THE SECRET SCIENCES: In the Light of Our Time
First edition in English of this uncommon survey of occult knowledge by an Austrian journalist, anthroposophist, and theater critic.
Very good.
Price: $100.00
THE SECRET SCIENCES: In the Light of Our Time
"The air of the west is full of hot vapour, is heavy with gathering storms. My book will help Donar's hammer to swing, to clear the air for the rainbow which will bind the east to the west, the divine world to the earth."
Liebstoeckl's treatise broadly considers the "problem of the occult sciences," from the search for the Grail and the Philosopher's Stone through the occult revivals of the 19th century and later, with particular attention to the development of theosophy and anthroposophy. The author, who died several years before the outbreak of the second World War, makes some mention of the problems of his own day, writing: "Who can wonder that the latest bloom on the poisonous tree of a poisoned culture, the swastika, once a mysterious, solemn and very significant occult sign, is now the trademark of the newest devilry [...]." THE SECRET SCIENCES initially appeared in German (as Die Geheimwissenschaften im Lichte unserer Zeit) in 1932.
Though well received by followers of Rudolf Steiner, to whom a full chapter is devoted, the book was received significantly less well by Walter Benjamin, who had harsh words for his contemporaries' spiritual hankerings after the "magic of blood and glitter" and even harsher words for the "oleaginous gibberish of the false prophets" – i.e., anthroposophists, including but not limited to Steiner in particular, as well as spiritualists, astrologers, seekers after Atlantis, and other purveyors of the "associated swindles" of popular mysticism in the interwar twentieth century.
Read more: Benjamin, "Light from Obscurantists".
The Object
London: Rider & Co, 1939. 9'' x 6''. Translated by H.E. Kennedy. Original brown cloth. Lacking dust jacket. 304 pages. Some wear and bumping to boards. Moderate foxing to edges of text block and page margins.
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