Subject grouping in the Essays & Articles archive.
Originally published in Artforum in 2002. A review of Julius Evola’s books newly translated by Inner Traditions, including The Hermetic Tradition and Revolt Against the Modern World, tracing the Italian baron’s path from Dada alongside Tristan Tzara to the UR occult group. Pinchbeck links Evola’s account of alchemical dream states to Rick Strassman’s DMT: The Spirit Molecule.
A review for Artforum of Turn Off Your Mind, Gary Lachman’s history of the occult currents running from Theosophy and Aleister Crowley through Sixties youth culture. Pinchbeck argues that Lachman fixates on Charles Manson, Anton LaVey, and Scientology while ignoring the movement’s more substantive legacies: Findhorn, The Farm, herbalism, and the Western uptake of Tibetan Buddhism.