Queerying Occultures

What is Queerying Occultures? 'Queerying' is a portmanteau word from 'Queer’ and 'Query'—classic Phil Hine word play. Occulture is another portmanteau word meaning 'Hidden Culture' (from ‘Occult’ and 'Culture').


The occult is Queer. Historically. Intrinsically. Radically. Wonderfully Queer. Yet at times this essential fact can feel unacknowledged in wider Occulture dialogues. Addressing this, Phil Hine’s Queerying Occultures is a collection of queer-themed essays exploring, questioning and reflecting on the diverse trajectories that might arise from applying queer questioning to occultural themes and practices. Drawing on perspectives from Queer Theory, history, Continental Philosophy, and shared experience, Hine explores subjects as diverse as Shamanism and gender-variance; the rise of the Queer Pagan approaches; the uncomfortable history of occult homophobia; Queer perspectives on Tantra, Pan, Sacred Spaces, and Crowley in Boy Bar Berlin. This far-reaching, necessary book is both a celebratory resistance text and indispensable investigation of the Queer in Occulture.