Luciano Chessa
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520270633
- eISBN:
- 9780520951563
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520270633.003.0001
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
This introductory chapter sets out the book's main premise, that the theosophical phase of Russolo's late period—what is often considered his regressive change of direction—was linked to his longtime ...
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This introductory chapter sets out the book's main premise, that the theosophical phase of Russolo's late period—what is often considered his regressive change of direction—was linked to his longtime interest in the occult arts. This interest is already evident in Russolo's formative years and, more important, it profoundly influenced what was possibly his most significant futurist achievement: the concept of an art of noises. The focus is on Russolo's first phase of futurist musical activity: from 1913, the year of his Manifesto on the Art of Noises, to 1921. The two principal contributions of the book are a reconsideration of Russolo's musical career in the light of his occultist interests and an alternative reading of the art of noises, which he and his contemporaries understood to be an ambitious, if occult, experiment.Less
This introductory chapter sets out the book's main premise, that the theosophical phase of Russolo's late period—what is often considered his regressive change of direction—was linked to his longtime interest in the occult arts. This interest is already evident in Russolo's formative years and, more important, it profoundly influenced what was possibly his most significant futurist achievement: the concept of an art of noises. The focus is on Russolo's first phase of futurist musical activity: from 1913, the year of his Manifesto on the Art of Noises, to 1921. The two principal contributions of the book are a reconsideration of Russolo's musical career in the light of his occultist interests and an alternative reading of the art of noises, which he and his contemporaries understood to be an ambitious, if occult, experiment.
Luciano Chessa
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520270633
- eISBN:
- 9780520951563
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520270633.003.0004
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
This chapter focuses on the occultist themes in Russolo's paintings. An overview of these works is useful not only because this is a vast body of work with considerable artistic merit, but because ...
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This chapter focuses on the occultist themes in Russolo's paintings. An overview of these works is useful not only because this is a vast body of work with considerable artistic merit, but because these paintings occupied Russolo during the time he systematically committed into writing his metapsychic investigations. Thus, they provide a fitting visual complement for the investigations that are the primary subject of this book. It is not difficult to demonstrate the influence of the occult arts in Russolo's visual work: most of his canvases are laden with symbols of death, skeletons, skulls, globes of fire; supernatural, hallucinatory, ethereal, and residual images; and synesthetic representations—in short, all the caravanserai of icons typically associated with the occult.Less
This chapter focuses on the occultist themes in Russolo's paintings. An overview of these works is useful not only because this is a vast body of work with considerable artistic merit, but because these paintings occupied Russolo during the time he systematically committed into writing his metapsychic investigations. Thus, they provide a fitting visual complement for the investigations that are the primary subject of this book. It is not difficult to demonstrate the influence of the occult arts in Russolo's visual work: most of his canvases are laden with symbols of death, skeletons, skulls, globes of fire; supernatural, hallucinatory, ethereal, and residual images; and synesthetic representations—in short, all the caravanserai of icons typically associated with the occult.
Michael A. Ryan
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801449840
- eISBN:
- 9780801463150
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801449840.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, European Medieval History
This chapter investigates the criticism of astrology and the occult arts in elite medieval venues—in particular, the university and the royal court. Critics of the occult arts have long railed ...
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This chapter investigates the criticism of astrology and the occult arts in elite medieval venues—in particular, the university and the royal court. Critics of the occult arts have long railed against the purported credulity of simple people, arguing that they were easily duped or frightened by powerful and hidden knowledge. When this body of knowledge was applied to an environment rife with apocalyptic expectation, authorities argued that apprehension could easily turn to panic among the ignorant. The implication of such anti-occult rhetoric is that members of the intellectual, cultural, and secular elite should eschew disciplines like astrology or alchemy, lest they be perceived as juvenile, simple, or womanly, and thus undermine their own authority.Less
This chapter investigates the criticism of astrology and the occult arts in elite medieval venues—in particular, the university and the royal court. Critics of the occult arts have long railed against the purported credulity of simple people, arguing that they were easily duped or frightened by powerful and hidden knowledge. When this body of knowledge was applied to an environment rife with apocalyptic expectation, authorities argued that apprehension could easily turn to panic among the ignorant. The implication of such anti-occult rhetoric is that members of the intellectual, cultural, and secular elite should eschew disciplines like astrology or alchemy, lest they be perceived as juvenile, simple, or womanly, and thus undermine their own authority.
Henrik Bogdan and Martin P. Starr (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199863075
- eISBN:
- 9780199979974
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199863075.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Philosophy of Religion
This book offers an examination of one of the twentieth century's most distinctive occult iconoclasts. Aleister Crowley (1875–1947) was a study in contradictions. He was born into a Fundamentalist ...
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This book offers an examination of one of the twentieth century's most distinctive occult iconoclasts. Aleister Crowley (1875–1947) was a study in contradictions. He was born into a Fundamentalist Christian family, and then he was educated at Cambridge where he experienced both an intellectual liberation from his religious upbringing and a psychic awakening that led him into the study of magic. He was a stock figure in the tabloid press of his day, vilified during his life as a traitor, drug addict and debaucher; yet he became known as perhaps the most influential thinker in contemporary esotericism. The practice of the occult arts was understood in the light of contemporary developments in psychology, and its advocates, such as William Butler Yeats, were among the intellectual avant-garde of the modernist project. Crowley took a more drastic step and declared himself the revelator of a new age of individualism. Crowley's occult bricolage, Magick, was a thoroughly eclectic combination of spiritual exercises drawing from Western European ceremonial magical traditions as practiced in the nineteenth-century Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. Crowley also pioneered in his inclusion of Indic sources for the parallel disciplines of meditation and yoga. The summa of this journey of self-liberation was harnessing the power of sexuality as a magical discipline, an instance of the “sacrilization of the self” as practiced in his co-masonic magical group, the Ordo Templi Orientis. The religion Crowley created, Thelema, legitimated his role as a charismatic revelator and herald of a new age of freedom under the law of “Do what thou wilt.” The influence of Aleister Crowley is not only to be found in contemporary esotericism—he was, for instance, a major influence on Gerald Gardner and the modern witchcraft movement—but can also be seen in the counter-culture movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s, and in many forms of alternative spirituality and popular culture. This book provides insight into Crowley's critical role in the study of western esotericism, new religious movements, and sexuality.Less
This book offers an examination of one of the twentieth century's most distinctive occult iconoclasts. Aleister Crowley (1875–1947) was a study in contradictions. He was born into a Fundamentalist Christian family, and then he was educated at Cambridge where he experienced both an intellectual liberation from his religious upbringing and a psychic awakening that led him into the study of magic. He was a stock figure in the tabloid press of his day, vilified during his life as a traitor, drug addict and debaucher; yet he became known as perhaps the most influential thinker in contemporary esotericism. The practice of the occult arts was understood in the light of contemporary developments in psychology, and its advocates, such as William Butler Yeats, were among the intellectual avant-garde of the modernist project. Crowley took a more drastic step and declared himself the revelator of a new age of individualism. Crowley's occult bricolage, Magick, was a thoroughly eclectic combination of spiritual exercises drawing from Western European ceremonial magical traditions as practiced in the nineteenth-century Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. Crowley also pioneered in his inclusion of Indic sources for the parallel disciplines of meditation and yoga. The summa of this journey of self-liberation was harnessing the power of sexuality as a magical discipline, an instance of the “sacrilization of the self” as practiced in his co-masonic magical group, the Ordo Templi Orientis. The religion Crowley created, Thelema, legitimated his role as a charismatic revelator and herald of a new age of freedom under the law of “Do what thou wilt.” The influence of Aleister Crowley is not only to be found in contemporary esotericism—he was, for instance, a major influence on Gerald Gardner and the modern witchcraft movement—but can also be seen in the counter-culture movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s, and in many forms of alternative spirituality and popular culture. This book provides insight into Crowley's critical role in the study of western esotericism, new religious movements, and sexuality.
