Occult America

July 27, 2009
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.