Occulture
The Unseen Forces That Drive Culture Forward
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Narrated by:
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Micah Hanks
About this listen
This audiobook explores the role of magic and the occult in art and culture from ancient times to today. It:
- Examines key figures behind esoteric cultural developments, such as Carl Jung, Anton LaVey, Paul Bowles, Aleister Crowley, and Rudolf Steiner
- Explores the history of magic as a source of genuine counterculture and compares it with our contemporary soulless, digital monoculture
- Reveals how the magic of art can be restored if art is employed as a means rather than an end and offers strategies to rekindle intuitive creativity
Art, magic, and the occult have been intimately linked since our prehistoric ancestors created the first cave paintings some 50,000 years ago. As civilizations developed, these esoteric forces continued to drive culture forward, both visibly and behind the scenes, from the Hermetic ideas of the Renaissance to the ethereal worlds of 19th-century Symbolism to the occult interests of the Surrealists.
In this deep exploration of “occulture” - the liminal space where art and magic meet - Carl Abrahamsson reveals the integral role played by magic and occultism in the development of culture throughout history, as well as their relevance to the continuing survival of art and creativity. Blending magical history and esoteric philosophy with his more than 30 years’ experience in occult movements, Abrahamsson examines the phenomena and people who have been seminal in modern esoteric developments, including Carl Jung, Anton LaVey, Paul Bowles, Aleister Crowley, and Rudolf Steiner.
Revealing how art and magic were initially one and the same, the author explores the history of magic as a source of genuine counterculture and compares it with our contemporary soulless, digital monoculture. He reveals how the magic of art can be restored if art is employed as a means rather than an end - if it is intense, emotional, violent, and expressive - and offers strategies for creating freely, magically, even spontaneously, with intent unfettered by the whims of trends, a creative practice akin to chaos magic that assists both creators and spectators to live with meaning. He also looks at intuition and creativity as the cornerstones of genuine individuation, explaining how insights and illuminations seldom come in collective forms.
Exploring magical philosophy, occult history, the arts, psychology, and the colorful grey areas in between, Abrahamsson reveals the culturally and magically transformative role of art and the ways the occult continues to transform culture to this day.
©2018 Carl Abrahamsson. All Rights Reserved. (P)2019 Inner Traditions Audio. All Rights Reserved.Listeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
“Occulture is one of today’s most learned, unexpected, and illuminating tours through occult cultural influences. Carl Abrahamsson will expand your doors of perception of what the counterculture really is. His chapter on Anton LaVey came to me as a revelation. I am filled with hope that a book like this can be published at a time like ours.” (Mitch Horowitz, PEN Award-winning author of Occult America and One Simple Idea)
“These days, too much occult discourse comes off as grandiose, needlessly arcane, or desperately darker-than-thou. But decades of participant observation on the art-magic-transgression beat have given Carl Abrahamsson a more down-to-earth approach. Streamlining Crowley, LaVey, and postpunk chaos magic, these talks and essays offer up accessible, pragmatic, and psychologically savvy takes on the intuitive potentials of creative individuation. This is not another ‘system’ but sparkplugs engineered for your own magical engine.” (Erik Davis, author of Nomad Codes and host of Expanding Mind podcast)
“A sharp, frank, and level-headed exploration of some of the most important figures and movements on the current edges of occultism. Highly recommended.” (Richard Smoley, author of Forbidden Faith: The Secret History of Gnosticism)
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High Weirdness
- By Amazon Customer on 09-17-20
By: Erik Davis
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The Religion of Tomorrow
- A Vision for the Future of the Great Traditions - More Inclusive, More Comprehensive, More Complete
- By: Ken Wilber
- Narrated by: Graeme Malcolm
- Length: 30 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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A single purpose lies at the heart of all the great religious traditions: awakening to the astonishing reality of the true nature of ourselves and the universe. At the same time, through centuries of cultural accretion and focus on myth and ritual as ends in themselves, this core insight has become obscured. Here Ken Wilber provides a path for reenvisioning a religion of the future that acknowledges the evolution of humanity in every realm while remaining faithful to that original spiritual vision.
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A mind-blowing spiritual experience
- By IW Ferreira on 09-01-17
By: Ken Wilber
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Integral Meditation
- Mindfulness as a Way to Grow up, Wake up, and Show up in Your Life
- By: Ken Wilber
- Narrated by: Vikas Adam
- Length: 9 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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With practical teachings and detailed instructions, Ken Wilber introduces Integral Mindfulness, a new way of practicing the widely popular meditation. Integral Mindfulness applies many of the leading-edge insights of Ken Wilber's Integral Theory - the first system to combine Eastern teachings on the five stages of awakening with the eight major Western models of human development, thus portraying the complete path of human evolution.
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Good summary of Wilber's work and applications
- By Carlos G. Toledo Parada on 05-02-17
By: Ken Wilber
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William Blake vs the World
- By: John Higgs
- Narrated by: John Higgs
- Length: 11 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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A wild and unexpected journey through culture, science, philosophy, and religion to better understand the mercurial genius of William Blake.
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Best book ever
- By idamae on 11-04-22
By: John Higgs
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Dark Star Rising
- Magick and Power in the Age of Trump
- By: Gary Lachman
- Narrated by: Jason Culp
- Length: 9 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Within the concentric circles of Trump's regime lies an unseen culture of occultists, power-seekers, and mind-magicians whose influence is on the rise. In this unparalleled account, historian Gary Lachman examines the influence of occult and esoteric philosophy on the unexpected rise of the alt-right.
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Step Right This Way!
- By Brad on 06-03-18
By: Gary Lachman
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Psychotherapy East and West
- By: Alan Watts
- Narrated by: Jeremy Arthur
- Length: 5 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Alan Watts examines the problem of humans in a seemingly hostile universe in ways that question the social norms and illusions that bind and constrict modern humans. Marking a groundbreaking synthesis, Watts asserts that the powerful insights of Freud and Jung, which had, indeed, brought psychiatry close to the edge of liberation, could, if melded with the hitherto secret wisdom of the Eastern traditions, free people from their battles with the self.
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Not what I have come to expect from Alan Watts works
- By Shiva Latchmipersad on 03-22-19
By: Alan Watts
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God and the Evolving Universe
- The Next Step in Personal Evolution
- By: James Redfield, Michael Murphy, Sylvia Timbers
- Narrated by: Chris Ryan
- Length: 7 hrs
- Unabridged
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In God and the Evolving Universe, James Redfield and Michael Murphy present an important message of hope and a vision for the future. The authors contend that thousands of years of human striving have delivered us to this very moment, in which each act of self-development is creating a new stage in planetary evolution and the emergence of a human species possessed of vastly expanded spiritual experience.
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higher is better
- By Tommie on 04-20-07
By: James Redfield, and others
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Secular Buddhism
- Imagining the Dharma in an Uncertain World
- By: Stephen Batchelor
- Narrated by: Ralph Lister
- Length: 8 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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As the practice of mindfulness permeates mainstream western culture, more and more people are engaging in a traditional form of Buddhist meditation. However, many of these people have little interest in the religious aspects of Buddhism, and the practice occurs within secular contexts such as hospitals, schools, and the workplace. Is it possible to recover from the Buddhist teachings a vision of human flourishing that is secular rather than religious without compromising the integrity of the tradition?
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Good, but repetition of old material
- By Ludwig on 02-25-18
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Irrationality
- A History of the Dark Side of Reason
- By: Justin E. H. Smith
- Narrated by: Jeff Harding
- Length: 13 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Discovering that reason is the defining feature of our species, we named ourselves the “rational animal”. But is this flattering story itself rational? In this sweeping account of irrationality from antiquity to today - from the fifth-century BC murder of Hippasus for revealing the existence of irrational numbers to the rise of Twitter mobs and the election of Donald Trump - Justin Smith says the evidence suggests the opposite.
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A good brain workout
- By ThomasC on 04-09-19
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50 Spiritual Classics
- By: Tom Butler-Bowdon
- Narrated by: Richard Poe
- Length: 10 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Discover the books that have already changed the lives of millions. This unabridged guide to the literature of the spirit surveys 50 of the all-time classics, giving you their key ideas, insights, and applications - everything you need to know to start benefiting from these legendary works.
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useful as review or starting point
- By connie on 01-03-09
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The Master and His Emissary
- The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World
- By: Iain McGilchrist
- Narrated by: Dennis Kleinman
- Length: 27 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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This pioneering account sets out to understand the structure of the human brain - the place where mind meets matter. Until recently, the left hemisphere of our brain has been seen as the "rational" side, the superior partner to the right. But is this distinction true? Drawing on a vast body of experimental research, Iain McGilchrist argues while our left brain makes for a wonderful servant, it is a very poor master.
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The Master and His Emissary
- By Michael on 11-07-20
By: Iain McGilchrist
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The Ascent of Humanity
- Civilization and the Human Sense of Self
- By: Charles Eisenstein
- Narrated by: Steve Wojtas
- Length: 27 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Charles Eisenstein explores the history and potential future of civilization, tracing the converging crises of our age to the illusion of the separate self. He argues that our disconnection from one another and the natural world has mislaid the foundations of science, religion, money, technology, economics, medicine, and education as we know them. It has fired our near-pathological pursuit of technological Utopias even as we push ourselves and our planet to the brink of collapse.
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I love this author!
- By Tamara Smith on 12-03-17
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50 Self-Help Classics
- By: Tom Butler-Bowdon
- Narrated by: Jack Garrett
- Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Discover the books that have already changed the lives of millions. This award-winning, unabridged guide to the "literature of possibility" surveys 50 of the all-time classics, giving you their key ideas, insights, and applications, everything you need to know to start benefiting from these legendary works.
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Surprisingly Interesting
- By Cathy on 10-15-06
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The Yugas
- Keys to Understanding Our Hidden Past, Emerging Energy Age and Enlightened Future
- By: Joseph Selbie, David Steinmetz, Swami Kriyananda - foreword
- Narrated by: Paul Brion
- Length: 12 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Today's view of history cannot account for ancient anomalies, such as the Pyramids and advanced knowledge contained in India's Vedas. But in 1894, an Indian sage gave us an explanation not only for our hidden past but for the trends of today and for our future enlightenment - the 24,000-year yuga cycle.
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Excellent book but one slight problem
- By Z on 02-19-19
By: Joseph Selbie, and others
What listeners say about Occulture
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Nicole Sallak Anderson
- 06-05-22
an interesting occult overview that I can't finish
the narrator for this book did a great job, and for the first half, I was hooked. they topic of the occult and culture is one I've long been fascinated with. I enjoyed the author's essays, especially the one that compared Crowley and Steiner. however, this is also when I began to feel uncomfortable, for even though abrahamsson did mention how Crowley's addiction was his undoing, he didn't demonstrate how addiction and occult practices are a recipe for dark magic. as the essays progressed to the church of Satan and the use of sex dolls for magical imagination, it became clear that he wouldn't label summer magic as dark. equating all magic as equal in it's impact to both practitioner and culture, without pointing out some forms, especially undisciplined firms, can lead to harm is to me, negligent. I stopped at 2/3 and moved on.
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- AB
- 08-13-24
Too many tangents & the writing could better.
I shoulda like what he spends one paragraph explained could be communicated in one sentence. Its too convoluted & this is a topic that needs clear and linear because understanding this topic requires a strong foundation. There are a lot of assumptions that can't be substantiated. He needs better sources. It could have been a great book if it was objectively written.
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- Albert Williams
- 04-28-21
It's Alright.
This is a collection of essays by Carl Abrahamsson. It was OK. I was expecting something more profound but I wasn't disappointed and I wasn't bowled-over. Yep. That's about it.
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