Charles Williams and Modern Occultism: The Influence of AE Waite By Aren Roukema 2013 Prof ...

112 Pages·2013·0.76 MB·English

Charles Williams and Modern Occultism: The Influence of A.E. Waite

By
Aren Roukema
2013

Prof. Wouter J. Hanegraaff, Advisor

Dr. Marco Pasi, Reader

A Thesis
Presented to the
Graduate Faculty
of Humanities

In Partial Fulfillment
Of the Requirements for the Degree
Master of Arts (Research)
in
Religious Studies
Acknowledgements

My deepest thanks go to Prof. Wouter J. Hanegraaff of the Centre for the History of
Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents (HHP) at the University of Amsterdam for
supervising this research, and also to Dr. Marco Pasi of the HHP for acting as reader. I
also wish to thank Jimmy Elwing for his feedback on parts of the text. I am much indebted
to the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica in Amsterdam, and to the J. Ritman family, for
giving me access to their comprehensive collection of both published and unpublished
materials by A.E. Waite. Thanks also to Dr. R.A. Gilbert, as access to this collection would
not have been as fruitful without his help. Most of all, I would like to thank my wonderful
wife Deborah for her unflagging support, motivation, and understanding.

Copyright 2013: Aren Roukema
TABLE OF CONTENTS

1) Charles Williams, A.E. Waite, and their Scholars
Introduction 1
Clarification of Terms 2
Biography 7
--Charles Williams
--A.E. Waite
Shared Mystical Pursuits: The “Secret Tradition” and “Romantic 12
Theology”
A Brief History of Williams Scholarship 17
2) Constructing a “Cordon Sanitaire”: Two Artificial Dichotomies
Occultism vs. Mysticism 21
Occultism vs. Christianity 28
3) In Search of the Higher Self: Charles Williams in the F.R.C.
The History and Structure of the F.R.C. 35
The Initiatic Journey 43
The F.R.C. and the Golden Dawn 46
The Novels of an “Adeptus Exaltatus” 60
4) The Coinherent Magus: Charles Williams and Magic 67
Magic and Mysticism 68
A Question of a Center—Williams’s View of Magic 70
--The Divine-Centred Magus
--The Way of P’o-Lu
“Artistic Theurgy”: Williams and Sex Magic 82
5) Kabbalah—Charles Williams and the Middle Pillar 87
Conclusion 98
Bibliography 100
Roukema / Charles Williams and Occultism 1
Introduction

He saturated his novels and poetry with occult symbolism, he pursued poetic and
mystical sublimation by elevating his libido through ritual magic, he was a member of a
secret society descended from the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, the base of the
occult philosophies of W.B. Yeats and Aleister Crowley, and yet Charles Williams has
been almost universally distanced from occultism.1 Williams (1886–1945), a fiction writer,
mystical poet, scriptwriter, and biographer, was also a dedicated theologian and church
historian, and thus has been the focus of much research generated by scholars interested
in his contributions to Christianity. This focus, however, has often resulted in a distinction
between Williams and occultism based in a centuries-old Christian polemic against
esoteric knowledge. This distancing is often accomplished by linking Williams’s esoteric
philosophy directly to Arthur Edward Waite (1857–1942), an influential figure in the modern
occult context by virtue of his scholarship on a wide range of esoteric subjects and his
involvement in a number of secret societies devoted to the study and application of those
subjects. Scholars have dwelt less on this involvement, however, and more on Waite’s
polemical distancing of his esoteric philosophy from occultism. However, close historical
analysis, as well as literary interpretation in the case of Williams, shows that the
relationship of both men to occultism is more complex than has previously been
acknowledged. In what follows, I will argue that the philosophies of Waite and Williams
bear marked debts to occult adaptations of esoteric thought, and that the work of Charles
Williams, particularly his novels and poetry, cannot be properly interpreted without a
recognition that his life and thought were defined by an unproblematic blend of Christian
mysticism and occultism.
The question of Charles Williams’s relation to occultism is the focus of this research,
but addressing this issue will also require extensive analysis of Waite’s life, work, and
philosophy, as the two men have become so closely entangled in Williams scholarship that
they often seem to be assumed to be the same person, producing the same thoughts. In
fact, more scholarship on Waite has appeared in research on Williams than in the few

1 As discussed below, I use the term “occultism” to refer to a specific historical movement,
extending from the mid-nineteenth century until the present day, rather than a particular
philosophy.
Roukema / Charles Williams and Occultism 2
publications dedicated specifically to Waite. I will begin this process of dual analysis by
introducing the reader to Williams and Waite and then reviewing the problems of
scholarship that result from the link between the two. Following this I will examine the
stance taken toward occultism by the two authors, and then qualify that stance with
historical analysis of their participation in Waite’s secret society, the Fellowship of the Rosy
Cross (F.R.C.), as well as their approach to magic and their involvement with Kabbalah as
specifically interpreted within modern occultism. This analysis will also necessarily feature
elements of literary criticism, as Williams’s life and thought cannot be understood without
reference to his work, and vice versa.

Clarification of Terms

First, however, a clarification of terms such as “occult,” “occultism,” and “esotericism”
is in order. Much of the confusion surrounding the question of Williams and Waite’s
involvement with esotericism comes down to a general misunderstanding of these
concepts. This problem, almost always encountered in Williams scholarship, stems from a
general multiplicity of usage found in society in general. Though the scope of this thesis
does not allow a full review of the fluctuating history of these terms and the movements
related to them, it is necessary that I clarify my own usage before proceeding further.2
Adjectives such as “occult” and “esoteric” are often understood, even today, in a
dramatically pejorative sense. Wouter J. Hanegraaff argues convincingly that such
negative understandings stem from a “Grand Polemical Narrative” by which Western
culture has defined its identity over the centuries in relation to a constructed “other”—a
group of traditions not always otherwise related, such as alchemy, magic, Kabbalah,
witchcraft, and astrology—but collected in an intellectual “wastebasket” within Western
culture. This process began, in Hanegraaff’s conception, with the construction of a “pagan
other” by Christianity as it grew in power and gained sway over European culture. Pagan
elements were incorporated into Christianity early on, and have continued to exert
influence in Western culture in the continuing popularity of pagan practices and the interest
in currents such as Hermetism and Zoroastrianism, particularly following the Renaissance.

2 For a fuller introduction to the fluctuating use of these terms, see Hammer, Claiming
Knowledge, 5-6.
Roukema / Charles Williams and Occultism 3
These vestigial pagan remnants have been obscured however, as Christianity, and later
other cultural dominants, employed polemical discourse to purify its own identity from
pagan attachments by attacking its “other.” By the eighteenth century, working from this
dichotomy of pagan vs. Christian, Western culture began to acknowledge a relation
between the traditions now categorized as belonging to Western esotericism. Though this
term was not actually used until the nineteenth century, it describes the formation of a
“reservoir of what modernity rejects,” specifically referring to the formation of Western
culture around the central pillars of monotheism, which rejected esoteric knowledge as
pagan, and Enlightenment rationalism, which rejected it as irrational and superstitious.3
An important aspect of Hanegraaff’s argument is that esotericism must be seen as a
product of historical developments, many of them discursive and many of these polemical
in nature, rather than as a single monolithic tradition of secret knowledge passed down
from antiquity. This latter conception is, as we will see, largely how Waite and Williams
understood esoteric knowledge. However, I will employ the theoretical approach to
esotericism now generally found in analytical academic work, where the term is not
understood as a hegemonic historical phenomenon, but rather as the manifestation of
long-standing, often antagonistic, discourses in Western culture. In this conception,
esotericism is, in Andreas Kilcher’s words, “The sociologies, politics, techniques, cultures,
and poetics of knowledge by means of which epistemological formations such as magic,
kabbalah, occultism etc. are founded, transmitted, transformed, defended, or degraded.”4
Just as it should be understood that there is no specific “esotericism” that can be studied
as a phenomenon in its own right, the individual movements grouped together in the
“wastebasket” category of Western esotericism should also be seen as fluctuating
traditions in Hans-Georg Gadamer’s sense of a tradition as an ongoing dialectical
conversation, in which it is assumed that a reified encapsulation of a particular tradition
can never be authentically achieved.5 Seen in the light of this understanding of tradition,
every magician, every alchemist, every kabbalist in every period has found themselves

3 Hanegraaff, “Forbidden Knowledge,” 230–46. Hanegraaff, “The Trouble with Images,” 108–
10, 113. See Hanegraaff, Esotericism in the Academy for his analysis of the historiography behind
the development of Western esotericism, and Hanegraaff,
Power of Ideas, 256, for a short summary of his argument.
4 Kilcher, “Seven Epistemological Theses,” 145.
5 See Gadamer, Truth and Method, 358–60.
Roukema / Charles Williams and Occultism 4
exploring a particular tradition of knowledge from within their own subjective sphere of
understanding, influenced by their own particular cultural context. Within these particular
contexts they have added to already existing, longue durée traditions of esoteric
knowledge, in addition to adjusting, defending, and attacking these same traditions so that
each is subject to a continuous process of permutation and transformation, to the point
where they can only be said to exist as “traditions” at all because they are products of
categorization necessary for the ordering of human thought. All references to “esotericism”
and specific esoteric traditions in this thesis are made in light of this view of esotericism as
a necessary category of thought, rather than an actual historical object. I will, however,
frequently refer to the more emic view of esotericism as a monolithic, ahistorical body of
knowledge, as that is how most of the historical figures featured in my research saw it.6
Before the term “esotericism” came into wide use, the same body of affiliated
traditions was united under terms such as the “occult sciences,” generally referring to more
practical esoteric knowledge, found in traditions such as magic and alchemy, and the
“occult philosophy”, a more encompassing notion used to describe the reintroduction of the
ancient wisdom narrative in the Christian context of the Renaissance.7 “Magic” was also
frequently used as a term to encompass both the practical and speculative aspects of the
pursuit of esoteric knowledge. In the process of identity construction described by
Hanegraaff, however, “magic” and “occult” were appropriated as polemical terms used to
dismiss all knowledge branded with these labels as demonic (Christian polemics) or
irrational (scientific rationalist polemics).8 However, the virulent Enlightenment rejection of
these terms also allowed for their sublimation by anti-Enlightenment elements in society.
In the nineteenth century a number of individuals and movements began to
specifically identify themselves as occultists and their activities as magical, and returned to
esoteric currents of the Renaissance and Early Modern periods to further their knowledge

6 There is a diverse range of opinions on the historical boundaries and theoretical definitions of
“Western esotericism.” For some of the most authoritative see Hanegraaff, Guide, particularly 2-17;
Von Stuckrad, Western Esotericism, 1-11; Bogdan, Rituals of Initiation, 6–20; Kilcher, “Seven
Epistemological Theses, 143–48. Faivre, Access to Western Esotericism, 10–15.
7 See Hanegraaff, “Notion of “Occult Sciences,”” 77–82.
8 Hanegraaff, foreword to Aleister Crowley, viii; “The Trouble with Images,” 110; “Notion of
“Occult Sciences,”” 83–87. On the history of the terms “magic” and “occult,” see Hanegraaff,
Esotericism and the Academy, 164–90.
Roukema / Charles Williams and Occultism 5
of the “occult sciences.”9 In doing so, those who identified themselves as occultists were
forced to find a fit between pre-modern and early modern esoteric knowledge and the
empirical demands of post-Enlightenment rationalism. This synthesis did not not
necessarily lead to a rejection of the Enlightenment values of empiricism and rationalism;
indeed, Hanegraaff has defined occultism as a modern subcategory of esotericism that
attempts to adapt esoteric knowledge in order to respond to the disenchanted world
proclaimed by Max Weber. Rather than reject the world disenchanted by scientific
naturalism, Hanegraaff states that occultism “accepts that world (consciously or
unconsciously; in a spirit of resignation or with enthusiasm).”10 Occultists, as many
scholars of esotericism have pointed out, frequently embraced scientific principles and
framed their knowledge in a naturalistic discourse. As Antoine Faivre describes it, “The
occultists were not opposed to modernity and did not consider scientific progress as
noxious; they sought instead to integrate them into a global vision capable of bringing out
the vacuity of materialism.”11 Therefore, in addition to the use of “occultism” in a longue
durée sense as a term largely synonymous with “esotericism,” the term is used by
historians to refer to a particular current that arose at the onset of Late Modernity,
appearing spottily in the early 1800s, but developing into a full-force cultural movement by
the end of the century.12 Some characteristics of this modern esoteric movement, as
opposed to its earlier precursors, include a greater synthesis of non-Christian (particularly
Eastern) religions, the incorporation of new views on social hierarchy and gender inclusion
(which particularly manifested in newer traditions such as mesmerism and spiritualism), a
quest for enchantment in the face of the disenchanted world perceived to have been
produced by Enlightenment rationalism and scientific materialism, and an incorporation,
despite this quest, of Enlightenment values such as scientific progress and biological
evolutionism. These latter two characteristics required a movement away from material

9 Hanegraaff, “Forbidden Knowledge,” 247.
10 Hanegraaff, New Age Religion, 423.
11 Faivre, Western Esotericism, 80. For more on the relationship between occultism and
Enlightenment rationalism see Hanegraaff, New Age Religion, 421–23; Hanegraaff, “How Magic
Survived”; Owen, Place of Enchantment, 238–257; Pasi, “Occultism,” 1366; Pasi, “The Modernity
of Occultism,” 61; Asprem, ”Magic Naturalized,” 140–45; Hammer, Claiming Knowledge, 50-51.
12 Waite himself used the term in this manner. E.g. Doctrine and Literature of the Kabbalah,
196.
Roukema / Charles Williams and Occultism 6
explanations for occult phenomena.13 Thus, for example, magical function was often seen
as an effect of imagination that produced psychological effects within the self so that
magicians themselves, rather than their surroundings, were affected.14 A similar example
is the development of a specifically spiritual form of alchemy that sought the transmutation
of the self but rejected the traditional alchemical focus on the transmutation of metals.15 In
addition to these adaptations of traditional esoteric practice, occultists also tended more
toward universalist and perennialist interpretations of the ancient wisdom believed to have
been passed down from antiquity.16 Where their esoteric forebears looked for proof of the
truth of Christianity in this ancient wisdom, occultists tended to synthesize a variety of
symbolic systems, with a love for bricolage which Egil Asprem calls “programmatic
syncretism.” With this term, which I will return to often, Asprem argues that occultists
systematically organized a wide range of symbolism from a large variety of different
traditions to develop “a pragmatically better and more refined esoteric system” in order to
better communicate and discover the universal esoteric knowledge available to all but
found by few.17
In this new occult context, a plethora of movements devoted to the advancement of
esoteric knowledge sprang up. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831–91) founded the
influential Theosophical Society, which featured important figures of the period such as the
poet and active occultist W.B. Yeats (1865–1939) and Anna Kingsford (1846–1888) an
esoteric theologian, anti-vivisectionist, and women’s rights advocate. French occultist
Eliphas Lévi (1810–1875, born Alphonse Louis Constant) merged magical concepts with
Kabbalah and the Tarot, a synthesis that had an enormous impact which continues to
reverberate in occult circles to this day. One notable group influenced by Lévi was the
Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, a secret society founded in 1888 by three

13 For the boundaries and characteristics of modern occultism see Hanegraaff, New Age
Religion, 421-22; Hammer, Claiming Knowledge, 7; Pasi, “Occultism”; Galbreath, “Explaining
Modern Occultism,” 15-32; Gilbert, Golden Dawn, 20-23; Faivre, Access to Western Esotericism,
86–90; Asprem, Arguing With Angels, 45-77.
14 Hammer, Claiming Knowledge, 49-52; Hanegraaff, “How Magic Survived,” 365–71.
15 See Principe and Newman, “Some Problems,” 388–95. The modern interest in spiritual
alchemy was motivated by Mary Ann Atwood’s publication of A Suggestive Inquiry into the
Hermetic Mystery (1850) and perpetuated by a number of leading figures in modern occultism,
including William Westcott and A.E. Waite.
16 Pasi, “Occultism,” 1367.
17 Asprem, “Kabbala Recreata,” 135–36. Cf. Bogdan, Rituals of Initiation, 121.
Roukema / Charles Williams and Occultism 7
Freemasons, William Wynn Westcott (1848–1925), William Robert Woodman (1828–91),
and Samuel MacGregor Mathers (1854–1918). The Golden Dawn dedicated itself to the
advancement of esoteric knowledge, particularly through experimentation with practical
magic, but the ultimate aim of its adepts was the elevation of the self toward union with the
higher, or divine self, a goal accomplished through concepts and symbolic systems
discovered in Rosicrucianism, Kabbalah, the Tarot, alchemy, Freemasonry, and ritual
magic among a variety of other esoteric traditions.18
A.E. Waite was a central figure in this group, and its goals and rituals were formative
in the development of the F.R.C., of which Charles Williams was a member for over ten
years. This thesis will seek to position Waite and Williams within this specific modern
occult context. The meaning of the term “modern” is, of course, also in need of
clarification. I will use it to refer to the period beginning in the middle of the nineteenth
century and filtering out in the middle of the twentieth, though of course such temporal
boundaries can never be anything but artificial.19 They will assist us, however, as we
proceed to examine the occultism of Charles Williams.

Biography—Charles Williams

Charles Walter Stansby Williams was born into a working-class family in London on
20 September 1886, but worked his way up in English society despite lacking the funds to
finish his degree at University College London.20 Partly through social connections
developed in an editorial position at Oxford Publishing House, and partly propelled by his
literary achievements, Williams worked his way into the elite literary circles of modern
England. In fact, Williams is perhaps best known for the company he kept.21 T.S. Eliot
(1888–1965), who published Williams’s last two novels, was a close friend. As a member
of the famous Inklings writing group, Williams also befriended C.S. Lewis (1898–1963) and

18 Quite a bit of research on the Golden Dawn is now available. Among the best are Howe,
Magicians of the Golden Dawn; Gilbert, Golden Dawn, and Bogdan, Rituals of Initiation, 121–44.
The rituals and knowledge lectures of the Order can be found in Regardie, Complete Golden
Dawn, and Golden Dawn (4 volumes). The latter publication contains the material used by the
Stella Matutina, an offshoot of the original Golden Dawn.
19 Here I follow what is usually seen as the widest separation of the bookends of the modern
period. See Lewis, Modernism, xvii.
20 Williams’s primary biographer is Alice Mary Hadfield. See Introduction; Exploration.