This book visits the occult in literature from the 1880s to the 20th century, analyzing work by women occultists such as Alice Bailey, Dion Fortune, and Starhawk, and revisiting texts with occult motifs by canonical authors. It covers movements such as Theosophy, Spiritualism, Golden Dawn, Wicca, and Goddess spirituality, engaging with how literature creates occult worlds and identities, namely the female Lucifer, witch, priestess, and Goddess. The occult in literature incorporates topical discourses including psychoanalysis, feminism, pacifism, and ecology, hence this book will be of interest to scholars of literary and cultural studies, religious studies, sociology, and gender studies.

1. Introduction: "Occultophobia" and Gender Blindness in Cultural and Literary Studies 2. The Discursive Strategies and Functions of Occult and Gendered Worlds in Literature 3. "A mere instrument" or "proud as Lucifer"? Self-Presentations in the Occult Autobiographies of Emma Hardinge Britten (1900), Annie Besant (1893), and Alice A. Bailey (1951) 4. "She was a witch by vocation": The Emancipatory Strategies of Occult Transgression in Sylvia Townsend Warner's Lolly Willowes (1926) 5. "She became a priestess": Occult Liminality, Psychoanalysis, and the Role of the Text in Dion Fortune's The Sea Priestess (1938) 6. Unreliable Occultism: Narrating the Occult 7. Occult Worlds: Utopias and Dystopias of Magical Power 8. Outlook: "Standing before me she is familiar": Deciphering Esoteric Connections and Feminine Occult Power in Rose Flint's Poetry 9. The Functions of Occult and Spiritual Literature