About Turku

The city of Turku has deep and diverse roots in the esoteric and occult, ranging from ancient paganism and medieval and Renaissance magic to modern times. When esoteric ideas, organisations and movements arrived in Finland, it seems they first took root on the banks of the Aura River. The story begins with medieval findings in Turku Cathedral, the magic trials at Turku Royal Academy in the 17th century and continues with the alchemical and Swedenborgian influences of 18th-century gold-makers August Nordenskiöld and Carl Fredrik Bergklint. The stories of Olly Donner and Hélène Jacobsson demonstrate the influence of theosophical and anthroposophical ideas in the early 20th century. More contemporary examples of esotericism in Turku include Pekka Siitoin, Reima Saarinen, and Tapio Kotkavuori, who provide interesting examples of late modern esoteric practices such as magic, Satanism and the Left Hand Path.

Immersing oneself in the city’s occult history and learning about events hidden from the general public, such as witch trials in the Aura River, pentagrams on the cathedral wall, underground magical rituals, parapsychological research societies conducting telekinesis experiments, theosophists’ Thursday evening lectures, modernist artists’esoteric discussions, and female magicians’ eye-rolling tricks at the fair, reveals a new side to Turku and its history.

For more information, see the Esoteric and Occult Turku leaflet: https://esotericturku.wordpress.com/.

Turku is also the centre for the study of esotericism in Finland. The academic study of modern esotericism was first integrated into the Åbo Akademi University curriculum in Turku. As early as the 1960s, the internationally renowned art history professor Sixten Ringbom (1935–1992) was discussing esotericism in art studies. Ringbom’s 1970 publication The Sounding Cosmos highlights the influence of Theosophy on the abstract works of the renowned Russian artist Wassily Kandinsky (1866–1944), among other topics. Ringbom was also one of the firsts to draw attention to the work of the Swedish artist Hilma af Klint (1862–1944).

The scientific study of Western esotericism is widely regarded as having been established by the publication of Faivre’s Access to Western Esotericism (1994). The following year, a reading seminar on the work was held in the Department of the History of Religion at Åbo Akademi University, and theses related to the topic began to be completed. The first Finnish doctoral thesis to focus specifically on Western esotericism was Kennet Granholm’s Embracing the Dark: The Magic Order of Dragon Rouge – Its Practice in Dark Magic and Meaning Making (2005).

In the summer of 2007, the Donner Institute organised the first international symposium presenting the scientific discipline of Western esotericism in Finland. Several rising stars of this fledgling discipline participated, including Kocku von Stuckrad, Henrik Bogdan and Olav Hammer, as well as Finnish and international scholars of history, religion, and art whose research fell within the field of study of esotericism. The following year, a collection of articles based on the symposium, titled Western Esotericism (2008), was published.

Around the same time, a network, later research project at the University of Turku also began to emerge. Research project, Seekers of the New: Esotericism and the transformation of religiosity in Finland during the era of modernisation, 1880–1940, This research mainly focused on the formation of modern esoteric movements, as well as the individuals involved in them, particularly artists and writers. More recent project, TiTaRa: Between Science and Magic, based at the Department of English (2023–2025), explored questions of identity through historical linguistics and book history. See also: https://www.instagram.com/titaraproject/

Since the 2010s, the study of esotericism has attracted particular interest from students within the humanities, as evidenced by the large number of bachelor’s and master’s theses together with ongoing PhD and Post-doc-projects.

This long-term development of interest and enthusiasm will culminate in the summer of 2027, when researchers focusing on esotericism from multiple perspectives and approaches arrive in Turku.

The full story is available to read in Finnish: Boris Brander, Janne Bäckman and Atte Huhtala (eds.) Salatieteiden Suomi: Esoteerinen ja okkultti Turku. Helsinki: Like.