Of Ether and Colloidal Gold - Esoterica - Michigan State University

Introduction
Welcome to the ninth volume of Esoterica, which again offers a
rich selection of articles and reviews.
This issue features a major article, “Angel in the House,” by
Allison Coudert, holder of the Paul and Marie Castelfranco
Professorship at the University of California, Davis. In this
provocative, beautifully illustrated investigation, she discusses the
development of esotericism in the nineteenth century in light of
prevailing male attitudes toward women. Coudert analyzes how,
for the first time in history, a sizable group of female religious
leaders and social activists began to speak out in public. Many
of these women were involved in Spiritualism, Theosophy,
Mormonism, Swedenborgianism, Shakerism, and the host of other
esoteric spiritual and religious movements and organizations that
sprung up in the nineteenth century. By taking the prevailing
rhetoric of “The Angel in the House” seriously and quite literally,
these women claimed that their innate moral superiority made
it incumbent upon them to influence men and reform society.
Coudert cogently argues that in England and the United States, the
position of upper and middle class women improved significantly
in the nineteenth century, and that esoteric currents of thought
played an important role in this improvement.
In “Of Ether and Colloidal Gold: The Making of a Philosophers’
Stone,” Hereward Tilton of the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität,
Munich, offers an important new interpretation of alchemy,
drawing both on primary sources and on the full range of recent
scholarship. He offers a strong corrective to those who would seek
to discard “spiritual alchemy” or other forms of alchemical praxis
that do not so easily conform to a narrative of scientific progress.
Tilton offers a partial ‘translation’ of the alchemy of one of the
greatest adepts, Heinrich Khunrath (1560-1605), into the terms of
contemporary chemistry. The purpose of this venture is twofold.
Firstly, it offers insight into the laboratory techniques employed in
early modern alchemy, and the type of materials and procedures
utilised to create a Philosophers’ Stone. Secondly and more
importantly, however, by bringing the alchemical process into
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