Academic Register 2014-2015 
    
    Mar 29, 2024  
Academic Register 2014-2015 [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

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HST 245 - Occult Sciences and Societies

Course Units: 1
(Winter; Sargent) Surveys the rise of occult sciences, such as ritual magic, astrology, and alchemy, and the influence of real and imagined secret societies dedicated to the preservation and transmission of such esoteric knowledge. Examines the legends associated with the suppression of the Templars in fourteenth-century France, and the revival of Platonism, Jewish Kabbalah, and pseudo-Egyptian Hermeticism in Renaissance Italy. Considers the dissemination of such ideas throughout early-modern Europe, the alchemical theories of Paracelsus and Isaac Newton, and the imagined societies of esoteric utopias. Concludes with the rise of Rosicrucianism, Freemasonry, and the Bavarian Illuminati and their possible influence on the French Revolution.



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