Popular delusion history and crowd psychology
Charles Mackay
1814 – 1889
Charles Mackay was a Scottish journalist and editor whose Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds (1841) catalogued historical episodes of mass hysteria including alchemy, witchcraft, fortune-telling, the Crusades, and occult manias alongside financial bubbles and social panics. The book remains a canonical reference for understanding the sociology of occult belief and irrational collective behavior, documenting how magical and alchemical systems captured the imagination of entire societies. For historians of esotericism it provides essential contemporary documentation of popular occult enthusiasm and its social dynamics.
Archive Paths
Folk Magic
Folk magic texts and practical traditions covering charms, cures, household rites, prayers, talismans, and vernacular magical practice.
Comparative Mythology
Comparative mythology texts on gods, hero cycles, symbolic patterns, classical myth, Indo-European myth, and cross-cultural mythic structures.
Folklore Studies
Folklore studies texts on folk tales, fairy belief, superstition, regional customs, oral tradition, and the collection of vernacular belief.
Astrology and Divination
Astrology and divination texts on zodiacal symbolism, astrological doctrine, geomancy, dream interpretation, and related predictive arts.
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