The Occult Establishment Quotes

“But there is more to the coincidence of occultism and anti-Semitism than a common basis in the fear of change. This can best be initially expressed as "a similar quality of hate." In the ceaseless quarreling that besets occult groups, black and white are the only colors and the occultist's opponents are most viciously attacked. Such a general statement can be further refined. The hatred in the occultist and in the anti-Semite—we have already seen that they can coincide—are similar in degree, which is almost limitless; in object, which is undirectional; and in subjective effect which is obsession—that is, such a hatred becomes the dominant feature of the hater's life, the cornerstone of his cosmology. Obviously, this generalization cannot be too vigorously applied. It becomes suggestive, however, when occultists and illuminates are discovered all along the path of anti-Semitism.”
― James Webb, The Occult Establishment

“The needs and aspirations which during the Twenties had driven men to religion or the occult were transmuted during the decade which followed. As objects of devotion the gurus gave way to the political masters. But the vocabulary and the modes of thought employed by some of the idealistic politicians were profoundly influenced by their previous experience of the occult underground. In certain cases, whole ideological positions were taken over from occultism, and the underground became an underground no longer.”
― James Webb, The Occult Establishment

“It was after the [great] war that Aleister Crowley attained his greatest notoriety—although it should never be forgotten that he emerged from the very fin de siècle atmosphere of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and that he was a supreme example of the type of Symbolist magus who had flourished in Paris during the 1890s.”
― James Webb, The Occult Establishment