Eleventh International Conference on Religion & Spirituality in Society

Abstract

This research examines the relationship between occultism and the traditional religion of Christianity. The focus of this particular project is to deconstruct occultism and occult religion: how it develops, where it is applied, how and when it is applied. The next step is to make connections between the structure of occultism and the structure of Christianity. Do Christianity and the Occult appear, textually, the same way? What does that mean culturally? According to Dr. Bill Ellis, an Associate Professor of English and American Studies at Penn State’s Hazleton Campus, “It is no accident that the occult and religion perpetually attract each other, but without either ever absorbing or destroying the other.” This project seeks to examine the historical similarities of occultism and Christianity practices and tradition, and how, as a whole, Christianity appropriates and colonializes occultism through examination into the Christian Bible and popular occult texts: The Book of the Law by Aleister Crowley and The Secret Doctrine: The Synthesis of Science, Religion, and Philosophy by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky. Through examining occultism and Christianity and applying it to popular cultural theories (Ritual Space by Nick Couldry, Muted Group Theory by Shirley Ardener, and Mythologies by Roland Barthes), it is entirely possible to see how Christianity appropriates occultism and uses their stronghold on society as a means to colonialize occult traditions and practices.