Spiritualist and feminist Victoria Woodhull lampooned as “Mrs. Satan” by cartoonist Thomas Nast, 1872.

The Occult & Fascism: A Brief Comment

Mitch Horowitz
4 min readMay 14, 2022

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There exists a strain of thought today, some of it in academia and political commentary, that historically links occult and New Age movements to fascism and rightwing extremism.

Even if one writes with critical sympathy on occultism, as I do, its diffuse history and influence — intellectually, spiritually, socially, and in literature — is difficult to capture. Excellent historians, including my…

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Mitch Horowitz

"Treats esoteric ideas & movements with an even-handed intellectual studiousness"-Washington Post | PEN Award-winning historian | Censored in China