Occult fiction, Kabbalah, and esoteric Buddhism

Gustav Meyrink

1868 – 1932

Gustav Meyrink (born Gustav Meyer) was a Viennese-born author and former banker whose deep engagement with Kabbalah, alchemy, Yoga, and Mahayana Buddhism infused his fiction with genuine initiatory content, making him the foremost practitioner of authentic occult fiction in the German language. His novel The Golem (1913–14), set in the Jewish ghetto of Prague, drew on Kabbalistic tradition to explore spiritual transformation and the mystery of personal identity, becoming an international sensation. He also translated occult texts including an early German rendering of the Egyptian Book of the Dead, cementing his role as a central figure in the transmission of esoteric ideas through literary culture.