Divine Feminine

Theosophy and Feminism in England
Erscheinungsjahr 2001
ISBN: 978-0-8018-6499-5
Verlag: Johns Hopkins University Press

Buch, Englisch, Band 119, 320 Seiten, Format (B × H): 160 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 553 g

Reihe: The Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science

Honorable Mention for the Wallace K. Ferguson Prize from the Canadian Historical AssociationChosen by Choice Magazine as an Outstanding Academic Title of 2003

In 1891, newspapers all over the world carried reports of the death of H. P. Blavatsky, the mysterious Russian woman who was the spiritual founder of the Theosophical Society. With the help of the equally mysterious Mahatmas who were her teachers, Blavatsky claimed to have brought the "ancient wisdom of the East" to the rescue of a materialistic West. In England, Blavatsky's earliest followers were mostly men, but a generation later the Theosophical Society was dominated by women, and theosophy had become a crucial part of feminist political culture.

Divine Feminine is the first full-length study of the relationship between alternative or esoteric spirituality and the feminist movement in England. Historian Joy Dixon examines the Theosophical Society's claims that women and the East were the repositories of spiritual forces which English men had forfeited in their scramble for material and imperial power. Theosophists produced arguments that became key tools in many feminist campaigns. Many women of the Theosophical Society became suffragists to promote the spiritualizing of politics, attempting to create a political role for women as a way to "sacralize the public sphere." Dixon also shows that theosophy provides much of the framework and the vocabulary for today's New Age movement. Many of the assumptions about class, race, and gender which marked the emergence of esoteric religions at the end of the nineteenth century continue to shape alternative spiritualities today.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Dixon, Joy

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziologie Allgemein Feminismus, Feministische Theorie
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Europäische Geschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Alternative Glaubensformen Eklektizismus, Esoterik, Anthroposophie, Theosophie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Part I. Domesticating the Occult
1. The Undomesticated Occult
2. The Mahatmas in Clubland: Manliness and Scientific Spirituality
3. "A Deficiency of the Male Element": Gendering Spiritual Experience
4. "Buggery and Humbuggery": Sex, Magic, and Occult Authority
Part II. Political Alchemies
5. Occult Body Politics
6. The Divine Hermaphrodite and the Female Messiah: Feminism and Spirituality in the 1890s
7. A New Age for Women: Suffrage and the Sacred
8. Ancient Wisdom, Modern Motherhood
Conclusion

Über Autor(innen)

Dixon, Joy
Joy Dixon is an assistant professor of history at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.

Joy Dixon is an assistant professor of history at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.