Occult America

“Fascinating . . . a serious, wide-ranging study of all the magical, mystical, and spiritual movements that have arisen and influenced American history in often-surprising ways.”—Ron Charles, The Washington Post Book World “A treasure trove.”—HuffPost From its inception, America served as an arena for the revolutions in alternative spirituality that eventually swept the globe. Esoteric philosophies and personas—from Freemasonry to Spiritualism, from Madame H. P. Blavatsky to Edgar Cayce—dramatically altered the nation’s culture, politics, and religion. Yet the mystical roots of our identity are often ignored or overlooked. In Occult America, a leading writer on the subject of alternative spirituality brings it out of the shadows. Here is a rich, fascinating, and colorful history of a religious revolution and an epic of offbeat history. From the meaning of the symbols on the one-dollar bill to the origins of the Ouija board*, Occult America*briskly sweeps from the nation’s earliest days to the birth of the New Age era and traces many people and episodes, including: • The spirit medium who became America’s first female religious leader in 1776 • The supernatural passions that marked the career of Mormon prophet Joseph Smith • The rural Sunday-school teacher whose clairvoyant visions instigated the dawn of the New Age • The prominence of mind-power mysticism in the black-nationalist politics of Marcus Garvey • The Idaho druggist whose mail-order mystical religion ranked as the eighth-largest faith in the world during the Great Depression Opening a new window on the past, Occult America presents a dramatic, pioneering study of the mysterious undercurrents of our history and their profound impact across modern life. A feast for believers in alternative spirituality, an eye-opener for anyone curious about the unknown byroads of American history, Occult America is an engaging, long-overdue portrait of one nation, under many gods, whose revolutionary influence is still being felt in every corner of the globe.