Assembling original contributions, this book is a pioneering attempt to fill the lacuna of research on the Euro-American esoteric reception and appropriation of East Asian religious and philosophical ideas.Chapters encompass research on the early phase of reception, pertaining to Daoism and the Yijing in the 19th century's Euro-American occult milieu, with additional attempts to locate tropes and patterns even earlier - that is, within the 18th century's mesmerism and figurism. Chapters also explore the reception as well as appropriation within the ever broadening alternative religious spectrum of the 20th and 21st centuries, such as Traditionalism, the New Age, and the wider holistic milieu (including the highly popular martial arts current). This book opens up an under-explored area of research in the subject of East-West interactions and the global history of religions.

Connects its focus on "esoteric" viz. "occult" topics to developments and changes in the context of spirituality and religion right now

List of ContributorsChina in the Euro-American Esoteric Imagination: Contouring a Lacuna, Lukas K. Pokorny (University of Vienna, Austria) and Franz Winter (University of Graz, Austria)1. Daoism and Kung Fu as Occult Sciences: Historical Comparisons between Chinese Practices and Mesmerism, Julian Strube (University of Vienna, Austria)2. Looking Out for Magic in Ancient China: The Yijing, Its Trigrams, and the Figurist Tradition in Éliphas Lévi, Franz Winter (University of Graz, Austria)3. The Theosophical Daodejing: The Beginnings, Lukas K. Pokorny (University of Vienna, Austria)4. The Daoist Who Wasn't: Albert de Pouvourville, Matgioi, Nguyen Van Cang, and the Problem of Indochinese Masters in fin de siècle Occultism, Davide Marino (University of Vienna, Austria)5. Turning Further East: C. H. A. Bjerregaard and the Esoteric Enthusiasm for Daoism, Johan Nilsson (Lund University, Sweden)6. Do What Dao Wilt: The Integration of East Asian Concepts and Practices into Aleister Crowley's Thelema, Gordan Djurdjevic (Independent Scholar, Canada)7. An Exoticism of Rationality and Social Order? Examining the East-West Binary in Late Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-Century Esoteric Representations of China, Johan Nilsson (Lund University, Sweden)8. The Archetypal Dao: A Look at C. G. Jung's Reception of Chinese Thought, Karl Baier (University of Vienna, Austria)9. Be Water My Friend: Esotericism, Martial Arts, and Entangled Histories, Tao Thykier Makeeff (University of Stavanger, Norway)Index