Ronnie Pontiac - American Metaphysical Religion: Esoteric and Mystical Traditions of the New World

To Tamra, I seal the amazing adventures we shared that became this book with a quote from Petronius Arbiter, to echo your words to me on that sacred night:

Serva me, servabo te.

In a secular society the search for the sacred refuses to go away.

CATHERINE ALBANESE

There are indeed millions of Christians in the United States, but most Americans who think that they are Christians truly are something else, intensely religious but devout in the American Religion, a faith that is old among us, and that comes in many guises and disguises, and that overdetermines much of our national life.

HAROLD BLOOM

In modern academic research, esotericism is no more than a convenient label to cover a large collection of claims of knowledge that have been rejected as illegitimate nonsense or superstition by academics since the period of the Enlightenment but deserve to be studied seriously and without prejudice. Whether any of them is true or not is wholly irrelevant to that project.

WOUTER HANEGRAAFF

I am often struck by the dangerous narcissism fostered by spiritual rhetoric that pays so much attention to individual self-improvement and so little to the practice of love within the context of community.

BELL HOOKS

Although it is said that it is impossible to be disturbed by anything upon reaching enlightenment, I could not help but cry upon bidding farewell to a loved one.

KB-DAISHI

But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.

THOMAS JEFFERSON

Imagination is usually regarded as a synonym for the unreal. Yet is true imagination healthful and real, no more likely to mislead than the coarser senses. Indeed, the power of imagination makes us infinite.

JOHN MUIR

AMERICAN METAPHYSICAL RELIGION

A lucid tour through the Wild West of American-style spirituality. Pontiac drives us through landscapes peopled by odd characters that some have deemed mad, bad, and dangerous to know but whose burning arrows have ignited things in our psyches whether we knew it or not. I was constantly delighted by the new, luminous insights into characters and events that I thought I knew everything about but clearly didnt.

ALAN RICHARDSON,AUTHOR OF ALEISTER CROWLEY AND DION FORTUNE

Scholarly yet eminently readable, this is a must for the bookshelf of any reader interested in the sociology of religion, the history of psychical development, and the psychology of sacred feeling. Highly recommended.

TOD DAVIES,AUTHOR OF THE HISTORY OF ARCADIA VISIONARY FICTION SERIES

Ronnie Pontiac does his readers an inestimable service, surveying and summarizing an immense amount of academic material. Pontiac makes a strong argument that America has always had a religious consciousness, separation of church and state notwithstanding. Thomas Edison, William James, Timothy Leary, Carlos Castaneda, and Terence McKenna are only some of the figures Pontiac takes on in this detailed, thorough, and readable account of the often wildly disparate beliefs held by that one nation under God.

GARY LACHMAN,AUTHOR OF THE RETURN OF HOLY RUSSIA

Ronnie Pontiacs book is a full engagement with these deep currents and a wild map of the ocean they form. The reader sets the book down with a sense of the endless nature of those waters but also with the conviction that, below the waves, America is fundamentally an esoteric idea and a mystical ideal and always has been.

JEFFREY J. KRIPAL,AUTHOR OF THE SUPERHUMANITIES: HISTORICAL PRECEDENTS, MORAL OBJECTIONS, NEW REALITIES

The most fascinating book I have read in decades. Hollywood may have written its own history of cowboys and cattle, but kindly allow Ronnie Pontiac to enchant you with a different story. This is an especially long book, over 600 pages, but the work never loses pace, not a word is wasted, every sentence is packed with information. An illuminating journey into the eternal spiritual quest of human nature set free in a new land.

NAOMI OZANIEC,AUTHOR OF BECOMING A GARMENT OF ISIS

This book is much closer to the mainstream psyche than academics would have us believe. Ronnie Pontiacs book is a lively, engaging, thoughtful, and insightful introduction to this dazzling world.

RICHARD SMOLEY,AUTHOR OF A THEOLOGY OF LOVE

Pontiacs ambitious and inclusive book is an important contribution to our understanding of the culturally and philosophically diverse influences that have, from the very beginning, impacted the character of American spiritual thought and experience. This book is a critical project that shows us the contours and multitudes of cultural and historical influence that converge to produce a uniquely American esotericism.

AMY HALE,AUTHOR OF ITHELL COLQUHOUN

I couldnt put this book down. Its a storybook concerning a multi-formed religion that lies just below the surface of American awareness yet plays a significant part in the beliefs and inspirations that characterize our psyche. Its metaphysical ideas reach everyone, from presidents to heads of corporations as well as major figures in the arts and sciences and the average citizen. We can see them as people struggling to make sense of life, the world, and other realities. Prepare to be amazed.

MARY K. GREER,AUTHOR OF WOMEN OF THE GOLDEN DAWN

Permanently unseats the lingering myth that the United States is (or was) an exclusively Christian nation. Read this book: I guarantee you will encounter a character who helps you locate your own lineage in the tangled skein of American metaphysical religion.

THEA WIRSCHING,AUTHOR OF THE AMERICAN RENAISSANCE TAROT

Especially valuable for me is the groundbreaking discussion of the Platonic enthusiasts Thomas Moore Johnson, Alexander Wilder, and Hiram K. Jones. Well researched, relevant, and revelatory.

K. PAUL JOHNSON,AUTHOR OF EDGAR CAYCE IN CONTEXT

Acknowledgments

THIS BOOK WOULD NOT EXIST without the help of many collaborators, especially Tamra Lucid, to whom it is dedicated. Without the kindness of Manly Palmer Hall I never would have started the research that ultimately became this book. K. Paul Johnson has provided encouragement, resources, and detailed editorial advice. I am also grateful to the late Norman Arthur Johnson for convincing me to finish what I started. Kimberly Cooper Nichols was the first editor to post the essays that became several of these chapters, and Bookforums blog Omnivore featured one. Tod Davies provided early encouragement and essential advice throughout. Edie Shapiro provided invaluable edits and contributions. Thea Wirsching gave crucial new perspectives when the content overwhelmed me. For encouragement, advice, resources, quotations, and other contributions I am grateful to Normandi Ellis, Jon Graham, Jay Bregman, Sasha Chaitow, Gary Lachman, Matt Marble, Adam McClean, Mary K. Greer, Isis Aquarian, David Metcalfe, Kate McCallum, Steven A. Ross, Jon Larson, Joe Linus, Rene Heitman, Vadim Putzu, and Patrick Reeves.