6 - Occultism and Christianity in twentieth-century Italy: Tommaso Palamidessi's Christian magic

Summary

Tommaso Palamidessi (b. Pisa, 1915; d. Rome, 1983) is undoubtedly one of the most noteworthy figures of the twentieth-century Italian esoteric revival. In previous publications, I have sketched an outline of his life and work, giving a general survey of his doctrine. Here I would to like to focus, more specifically, on the ritual and magical dimension of his Christian esotericism. Particular attention will be given to the broader framework of early twentieth-century Italian esoteric currents. This will enable us to evaluate the importance of Palamidessi's borrowings from the surrounding esoteric culture, as well as to assess the extent of his originality and inventiveness.

THE ESOTERIC RENEWAL IN TWENTIETH-CENTURY ITALY

The vogue of esotericism in early twentieth-century Italy is emblematically revealed by the reprinting, in 1922, of the successful handbooks by Armando Pappalardo, novelist and popularizer of “occult sciences”, spiritualism and closely related subjects. At that time the esoteric panorama was a motley one in Italy. The indigenous traditions of folk magic and, on a more sophisticated level, of Neapolitan Hermeticism and Egyptianism – with the outstanding figure of Ciro Formisano, alias Giuliano Kremmerz (1881–1930) –had already been joined by new esoteric currents, all coming from beyond the Alps. First of all, one has to mention spiritualism, although the incorporation of this movement to the Western esoteric corpus has been questioned by scholars (see e.g. Faivre 1992: 96).