The Occult Mind: Magic in Theory and Practice

by Christopher I. Lehrich

"Given the historical orientation of philosophy, is it unreasonable to suggest a wider cast of the net into the deep waters of magic? By encountering magical thought as theory, we come to a new understanding of a thought that looks back at us from a funhouse mirror."―The Occult Mind Divination, like many critical modes, involves reading signs, and magic, more generally, can be seen as a kind of criticism that takes the universe―seen and unseen, known and unknowable―as its text. In The Occult Mind, Christopher I. Lehrich explores the history of magic in Western thought, suggesting a bold new understanding of the claims made about the power of various belief systems. In closely interlinked essays on such disparate topics as ley lines, the Tarot, the Corpus Hermeticum, writing and ritual in magical practice, and early attempts to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphics, Lehrich treats magic and its parts as an intellectual object that requires interpretive zeal on the part of readers/observers. Drawing illuminating parallels between the practice of magic and more recent interpretive systems―structuralism, deconstruction, semiotics―Lehrich deftly suggests that the specter of magic haunts all such attempts to grasp the character of knowledge. Offering a radical new approach to the nature and value of occult thought, Lehrich's brilliantly conceived and executed book posits magic as a mode of theory that is intrinsically subversive of normative conceptions of reason and truth. In elucidating the deep parallels between occult thought and academic discourse, Lehrich demonstrates that sixteenth-century occult philosophy often touched on issues that have become central to philosophical discourse only in the past fifty years.

Genres: Occult, Magick, Philosophy, Magic, Psychology, Nonfiction, History

272 pages, Paperback

First published March 29, 2007

About the author

With more than two decades as an interdisciplinary research scholar, writing teacher, and editor, I bring a wide range of knowledge and experience to manuscripts across the humanities and social sciences, working principally for individual scholars.
I specialize in religious studies, European history, East Asian studies (especially modern Japanese), philosophy, history of science, literary criticism, and anthropology. I have extensive experience with EFL authors, especially Japanese and French speakers.
When I’m not editing, I cook, write fantasy novels, and build clocks. I continue to publish occasional work in theory of religion and lecture on the discipline.

Reviews

[Jeremiah Genest · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chris basically sets out to discuss how magic is viewed scholarly, in particular renaissance magic. Which in many ways makes it an elegant thing to read after just finishing the Aegypt quatrology. The book is a very heavy read, filled with necessary jargon and highly complex concepts. Chris successfully uses terminology and material consistently, and writes extremely well, keeping the book understandable to the casual reader as well as the specialist (or I’ve been reading this stuff way to much). Though it definitely helps to be familiar with at least the basics of Dee and Bruno, Yates and Eliade, as this book fits in a conversation with those authors and the scholarship around them.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Heavily influenced by post-structuralism and Frankfurt Critical Theory -- for the non-initiated reader, this will be all but impenetrable.

This is materialism, cultural materialism/cultural marxism, run amok.

The author makes several interesting points but they are buried beneath poor writing and academic double-speak.

Worth a read for those initiated in the inner traditions of Critical Theory but for the rest it would be a waste of time.

Rating: 3 out of 5 Stars.

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little to academic for me, but sure to become influential.
Should have read Levi-Strauss before this.