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Egil Asprem is a PhD candidate at the Centre for History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents (GHF), located in the Department of Art, Religion, and Cultural Sciences. His research focuses on the relationship between science and esotericism since the Enlightenment, particularly in the first decades of the 20th century. He has published a number of peer-reviewed articles on topics such as the history of parapsychology, modern occultism, and ritual magic. He also takes a major interest in theoretical and methodological issues in the study of religion, esotericism, and in interdisciplinary research in the humanities in general. Asprem is a board member of the European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism (ESSWE), and currently serves as the Society's Membership Secretary.
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Forthcoming book
Arguing with Angels: Enochian Magic and Modern Occulture. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. Release Date: May 2012 ISBN10: N/A ISBN13: 978-1-4384-4191-7
From the publisher:
An exploration of John Dee’s Enochian magic of angel contact, its reinterpretation over the years, and its endurance to the present day.
This fascinating work explores John Dee’s Enochian magic and the history ofits reception. Dee (1527–1608/9), an accomplished natural philosopher and member of Queen Elizabeth I’s court, was also an esoteric researcher whose diaries detail years of conversations with angels achieved with the aid of crystal-gazer Edward Kelley. His Enochian magic offers a method for contacting angels and demons based on secrets found in the apocryphal Book of Enoch.
Examining this magical system from its Renaissance origins to present day occultism, Egil Asprem shows how the reception of Dee’s magic is replete with struggles to construct and negotiate authoritative interpretational frameworks for doing magic. Arguing with Angels offers a novel, nuanced approach to questions about how ritual magic has survived the advent of modernity and demonstrates the ways in which modern culture has recreated magical discourse.
Forthcoming volume
Contemporary Esotericism. Egil Asprem & Kennet Granholm (eds.). London: Equinox Publishing Ltd. Forthcoming 2012.
From the publisher:
Although the academic study of Western esotericism has achieved a high level of professionalization and institutionalization, there is still a major gap in scholarship. Very little research exists on contemporary phenomena. The neglect is largely due to the strong historiographical emphasis in previous research on Western esotericism, as well as an overall reluctance to incorporate social scientific approaches. A fundamental challenge for the study of contemporary esoteric phenomena is that it is not sufficient to simply transpose theories, definitions and methodologies developed for the studyof,for example, Renaissance magic to later manifestations of esoteric discourse. Studying contemporary phenomena poses both new problems and intriguing possibilities.
Contemporary Esotericism deals with the multifaceted status of esoteric discourse in the contemporary West. The authors combine historical awareness and findings from the historiographical study of esoteric currents with new theory and methodology required for contemporary studies. The articles deal with currents and issues of particular importance for understanding the place of the esoteric in today’s world, and will in specific discuss theoretical and methodological implications raised by the study of contemporary esotericism.
Selected publications:
2011:
2010:
"A Nice Arrangement of Heterodoxies: William McDougall and the Professionalization of Psychical Research." Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences 46.2, 123-143.
" Parapsychology: Naturalising the Supernatural, Re-Enchanting Science." In: Handbook of Religion and the Authority of Science. Edited by Olav Hammer and James R. Lewis. Leiden: Brill, pp. 633-670.
2008:
"Magic Naturalized? Negotiating Science and Occult ExperienceinCrowley’s ’Scientific Illuminism." Aries 8:2, 139-165.
"False, Lying Spirits and Angels of Light: Ambiguous Mediation in Dr Rudd’s Treatise on Angel Magic." Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft 3:1, 54-80.
2007:
"Kabbalah Recreata : Reception and Adaptation of Kabbalah in Modern Occultism." The Pomegranate International Journal for Pagan Studies 9:2, 132-153.