India and the Occult: The Influence of South Asian Spirituality on Modern Western Occultism

by Gordan Djurdjevic

India and the Occult explores the reception of Indian spirituality among Western occultists through case studies. Rather than focusing on the activities of Theosophical Society, India and the Occult looks at the 'hard-core' occultism, in particular the British 20th century currents associated with Aleister Crowley, Dion Fortune, Kenneth Grant, etc.

Genres: India, Academic, Nonfiction

203 pages, Paperback

First published July 31, 2013

About the author

Gordan Djurdjevic, Ph.D. (Asian Studies, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, 2005), is Sessional Instructor in the Department of Humanities at Simon Fraser University, Canada.

Reviews

[C]

Very good read for many reasons. It is a "short" book but it is "dense" the whole thing contains a lot of information. A good chunk of the back of the book is references and notes. For me personally it expanded my knowledge and gave me further areas to explore pertaining to Dion Fortune. I also thought it was interesting to see some more academic take on tops I feel are more obscure in that realm, such as Kenneth Grant and Andrew Chumbley. This book expanded my general knowledge on the subject of Tantra and its connection and melding with western esotericism.

[Keith]

I've been hoping finally to start in on this soon, and keep getting bogged down elsewhere. Meanwhile, however, there is a rather thorough and professional review available in V11#1 of the academic journal Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft by Professor Emerita June McDaniel, which is now freely available online.