Thirteen

The Modern Mystics Who Changed the World — In Honor Of Occult Day

The landscape of today’s world would look radically different without the influence of thirteen men and women whose experiments in the esoteric and occult changed how we live.

In religion, pop culture, money, psychology — as well as in our most intimate views of ourselves — these thirteen mystics, mages, and magicians revolutionized modern life. In honor of Occult Day here is a look back at their careers.

I. Adam Weishaupt (1748–1830): Mystic Rebel

Many people thrill today to conspiracy theories about the “Illuminati,” whose members are said to range from Jay-Z to Pope Francis to Barack Obama. It’s a paranoid fantasy — but with a germ of truth. There once was a real secret society known as the Illuminati. Organized in 1776 by a Bavarian social reformer and renegade Freemason named Adam Weishaupt, the clandestine group believed in radical equality and separation of church and state. Weishaupt had a passion for occult imagery and ceremonies, and he aimed to infiltrate Europe’s Freemasonic lodges to turn them into vehicles for democratic revolution…