Essays on Women in Western Esotericism

Amy Hale is an anthropologist and folklorist specializing in contemporary esoteric history, art and culture.  Co-edited collections include New Directions in Celtic Studies, and The Journal of the Academic Study of Magic 5. She has written widely on surrealist and occultist Ithell Colquhoun, and is the author of the Colquhoun biography Genius of the Fern Loved Gully.

“This collection will prove extremely valuable to scholars of religion in general, and of esotericism and women’s studies in particular. Its unique contribution is manifested in being not only the first to focus entirely on women in Western esotericism, but also in its successful exploration and problematization of their relegated roles within modern occultism and its academic study.” (Shai Feraro, Women_s History Review, April 29, 2023)“Essays on Women in Western Esotericism amply demonstrates the contribution of women as leaders, writers, and contributors to numerous branches of esoteric thought. Emphasizing the modern era, the book will surely inspire novel attempts to highlight and re-assess the contributions of women esotericists in other historical periods. … the volume is an accessible and highly engaging read. … it will be an invaluable resource both for students and more senior scholars of Western esotericism, Paganism … .” (Manon Hedenborg White, ARIES, Journal for the Study of Western Esotericism, Vol. 24 (1), 2024)“This volume provides a good starting point for wider explorations that could include a more intersectional approach that considers how gender intersects with aspects such as class, race, or sexuality, as well as an investigation of the role of women in non-Western esoteric traditions and the evolving and changing nature of esotericism in the modern world. The volume’s comprehensive view of the history and diversity of esotericism is a welcome contribution to the current body of works in the field.” (Lulie El-Ashry, Religious Studies Review, Vol. 49 (2), June, 2023)

• Chapter 1: Introduction.- Chapter 2: Mrs. Rosa Frances Swiney: Imperial Feminism and Eugenics in Theosophical Evolutionist Thought.- Chapter 3: The Myth of Pamela Colman Smith's Blackness: Ethnic Impersonation in the Modern Esoteric Milieu.- Chapter 4: “Eastern Methods”/“Western Bodies”: Dion Fortune’s Shifting Positions on Yoga, 1929 -1940.- Chapter 5: The Devil Wears Pink: The Representation and Role of Woman in the Occultism of Maria de Naglowska.- Chapter 6: The Power of Beauty: Eleanor Kirk’s Feminine Esotericism.- Chapter 7: Painterly Desire: Ithell Colquhoun’s Other-than-Human Art.- Chapter 8: Doreen Valiente: Unmotherly Mother of Modern Witchcraft.- Chapter 9: The Crucible of Modernity: Florence Farr & the Esoteric Woman.- Chapter 10: Madeline Montalban: Magus of the Morning Star.- Chapter 11: ‘The Seeker’ – Frieda Harris’s Quest for Esoteric Fulfillment.- Chapter 12: George Yeats: Amanuensis to Inner Plane Spirits.- Chapter13: “Telling the World’s Fortune”: Eileen Garrett, Psychic Medium and Pioneer Parapsychologist.- Chapter 14: How to Make a Magician: Kabbalah, Psychotherapy and the Mechanics of Syncretism in Colette Aboulker-Muscat’s Waking Dreamwork.- Chapter 15: Dion Fortune and the Temples of the Numinous.- Chapter 16: True Knowledge of God Obscured in Mind and Body: Hildegard of Bingen’s Medical and Religious Understanding of Adam’s Fall.