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Guido von List

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The occult (from Latin : occultus , lit.   ' hidden ' or ' secret ' ) is a category of esoteric or supernatural beliefs and practices which generally fall outside the scope of organized religion and science, encompassing phenomena involving a 'hidden' or 'secret' agency, such as magic and mysticism . It can also refer to paranormal ideas such as extra-sensory perception and parapsychology .

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145-403: Guido Karl Anton List (5 October 1848 – 17 May 1919), better known as Guido von List , was an Austrian occultist , journalist, playwright, and novelist. He expounded a modern Pagan new religious movement known as Wotanism , which he claimed was the revival of the religion of the ancient German race, and which included an inner set of Ariosophical teachings that he termed Armanism. Born to

290-514: A völkisch emphasis on the folk culture and customs of rural people, believing that many of them were survivals of pre-Christian, pagan religion. He published three novels, Carnuntum (1888), Jung Diethers Heimkehr (1894), and Pipara (1895), each set among the German tribes of the Iron Age , as well as authoring several plays. During the 1890s he continued writing völkisch articles, now largely for

435-801: A belletristic society devoted to encouraging German nationalist and neo-romantic literature in Vienna, the Literarische Donaugesellschaft ("Danubian Literary Society"). The group was partly based upon the 15th-century Litteraria Sodalita Danubiana created by the Viennese humanist Conrad Celtes , about whom List authored a brief biography in 1893. He also authored two further novels during the 1890s, both of which were historical romances set in Iron Age Germany. The first appeared in 1894 as Jung Diethers Heimkehr ("Young Diether's Homecoming"), which told

580-685: A cataract from his eye, after which he was left blind for eleven months. During this period of rest and recuperation, he contemplated questions surrounding the origins of the German language and the use of runes . He subsequently produced a manuscript detailing what he deemed to be a proto-language of the Aryan race, in which he claimed that occult insight had enabled him to interpret the letters and sounds of both runes and emblems and glyphs found on ancient inscriptions. Terming it "a monumental pseudo-science", Goodrick-Clarke also noted that it constituted "the masterpiece of his occult-nationalist researches". List sent

725-625: A Russian émigré living in the United States who founded the religion of Theosophy . The article was published in the American Spiritualist magazine, Spiritual Scientist . Various twentieth-century writers on the subject used the term occultism in different ways. Some writers, such as the German philosopher Theodor W. Adorno in his "Theses Against Occultism", employed the term as a broad synonym for irrationality . In his 1950 book L'occultisme , Robert Amadou  [ fr ] used

870-420: A binder. Watercolor painters before the turn of the 18th century had to make paints themselves using pigments purchased from an apothecary or specialized "colorman", and mixing them with gum arabic or some other binder. The earliest commercial paints were small, resinous blocks that had to be wetted and laboriously "rubbed out" in water to obtain a usable color intensity. William Reeves started his business as

1015-536: A binder. Originally (in the 16th to 18th centuries), watercolor binders were sugars and/or hide glues, but since the 19th century, the preferred binder is natural gum arabic , with glycerin and/or honey as additives to improve plasticity and solubility of the binder, and with other chemicals added to improve product shelf life. The term " bodycolor " refers to paint that is opaque rather than transparent. It usually refers to opaque watercolor, known as gouache . Modern acrylic paints use an acrylic resin dispersion as

1160-711: A celebrity within the Austrian Pan-German movement, with the editors of the Ostdeutsche Rundschau convening a Guido List evening in April 1895 and South Vienna's Wieden Singers' Club holding a List festival in April 1897. Having divorced his previous wife, in August 1899 List married Anna Wittek, who was from Stecky in Bohemia . Despite List's modern Pagan faith, the wedding was held in an evangelical Protestant church, reflecting

1305-507: A close identification between the racial group – the volk or folk – and the natural world. List believed that human beings had an immortal soul, and that it would be reincarnated according to the laws of karma until eventually uniting with divinity. In the 1890s, List initially devised the idea that ancient German society had been led by a hierarchical system of initiates, the Armanenschaft , an idea which had developed into

1450-630: A colorman around 1766. In 1781, he and his brother, Thomas Reeves, were awarded the Silver Palette of the Society of Arts , for the invention of the moist watercolor paint-cake , a time-saving convenience, introduced in the "golden age" of English watercolor painting. The "cake" was immediately soluble when touched by a wet brush. Modern commercial watercolor paints are available in tubes, pans and liquids. The majority of paints sold today are in collapsible small metal tubes in standard sizes and formulated to

1595-430: A conflict that would bring about the defeat of Germany's enemies and the establishment of a golden age for the new Ario-German Empire. Toward the war's end, he believed that the German war dead would be reincarnated as a generation who would push through with a national revolution and establish this new, better society. For List, this better future would be intricately connected to the ancient past, reflecting his belief in

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1740-508: A consistency similar to toothpaste by being already mixed with a certain water component. For use, this paste has to be further diluted with water. Pan paints (actually small dried cakes or bars of paint in an open plastic container) are usually sold in two sizes, full pans and half pans. Owing to modern industrial organic chemistry , the variety, saturation , and permanence of artists' colors available today has been vastly improved. Correct and non-toxic primary colors are now present through

1885-571: A copy to the Imperial Academy of Sciences in Vienna, but they declined to publish it. In 1903 List published an article in Die Gnosis magazine, which reflected a clear influence from the ideas of the Theosophical Society . List had occasionally used the title of von in his name from 1903 onward, but began using it permanently in 1907. The term was used to denote that an individual was

2030-421: A cult figure on the eastern edge of the German world. He was regarded by his readers and followers as a bearded old patriarch and a mystical nationalist guru whose clairvoyant gaze had lifted the glorious Aryan and Germanic past of Austria into full view from beneath the debris of foreign influences and Christian culture. In his books and lectures List invited true Germans to behold the clearly discernible remains of

2175-650: A desire to revive pre-Christian religion. It was through the Armanen-Order that Thorsson, who joined it, learned about List's work. Thorsson then spearheaded "the post-war runic revival", founding an initiatory organisation known as the Rune Gild in 1980. Thorsson was responsible for translating a number of List's works into English, alongside those of other völkisch mystics like Siegfried Adolf Kummer . These publications brought awareness of List to an English-speaking readership, with his 1988 translation of List's The Secret of

2320-461: A disenchanted world or, alternatively, by people in general to make sense of esotericism from the perspective of a disenchanted secular world". Hanegraaff noted that this etic usage of the term would be independent of emic usages of the term employed by occultists and other esotericists themselves. In this definition, occultism covers many esoteric currents that have developed from the mid-nineteenth century onward, including Spiritualism, Theosophy,

2465-417: A form of " Ariosophy ", a term which was coined by Lanz von Liebenfels in 1915. Goodrick-Clarke considered List's ideas to be a "unique amalgam of nationalist mythology and esotericism". Religious studies scholar Olav Hammer noted that List's Wotanism "increasingly came to consist of an original synthesis of his reading of Germanic mythology with Theosophy". List's early Theosophical influence came largely from

2610-484: A key part of his thinking by 1908. List's image of the Armanenschaft's structure was based largely on his knowledge of Freemasonry . He claimed that the ancient brotherhood had consisted of three degrees, each with their own secret signs, grips, and passwords. He believed that the Armanenschaft had societal control over the ancient German people, acting as teachers, priests, and judges. In List's interpretation of history,

2755-597: A lung inflammation his health deteriorated quickly, and he died in a Berlin guesthouse on the morning of 17 May 1919. He was cremated in Leipzig and his ashes laid in an urn and then buried at the Vienna Central Cemetery, Zentralfriedhof . An obituary of List authored by Berlin journalist Philipp Stauff then appeared in the Münchener Beobachter . List promoted a religion termed "Wotanism", which he saw as

2900-454: A member of the nobility, and when the nobility archive ordered an official enquiry into List's use of the term, he was called before magistrates in October 1907. He defended his usage of the term with the claim that he was the descendant of aristocrats from Lower Austria and Styria , and that his great-grandfather had abandoned the title to become an inn keeper. Goodrick-Clarke noted that whatever

3045-483: A number of works being specifically dedicated to him. The editor of Prana , Johannes Balzli , authored a biography of List that was published in 1917. During World War I , List erroneously proclaimed that there would be victory for the Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary, claiming to have learned this information from a vision that he experienced in 1917. By 1918, List was in declining health, furthered by

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3190-507: A publican and vintner. Guido's mother, Marian List, was the daughter of builder's merchant Franz Anton Killian. List was raised in the city's second bezirk , on the eastern side of the Danube canal. Like most Austrians at the time, his family were members of the Roman Catholic denomination of Christianity, with List being christened into this faith at St Peter's Church in Vienna. Reflecting

3335-451: A recognised figure within Austria's Pan-German community , a movement of individuals unified in their belief that the majority German-speaking areas of the multi-linguistic and multi-ethnic Austro-Hungarian state should cede and join with the newly established German Empire . The book also brought him to the attention of Friedrich Wannieck , a wealthy industrialist who was the chairman of both

3480-411: A series of hugely popular books describing his picturesque journeys throughout rural England, and illustrated them with self-made sentimentalized monochrome watercolors of river valleys, ancient castles, and abandoned churches. This example popularized watercolors as a form of personal tourist journal. The confluence of these cultural, engineering, scientific, tourist, and amateur interests culminated in

3625-590: A severe strain on the city's resources. A staunch monarchist, he opposed all forms of democracy , feminism , and modern trends in the arts, such as those of the Vienna Secessionists . Influenced by the Pan-Germanist politician Georg Ritter von Schönerer and his Away from Rome! movement, List decried the growing influence of linguistically Slavic communities within the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He

3770-508: A substantivized adjective as "the occult", a term that has been particularly widely used among journalists and sociologists . This term was popularised by the publication of Colin Wilson 's 1971 book The Occult . This term has been used as an "intellectual waste-basket" into which a wide array of beliefs and practices have been placed because they do not fit readily into the categories of religion or science. According to Hanegraaff, "the occult"

3915-539: A visit to Berlin in 1919. During his lifetime, List became a well-known figure among the nationalist and völkisch subcultures of Austria and Germany, influencing the work of many others operating in this milieu. His work, propagated through the List Society, influenced later völkisch groups such as the Reichshammerbund and Germanenorden , and through those exerted an influence on both the burgeoning Nazi Party ,

4060-563: A watercolor tutorial by English art critic John Ruskin , has been out of print only once since it was first published in 1857. Commercial brands of watercolor were marketed and paints were packaged in metal tubes or as dry cakes that could be "rubbed out" (dissolved) in studio porcelain or used in portable metal paint boxes in the field. Breakthroughs in chemistry made many new pigments available, including synthetic ultramarine blue , cobalt blue , viridian , cobalt violet , cadmium yellow , aureolin ( potassium cobaltinitrite ), zinc white , and

4205-551: A wealthy middle-class family in Vienna , List claimed that he abandoned his family's Roman Catholic faith in childhood, instead devoting himself to the pre-Christian god Wotan . Spending much time in the Austrian countryside, he engaged in rowing, hiking, and sketching the landscape. From 1877 he began a career as a journalist, primarily authoring articles on the Austrian countryside for nationalist newspapers and magazines. In these he placed

4350-473: A weekly newspaper, the Ostdeutsche Rundschau ("East German Review"), which had been established in 1890 by the Austrian Pan-German parliamentary deputy Karl Wolf . In 1891, List anthologised many of the magazine articles that he had written over the previous decades in his book Deutsch-Mythologische Landschaftsbilder ("German Mythological Landscape Scenes"), extracts of which were then published in

4495-446: A weight at least 300 gsm (140 lb). Under 300 gsm (140 lb) is commonly not recommended for anything but sketching. Transparency is the main characteristic of watercolors. Watercolors can also be made opaque by adding Chinese white . This is not a method to be used in "true watercolor" (traditional). Watercolor paint is an ancient form of painting, if not the most ancient form of art itself. In East Asia, watercolor painting with inks

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4640-591: A wide range of carmine and madder lakes . These pigments, in turn, stimulated a greater use of color with all painting media, but in English watercolors, particularly by the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood . Watercolor painting also became popular in the United States during the 19th century; outstanding early practitioners included John James Audubon , as well as early Hudson River School painters such as William H. Bartlett and George Harvey . By mid-century,

4785-418: A wider industrial use. Paint manufacturers buy, by industrial standards very small, supplies of these pigments, mill them with the vehicle, solvent, and additives, and package them. The milling process with inorganic pigments, in more expensive brands, reduces the particle size to improve the color flow when the paint is applied with water. In the partisan debates of the 19th-century English art world, gouache

4930-464: A wonderful theocratic Ario-German state, wisely governed by priest-kings and gnostic initiates, in the archaeology, folklore, and landscape of his homeland." — Historian of esotericism Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke. According to the historian Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke , 1902 marked "a fundamental change in the character of [List's] ideas: occult ideas now entered his fantasy of the ancient Germanic faith." This began when he received an operation to remove

5075-794: Is Building 6 Portrait: Interior. Produced by American artist Barbara Prey on commission for MASS MoCA , the work can be seen at MASS MoCA's Robert W. Wilson Building. Although the rise of abstract expressionism , and the trivializing influence of amateur painters and advertising- or workshop-influenced painting styles, led to a temporary decline in the popularity of watercolor painting after c.  1950 , watercolors continue to be utilized by artists like Martha Burchfield , Joseph Raffael , Andrew Wyeth , Philip Pearlstein , Eric Fischl , Gerhard Richter , Anselm Kiefer , and Francesco Clemente . In Spain, Ceferí Olivé created an innovative style followed by his students, such as Rafael Alonso López-Montero and Francesc Torné Gavaldà . In Mexico ,

5220-465: Is a painting method in which the paints are made of pigments suspended in a water-based solution. Watercolor refers to both the medium and the resulting artwork . Aquarelles painted with water-soluble colored ink instead of modern water colors are called aquarellum atramento ( Latin for "aquarelle made with ink") by experts. However, this term has now tended to pass out of use. The conventional and most common support —material to which

5365-459: Is a category into which gets placed a range of beliefs from "spirits or fairies to parapsychological experiments, from UFO-abductions to Oriental mysticism, from vampire legends to channelling, and so on". The neologism occulture used within the industrial music scene of the late twentieth century was probably coined by one of its central figures, the musician and occultist Genesis P-Orridge . The scholar of religion Christopher Partridge used

5510-427: Is referred to as brush painting or scroll painting. In Chinese , Korean and Japanese painting it has been the dominant medium, often in monochrome black or browns, often using inkstick or other pigments. India, Ethiopia and other countries have long watercolor painting traditions as well. Many Western artists, especially in the early 19th century, used watercolor primarily as a sketching tool in preparation for

5655-524: Is thus often used to categorise such esoteric traditions as Qabalah , Spiritualism , Theosophy , Anthroposophy , Wicca , the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn , New Age , and the left-hand path and right-hand path . Use of the term as a nominalized adjective ('the occult') has developed especially since the late twentieth century. In that same period, occult and culture were combined to form

5800-569: The Bote aus dem Waldviertel ("The Waldviertel Herald") and Kyffhäuser . List began lecturing on these subjects; for instance, in February 1893 he spoke to the nationalist Verein 'Deutsches Geschichte' ("'German History' Association) on the ancient priesthood of Wotan. He also worked as a playwright, and in December 1894 his play Der Wala Erweckung ("The Wala's Awakening") was premiered at an event organised by

5945-753: The German Empire , Austria-Hungary , and the Kingdom of Italy . Unlike older forms of esotericism, occultism does not necessarily reject "scientific progress or modernity". Lévi had stressed the need to solve the conflict between science and religion, something that he believed could be achieved by turning to what he thought was the ancient wisdom found in magic. The French scholar of Western esotericism Antoine Faivre noted that rather than outright accepting "the triumph of scientism", occultists sought "an alternative solution", trying to integrate "scientific progress or modernity" with "a global vision that will serve to make

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6090-538: The Middle Ages , for example, magnetism was considered an occult quality. Aether is another such element. Newton 's contemporaries severely criticized his theory that gravity was effected through "action at a distance", as occult. In the English-speaking world, notable figures in the development of occultism included Helena Blavatsky and other figures associated with her Theosophical Society, senior figures in

6235-455: The Ostdeutsche Rundschau . Further völkisch articles on various topics pertaining to Austria's folk culture and to its ancient Germanic tribes followed during the 1890s, although midway through that decade his work took on an explicitly anti-semitic nature with articles such as "Die Juden als Staat und Nation" ("The Jews as a State and Nation"). Other Austrian German nationalist newspapers which published his articles during this period included

6380-707: The Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours ). (A Scottish Society of Painters in Water Colour was founded in 1878, now known as the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour .) These societies provided annual exhibitions and buyer referrals for many artists. They also engaged in petty status rivalries and aesthetic debates, particularly between advocates of traditional ("transparent") watercolor and

6525-630: The SS and the German Faith Movement . After World War II his work continued to influence an array of Ariosophic and Heathen practitioners in Europe, Australia, and North America. Guido Karl Anton List was born on 5 October 1848 in Vienna, then part of the Austrian Empire . Born to a prosperous middle-class family, he was the eldest son of Karl Anton List, a leather goods dealer who was the son of Karl List,

6670-575: The Society of Dilettanti (founded in 1733), to document discoveries in the Mediterranean, Asia, and the New World. These expeditions stimulated the demand for topographical painters, who churned out memento paintings of famous sites (and sights) along the Grand Tour to Italy that was undertaken by every fashionable young man of the time. In the late 18th century, the English cleric William Gilpin wrote

6815-455: The exoteric , outer form of pre-Christian Germanic religion, while "Armanism" was the term he applied to what he believed were the esoteric, secret teachings of this ancient belief system. He believed that while Wotanism expounded polytheism for the wider population, those who were members of the Armanist elite were aware of the reality of monotheism . List's Armanism would later be classified as

6960-471: The neologism occulture . The occult (from the Latin word occultus ; lit. 'clandestine', 'hidden', 'secret') is "knowledge of the hidden". In common usage, occult refers to "knowledge of the paranormal ", as opposed to "knowledge of the measurable ", usually referred to as science. The terms esoteric and arcane can also be used to describe the occult, in addition to their meanings unrelated to

7105-402: The paper surface; the transparency is caused by the paper being visible between the particles. Watercolors may appear more vivid than acrylics or oils because the pigments are laid down in a purer form, with few or no fillers (such as kaolin) obscuring the pigment colors. Typically, most or all of the gum binder will be absorbed by the paper, preventing the binder from changing the visibility of

7250-418: The "father of the English watercolor"; Thomas Girtin (1775–1802), who pioneered its use for large format, romantic or picturesque landscape painting; and Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851), who brought watercolor painting to the highest pitch of power and refinement, and created hundreds of superb historical, topographical, architectural, and mythological watercolor paintings. His method of developing

7395-478: The "finished" work in oil or engraving. Until the end of the eighteenth century, traditional watercolors were known as 'tinted drawings'. Watercolor art dates back to the cave paintings of paleolithic Europe and has been used for manuscript illustration since at least Egyptian times , with particular prominence in the European Middle Ages . However, its continuous history as an art medium begins with

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7540-567: The "pagan past" as an "imaginative reconstruction". List's Wotanism was constructed largely on the Prose Edda and the Poetic Edda , two Old Norse textual sources which had been composed in Iceland during the late Middle Ages; he nevertheless believed that they accurately reflected the belief systems of Germany, having been authored by "Wotanist" refugees fleeing Christianity. He believed that prior to

7685-513: The "traditional esotericism" which accepted the premise of an "enchanted" world. According to the British historian of Western esotericism Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke , occultist groups typically seek "proofs and demonstrations by recourse to scientific tests or terminology". In his work about Lévi, the German historian of religion Julian Strube has argued that the occultist wish for a "synthesis" of religion, science, and philosophy directly resulted from

7830-656: The 1920s to 1940s. In particular, the " Cleveland School " or "Ohio School" of painters centered around the Cleveland Museum of Art , and the California Scene painters were often associated with Hollywood animation studios or the Chouinard Art Institute (now California Institute of the Arts ). The California painters exploited their state's varied geography, Mediterranean climate, and " automobility " to reinvigorate

7975-730: The 19th century with artists such as John James Audubon , and today many naturalist field guides are still illustrated with watercolor paintings. Several factors contributed to the spread of watercolor painting during the 18th century, particularly in England. Among the elite and aristocratic classes, watercolor painting was one of the incidental adornments of a good education; mapmakers, military officers, and engineers valued it for its usefulness in depicting properties, terrain, fortifications, field geology, and for illustrating public works or commissioned projects. Watercolor artists were commonly taken on geological or archaeological expeditions, funded by

8120-613: The Aryan population and opportunities for education and jobs in public service being restricted to those deemed racially pure. He envisioned this Empire following the Wotanic religion which he promoted. Writing in 2003, the historian of religion Mattias Gardell believed that List had become the "revered guru of Ariosophic paganism". Gardell considered the Austrian esotericist to have been "a legend in his lifetime", with List's ideas being embraced by many völkisch groups in Germany. German members of

8265-512: The British Museum in 1857, led to a negative reevaluation of the permanence of pigments in watercolor. This caused a sharp decline in their status and market value. Nevertheless, isolated practitioners continued to prefer and develop the medium into the 20th century. Paul Signac created landscape and maritime watercolors, and Paul Cézanne developed a watercolor painting style consisting entirely of overlapping small glazes of pure color. Among

8410-513: The Bund der Germanen (Germanic League) which was devoted to the German nationalist cause, with Jews being explicitly banned from attending the event. Alongside his affiliation with the Bund, List was also a member of the Deutscher Turnverein (Germanic Gymnastic League), a strongly nationalistic group to whom he contributed literary works for their events. In 1893, List and Fanny Wschiansky founded

8555-589: The Christian missionaries persecuted the Armanenschaft, resulting in many fleeing northward into Scandinavia and Iceland. He believed that they developed a secretive language for transmitting their teachings, known as kala . List claimed that after the Christianisation of Northern Europe, the Armanist teachings were passed down in secret, thus resulting in their transmission through later esoteric traditions such as Freemasonry and Rosicrucianism . He also claimed that

8700-511: The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn like William Wynn Westcott and Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers , as well as other individuals such as Paschal Beverly Randolph , Emma Hardinge Britten , Arthur Edward Waite , and – in the early twentieth century – Aleister Crowley , Dion Fortune , and Israel Regardie . By the end of the nineteenth century, occultist ideas had also spread into other parts of Europe, such as

8845-553: The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and the New Age. Employing this etic understanding of "occultism", Hanegraaff argued that its development could begin to be seen in the work of the Swedish esotericist Emanuel Swedenborg and in the Mesmerist movement of the eighteenth century, although added that occultism only emerged in "fully-developed form" as Spiritualism, a movement that developed in

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8990-556: The High Armanen Order, over whom List presided as Grand Master. Through these ventures he promoted the millenarian view that modern society was degenerate, but that it would be cleansed through an apocalyptic event resulting in the establishment of a new Pan-German Empire that would embrace Wotanism. After having erroneously prophesied that this empire would be established by victory for the Central Powers in World War I, List died on

9135-528: The List Society included Philipp Stauff , Eberhard von Brockhusen , Karl Hellwig, Georg Hauerstein, and Bernhard Koerner, who were founding members of the Reichshammerbund and Germanenorden ; through the Germanenorden's Munich offshoot, the Thule Society , a vague lineage can be drawn between the List Society and the early Nazi Party as it was established after World War I. List's ideas of Ariosophy and

9280-427: The List Society with whom he went on pilgrimages to various places that he believed had been ancient cultic sites associated with the worship of Wotan. He operated as leader of this group, using the title of Grand Master. The List Society also produced six booklets authored by List himself between 1908 and 1911. Titled "Ario-Germanic research reports", they covered List's opinions on the meaning and magical power of runes,

9425-729: The Medieval Knights Templar had been keepers of these Armanist secrets, and that they had been persecuted by the Christian establishment as a result of this; he believed that the deity they were accused of worshiping, Baphomet , was actually a sigil of the Maltese Cross representing Armanist teachings. According to List, a number of prominent Renaissance humanists – including Giovanni Pico della Mirandola , Giordano Bruno , Johannes Trithemius , Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa , and Johann Reuchlin – were also aware of this ancient Armanist teaching, with List claiming that he

9570-548: The Old Norse Havamal . He claimed to have deciphered these secret meanings himself, translating them as statements such as "Know yourself, then you know everything", "Do not fear death, he cannot kill you", "Marriage is the root of the Aryan race!", and "Man is one with God!" List emphasised the importance of a mystical union between humans and the universe, viewing divinity as being immanent in nature, with all life being an emanation of it. Connected to this, he believed in

9715-647: The Pan-Germanist movement resulted in suggestions that a society devoted to the promotion of List's work be established. This materialised as the Guido-von-List-Gesellschaft in March 1908, which was largely funded by the Wannieck family but which also included many prominent figures from middle and upper-class Austrian and German society. At Midsummer 1911, List founded the High Armanen Order (Hoher Armanen-Ordem), or HAO, as an inner group of Armanist practitioners within

9860-757: The Prague Iron Company and the First Brno Engineering Company. Wannieck was also president of the Verein 'Deutsches Haus' ("'German House' Association"), a nationalist organisation of linguistically German inhabitants of Brno who felt encircled by the largely Czech population of South Moravia . List and Wannieck began corresponding, resulting in a lifelong friendship between the two men. The Verein 'Deutsches Haus' subsequently published three of List's works in its series on German nationalist studies of history and literature. List began regularly writing for

10005-938: The Renaissance . The German Northern Renaissance artist Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528), who painted several fine botanical, wildlife, and landscape watercolors, is generally considered among the earliest examples of watercolor. An important school of watercolor painting in Germany was led by Hans Bol (1534–1593) as part of the Dürer Renaissance . Despite this early start, watercolors were generally used by Baroque easel painters only for sketches, copies or cartoons (full-scale design drawings) Notable early practitioners of watercolor painting were Van Dyck (during his stay in England), Claude Lorrain , Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione , and many Dutch and Flemish artists. However, botanical illustration and wildlife illustration perhaps form

10150-438: The Runes initiating a surge of interest in Ariosophy among the Heathen community of the United States. List's runology also made an appearance in Stephan Grundy 's 1990 book Teutonic Magic . List's Armanist ideas have been cited as an inspiration for the American Odinist militant David Lane , with Wotansvolk , a group that List was involved in establishing, viewing their own activism as a continuation of that begun by List. List

10295-494: The United States during the mid-nineteenth century. Marco Pasi suggested that the use of Hanegraaff's definition might cause confusion by presenting a group of nineteenth-century esotericists who called themselves "occultists" as just one part of a broader category of esotericists whom scholars would call "occultists". Following these discussions, Julian Strube argued that Lévi and other contemporary authors who would now be regarded as esotericists developed their ideas not against

10440-538: The ancient Wotanic priesthood, Austrian folklore and place-names, and the secret messages within heraldic devices. In 1914, the Society then published List's work on runes and language that the Imperial Academy had turned down. The first three of these publications furthered List's reputation across both the völkisch and nationalist subcultures within both Austria and Germany. Many other writers were inspired by List, with

10585-470: The artwork. The traditional claim that "transparent" watercolors gain "luminosity" because they function like a pane of stained glass laid on paper—the color intensified because the light passes through the pigment, reflects from the paper, and passes a second time through the pigment on its way to the viewer—is false. Watercolor paints typically do not form a cohesive paint layer, as do acrylic or oil paints, but simply scatter pigment particles randomly across

10730-468: The background of an esoteric tradition in the first place. Rather, Lévi's notion of occultism emerged in the context of highly influential radical socialist movements and widespread progressive, so-called neo-Catholic ideas. This further complicates Hanegraaff's characteristics of occultism, since, throughout the nineteenth century, they apply to these reformist movements rather than to a supposed group of esotericists. The term occult has also been used as

10875-497: The celebration and promotion of watercolor as a distinctly English "national art". William Blake published several books of hand-tinted engraved poetry, provided illustrations to Dante's Inferno , and he also experimented with large monotype works in watercolor. Among the many other significant watercolorists of this period were Thomas Gainsborough , John Robert Cozens , Francis Towne , Michael Angelo Rooker , William Pars , Thomas Hearne , and John Warwick Smith . From

11020-440: The concept of science. From that point on, use of "occult science(s)" implied a conscious polemic against mainstream science. Nevertheless, the philosopher and card game historian Michael Dummett , whose analysis of the historical evidence suggested that fortune-telling and occult interpretations using cards were unknown before the 18th century, said that the term occult science was not misplaced because "people who believe in

11165-401: The context of contemporary socialism and progressive Catholicism . Similar to spiritualism, but in declared opposition to it, the emergence of occultism should thus be seen within the context of radical social reform, which was often concerned with establishing new forms of "scientific religion" while at the same time propagating the revival of an ancient tradition of "true religion". Indeed,

11310-449: The context of theoretical frameworks that relied heavily on a belief in occult qualities, virtues or forces." Although there are areas of overlap between these different occult sciences, they are separate and in some cases practitioners of one would reject the others as being illegitimate. During the Age of Enlightenment , occultism increasingly came to be seen as intrinsically incompatible with

11455-595: The coterie of prominent Nazi Heinrich Himmler and influencing the symbolism and rituals of the SS . He has also exerted an influence on the Australian Odinist and Ariosophist Alexander Rud Mills . Both Goodrick-Clarke and later the religious studies scholar Stefanie von Schnurbein described List as "the pioneer of völkisch rune occultism", with the latter adding that "the roots of modern esoteric runology are found in Guido List's visions." In 1984, Thorsson expressed

11600-584: The country's economic situation were not uncommon in Austria at the time, having become particularly widespread following the Panic of 1873 . The later Heathen and runologist Edred Thorsson noted that List's "theories were to some degree based on the anti-semitic dogmas of the day", while Hammer stated that the Ariosophic tradition promulgated by List and others was "unambiguously racist and anti-semitic". List believed that

11745-509: The cyclical nature of time, something which he had adopted both from a reading of Norse mythology and from Theosophy. Reflecting his monarchist beliefs, he envisioned this future state as being governed by the House of Habsburg , with a revived feudal system of land ownership being introduced through which land would be inherited by a man's eldest son. In List's opinion, this new empire would be highly hierarchical, with non-Aryans being subjugated under

11890-540: The degradation of modern Western society was as a result of a conspiracy orchestrated by a secret organisation known as the Great International Party, an idea influenced by anti-semitic conspiracy theories. Adopting a millenarianist perspective, he believed in the imminent defeat of this enemy and the establishment of a better future for the Ario-German race. In April 1915 he welcomed the start of World War I as

12035-472: The early adopters of the denser color possible with body color or gouache ("opaque" watercolor). The late Georgian and Victorian periods produced the zenith of the British watercolor, among the most impressive 19th-century works on paper, due to artists Turner, Varley, Cotman, David Cox , Peter de Wint William Henry Hunt , John Frederick Lewis , Myles Birket Foster , Frederick Walker , Thomas Collier , Arthur Melville and many others. In particular,

12180-504: The early modern Lutheran thinker Jakob Bohme , and seeking to integrate ideas from Bohmian theosophy and occultism. It has been noted, however, that this distancing from the Theosophical Society should be understood in the light of polemical identity formations among esotericists towards the end of the nineteenth century. In the mid-1990s, a new definition of "occultism" was put forth by Wouter Hanegraaff. According to Hanegraaff,

12325-713: The emergence of both modern esotericism and socialism in July Monarchy France have been inherently intertwined. Another feature of occultists is that – unlike earlier esotericists – they often openly distanced themselves from Christianity, in some cases (like that of Crowley) even adopting explicitly anti-Christian stances. This reflected how pervasive the influence of secularisation had been on all areas of European society. In rejecting Christianity, these occultists sometimes turned towards pre-Christian belief systems and embraced forms of Modern Paganism , while others instead took influence from

12470-460: The event with a fire and by burying eight bottles of wine in the shape of a swastika beneath the arch of the monument's Pagan Gate . In 1877, List's father died. List soon abandoned the leather goods business that he inherited, intent on devoting himself to literary endeavours as a journalist, even if this meant a significant reduction in his income. On 26 September 1878 he married his first wife, Helene Förster-Peters. From 1877 to 1887 he wrote for

12615-536: The family's leather goods business. During his leisure time he devoted himself to writing and sketching as well as rambling, riding, or rowing in the countryside, becoming both a member of the Viennese rowing club Donauhort and the secretary of the Austrian Alpine Association (Österreichischer Alpenverein). He was involved in both solitary and group expeditions into the Austrian Alps, and it was on one of

12760-536: The family's wealth and bourgeoisie status, in 1851 a watercolour portrait of List was painted by the artist Anton von Anreiter. Accounts suggest that List had a happy childhood. Developing a preference for rural areas rather than urban ones, he enjoyed family visits to the countryside of Lower Austria and Moravia , and – encouraged by his father – he began to sketch and paint the castles, prehistoric monuments, and natural scenery of these areas. According to his later account, he developed an early interest in

12905-523: The food shortages experienced in Vienna as a result of the war. In the spring of 1919, at the age of 70, List and his wife set off to recuperate and meet followers at the manor house of Eberhard von Brockhusen , a List Society patron who lived at Langen in Brandenburg , Germany. On arrival at the Anhalter Station at Berlin , List felt too exhausted to continue the journey. After a doctor had diagnosed

13050-406: The graceful, lapidary, and atmospheric watercolors ("genre paintings") by Richard Parkes Bonington created an international fad for watercolor painting, especially in England and France in the 1820s. In the latter half of the 19th century, portrait painter Frederick Havill became a key player in the establishment of watercolour in England. Art critic Huntly Carter described Havill as a "founder of

13195-500: The growing popularity of Protestantism among Austria's Pan-German community, who perceived it as a more authentically German form of Christianity than the Catholicism that was popular among Austria-Hungary's other ethnic and linguistic communities. Wittek had previously appeared in a performance of List's Der Wala Erweckung and had publicly recited some of his poetry. Following their marriage, List devoted himself fully to drama, authoring

13340-662: The influence of John Ruskin led to increasing interest in watercolors, particularly the use of a detailed "Ruskinian" style by such artists as John W. Hill Henry, William Trost Richards , Roderick Newman , and Fidelia Bridges . The American Society of Painters in Watercolor (now the American Watercolor Society ) was founded in 1866. Late-19th-century American exponents of the medium included Thomas Moran , Thomas Eakins , John LaFarge , John Singer Sargent , Childe Hassam , and, preeminently, Winslow Homer . Watercolor

13485-472: The influence of the Theosophical Society , resulting in an expansion of his Wotanic beliefs to incorporate Runology and the Armanen Futharkh . The popularity of his work among the völkisch and nationalist communities resulted in the establishment of a List Society in 1908; attracting significant middle and upper-class support, the Society published List's writings and included an Ariosophist inner group,

13630-470: The introduction of hansa yellow , phthalo blue and quinacridone (PV 122). From such a set of three colors, in principle all others can be mixed, as in a classical technique no white is used. The modern development of pigments was not driven by artistic demand. The art materials industry is too small to exert any market leverage on global dye or pigment manufacture. With rare exceptions such as aureolin, all modern watercolor paints utilize pigments that have

13775-479: The landscape as being embodied by genius loci , and expressing clear German nationalist and völkisch sentiment. In 1888, he published his first novel, Carnuntum , in two volumes. Set in the late fourth century CE , the narrative focused on a romance set against the background of the conflict between Germanic tribes and the Roman Empire around the area of the eponymous Roman fort. The novel established List as

13920-645: The late 18th century through the 19th century, the market for printed books and domestic art contributed substantially to the growth of the medium. Watercolors were used as the basic document from which collectible landscape or tourist engravings were developed, and hand-painted watercolor originals or copies of famous paintings contributed to many upper class art portfolios. Satirical broadsides by Thomas Rowlandson , many published by Rudolph Ackermann , were also extremely popular. The three English artists credited with establishing watercolor as an independent, mature painting medium are Paul Sandby (1730–1809), often called

14065-657: The latter journeys that he left his mountaineering group to spend Midsummer night alone atop the Geiselberg hillfort. On 24 June 1875 he and four friends rowed down the Danube before camping for the night at the site of the ancient Roman fortification of Carnuntum to commemorate the 1500th anniversary of the Battle of Carnuntum , in which Germanic tribes defeated the Roman Army. List later claimed that while his friends caroused, he celebrated

14210-440: The legitimacy of List's unproven claims, claiming the title of von was "an integral part of [List's] religious fantasy" because in his mind it connected him to the ancient Wotanist priesthood, from whom he believed Austria's aristocrats were descended. It is possible that List decided to adopt the usage of the term after his friend, the fellow prominent Ariosophist Lanz von Liebenfels , had done so in 1903. List's popularity among

14355-465: The major exponents are Ignacio Barrios , Edgardo Coghlan , Ángel Mauro , Vicente Mendiola , and Pastor Velázquez . In the Canary Islands , where this pictorial technique has many followers, there are stand-out artists such as Francisco Bonnín Guerín, José Comas Quesada , and Alberto Manrique. Watercolor paint consists of four principal ingredients: a pigment ; gum arabic as a binder to hold

14500-532: The many 20th-century artists who produced important works in watercolor were Wassily Kandinsky , Emil Nolde , Paul Klee , Egon Schiele , and Raoul Dufy . In America, the major exponents included Charles Burchfield , Edward Hopper , Georgia O'Keeffe , Charles Demuth , and John Marin (80% of his total work is watercolor). In this period, American watercolor painting often emulated European Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, but significant individualism flourished in "regional" styles of watercolor painting from

14645-534: The mid-19th century and their descendants. Occultism is thus often used to categorise such esoteric traditions as Spiritualism, Theosophy, Anthroposophy, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and New Age. A different division was used by the Traditionalist author René Guénon , who used esotericism to describe what he believed was the Traditionalist, inner teaching at the heart of most religions, while occultism

14790-481: The nationalist Ostdeutsche Rundschau newspaper, with his works taking on an anti-semitic dimension halfway through that decade. In 1893, he co-founded the Literarische Donaugesellschaft literary society, and involved himself in Austria's Pan-German nationalist movement, a milieu which sought the integration of Austria into the German Empire . During an 11-month period of blindness in 1902, List became increasingly interested in occultism, in particular coming under

14935-490: The nationalist magazines Neue Welt ("New World"), Heimat ("Homeland"), Deutsche Zeitung ("German Newspaper"), and the Neue Deutsche Alpenzeitung ("New German Alpine Newspaper"), with his articles being devoted to the Austrian countryside and the folk customs of its inhabitants. His interpretations emphasised what he believed were the pagan origins of Austrian place-names, customs, and legends, describing

15080-737: The nineteenth century and their twentieth-century derivations. In a descriptive sense, it has been used to describe forms of esotericism which developed in nineteenth-century France, especially in the Neo-Martinist environment. According to the historian of esotericism Antoine Faivre , it is with the esotericist Éliphas Lévi that "the occultist current properly so-called" first appears. Other prominent French esotericists involved in developing occultism included Papus , Stanislas de Guaita , Joséphin Péladan , Georges-Albert Puyou de Pouvourville , and Jean Bricaud . The idea of occult sciences developed in

15225-574: The occult influenced the beliefs of the German Faith Movement in Nazi Germany to revive pre-Christian Germanic spiritual traditions focused on Aryan racial purity. Goodrick-Clarke opined that "this channel of influence certainly carries most weight in any assessment of List's historical importance." Rudgley claimed that List's vision of a future German Empire constituted "a blueprint for the Nazi regime". Other German völkisch figures promoted Listian ideas to

15370-519: The older term occult , much as the term esotericism derives from the older term esoteric . However, the historian of esotericism Wouter Hanegraaff stated that it was important to distinguish between the meanings of the term occult and occultism . Occultism is not a homogenous movement and is widely diverse. Over the course of its history, the term occultism has been used in various different ways. However, in contemporary uses, occultism commonly refers to forms of esotericism that developed in

15515-557: The oldest and most important traditions in watercolor painting. Botanical illustrations became popular during the Renaissance, both as hand-tinted woodblock illustrations in books or broadsheets and as tinted ink drawings on vellum or paper. Botanical artists have traditionally been some of the most exacting and accomplished watercolor painters, and even today, watercolors—with their unique ability to summarize, clarify, and idealize in full color—are used to illustrate scientific and museum publications. Wildlife illustration reached its peak in

15660-486: The outdoor or "plein air" tradition. The most influential among them were Phil Dike , Millard Sheets , Rex Brandt , Dong Kingman , and Milford Zornes . The California Water Color Society, founded in 1921 and later renamed the National Watercolor Society, sponsored important exhibitions of their work. The largest watercolor in the world at the moment (at 9 feet (3 m) tall and 16 ft (5 m) wide)

15805-550: The paint is applied—for watercolor paintings is watercolor paper . Other supports or substrates include stone, ivory, silk, reed, papyrus , bark papers, plastics, vellum , leather , fabric , wood, and watercolor canvas (coated with a gesso that is specially formulated for use with watercolors). Watercolor paper is often made entirely or partially with cotton. This gives the surface the appropriate texture and minimizes distortion when wet. Watercolor papers are usually cold-pressed papers that provide better texture and appearance with

15950-531: The perspective of cybernetics and information technologies. Philosopher Eugene Thacker discusses Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa 's Three Books of Occult Philosophy in his book In The Dust Of This Planet , where he shows how the horror genre utilizes occult themes to reveal hidden realities. Watercolour Watercolor ( American English ) or watercolour ( British English ; see spelling differences ), also aquarelle ( French: [akwaʁɛl] ; from Italian diminutive of Latin aqua 'water'),

16095-622: The pigment in suspension; additives like glycerin , ox gall , honey , and preservatives to alter the viscosity , hiding, durability or color of the pigment and vehicle mixture; and, evaporating water, as a solvent used to thin or dilute the paint for application. The more general term watermedia refers to any painting medium that uses water as a solvent and that can be applied with a brush , pen , or sprayer. This includes most inks , watercolors , temperas , caseins , gouaches , and modern acrylic paints . The term "watercolor" refers to paints that use water-soluble, complex carbohydrates as

16240-536: The plays König Vannius ("King Vannius") in 1899, Sommer-Sonnwend-Feuerzauber ("Summer Solstice Fire Magic") in 1901 and Das Goldstück ("The Gold Coin") in 1903. He also authored a pamphlet titled Der Wiederaufbau von Carnuntum ("The Reconstruction of Carnuntum") in 1900, in which he called for the reconstruction of the ancient Roman amphitheatre at Carnuntum as an open-air stage through which Wotanism could be promoted. "List... belonged to an older generation than most of his pre-war fellow ideologues and thus became

16385-469: The possibility of unveiling the future or of exercising supernormal powers do so because the efficacy of the methods they employ coheres with some systematic conception which they hold of the way the universe functions...however flimsy its empirical basis." In his 1871 book Primitive Culture , the anthropologist Edward Tylor used the term "occult science" as a synonym for magic . Occult qualities are properties that have no known rational explanation; in

16530-473: The pre-Christian religions of Austria, coming to believe that the catacombs beneath St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna had once been a shrine devoted to a pagan deity. He claimed that on an 1862 visit to the catacombs with his father, he knelt before a ruined altar and swore that when an adult he would construct a temple to the ancient god Wotan . Although List wanted to become an artist and scholar, he reluctantly agreed to his father's insistence that he enter

16675-417: The recent socialist teachings of Charles Fourier . The French esotericist Éliphas Lévi then used the term in his influential book on ritual magic , Dogme et rituel de la haute magie , first published in 1856. Lévi was familiar with that work and might have borrowed the term from there. In any case, Lévi also claimed to be a representative of an older tradition of occult science or occult philosophy. It

16820-470: The religions of Asia, such as Hinduism and Buddhism . In various cases, certain occultists did both. Another characteristic of these occultists was the emphasis that they placed on "the spiritual realization of the individual", an idea that would strongly influence the twentieth-century New Age and Human Potential Movement . This spiritual realization was encouraged both through traditional Western 'occult sciences' like alchemy and ceremonial magic , but by

16965-436: The religious or philosophical belief systems on which such practices are based. This division was initially adopted by the early academic scholar of esotericism, Antoine Faivre, although he later abandoned it; it has been rejected by most scholars who study esotericism. By the 21st century the term was commonly employed – including by academic scholars of esotericism – to refer to a range of esoteric currents that developed in

17110-455: The satirist Honoré Daumier . Other European painters who worked frequently in watercolor were Adolph Menzel in Germany and Stanisław Masłowski in Poland. The adoption of brightly colored, petroleum-derived aniline dyes (and pigments compounded from them), which all fade rapidly on exposure to light, and the efforts to properly conserve the twenty thousand J. M. W. Turner paintings inherited by

17255-503: The sixteenth century. The term usually encompassed three practices – astrology, alchemy, and natural magic – although sometimes various forms of divination were also included rather than being subsumed under natural magic. These were grouped together because, according to the Dutch scholar of hermeticism Wouter Hanegraaff , "each one of them engaged in a systematic investigation of nature and natural processes, in

17400-483: The spread of Christianity into Northern Europe, there had once been a culturally unified German civilisation that had been spread across much of Europe, which came to be degraded and divided under the impact of Christianity. He believed that the Danubian region of modern Austria had thus been part of this unified German civilisation before the growth of the Roman Empire, an idea in contrast to the view accepted by historians of

17545-411: The start of the twentieth century had also begun to include practices drawn from non-Western contexts, such as yoga . Although occultism is distinguished from earlier forms of esotericism, many occultists have also been involved in older esoteric currents. For instance, occultists like François-Charles Barlet  [ fr ] and Rudolf Steiner were also theosophers , adhering to the ideas of

17690-526: The story of a young Teuton living in the fifth century who has been forcefully converted to Christianity but who returns to his original solar cult. The second was Pipara , a two-volume story published in 1895 which told the story of an eponymous Quadi maiden who escaped captivity from the Romans to become an empress. In 1898, he then authored a catechism exhibiting a form of pagan deism titled Der Unbesiegbare ("The Invincible"). List's activities had made him

17835-553: The supernatural. The term occult sciences was used in the 16th century to refer to astrology , alchemy , and natural magic . The earliest known usage of the term occultism is in the French language, as l'occultisme . In this form it appears in A. de Lestrange's article that was published in Dictionnaire des mots nouveaux ("Dictionary of new words") by Jean-Baptiste Richard de Radonvilliers  [ fr ] in 1842. However, it

17980-461: The term occultism can be used not only for the nineteenth-century groups which openly self-described using that term but can also be used in reference to "the type of esotericism that they represent". Seeking to define occultism so that the term would be suitable "as an etic category" for scholars, Hanegraaff devised the following definition: "a category in the study of religions, which comprises "all attempts by esotericists to come to terms with

18125-427: The term as a synonym for esotericism, an approach that the later scholar of esotericism Marco Pasi suggested left the term superfluous. Unlike Amadou, other writers saw occultism and esotericism as different, albeit related, phenomena. In the 1970s, the sociologist Edward A. Tiryakian distinguished between occultism, which he used in reference to practices, techniques, and procedures, and esotericism, which he defined as

18270-719: The term in an academic sense, stating that occulture was "the new spiritual environment in the West; the reservoir feeding new spiritual springs; the soil in which new spiritualities are growing". Recently scholars have offered perspectives on the occult as intertwined with media and technology. Examples include the work of film and media theorist Jeffrey Sconce and religious studies scholar John Durham Peters , both of whom suggest that occult movements historically utilize media and apparatuses as tools to reveal hidden aspects of reality or laws of nature. Erik Davis in his book Techgnosis gives an overview of occultism both ancient and modern from

18415-456: The time that linguistically German communities only settled in the area during the reign of the Frankish king Charlemagne in the ninth century CE, pushing out the pre-existing linguistically Celtic groups. List believed that the basic teachings of Wotanism were found in the runic alphabet, believing that they could be deciphered by linking these letters with particular runic spells which appear in

18560-401: The vacuousness of materialism more apparent". The Dutch scholar of hermeticism Wouter Hanegraaff remarked that occultism was "essentially an attempt to adapt esotericism" to the " disenchanted world ", a post-Enlightenment society in which growing scientific discovery had eradicated the "dimension of irreducible mystery" previously present. In doing so, he noted, occultism distanced itself from

18705-400: The view that List's impact was such that he was "able to shape the runic theories of German magicians (although not necessarily their political ones) from that time to the present day." In 1976, two longstanding activists in the völkisch and far-right milieu, Adolf and Sigrun Schleipfer, established the Armanen-Order in order to revive List's ideas, adopting a strong anti-modernist stance and

18850-431: The view that Norse mythology accorded with – and thus proved – the cosmogonical teachings of Theosophy. Much of List's understanding of the ancient past was based not on empirical research into historical, archaeological, and folkloric sources, but rather on ideas that he claimed to have received as a result of clairvoyant illumination. Later writer Richard Rudgley thus characterised List's understanding of

18995-413: The water colour school." The popularity of watercolors stimulated many innovations, including heavier and more sized wove papers , and brushes (called "pencils") manufactured expressly for watercolor. Watercolor tutorials were first published in this period by Varley, Cox, and others, establishing the step-by-step painting instructions that still characterize the genre today; The Elements of Drawing ,

19140-600: The watercolor painting in stages, starting with large, vague color areas established on wet paper, then refining the image through a sequence of washes and glazes, permitted him to produce large numbers of paintings with "workshop efficiency" and made him a multimillionaire, partly by sales from his personal art gallery, the first of its kind. Among the important and highly talented contemporaries of Turner and Girtin were John Varley , John Sell Cotman , Anthony Copley Fielding , Samuel Palmer , William Havell , and Samuel Prout . The Swiss painter Abraham-Louis-Rodolphe Ducros

19285-488: The wider public during and after the First World War. Further individuals — notably Rudolf John Gorsleben , Werner von Bülow , Friedrich Bernhard Marby , Herbert Reichstein, and Frodi Ingolfson Werhmann — took List's Ariosophical ideas alongside those of Liebenfels and built upon them further, resulting in a flourishing Ariosophical movement in the late 1920s and 1930s, with some of these individuals being within

19430-473: The writings of German Theosophist Max Ferdinand Sebaldt von Werth, who had combined Theosophical ideas with his own interpretations of Germanic mythology and emphasis on racial doctrines, thus anticipating Ariosophy. In later work, this Theosophical influence over List's thinking grew, and he began referencing works such as Helena Blavatsky 's Die Geheimlehre (" The Secret Doctrine ") and William Scott-Elliot 's The Lost Lemuria in his publications. He expressed

19575-565: Was actually the reincarnation of Reuchlin. In addition, List claimed that in the eighth century, Armanists had imparted their secret teachings to the Jewish rabbis of Cologne in the hope of preserving them from Christian persecution; he believed that these teachings became the Kabbalah , which he therefore reasoned was an ancient German and not Jewish innovation, thus legitimising its usage in his own teachings. Rudgley stated that this "tortuous argument"

19720-740: Was also of interest to the Heathen Michael Moynihan , who spent time visiting the places in Austria that are associated with List's life. A bibliography of List's published books is provided in Goodrick-Clarke's study The Occult Roots of Nazism . Occult The term occult sciences was used in 16th-century Europe to refer to astrology , alchemy , and natural magic . The term occultism emerged in 19th-century France , among figures such as Antoine Court de Gébelin . It came to be associated with various French esoteric groups connected to Éliphas Lévi and Papus , and in 1875

19865-540: Was also widely known for his large format, romantic paintings in watercolor. The confluence of amateur activity, publishing markets, middle class art collecting , and 19th-century technique led to the formation of English watercolor painting societies: the Society of Painters in Water Colours (1804, now known as the Royal Watercolour Society ) and the New Water Colour Society (1832, now known as

20010-421: Was emphatically contrasted to traditional watercolors and denigrated for its high hiding power or lack of "transparency"; "transparent" watercolors were exalted. The aversion to opaque paint had its origin in the fact that well into the 19th century lead white was used to increase the covering quality. That pigment tended to soon discolor into black under the influence of sulphurous air pollution, totally ruining

20155-503: Was from his usage of the term occultisme that it gained wider usage; according to Faivre, Lévi was "the principal exponent of esotericism in Europe and the United States" at that time. The term occultism emerged in 19th-century France, where it came to be associated with various French esoteric groups connected to Éliphas Lévi and Papus , The earliest use of the term occultism in the English language appears to be in "A Few Questions to 'Hiraf'", an 1875 article by Helena Blavatsky ,

20300-445: Was introduced into the English language by the esotericist Helena Blavatsky . Throughout the 20th century, the term 'occult' was used idiosyncratically by a range of different authors. By the 21st century the term 'occultism' was commonly employed –including by academic scholars in the field of Western esotericism studies – to refer to a range of esoteric currents that developed in the mid-19th century and their descendants. Occultism

20445-655: Was less popular in Continental Europe. In the 18th century, gouache was an important medium for the Italian artists Marco Ricci and Francesco Zuccarelli , whose landscape paintings were widely collected. Gouache was used by a number of artists in France as well. In the 19th century, the influence of the English school helped popularize "transparent" watercolor in France, and it became an important medium for Eugène Delacroix , François Marius Granet , Henri-Joseph Harpignies , and

20590-578: Was not related, at this point, to the notion of Ésotérisme chrétien , as has been claimed by Hanegraaff, but to describe a political "system of occulticity" that was directed against priests and aristocrats. In 1853, the Freemasonic author Jean-Marie Ragon had already used occultisme in his popular work Maçonnerie occulte , relating it to earlier practices that, since the Renaissance , had been termed "occult sciences" or "occult philosophy", but also to

20735-429: Was opposed to laissez-faire capitalism and large-scale enterprise, instead favouring an economic system based on small-scale artisans and craftsmen, being particularly unhappy with the decline in tradesmen's guilds . He was similarly opposed to the modern banking sector and financial institutions, deeming it to be dominated by Jews; in criticising these institutions, he expressed anti-semitic sentiments. Such views of

20880-427: Was used pejoratively to describe new religions and movements that he disapproved of, such as Spiritualism, Theosophy, and various secret societies . Guénon's use of this terminology was adopted by later writers like Serge Hutin and Luc Benoist . As noted by Hanegraaff, Guénon's use of these terms are rooted in his Traditionalist beliefs and "cannot be accepted as scholarly valid". The term occultism derives from

21025-465: Was used to support List's anti-semitic agenda. List generally saw the world in which he was living as one of degeneration, comparing it with the societies of the Late Roman and Byzantine Empires. He bemoaned the decline of the rural peasantry through urbanisation, having witnessed how Vienna's population tripled between 1870 and 1890, resulting in overcrowding, a growth in diseases like tuberculosis , and

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