Karolina Maria Kotkowska (Hess)
Assistant Professor in the Centre for Comparative Studies of Civilisations, Faculty of Philosophy, Jagiellonian University. Ph.D. in Philosophy with honors from the Jagiellonian University (2021), Ph.D. Candidate in Sociology, University of Silesia in Katowice. Researcher in Western Esotericism and NRMs.
I completed my first PhD program at the Faculty of Philosophy at Jagiellonian University in Cracow, where I studied philosophy, cultural and religious studies, focusing on the influences of Western Esotericism in Central and Eastern Europe. My dissertation was titled "Polska myśl teozoficzna a idee światowego Towarzystwa Teozoficznego w latach 1905-1939. Krytyczna analiza wybranych wątków filozoficznych" [Polish Theosophical thought and the ideas of the international Theosophical Society, 1905-1939. A critical analysis of selected philosophical topics] - the project was awarded Etiuda scholarship by the National Science Centre in Poland. My second PhD project - in social sciences, sociology, at the University of Silesia - focuses on the experimental research on Mediumistic phenomena of Julian Ochorowicz in the context of the sociology of knowledge (boundaries of Science and Occultism). In 2014-2016 I was the PI of the project “The reception of the category of the East by Polish esoteric environments at the turn of the 20th century and its cultural and religious consequences”. The research project was financed from the sources of the National Science Centre, Poland, awarded on the basis of decision no. DEC-2013/11/N/HS1/04812. I also took part in a group project devoted to Esoteric currents in Poland led by Professor Monika Rzeczycka, Univerity of Gdansk. For four years I worked as Research and Teaching Assistant at the University of Silesia in Katowice, where I taught e.g. Introduction to Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion, Ontology, General Ethics and Methodology of Social Sciences. I took part in two exchange programs in Religious Studies for Ph.D. Candidates – at Jagiellonian University, Poland (2012-2013) and Radboud University in Nijmegen, Netherlands (2014-2015). I’m a co-founder of the Polish Society for the Study of Western Esotericism, and a regional network of the ESSWE for the Central and Eastern Europe: CEENASWE and a member of its Steering Comittee. I have presented my papers at numerous conferences in Poland, Sweden, the Netherlands, Hungary, Russia, Latvia, Serbia, Finland, Italy, Republic of Korea, Taiwan and the United States. I got two MA degrees - in Pedagogics spec. Philosophical and Social Education (2009) and Ethnology (2013). I am a member of Laboratorium Niedogmatycznej Duchowości [Laboratory of Non-Dogmatic Spirituality], European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism (ESSWE), Association for the Study of Esotericism (ASE) based in the USA, Association for the Study of Esotericism and Mysticism (ASEM) based in Russia, and the Societas Magica.
I completed my first PhD program at the Faculty of Philosophy at Jagiellonian University in Cracow, where I studied philosophy, cultural and religious studies, focusing on the influences of Western Esotericism in Central and Eastern Europe. My dissertation was titled "Polska myśl teozoficzna a idee światowego Towarzystwa Teozoficznego w latach 1905-1939. Krytyczna analiza wybranych wątków filozoficznych" [Polish Theosophical thought and the ideas of the international Theosophical Society, 1905-1939. A critical analysis of selected philosophical topics] - the project was awarded Etiuda scholarship by the National Science Centre in Poland. My second PhD project - in social sciences, sociology, at the University of Silesia - focuses on the experimental research on Mediumistic phenomena of Julian Ochorowicz in the context of the sociology of knowledge (boundaries of Science and Occultism). In 2014-2016 I was the PI of the project “The reception of the category of the East by Polish esoteric environments at the turn of the 20th century and its cultural and religious consequences”. The research project was financed from the sources of the National Science Centre, Poland, awarded on the basis of decision no. DEC-2013/11/N/HS1/04812. I also took part in a group project devoted to Esoteric currents in Poland led by Professor Monika Rzeczycka, Univerity of Gdansk. For four years I worked as Research and Teaching Assistant at the University of Silesia in Katowice, where I taught e.g. Introduction to Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion, Ontology, General Ethics and Methodology of Social Sciences. I took part in two exchange programs in Religious Studies for Ph.D. Candidates – at Jagiellonian University, Poland (2012-2013) and Radboud University in Nijmegen, Netherlands (2014-2015). I’m a co-founder of the Polish Society for the Study of Western Esotericism, and a regional network of the ESSWE for the Central and Eastern Europe: CEENASWE and a member of its Steering Comittee. I have presented my papers at numerous conferences in Poland, Sweden, the Netherlands, Hungary, Russia, Latvia, Serbia, Finland, Italy, Republic of Korea, Taiwan and the United States. I got two MA degrees - in Pedagogics spec. Philosophical and Social Education (2009) and Ethnology (2013). I am a member of Laboratorium Niedogmatycznej Duchowości [Laboratory of Non-Dogmatic Spirituality], European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism (ESSWE), Association for the Study of Esotericism (ASE) based in the USA, Association for the Study of Esotericism and Mysticism (ASEM) based in Russia, and the Societas Magica.
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Whole volume: https://aiem-asem.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Сборник-АИЭМ-7_конф_Ек-бург_13_07_16.pdf
Władysław Reymont (1867-1925) won the Nobel Prize in literature in 1924; praised for his unique insight into peasants' life, realism and positivistic vibe, he is rarely considered an author interested in esoteric currents. A period of his travel as a medium, his attendance at the congress of The Theosophical Society in England, were marginalized and shown as unimportant events during his troubled life. The analysis of the author's own statements, and tracing esoteric-related motifs in his works, show that the Reymont's own views of his works, and esotericism itself, were quite different. It is not the first time that the biography and intentions of the author tell a different story than contemporary textbooks. The paper traces Reymont's fascinations in Eastern thought, Theosophical current, and Spiritualistic experiments , which were reflected in his works.
Julian Leopold Ochorowicz (1850–1917) was a psychologist, philosopher, and inventor, as well as a photographer, journalist, and poet. As a positivist, he postulated strict research methods in science and treated psychology as a field of study to which the tools of natural sciences can be applied. Ochorowicz's interest in occult phenomena, which for him were not supernatural but just unexplained and misinterpreted qualities of the human body and mind, in time grew to be the most intriguing topic of his work. Ochorowicz wanted to experimentally examine medium-related and other occult phenomena, which he associated with hypnotic states. He used the term “ideoplasty” for a class of phenomena that he deemed theoretically possible, whereby psychic energy is transformed into material excretions. Ideoplasty was a part of his wider conception of transformations of energy (e.g., of power into motion), which combined his theoretical attitude in psychology and his technical inventions.
Whole volume: https://aiem-asem.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Сборник-АИЭМ-7_конф_Ек-бург_13_07_16.pdf
Władysław Reymont (1867-1925) won the Nobel Prize in literature in 1924; praised for his unique insight into peasants' life, realism and positivistic vibe, he is rarely considered an author interested in esoteric currents. A period of his travel as a medium, his attendance at the congress of The Theosophical Society in England, were marginalized and shown as unimportant events during his troubled life. The analysis of the author's own statements, and tracing esoteric-related motifs in his works, show that the Reymont's own views of his works, and esotericism itself, were quite different. It is not the first time that the biography and intentions of the author tell a different story than contemporary textbooks. The paper traces Reymont's fascinations in Eastern thought, Theosophical current, and Spiritualistic experiments , which were reflected in his works.
Julian Leopold Ochorowicz (1850–1917) was a psychologist, philosopher, and inventor, as well as a photographer, journalist, and poet. As a positivist, he postulated strict research methods in science and treated psychology as a field of study to which the tools of natural sciences can be applied. Ochorowicz's interest in occult phenomena, which for him were not supernatural but just unexplained and misinterpreted qualities of the human body and mind, in time grew to be the most intriguing topic of his work. Ochorowicz wanted to experimentally examine medium-related and other occult phenomena, which he associated with hypnotic states. He used the term “ideoplasty” for a class of phenomena that he deemed theoretically possible, whereby psychic energy is transformed into material excretions. Ideoplasty was a part of his wider conception of transformations of energy (e.g., of power into motion), which combined his theoretical attitude in psychology and his technical inventions.
See:https://ceenaswe.wordpress.com/publications/
Izabela Trzcińska, Agata Świerzowska, Karolina M. Hess ed., Kraków: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego 2016. ISBN: 978-83-233-4059-1
Ze wstępu
Kultura polska zwykła się kojarzyć z tradycjami chrześcijańskimi, by nie powiedzieć katolickimi, o charakterze raczej zachowawczym. Jeśli jednak przyjrzeć się bliżej, okazuje się, że jednym z jej istotnych aspektów pozostaje swoisty mariaż z przekonaniami i rytuałami, które można określić jako ezoteryczne. W niniejszym zbiorze mieszczą się bardzo różne elementy. […] Pierwszy wiąże się z wyjątkowo mocnym poczuciem „słowiańskości”, także tej nieoswojonej i nieraz manifestującej się na pograniczu kultury ludowej i wysokiej, jak chociażby w obrzędzie dziadów. Drugi polega na traktowanym jako „mistyczne” odczytaniu chrześcijaństwa, zakorzenionym między innymi w perenialistycznej myśli Jakuba Böhmego. Trzeci wynika ze specyficznego doświadczenia polskiego patriotyzmu, stanowiącego paradoksalną syntezę mesjanistycznych intuicji i niewiary wobec idei świętej historii. Na zakończenie tego krótkiego przeglądu trzeba jeszcze wspomnieć o wątkach mających swe źródła w świecie Orientu, które trafiają na polski grunt zazwyczaj w formie już przetworzonej i ulegają dalszym przemianom, wpisując się w lokalne krajobrazy religijno-kulturowe. Te i inne, bliskie ezoterycznemu postrzeganiu świata komponenty nieraz ujawniały się w polskiej literaturze i sztuce, w filozofii i koncepcjach społecznych. Dają się one odnaleźć również w zaangażowaniu religijnym, także tym chrześcijańskim, a jednocześnie w sprzeciwie wobec wartości na ogół uznawanych za tradycyjne i niezmienne.
Wspomniane idee nigdy nie były widoczne na pierwszy rzut oka. Obecność i oddziaływanie tego obrazoburczego, a zarazem twórczego fermentu wydają się jednak nie do przecenienia w procesie kształtowania polskości, a zjawisko to jak dotąd nie było jeszcze przedmiotem systematycznych badań. Książka, którą oddajemy do rąk Czytelnika, stanowi pionierski zbiór studiów poświęconych tej właśnie tematyce.
Spis treści
Izabela Trzcińska, Agata Świerzowska – Wstęp 7
Alicja Baluch – „Lew jest tylko wypchaną skórą”. O Klechdach sezamowych Bolesława Leśmiana w kontekście Tybetańskiej Księgi Umarłych 9
Mateusz Deker – Indyjskie inspiracje w polskiej parapsychologii okresu międzywojennego. Józefa Świtkowskiego koncepcja jogi królewskiej 18
Karolina Maria Hess – Wschód i Zachód w fuzji teozofii z chrześcijaństwem: Liberalny Kościół Katolicki i jego recepcja w Polsce 26
Artur Jocz – Brunona Schulza poznawanie/kreowanie ezoterycznej rzeczywistości 53
Larysa Michalska – Skok przez skórę, czyli droga do górniczego wtajemniczenia 65
Jan Miklas-Frankowski – Ezoteryzm w twórczości Czesława Miłosza 74
Zbigniew Pasek – Traktat teologiczny Czesława Miłosza – między ezoteryką a chrześcijaństwem 101
Joanna Sachse – Różokrzyżowcy o życiu i śmierci 119
Beata Szymańska – Młodopolski mistycyzm 128
Agata Świerzowska – Dlaczego Józef Świtkowski deprecjonuje hatha jogę? Obraz hatha jogi i jego źródła w poglądach polskiego jogina-ezoteryka 150
Izabela Trzcińska – „Staję się rodzajem mitu”. Teozoficzne wątki w biografii Wandy Dynowskiej 165
Maksymilian Woch – Telepatia w snach – międzykulturowy fenomen. Relacje z telepatycznych kontaktów zachodzących we śnie, przekazane przez Kazimierza Chodkiewicza, oraz zapisy podobnych doświadczeń w tradycji buddyzmu tybetańskiego 180
Michał Wróblewski – Jung według kacerza i demonologa 194
Abstracts 203
Noty o autorach 208
Kultura polska zwykła się kojarzyć tradycjami chrześcijańskimi, by nie powiedzieć katolickimi, o charakterze raczej zachowawczym. Kiedy jednak przyjrzeć się bliżej, okazuje się, że jednym z jej istotnych aspektów pozostaje swoisty mariaż z przekonaniami i rytuałami, które można określić jako ezoteryczne. W tym szerokim zbiorze mieszczą się bardzo różne elementy, z których tutaj można zwrócić uwagę jedynie na kilka wybranych. Pierwszy wiąże się z zachowanym w sposób wyjątkowo trwały poczuciem „słowiańskości”, także tej nieoswojonej i manifestującej się nieraz na pograniczu kultury ludowej i wysokiej, jak choćby w rytuałach Dziadów. Drugi polega na traktowanym jako „mistyczne” odczytaniu chrześcijaństwa, zakorzenionym m.in. w perenialistycznej myśli Jakuba Bȍhme. Trzeci wreszcie wynika ze specyficznego doświadczenia polskiego patriotyzmu, stanowiącego paradoksalną syntezę mesjanistycznych intuicji i niewiary wobec idei świętej historii. Na zakończenie tego krótkiego przeglądu trzeba jeszcze wspomnieć o wątkach mających swe źródła w świecie Orientu, które trafiają na grunt polski zazwyczaj w formie już przetworzonej i ulegają dalszym przemianom, wpisując się w lokalne krajobrazy religijno-kulturowe. Te i inne, bliskie ezoterycznemu postrzeganiu świata komponenty nieraz ujawniały się w polskiej literaturze i sztuce, w filozofii i koncepcjach społecznych. Dają się one odnaleźć również w zaangażowaniu religijnym, także tym chrześcijańskim, a jednocześnie w sprzeciwie wobec wartości uznawanych na ogół za tradycyjne i niezmienne.
Idee, o których tu mowa nigdy nie były widoczne „na pierwszy rzut oka”. Jednakże obecność i oddziaływanie tego obrazoburczego, a zarazem twórczego fermentu wydaje się nie do przecenienia w procesie kształtowania polskości, a zjawisko to, jak dotąd nie było jeszcze przedmiotem systematycznych badań. Książka, którą oddajemy do rąk Czytelnika stanowi pionierski zbiór studiów poświęconych tej właśnie tematyce.
• Tensions between or calls for nationalism and/or transnationalism in the occult and esoteric movements;
• Attitudes of various state bodies (republics, empires or totalitarian regimes) to occultism and esotericism, from suppression to support;
• Practising occultism or esotericism under socialist regimes;
• Case studies of influential movements, persons, or ideas either originating or being
adopted in East-Central Europe;
• Critical reflection of the scholarship concerning occultism and esotericism in East-Central Europe.
Preliminary Programme
• Keynote lecture by Associate Prof Dr Marco Pasi (University of Amsterdam)
• Conference dinner
• CEENASWE board meeting
• Magical Prague trip (after the conference on 30 September)
Art critics call his work “metaphorical painting” or “romantic geometry” because of forms that he uses in his paintings, consisting of geometric figures and fantastic backgrounds with surrealistic elements, which create extraordinary oneiric visions. Makowski’s works are also often called treatises rather than paintings, because the author fills them with lines of small letters composed with many different shapes, reminding of graphics in alchemical treatises.
Not only the form, but also the topics of Makowski’s paintings are connected with the painter’s interest in various currents of spirituality and Western Esotericism like Kabbalah, Tarot, or the Magical Orders. From elements of those traditions Makowski constituted his own worldview, which he reveals part by part in his paintings. The paper analyses the esoteric sources of painter’s beliefs which shape his art. The main grounds of the analysis include both the content of his projects, and interviews with the artist himself.
Focusing on occultism and esotericism in Central and Eastern Europe since the mid-nineteenth-century until now, we invite scholars to share their articles in a special issue of the Polish Journal of the Arts and Culture.
The scope of the issue includes the following topics:
• Tensions between or calls for nationalism and/or transnationalism in the occult and esoteric movements;
• Attitudes of various state bodies (republics, empires or totalitarian regimes) to occultism and esotericism, from suppression to support;
• Practising occultism or esotericism under socialist regimes;
• Case studies of influential movements, persons, or ideas either originating or being adopted in Central and Eastern Europe;
• Critical reflection of the scholarship concerning occultism and esotericism in Central and Eastern Europe.
The guest editors of the issue are Dr. Karolina Maria Hess (Centre for Comparative Studies of Civilisations, Jagiellonian University) and Dr. Pavel Horák (Institute of Ethnology, Czech Academy of Sciences). The editors will consider all manuscripts prepared according to the following criteria:
Length: 20 000 – 40 000 characters with spaces Language: English Deadline: November 15th, 2022
Please send your proposed contribution to: karolina.maria.hess@uj.edu.pl and horak@eu.cas.cz For further guidelines see: https://www.ejournals.eu/PJACNS/menu/574/
“Theosophy” is defined in the same way as in the editorial pages of Theosophical History, and is not restricted to any one tradition or country. For more information visit this link: http://www.
hypatia.gr/fota/
for, the Theosophical archives across the world. For this purpose,
“Theosophy” is defined in the same way as in the editorial pages of Theosophical History, and is not restricted to any one tradition or country.
For more information visit this link: http://www.hypatia.gr/fota/