Divine Feminine

Joy Dixon is an assistant professor of history at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.

This triumphantly successful book,... subtle, persuasive, and frequently witty, will be of real value to all those interested in women's history and the history or religion alike. -- William Whyte English Historical Review [Dixon's] insightful, meticulously researched book is a model of the scholarly investigation of alternative spiritual movements. -- Elaine Showalter Times Literary Supplement Dixon has written a fascinating history of the theosophical movement in England, situating it in its political and, significantly, sexual contexts... her book is a timely period piece because the 'West' and 'East' are both currently engaged in seismic shifts of consciousness that are calling into question traditional notions of sexuality, spirituality, hierarchy, and institutional organization. Choice An impressive first book, meticulously researched and carefully written. -- Catherine Hall Historical Journal Dixon successfully brings together for the first time an analysis that demonstrates the way in which Theosophy crossed and brought together many strands of upper-middle class and high-brow culture in England. If not for this reason alone, the book is worth reading for the in-depth and fascinating story it tells of a shifting slice of British culture. -- Etta M. Madden Utopian Studies An elegant and closely argued work. -- George Fetherling Vancouver Sun Dixon writes clearly and elegantly and has carved her subject into coherent and attractively presented chapters. The central chapters are packed with subtle and interesting insights into how feminism, religious culture, and theosophical and spiritualist thought interacted in the intellectual turbulence of the late Victorian and Edwardian periods. The discussion of the links btween religion and racial ideas is a fascinating addition to a much-neglected subject. -- Susan Mumm Journal of Contemporary Religion Dixon has written a provocative and timely book. She asks important questions about the relationship of politics and spirituality, and offers sensitively nuanced answers that draw upon the past but contain meaning for the present. -- Patricia S. Kruppa Albion 2003 Dixon's attention to the role of spirituality in modern life, and her insistence that the spiritual is always constituted in relation to a specific historical moment, offers new and exciting ways of thinking not only about late-Victorian and Edwardian Britain but also about the relationship of politics and religion in our own times. -- Laura E. Nym Mayhall Journal of Modern History 2003 In revealing the long-neglected intersection of spiritualism and feminist politics, Dixon's book will prompt a more general reconsideration of the relations of religious and political transformation in the period. -- Andrew H. Miller Studies in English Literature 2003 An exemplary historical account of spirituality as a cultural formation... It develops with great subtlety recent accounts of English feminism, examining the role of class and racial privilege in feminist interventions in progressive politics and the imperial project. -- Sandra Stanley Holton Victorian Studies 2003 Dixon has opened up a great new avenue of investigation in her excellent book by challenging the secularist bias of analysis of the feminist movement. -- Samuel Wagar Canadian Woman Studies 2003 Startling and original... An important contribution of the book is to show how the constantly shifting construction of gender and sexuality among theosophists was related to notions of race and class. -- June Hadden Hobbs NWSA Journal Joy Dixon's meticulous and brilliant study of the relationship between the feminist movement and esoteric (alternative) spirituality in England stands as a model for how such work ought be undertaken in the future. -- Randi R. Warne Atlantis: A Women's Studies Journal A stimulating and original study. Clearly written and well researched. -- Caroline Roberts University of Toronto Quarterly 2006

• Contents: I Domesticating the Occult 1 The Undomesticated Occult 2 The Mahatmas in Clubland: Manliness and Scientific Spirituality 3 "A Deficiency of the Male Element": Gendering Spiritual Experience 4 "Buggery and Humbuggery": Sex, Magic, and Occult Authority II Political Alchemies 5 Occult Body Politics 6 The Divine Hermaphrodite and the Female Messiah: Feminism and Spirituality in the 1890s 7 A New Age for Women: Suffrage and the Sacred 8 Ancient Wisdom, Modern Motherhood Conclusion