A Dark Muse: A History of the Occult

A tour-de-force of occultism's impact on literature Gary Lachman is the author of several books on the history of consciousness and western culture, including "Turn Off Your Mind: The Mystic Sixties and the Dark Side of the Age of Aquarius," "A Secret History of Consciousness" and "A Dark Muse: A History of the Occult." He was a founding member of the rock group Blondie and wrote some of the groups early hits and was also a guitarist with Iggy Pop. In 2006 he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He is a regular contributor to The Guardian, Independent on Sunday, Fortean Times, Quest, and other journals in the UK and US and frequently lectures on the meeting ground between consciousness, the occult, popular culture and the arts. In "A Dark Muse: A History of the Occult" Mr. Lachman has written a delightful and fascinating book, and I am very impressed by his encyclopedic knowledge of the Western esoteric tradition. His is an engaging and disarming writing style (much like that of his mentor, Colin Wilson): one senses that the author is there with one discussing these fascinating characters and themes, exploring the literary history of Western occultism, and more particularly the impact that occultism made on some of the leading literary and artistic figures of their respective eras. Notwithstanding the author's readable, conversational style the subjects of his scrutiny are very dark indeed, tortured souls all, reaching out for a horizon that recedes with their every step toward it. Madness and mayhem, depression, mental collapse, extreme self-consciousness and sensitivity, incarceration, impoverishment, disease and deprivation, addiction, alienation and ostracism are common themes in the lives of most of those included here, as was death at an early age. The only small comfort for some of these tragic geniuses was their belief in the spiritual, redemptive value of their suffering. Works of brilliance were indeed produced under the influence of occultism and it developed into a fertile source of inspiration for many important artists, yet, quite frequently, it also opened the door to a particularly horrific kind of madness. Chapters include the Enlightenment, the Romantic period, fin de siecle and modernist occultism, as well as a chapter on Satanic occultism. Iconic figures and movements of those periods are discussed, including Franz Mesmer, E.T.A. Hoffman, Huysmans, Nerval, Blavatsky; the Illuminati; the Rosicrucians; Baudelaire, Strindberg, Poe, Goethe, Swedenborg, Malcolm Lowry, Balzac and Aleister Crowley, among others. The book concludes with illustrative extracts from the works of Von Eckharthausen (The Cloud Upon the Sanctuary), Blavatsky (The Secret Doctrine), Saint-Martin (The Counsel of the Exile), Strindberg (The Hand of the Unseen), P.D. Ouspensky (The Symbolism of the Tarot), Poe (Mesmeric Revelation), Crowley (Hymn to Pan) Swedenborg (Heaven and Hell) and Eliphas Levi (Transcendental Magic), among others. "D

_A Dark Muse: A History of the Occult_, published by Thunder's Mouth Press, by musician and author Gary Lachman is a fascinating history of the central figures who make up the occult movement beginning from the time of the Enlightenment to the modern day. The book especially focuses on artists, poets, and writers who played a significant part in the development of occult ideas or who were otherwise influenced by the occult and occult notions. However, the book also features figures who could be described as belonging to the occult proper. Gary Lachman was a musician who is perhaps best known as one of the founders of the group Blondie. More recently, Lachman has written extensively on occult and esoteric topics, including Ouspensky, consciousness, and the Sixties from a mystical perspective - the fruit of years of occult research. In many respects, Lachman's writings are similar to those of Colin Wilson, who wrote extensively on existentialism and the occult from an anti-materialist perspective. In the introduction to this book, Lachman begins by defining the occult as meaning "hidden, secret, esoteric, and unknown". He notes that in the popular mind the occult is frequently associated with such strange things as Satanism, witchcraft, tabloid horoscopes, and UFOs. While it is true that these can all be considered as part of the occult, the occult itself is more elusive. Lachman also relates the occult to various ancient beliefs, mystery cults, the Kabbalah, and the Gnostic heresy. In terms of Satanism, Lachman provides evidence of ritual murder in an event which occurred in England. Lachman also notes how the occult has arisen largely in opposition to various aspects of the Enlightenment, including an excessive emphasis on "Reason", a fundamentalist form of materialism, and the idolatry of science in "scientism". Lachman emphasizes that the occult is today understood largely as "rejected knowledge". Following this, Lachman turns to the role of the occult during the Enlightenment period. He begins by noting the paradox of defining this period as "The Occult Enlightenment", but maintains the prelevance of occult ideas throughout the Enlightenment. Many of these ideas and movements grew in opposition to both the churches and orthodoxy as well as the kind of rationalist materialism found in other Enlightenment thinkers. Lachman then turns to the occultists themselves. He devotes separate sections to the following individuals: Emanuel Swedenborg (the Swedish seer who maintained that he could communicate with the dead and the angels), Mesmer (a Viennese doctor who devised a theory of "mesmerism" and "animal magnetism" and was influential in the discovery on the unconscious), Cagliostro (an Italian Rasputin who was involved in Masonic movements and largely considered to be a political subversive and revolutionary), Le Comte de Saint-Germain (a mysterious figure who recurs in the history of freemasonry, believed to have lived for centu

Gary Lachman's generally excellent A Dark Muse: A History of the Occult (2003) isn't an actual "history of the occult," as its title claims. Rather, the book is a collection of short essays on both famous and relatively obscure individuals, beginning in 1688 with Emanuel Swedenborg, whose lives were dominated by the metaphysical and the paranormal in some significant manner. Lachman, who excels at contextualizing the broad traditions of Occidental occultism, clearly has a both a great enthusiasm and a sober respect for his subject. The author's insights are often fascinatingly original, such as his belief that [...] is a modern example of "sehnsucht," which Lachman partially translates as "something infinitely desirable just beyond our grasp...horn calls far off in the dark forest, the poignant glow of sunset, which we will never reach, no matter how quickly we race to the horizon, the snow-capped peaks of a distant mountain range." After the initial chapter on Enlightenment Occultism, which includes Mesmer, Cagliostro, Le Comte de Saint Germain, and Jan Potocki in addition to Swedenborg and others, Lachman hits his stride with penetrating essays on E. T. A. Hoffman, Edger Allen Poe, Charles Baudelaire, and August Strindberg that shed telling light on areas of these writer's lives usually overlooked or ignored by academia. A Dark Muse, which cautiously explores the questionable relationship between 'genius and madness,' also underscores the additional tragedy and suffering that comes to many of those who immerse themselves in the occult, or whose lives are immersed by it. Depression, nervous collapse, extreme self-consciousness and sensitivity, hallucinations, temporary or permanent insanity, incarceration in mental institutions, syphilis, cancer, and other diseases, poverty, starvation, alcoholism, drug addiction, alienation from friends and family, social ostracism, and suicide or suicide attempts were common elements in the lives of many of those included here, all of whom, with the exception of Madame Blavatsky, are male. In addition to severe forms of human suffering, early death was also a factor: Novalis died at 28, Rene Daumal at 36, Arthur Rimbaud at 37, Poe at 40, Guy De Maupassant at 42, Gerard de Nerval and Baudelaire at 46, Fernando Pessoa at 47, Malcolm Lowry at 48, and Villiers de l'Isle-Adam at 51. Very few lived long, happy, or successful lives, though Goethe, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Lord Dunsany, H. G. Wells, and Algernon Blackwood, each of whom had problems of their own, were exceptions to the general rule. Lachman's writing is often persuasive and certainly penetrating. Having quoted De Maupassant's "...I have a softening of the brain...the result of washing out my nasal passages with salt water. A saline fermentation has taken place in my brain, and every night my brain runs out through my nose and mouth in a sticky paste. This is imminent death and I am mad...", Lachman adds, "Remembering the fate of his insane

Lachman gets off on the wrong foot, at least in my books, by regurgitating sensationalist headlines over a recent supposed 'Satanic' killing in Germany in his introduction as a suitably dramatic opener. I know a little about the case, and it was no more authentically 'Satanic' than the Manson murders (another Lachman hobbyhorse in another of his books). The 'dark stuff' is almost inevitably more interesting - as he tacitly accepts by the space afforded it in 'A Dark Muse' - so that kind of wilful tabloid approach to 'black magic' bodes ill in my books. He also fails to really get to grips with the relationship between occultism and the arts - part of his central thesis and perhaps the key to understanding this amorphous area (at least in my opinion). The dates he begins with and finishes on also feel a little abritrary (we seldom revisit recent history after the 'shock, horror!' intro), and much of the material here will be pretty familiar to most with an interest in occultism and its avant-garde exponents in the arts. Yet, it rattles on at a fair pace, and there are some unfamiliar faces in here - Portugal's Fernando Pessoa (who helped Crowley fake his suicide) and a whole coven of devilish Russians (indeed Russia's one of the countries with a rich occult-art axis that remains virgin territory to most of us Western occult aficionados) spring to mind. Overall, 'A Dark Muse' is a valid addition to any occult bookshelves. It doesn't break too much new ground ('Surrealism and the Occult' is perhaps a more satisfying survey in that department) but reads well and should inspire all but the most jaded old magus to explore a new literary avenue or two.

Mr. Lachman continues to delight and amaze me with a prodigious mind for western esotericism and a disarming writing style so much like his mentor, Colin Wilson, in that one feels he is there with you discussing these fascinating topics. This is a work that explores the literary history of western occultism and the terminal documents that make up that intellectual history. This work stands in the effort to place before the public the historical reality that the esoteric has been a foundation stone upon which many cultural endeavors have been focused upon, but remain "outside" and unrecognized by many academics and scholars. The chapter on the pre- revolution Russian occult literary scene is excellent and you will find yourself jotting down titles & authors to further explore. Mr. Lachman's work is the first I can recall that provides a brief but welcome overview of the life of Gustav Meyrink. Meyrink, remains sadly neglected by the English speaking esoteric world. Again, I appreciate Lachman's effort to demonstrate that Swedenborg is the progenitor of much of the western esoteric world view. It is not without noting that D.T. Suzuki called Swedenborg, "the Buddha of the North". Highly recommended, this is one Muse that will continue to inspire, enlighten, and provoke even after repeated readings.