1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910810936903321

Autore

Dixon Joy <1962->

Titolo

Divine feminine : theosophy and feminism in England / / Joy Dixon

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Baltimore, Md., : Johns Hopkins University Press, c2001

ISBN

0-8018-7530-7

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (xix, 293 pages) : illustrations

Collana

The Johns Hopkins University studies in historical and political science ; ; 119th ser., 1

Disciplina

299/.934/0820941

Soggetti

Feminism - Religious aspects - Theosophical Society (Great Britain) - History of doctrines

Feminism - England - History

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Introduction -- PART ONE: DOMESTICATING THE OCCULT -- 1. The Undomesticated Occult -- 2. The Mahatmas in Clubland: Manliness and Scientific Spirituality -- 3. "A Deficiency of the Male Element": Gendering Spiritual Experience -- 4. "Buggery and Humbuggery": Sex, Magic, and Occult Authority -- PART TWO: POLITICAL ALCHEMIES -- 5. Occult Body Politics -- 6. The Divine Hermaphrodite and the Female Messiah: Feminism and Spirituality in the 1890's -- 7. A New Age for Women: Suffrage and the Sacred -- 8. Ancient Wisdom, Modern Motherhood -- Conclusion

Sommario/riassunto

Divine Feminine is the first full-length study of the relationship between alternative or esoteric spirituality and the feminist movement in England. Historian Joy Dixon examines the Theosophical Society's claims that women and the East were the repositories of spiritual forces which English men had forfeited in their scramble for material and imperial power. Theosophists produced arguments that became key tools in many feminist campaigns. Many women of the Theosophical Society became suffragists to promote the spiritualizing of politics, attempting to create a political role for women as a way to "sacralize the public sphere." Dixon also shows that theosophy provides much of the framework and the vocabulary for today's New Age movement. Many of the assumptions about class, race, and gender which marked the emergence of esoteric religions at the end of the nineteenth century



continue to shape alternative spiritualities today.