Coleridge

'A bit of historical digging -- about six feet under -- reveals the Romantics' obsession with anything rebellious or counter-cultural; with this simple, sharp point in mind, a reader can unmask the dark intentions of the era's poets and poems. Take, for example, Coleridge's "Rime of the Ancient Mariner"' -- E.F. Rhulst.

"I readily believe that there are more invisible than visible Natures in the universe" -- Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

Was Coleridge involved in the occult? Did he have secret "evil" connections and/or beliefs? Was he actually a Christian?

Coleridge was definitely a Christian: he began life as a Unitarian (which in 1790s England meant optimistic political radicalism wedded to a rationalist view of God), but later turned to orthodox Church of England beliefs.

He was interested in mysticism, but it was Christian and Neo-Platonic mysticism: nothing 'occult'.

Certainly, there are many dark aspects to his poetry, but I think these can best be explained by his often gloomy temperament, his opium addiction and his powerful sense of sin and religious guilt.

Chris.

I agree. It can also be explained by his interest in revolutionary themes;

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Originally Posted by Aurorum

'A bit of historical digging -- about six feet under -- reveals the Romantics' obsession with anything rebellious or counter-cultural'

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Coleridge helped form the Romantic notions of political and social revolution, breaking down the norms and status quo, disrupting the cultural standards of the 17th century, and some of this activity clearly meant brushing up against some rather obscure and certainly mystic (and mythic) concerns. Yet this will to explore new methods of cultural expression probably should not be extended to esoteric spiritualism.

The classic statement of Coleridge's relation to mysticism would be the section on 'Obligations to the Mystics' in Biographia Literaria. There, he argues that 'there appears to have existed a sort of secret and tacit compact among the learned, not to pass beyond a certain limit in speculative science'.

Those that did take those flights of visionary speculation tended to be the poor and unlearned, many of whom produced only 'extravagant and grotesque phantoms', but some of whom were truly inspired.

He says that reading those uneducated mystics (such as Jakob Bohme) saved him 'from being imprisoned within the outline of any single dogmatic system'.

Again, although these kind of writers were viewed with suspicion from the standpoint of orthodox philosophy and religion, they would not be classed as occult or evil in any sense.