over District was as significant to development of mystical religions in America as the sands of the Sinai were to Judaism.
You are speaking in June at the Open Center as part of the Inner America Series entitled Made in America: The Hidden History of ‘Positive Thinking’, what are the esoteric origins of the kind of positive thinking phenomenon that continues to grip America up to this present day?
The concept that mind-shapes-reality – or the “power of positive thinking” – actually began in America as an occult philosophy. And it grew into one of the most influential religious ideas of the modern world. Today its impact is everywhere – from church pulpits to mega bestsellers to recovery programs to inspirational calendars. Essentially, the notion that our thoughts create our fortunes began with the experiments of a New England clockmaker named Phineas Quimby, who found that positive moods could lift his tuberculosis. Quimby’s experiments attracted very influential participants. One of them was Mary Baker Eddy who later founded the religion of Christian Science – but other people, with lesser-known names, went on to combine Quimby’s mental-healing with occult philosophies from the Old World, such as Mesmerism (or hypnotism) and Swedenborgianism, which sought to plumb the powers of the human mind. In short, all this galvanized into a distinct religious philosophy that identified the human mind as a channel of Divine creative power. It was called New Thought, among other names. And while the name New Thought remained unknown to most Americans, the philosophy became the operating system for most of our self-help programs. It figured into landmark books like Think and Grow Rich, How to Win Friends and Influence People, The Power of Positive Thinking and, of course in our own time, The Secret. This concept of belief-in-self became so central to the American mindset that we cannot imagine a time when it wasn’t with us. But, in fact, it grew from the early experiments and ideas of occult innovators on American soil.
How has the greater knowledge that you have acquired from your research affected your view of the United States and the multiple challenges it faces in the present moment?
I don’t think the inventiveness of the American past forms any guarantee for the future, but it is deeply heartening to see that America remains a place of spiritual openness and innovation. In recent years, for example, the conservative, Bush-era Supreme Court affirmed the rights of a Brazilian-American spiritualist sect to use psychedelic drugs in some of its religious ceremonies. And the Department of Veteran’s Affairs recently recognized Wicca as an official religion within the U.S. military – its adherents are now entitled to full military honors and burial (including a pentagram on gravestones). This kind of religious liberty – and it’s very precious – allows America to continue to be seen as a social laboratory and as a place that can help find solutions in the world. And it shows that we are continuing to fulfill what may be our deepest purpose as a nation: the protection of the individual’s search for meaning.
At the Esoteric Quest conference Mitch will be presenting a workshop titled “Occult America: The Secret History of How Mysticism Shaped Our Nation” . He will also be teaching two classes at The Open Center in June (see below for details).
Upcoming Events
Esoteric Quest Open House!
Wednesday, May 6th, 2009 at 7:45pm
Join Conference Director, Ralph White and Conference Coordinator, Carrie Wykoff for an informational session about this year’s Esoteric Quest. We will also have a special appearance by a faculty member and a song by Chanda Rule. Images from last year’s Quest in Greece and Turkey will also be shared. Come raise a glass and see old friends and meet new ones!
Location: The NY Open Center, 83 Spring Street, NY NY.
Please RSVP – 212-219-2527 x 101 or at quest@opencenter.org
Early Bird Price Deadline for Esoteric Quest Conference
Thursday, May 21st, 2009
For more information please call 212-219-2527 x 101 or see http://www.esotericquest.org/
A Series of Talks on Inner America at the NY Open Center
The History and Renewal of the American Soul
As a prelude to the Open Center’s sum¬mer conference An Esoteric Quest for Inner America, we are offering a series of talks on the deeper spiritual history of this country beyond the normal bounds of conventional religion. At a time when the potential for social, political and cultural renewal is great, join us for an investigation into some half-forgotten dimensions of American spiritual life.
The Esoteric World of Madame Blavatsky
Michael Gomes
A trailblazing pioneer of the mod¬ern esoteric revival, Helena Petrovna Blavatsky brought together eastern and western traditions to help form a truly American synthesis. One of the first women leaders in esotericism, she opened up what had been a male-dominated field as no one before. Her editor, Michael Gomes, will provide a guide to her world, especially her New York days when she wrote her first book, Isis Unveiled, and her ideas about fulfill¬ing human potential.
Date: Monday, June 1, 8pm
Michael Gomes, one of the world’s experts on H. P. Blavatsky, has edited a number of her writings, including an abridgement of The Secret Doctrine to be published later this year. He is director of the Emily Sellon Memorial Library in New York.
The Psychic Highway
Mitch Horowitz
In the 19th century, a roughly 25-mile-wide stretch of land that snakes through central New York, a place so famous for its spiritual passions that it came to be called the “Burned-Over District,” produced within a few decades Spiritualism, Mormonism, Seventh-Day Adventism, the Shakers, “spirit channeling,” and American variants of Mesmerism, Utopianism and Suffragism. This evening explores the strange history and profound impact of the Burned-Over District on America and the world.
Date: Monday, June 8, 8pm
Made In America: The Hidden History of ‘Positive Thinking’
Mitch Horowitz
From the essays of Emerson to the mega-sensation of The Secret, Americans have long been fascinated with the invisible powers of the human mind—especially the question of whether thought can shape circumstance. This talk explores the history of “positive thinking” as it developed in America by considering the fascinating and unlikely careers of pioneers from Phineas Quimby and Mary Baker Eddy to Napoleon Hill, Norman Vincent Peale, and beyond.
Date: Monday, June 15, 8pm
The Transformation of Spiritual Movements in America in the 19th Century
John Patrick Deveney
When Spiritualism originated in upstate New York in the mid-19th century, there was very little in America to help students achieve personal spiritual development. By the end of that century, it was virtually impossible to open a magazine without messages from gurus, sages and masters. This talk discusses the transformation that led from Spiritualism, Mesmerism and antiquarian occultism to what we might call the occult New Thought amalgam with its ideas of per¬sonal development and unfoldment of the innate powers in the human.
Date: Monday, June 22, 8pm
John Patrick Deveney is the author of Paschal Beverly Randolph: A Nineteenth Century Black American Spiritualist, Rosicrucian and Sex Magician and, with Joscelyn Godwin and Christian Chanel, The Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor. He has published extensively on the early history of Madame Blavatsky’s Theosophy.
Ancient Secrets: The Roots of Western Esotericism
Leonard George, PhD
Our world is being swept by an urge for deep change, a call to explore the inner life. But this call to explore the esoteric dimension is nothing new. Our ancestors heard it too. For millennia they probed and mapped the soul’s secret landscapes. In this special series we journey in imagination back to the schools and sages of Egypt, Syria, Greece and Rome.
The Quest of Corvus: Wisdom-Paths of the Ancient World
Rome, 300 AD. Imperial armies have unified the Mediterranean world but dangers lurk everywhere. The old answers seem tired and irrelevant. In this turbulent era, just as in our own time, many seek a sacred dimension. What would it have been like to set out on an esoteric quest then? This evening we follow the itinerary of Corvus, citizen of the Empire, as he surveys his spiritual options.
Date: Friday, June 12, 7pm
The Lynx and the Ibis: Philosophy and Hermetica as Wisdom-Paths
The Wisdom-quest runs like a golden thread through the philosophical schools, from the Presocratics to the Neoplatonists. The lynx, thought to have the most powerful gaze of any creature, became the emblem for those who strove to see the Goddess of Truth who is veiled by appearances. In Alexandria, the Egyptian wisdom of the ibis-headed Thoth was fused with Greek philosophia into a vision of transformation under the aegis of the fabled Hermes Trismegistus. The disciples of Hermes learned how to find an inner shepherd who would guide them toward enlightenment.
Date: Saturday, June 13, 10am–1pm
The Pine-Cone and the Laurel: Mysteries and Oracles as Wisdom-Paths
From Plato and Aristotle to Hadrian and Marcus Aurelius, many of antiquity’s deepest minds were initiates of the Mysteries. In these rites, held at holy settings like Eleusis and Samothrace, seekers privately enacted sacred myths in order to be reborn into the Divine Life. Mystery-elements found their way into the meditation known today as the Mithras Liturgy—a visualization of the soul’s flight to heaven’s edge to meet the god on high. Equally old and revered were the Oracles like the Delphic sibyl. In Late Antiquity the oracle-deities spoke from places like Didyma, Claros and Apamea, proclaiming the dawn of a new consciousness and teaching new ways to live a cosmic life.
Date: Saturday, June 13, 2:30–5:30pm
Leonard George, PhD, is a psychologist, educator, writer and broadcaster based at Capilano University in British Columbia. He has lectured across North America and Europe, and gave the opening address at the Open Center’s Esoteric Quest for the Mysteries and Philosophy of Antiquity on the isle of Samothrace. He has written two books and dozens of articles on such topics as Iamblichus and the Chaldean Oracles.
To register for any of the above events please call the New York Open Center at 212-219-2527 or see http://www.opencenter.org/
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The Esoteric Quest is presented by The New York Open Center, a non-profit holistic learning center offering evening events, full-day workshops, ongoing classes, advanced trainings, and graduate degree opportunities.
