some of my undergraduate courses

I coordinate an interdisciplinary Minor degree in Esoteric and Occult Traditions, offered jointly by the University of King's College and Dalhousie University (Image: 18th century woodcut, Wellcome collection).

The academic study of esotericism is a rapidly developing sub-discipline, bridging the methodologies of cultural history, the history of science, anthropology, and religious studies. Under the umbrella of ‘esotericism’ the courses in this  minor delve into the history of magic, alchemy, divination and astrology (often captured under the modern labels of ‘occultism’ or the ‘occult sciences’) as well as related forms of mystical literature, like Gnosticism and Kabbalah. One recurring thread in all the courses pertaining to this minor is the recognition that esoteric subjects like magic, alchemy and divination—despite their marginalized and even diabolized representation—have played a formative role in the development of modern intellectual (and popular) culture and thus merit careful scholarly investigation.

Offered through the King's History of Science & Technology Program, this course for second year undergrads is often the entry point into the esoteric minor (Image: conjuring circle from the Magical Elements of Peter de Abano, 1655).

The modern category of ‘occultism’ encompasses several neighbouring fields—including magic, alchemy, and astrology—all linked in the popular imagination to forbidden knowledge and arcane power. A perennial source of fear and fascination, occultism has been dismissed as pseudo-science and even stigmatized as ‘Satanism’. This course aims to recover the original meaning of occultism from the perspective of the practitioners of magic. Special topics include: the transmission of pagan magic to Medieval Europe; the Renaissance appropriation of Jewish Kabbalah; the evolution of the grimoire; Victorian spiritualism and parapsychology;  Aleister Crowley and the Aeon of Horus; H.P. Lovecraft and postmodern magic.

This course traces the development of European alchemy from its origins in the Hermetic and Gnostic currents of late antiquity to the emergence of modern chemistry in the 18th century. The scientific, technical, and esoteric dimensions of alchemy are treated as interdependent elements of a coherent worldview. Special topics include: alchemy and the occult sciences in late antiquity; the contested status of alchemy in the medieval universities; secrecy, ciphers and symbolism; the Jungian  interpretation of alchemy; the elixir of life; innovations in distillation and the discovery of alcohol and mineral acids. We approach these special issues with an eye to wider problems of historiography. Is alchemy best represented as a precursor to the experimental theories and practices of modern chemistry; or does this developmental approach privilege one aspect of alchemy–the narrowly ‘scientific’ and technological–at the expense of its broader spiritual and psychological dimensions?

In all of the ancient cultures there were specialists who claimed possession of hidden or future knowledge based on the reading of ominous signs in various media, earthly and heavenly. This course examines the history of divination, prophecy and astrology in the Ancient Near East, Greece, and Rome from a multidisciplinary perspective. Special topics include techniques of Babylonian oil and liver divination, the origins of horoscopic astrology, divination and the dead, prophecy and divine possession, and philosophical problems of chance, determinism, and causality. We approach divination as a distinctive “way of knowing,” with its own logic and coherence, while also considering the social functions of divination as a tool for problem solving and legitimating political action.

Image: Ptolemy observing the altitude of the stars with a quadrant, from Ziletti, Principles of Astronomy and Geography according to Ptolemy, 1574.