Episode 9: Yoga, Stars and Self.

We round off our investigation into the ways the occult has impacted the present. Yoga was an “exotic” practice that percolated into the West in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. It re-emerged as a fringe New Age hippie craze, before becoming the global industry, valued at many billions of dollars, that it is today. These days yoga and mindfulness are seen as central components of “self-care.” Yet it wasn’t long ago that the thought that our “selves” are unique and valuable and that we should express our special individuality, even in the face of societal pressures, was itself radical, going against Victorian codes of morality, with their emphasis on control, repression, and duty. But, as Aleister Crowley declared: “Every man and woman is a star.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices