1.1 The definition of the occult

“According to the Oxford English dictionary, the term “Occult” in the sense of “not understood or able to be understood by the mind, beyond the range of ordinary knowledge”, dates from 1545. By 1653, the accepted meaning of the word had extended to cover those would be sciences of the ancient and medieval worlds, such as magic, alchemy, astrology and theosophy, which were supposed to contain some knowledge of, or to have power to activate, the secret and mysterious forces of nature. However, it took the work of Eliphas Levi in 19th century Europe to develop occultism into a way of looking at the world, with its own rites. In fact, the beliefs, theories and techniques embraced by the terms “occultism” or “esoterism” were already widely known in later antiquity and some of them such as magic, astrology, theurgy and necromancy, had been invented and systematized some 2000 years earlier in Egypt and Mesopotamia. The historical field of occultism might remain very imprecise but for one point which happens to circumscribe it: the written history of occult philosophy does not start until more or less the dawn of Christianity.” (Nataf, 1996, p1)

Firstly, we should clarify and discuss what an occult collection includes. The principal misconception surrounding the subject has arisen from years of censorship and taboo; that the occult only concerns certain dangerous and negative influences such as Satanism or demonology. This is not the case. Instead, whilst these issues are certainly part of the occult, the subject encompasses many other aspects of interest and study. There are too many topics involved to be able to present a complete list here. However, as a way to illustrate what would come underneath the occult banner, here is a short list of keywords which would most likely be found on the shelves. I have used many of these keywords in my searches on the subject.

1.2 A new demand for a new society

Contrary to some of the more fundamentalist views, the occult ,in all its forms, is a popular subject. Today’s society is more open-minded and enjoys a greater freedom of expression than has been the case previously. Whilst societies and organisations that involve themselves in various aspects of the occult have always been around, it is only relatively recently that they have become accessible rather than hidden and secretive. The Internet has been instrumental in allowing these organisations to promote themselves and to inform others, which gives them the ability to publish information online without prejudice or censorship. The sheer breadth and number of these organisations testifies to the demand in these interests; London alone has a great many pagan groups, folklore societies, New Age associations, vampire communities, Gnostic societies and alchemical research groups to name but a few. This does illustrate a need for written material and yet, whilst so many publications are available either online or in the shops, a comparatively small amount is available within libraries.

Despite this, a lot of library literature shows awareness in the increase in interest and demand for occult-related materials. “The literature of pseudoscience is vast, yet endlessly fascinating. The demands for books and articles on extrasensory perception (ESP), monsters, unidentified flying objects (UFOs), and a host of such subject is great and rising”(Thompson, 1884,p176) “Anyone visiting a large bookstore cannot fail to notice how many shelves are devoted to subject commonly labelled ‘mind, body and spirit’. The fashion for ‘new age' shows no signs of abating” (Wilkins, 1999, p70).

“Boom in the States in the sale of occult books, books in the ‘new age’ category had risen by 75% since 1993”. (Daily Mail, 29th October, 1998) “We can see this change reflected in the literature of today, with the last thirty years witnessing an increase in books dealing with what the Dewey Classification Schedules call ‘controversial knowledge’; the occult sciences, the paranormal, the esoteric as it is variously know.” (Wilkins, 1999, p70) Lastly, as Bogey said in his article on the subject: “The occult is booming and book sales in the new age/occult category have risen at twice the rate of books as a group. As a result this area may not be adequately represented in libraries.”(Bogey, 1996, p145)

1.3 Misconceptions and controversies

Today the term occult denotes a variety of knowledge beyond the range of everyday experience. Whether supernatural, mystical, magical or paranormal the interest and the demand are there. The labels may vary from one bookstore to another but the majority will have a section dedicated to the occult. London has many bookstores that specialise in the subject and most will agree that their clients and readers are not all lunatics with dangerous ideas. The materials are being used by scholars and researchers as well as by individuals with a personal interest in the variety of aspects that form the occult. One of the library’s roles is to mirror society and its range of interests and whilst the demand for materials is clearly there, coverage of the topic within the library is frequently poor and somewhat narrow.

One of the most frequent remarks found in the various articles that I have read on this subject is the lack of analysis of user needs in conjunction with the evident increase in interest. It would be understandable if the interest simply wasn’t there, but it is, and many institutions are still uncertain of how to deal with the controversy and difficulties associated with the occult. Many of the debates on the topic concern the legitimacy of the subject matter and the fact that it is not yet completely accepted by the academic world as a valid field of study. As such, the existing sources of information are of dubious provenance. This in turn leads to difficulties in choosing which materials to hold as part of a collection. The process of integrating or building upon an existing collection will vary immensely, depending upon whether you are a believer, a sceptic, simply curious or completely opposed to the subject.

This dissertation will look at some of the issues described above. The next chapter will look at some of the classification difficulties whilst the third chapter will consider some of the major occult collections presently available and how they deal with the issues surrounding the subject. Chapter four will focus on the issue of censorship and how it has shaped the history of the occult collections. Chapter five will delve further into both the historical background and the online revolution, before finally looking into the library projects that are happening around the world today.

An example of the diversity of where such materials can be shelved can be obtained by looking at how bookshops handle the subject. Whilst they do not need to follow the same classification schemes as the library, they still have to arrange the materials in a way that helps members of the public locate the required items. Frequently, esoteric and occult literature will be found under a wide range of subject headings: Self Help, Psychology, Religion, Women’s Literature and even Cookery (magic and herbs!). Few bookshops will actually use the term “Occult” due to the stigma attached to it. More frequently, if a bookshop carries these publications, they will be shelved in a section more euphemistically termed “New Age”, “Mind, Body and Spirit” or simply just “Spirituality”.

As previously mentioned, depending upon which scheme is used, occult related materials may be collated with or integrated into other main subjects such as Religion, Philosophy, Psychology and Social Sciences. None of these are particularly wrong as the occult covers such a large range of issues. As such, it will rarely have its own class status. In the past the items were either catalogued with the sciences (Alchemy was seen as a legitimate science before being ruled out as an occult science) or within miscellaneous. I came across this early classification list in Shoham’s Library classification. (Shoham, 2000, p41)

When unsure, it is usually safe to use miscellaneous. Unfortunately for today, the subject is a little too large to fit within miscellaneous any more.

Another difficulty encountered by libraries is the fact that many of the books will not have previously been catalogued, which eliminates the possibility of copying or checking another institution’s records. Decisions will often have to be made by the institution alone and guidance in this subject is not as widely available as with the more popular subjects.