The Dedalus Book of the Occult

Book excerpt: The occult was a crucial influence on the Renaissance, and it obsessed thinkers like Isaac Newton. Works of brilliance, sometimes even of genius were produced under the influence of occultism. Yet, not too infrequently, it also opened the door on a peculiar kind of madness. The Dedalus Book of the Occult celebrates the influence of occult thought and sensibility on some of the central poets and writers of the last two centuries, beginning with the Enlightenment obsession with occult politics, through the Romantic explosion, the paradoxically decadent and futuristic occultism of the fin de siecle, and the deep occult roots of the modernist movement. Swedenborg, Baudelaire, Huysmans and Strindberg are only some of the names to feature in this hidden history of western thought.