Members-only oddcast episode

Salon and On: More Péladan with Sasha Chaitow

Darmont - Liser - Lambert - Dorival in a scene from Péladan's play Sémiramis.

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Promotional poster for the Salon ‘Rose et Croix’, image courtesy of wikipedia.

We explore Péladan’s pervasive contemporary influence on other writers, the arts, and more. We discuss:

  • Péladan’s sympathy for the Devil,
  • The affinities between Péladan’s particular brand of Christian mythos and the Eastern Orthodox patristic tradition, especially the Pseudo-Dinoysius, and his own peculiar position as a faithful, mass-attending, but rather vociferously critical ‘catholique’,
  • The currents of nineteenth-century culture and esotericism that Péladan rejected, including the Theosophical Society, Spirit(ual)ism, Freemasonry, overly-eclectic (to his mind) Occultism, and mainstream Catholic Christianity, and
  • Some irresponsible speculations leading to Sasha predicting a coming recrudescence of esotericism in art.

Interview Bio:

Doctor Sasha Chaitow is a British-Greek scholar of esotericism, a lecturer, author, and artist. A graduate of the EXESESO (University of Exeter) MA in Western Esotericism, her PhD thesis comprised a full in-depth review of Péladan’s life and work, due for publication in Summer 2021 with Fulgur Press. She maintains a killer webpage on Péladan. Her published research papers cover topics in the history of esotericism, culture, and science. She has exhibited her work internationally in 13 solo exhibitions since 2000, and has worked as a curator and event manager since 2008. She lectures internationally for academic and general audiences on culture and education, and she teaches academic skills and research literacy for the sciences. She has also worked in academic and scientific publishing and as a journalist and science writer. Her current research interests include the history of science and its intersection with wider culture between the 18th-21st centuries, and interdisciplinary approaches in the health sciences.

Works Cited in this Episode:

  • Joris-Karl Huismans. Là bas. Tresse and Stock, Paris, 1891 [first publication between cloth covers; originally published in serial form in the periodical Echo de Paris, first instalment 17 Feb. 1891].
  • Joséphin Péladan. Les Idées et les formes: Antiquité orientale. Mercure de France, Paris, 1908.
  • Marcel Schneider, Histoire de la littérature fantastique en France. Fayard, Paris, 1964.