Occult America The secret history of how mysticism shaped our nation

Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

America has provided fertile ground for alternative spirituality, particularly the form known as "occult," whose American leaders, unlike their more grandiose European counterparts, "sought to remake mystical ideas as tools of public good and self-help," says Horowitz, editor-in-chief at Tarcher. Looking back at the growth of the spiritualist and utopian movements, he introduces the reader to a parade of personalities, both familiar and obscure: "dreamers and planners who flourished along the Psychic Highway." He begins with Shaker Mother Ann, who arrived in America in 1774 followed by, among many others, "pioneer prophetess" Jemima Wilkinson; "Poughkeepsie Seer" Andrew Jackson Davis; Madame Blavatsky, who founded the Theosophical Society in 1875 and popularized the word "occultism"; Frank B. Robinson, the "Mail Order Messiah"; and Edgar Cayce with his "past-life readings." Horowitz covers a wide variety of topics, from voodoo to the tenets of the New Age, psychics in the White House, Rosicrucianism, Wicca, arcane Masonic imagery, Tarot cards, the controversial reincarnation of Bridey Murphy and the origin of the science fictional Shaver mystery. Employing extensive research while writing with an authoritative tone, Horowitz succeeds in showing how a "new spiritual culture" developed in America. (Sept. 15) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

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Review by Library Journal Review

How have mysticism and occultism affected the shape of American history? In his first book, Horowitz (editor in chief, Tarcher/Penguin), who has published many articles on themes related to metaphysics, discusses those individuals-mystics, magicians, psychics, preachers, and motivational speakers-whose unorthodox beliefs have been instrumental in shaping the cultural and spiritual landscape of this country. Covering the 17th to the 20th century, he focuses mostly on personalities, such as spiritualist Andrew Jackson Davis, mail-order preacher Frank Robinson, and magician Black Herman, rather than broader movements, which leads to spotty coverage of some topics, such as astrology and magic. Some figures, including 19th-century African American spiritualist Paschal Beverly Randolph and early 20th-century Rosicrusian mystic H. Spencer Lewis, are mentioned only briefly, while satanist Anton LaVey and the rise of Santeria are not mentioned at all. Verdict The leaps in time make this work less than comprehensive, but what Horowitz does cover he handles with insight and humor. In addition, the extensive notes on reading will be a boon to those likely to be intrigued to seek out further sources. Recommended to general readers and students new to this topic.-Daniel Harms, SUNY at Cortland Lib. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

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Review by Kirkus Book Review

Haphazardly assembled history on the genesis of spirituality and mysticism and its impact on American culture. Tarcher/Penguin editor in chief and metaphysical enthusiast Horowitz charts the movement of mystical philosophies from their origins in the late 1600s. He begins with young mystic Johannes Kelpius who fled his war-torn German homeland for America, a reputedly safe haven from Old World intolerance for free-thinking people like himself who believed in "breakaway faiths" such as Mormonism and Christian Science. But it was the faction known as the "occult" that most closely unified radical communitarians like Kelpius. Seeking to identify the "mystical doorways of realization and secret ways of knowing," Horowitz asserts that occultism brought forth a revolutionized thought process but concurrently generated a newfound fear in the unseen and the unknown among nonbelievers. The Shakers, having laid ground in central and western New York State in the late 1700s, created a sanctuary for folk religions and their evangelism. Self-proclaimed prophets sought out angels to deliver divine guidance as the freemasonry brotherhood prospered alongside mesmerists and seers. This gave rise to the popularity of Mary Todd Lincoln and a host of politically fueled Spiritualists. The astounding sales of Ouija boards, the rise of the New Thought movement, media evangelist Frank B. Robinson's faith sensation Psychiana and New Age psychic healer Edgar Cayce all precipitated the negative criticism occultism received as it was blamed for everything from world conspiracy theories to Nazi fascism. Horowitz confines his research to decades far removed from contemporary times; those interested in the role of modern mysticism should look elsewhere. Though occasionally intriguing, the disorganized dissemination of information amounts to a mishmash of dates and occurrences within chapters rather than a uniform chronicle. A hodgepodge of theocracy and occultism. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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Chapter one THE PSYCHIC HIGHWAY Yet who knows but the institution of a new order of labourers in the great Spiritual vineyard, is to prove the signal for the outpouring of such blessings as have been hitherto unparalleled in the history of our American Israel. --Western Recorder, 1825 The Age of Reason could seem anything but reasonable for people with unusual religious beliefs--or those accused of them. In 1782, Switzerland sanctioned one of the Western world's last witch trials, which ended in the torture and beheading of a rural housemaid. In 1791, the Vatican sentenced the legendary Italian occultist called Cagliostro to death on charges of heresy and Freemasonry. Although his execution was stayed, the self-styled "High Priest of the Egyptian Mysteries" died of disease four years later in the dungeons of the Inquisition. In eighteenth-century England, a young woman with the simple name of Ann Lee, living in the industrial town of Manchester on Toad Lane (where she was born in a leap year), told of magical visions and spoke of prophecies. The girl--who belonged to a radical Christian sect that would become known as the Shaking Quakers, or the Shakers--was hounded, beaten, and jailed on charges of sorcery and public disruption. Local authorities were aghast at the otherworldly possession that seemed to grip her and the other Shakers when they gyrated and shook in spirit trances. But she was not destined to become another casualty. Ann Lee escaped. In 1774, the woman now called Mother Ann sailed from Liverpool to New York with eight followers and hangers-on. They included an unfaithful husband with whom she had already suffered through the birth and death of four infants. As the legend goes, the ship almost capsized in a storm. But Ann, in a state of eerie calm as waves crashed over the bow, told the captain that no harm would befall them. She reported seeing "two bright angels of God" on the mast. The ship survived. After toiling at menial labor in New York City, the pilgrims--now twelve, minus Ann's husband--scraped together enough resources in 1776 to form a tiny colony in the knotty, marshy fields of Niskayuna, near Albany in New York's Hudson Valley. The twelve apostles, as they saw themselves, anointed the place Wisdom's Valley. It was a punishing, swampy stretch of two hundred acres swept barren by icy winds in the winter and transformed into muddy, mosquito-infested fields in the summer. Their neighbors were no friendlier than the landscape. Angry rumors painted Mother Ann and the Shakers--all sworn pacifists--as British sympathizers or spies. Revolutionary authorities briefly jailed the religious leader in Albany on charges of sedition. During a Shaker missionary trip to Petersham, Massachusetts, a band of thirty townsmen seized Mother Ann and subjected the celibate woman to the humiliation of disrobing, ostensibly to determine whether she was an English agent in drag. Some accused her of witchcraft or heresy. ("There is no witchcraft but sin," Mother Ann evenly countered.) But, oddly, the little sect--celibate, poor, steeped in a life of hard labor and little rest--began to grow. Following a brutal upstate New York winter in 1780, two men from across the Hudson River in the farming community of New Lebanon took advantage of an early spring thaw to visit the Shaker settlement. The men were disappointed followers of one of the many Baptist revivals that had been sweeping the region, and they longed to see the woman whom followers called Christ returned in female form. When they located Mother Ann and her colony in the wilderness, they were astonished at the small group's survival. They began asking Mother Ann about her mystical teachings and rumors of the sect's practices, in which members spoke in propheci Excerpted from Occult America: The Secret History of How Mysticism Shaped Our Nation by Mitch Horowitz All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

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