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Toward the Sociology of Esoteric Culture

The point of departure of this paper is an examination of the sociological literature on the recent occult revival in modern societies. This phenomenon, which clashes with the image of secularization, is particularly notable among the youth of the counterculture. To further sociological analysis, a conceptualization of esoteric culture is proposed. It is further argued that esoteric culture has played a significant role in Western cultural change, in such areas as artistic expressions of reality, political ideas, and even scientific thought. Esoteric culture is thus treated as a source of ideational innovations in Western modernization.