Welcome to the EAR. Our mission is to collect books and ephemera relating to Western Esotericism and its connections to Rochester, NY, along with the larger Burned Over District.
Explore the Digital Collection
Read and download hundreds of public-domain works scanned from original sources.
Explore the Physical Collection
A small members-only guerrilla library holds hundreds of esoteric-related texts, decks, and other bits.
Our Mission
- To record and document esoteric and spiritual/fraternal movements in and around Rochester, NY, as well as across the globe
- To provide a space for the general public to use this collection for research and personal use
- To place these esoteric, spiritual, and fraternal movements, orders, and writings, in their rightful place in historic legitimacy
How will we fulfill our mission?
- The staff of the EAR will work to create robust and powerful search tools and methods that allow users to curate the EAR collection in myriad ways that places each object in the context of time, place, and social movement.
- The staff of the EAR will actively search out digital materials that conform to our Collection Plan; we will catalog and record those materials, making them available to the general public via this website.
- The staff of the EAR will actively seek out physical materials that conform to our Collection Plan; we will catalog those materials and make them available to the public via a physical brick-and-mortar location.