Editing Arthur Machen (section)

===Spiritual===
From the beginning of his literary career, Machen espoused a [[Mysticism|mystical]] belief that the humdrum ordinary world hid a more mysterious and strange world beyond. His gothic and [[decadent]] works of the 1890s concluded that the lifting of this veil could lead to madness, sex, or death, and usually a combination of all three. Machen's later works became somewhat less obviously full of gothic trappings, but for him investigations into mysteries invariably resulted in life-changing transformation and sacrifice. Machen loved the medieval worldview because he felt it manifested deep spirituality alongside a rambunctious earthiness.{{citation needed|date=March 2021}}

Machen was a great enthusiast for literature that expressed the "rapture, beauty, adoration, wonder, awe, mystery, sense of the unknown, desire for the unknown" that he summed up in the word ''ecstasy''.<ref>Arthur Machen, ''Hieroglyphics'' (London: Grant Richards, 1902), p. 11.</ref> His main passions were for writers and writing he felt achieved this, an idiosyncratic list which included the ''[[Mabinogion]]'' and other [[Romance (heroic literature)|medieval romances]], [[François Rabelais]], [[Miguel de Cervantes]], [[William Shakespeare]], [[Samuel Johnson]], [[Thomas de Quincey]], [[Charles Dickens]], [[Arthur Conan Doyle]], [[Edgar Allan Poe]], and [[Robert Louis Stevenson]]. Those writers who failed to achieve this, or far worse did not even attempt it, received short shrift from Machen.{{citation needed|date=March 2021}}

Machen's strong opposition to a materialistic viewpoint is obvious in many of his works, marking him as part of [[neo-romanticism]]. He was deeply suspicious of [[science]], [[materialism]], [[commerce]], and Puritanism, all of which were anathema to Machen's [[Conservatism|conservative]], [[bohemianism|bohemian]], [[mystical]], and ritualistic temperament. Machen's virulent satirical streak against things he disliked has been regarded as a weakness in his work, and rather dating, especially when it comes to the fore in works such as ''Dr Stiggins''. Similarly, some of his propagandistic [[First World War]] stories also have little appeal to a modern audience.{{citation needed|date=March 2021}}

Machen, brought up as the son of a [[Church of England]] clergyman, always held Christian beliefs, though accompanied by a fascination with sensual [[mysticism]]; his interests in [[paganism]] and the [[occult]] were especially prominent in his earliest works. Machen was well read on such matters as [[alchemy]], the [[kabbalah]], and [[Hermeticism]], and these occult interests formed part of his close friendship with [[Arthur Edward Waite|A. E. Waite]]. Machen, however, was always very down-to-earth, requiring substantial proof that a [[supernatural]] event had occurred, and was thus highly sceptical of [[Spiritualism (religious movement)|Spiritualism]].

The death of his first wife led him to a spiritual crossroads, and he experienced a series of mystical events. After his experimentation with the [[Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn]], the orthodox ritual of the Church became ever more important to him, gradually defining his position as a [[High Church]] Anglican who was able to incorporate elements from his own mystical experiences, [[Celtic Christianity]], and readings in literature and legend into his thinking.{{citation needed|date=March 2021}}

In his later years, Machen became a Roman Catholic.<ref name="DWB"/><ref>{{Cite web |title=An Introduction to the Life and Work of Arthur Machen |url=https://victorianweb.org/authors/machen/intro.html |access-date=2024-07-05 |website=victorianweb.org}}</ref>