The Tillett & French Collection: significant donation of esoteric thought in Western culture

Parts of the collection also provide important insights into people’s disenchantment with modernity, the search for a source of new authority, and embrace of conspiracy theories.

Dr French explained that it is impossible to have a favourite in such a vast collection, but he has a special fondness for some of the rare works on ceremonial magic, such as the work of John Dee, Astrologer Royal to Elizabeth I. Dee’s Enochian magical system has inspired offshoots to the present day. 

The donated materials also include two much smaller but important collections:

• Materials on alternate dispute resolution - Dr Tillett was known as a ‘father’ (alongside John Burton) of Australian conflict resolution and both he and Dr French worked as academics and practitioners for many years. 
• Materials on AIDS activism - Dr Tillett was a pioneer in AIDS activism. He headed ACON, the AIDS Council of NSW, led on liaison with police and wrote foundational texts on HIV discrimination. 

Creation of the collection

Dr Tillett and Dr French completed their PhDs at the University of Sydney, Brendan in the discipline of History of Ideas and Gregory in Religious Studies.

Fittingly Brendan first met Greg, who died in 2018, when he invited him to speak at an education event on esotericism in 1991. They soon moved in together, fused their individual collections and spent the next decades jointly sleuthing for material. Adding to their remarkable collection was often a result of many years of tracking down important materials – whether a rare book (in pre-internet days) or an obscure pamphlet or poster.  Many of the people interested in the same materials kept their identities secret because of the sensitivities at the time. 

"Not only did all this material risk being lost but so did the contribution of their collectors. Greg and I conducted many interviews with fascinating people such as early Theosophists, members of secret societies, and occult magicians – and that primary source material is also in the collection, waiting to be mined," Dr French said. 

"We always knew we wanted it to come to an academic institution. It has been a hard process, these books and materials represent so many moments of my life with Greg, but I couldn’t be happier that they will now live on and fulfil our wish that they benefit new knowledge and scholarship."

Julie Sommerfeldt, Manager, Cultural Collections Curation, University of Sydney, said:

"We are delighted and grateful that the Tillett and French Collection will enrich our knowledge across religious studies, philosophy, history, politics, gender studies, design and sociology. Students and academics from within the University and from outside institutions, including international scholars, will immediately benefit from this important addition to our rare collection, including its extensive original material. 

"It adds to the Library’s existing strengths in its Rare Books collection which includes significant medieval and early modern material on witchcraft and witch-hunting, magic, alchemy and the occult, and from various cultural and religious origins including Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and Buddhism."

Professor Carole Cusack from the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences  commented: 

"The study of esoteric systems emerged as an academic discipline in the 1990s, although there were significant precursors sketching the field in the 1970s. Esotericism has often been dismissed as ‘rejected knowledge’ and a fringe interest, but is increasingly being recognised as a key shadow side of the Enlightenment.

"The Tillettt and French archive will advantage scholars, such as myself, in researching esotericism and will attract visiting scholars and practicing esotericists from around the world."