The incident of 1848, when the sisters Fox allegedly began to communicate with a being inexplicable in their home, the birth of the idea that the souls of the dead could communicate with the living through a medium or intermediary which is attributed to special qualities. However, the diversity of the movement must be placed in the broader context of the social conditions that explain not only the success of spiritism, but also the rise and growth of the occult.

This phenomenon undermined any interest in supernatural phenomena to the end of the NINETEENTH century, and the various groups and movements that spread throughout Europe. In the context of the occult especially highlights the theosophical movement founded by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831-1891), out of which it emerged subsequently modern spirituality. In this context, Carniola and other lands of population slovenian of the austro-Hungarian monarchy were not an exception, and the ideas of H. P. Blavatsky and Annie Besant (1847-1933) also had an impact here.

In this country the publication of articles on the phenomena parapsychological, spiritualism and mysticism, even before the First World War, and some people were actively involved in the spiritist movement on an international scale. Among them was countess Adelma von Vay (1840-1925), a spiritualist who published his articles in magazines spiritualists austrian, Hungarian, German, French, and English, and belonged to the so-called "International Spiritist".

He believed in reincarnation, and was one of the first followers of the theosophical movement, in addition to being in direct contact with its founder, Helena Blavatsky. Although his work had no special public resonance in Slovenia, it was recognized as an important spiritist in Croatia, where, like in Slovenia, is called mainly "Hungarian Spiritist non-catholic", but his books were widely read.

Thus, the beginning of the new spirituality in Slovenia belong to the comparative context of broader Western Europe, while differing in some segments of the general ledger, especially the new spiritual movements in Slovenia not contain the ideas, social reformers, but it certainly represented a continuity to the emergence of new spiritual movements in the TWENTIETH century. And although this continuity was something broken after the end of the Second World War and, therefore, the forgotten, many aspects of the development of the spiritual movements in the NINETEENTH and early TWENTIETH centuries should be examined much more closely.

To the members of the theosophical movement, however, was not only through his contacts with Adelma von Vay that their paths crossed in Slovenia. In 1895, Arnold Rikli (1823-1906) founded a spa unconventional in Bled, where they met members of the theosophical movement around the world. Among others, it is said that the first president of the theosophical movement in Russia, visited the spa, and it was here where Edvard Sherko (1882-1959 /1960) met the theosophy already in 1889, when he met the General Secretary of the Theosophical Society in holland. Sherko was first made a member of the Theosophical Society Adyar, and later also of the societies of Vienna, Berlin and Graz. It is also said that Sherko organized the first circle informal regular supporters of Theosophy in Ljubljana before the First World War.

Besides him, Ivan Podlesnik and Anton Kristan also belonged to this circle, and some authors mention that the circle included seven other people. Later, Ivan Podlesnik also introduced to theosophy in the magazine "Time", but in this article, the youthful enthusiasm had already been replaced by skepticism and came to the conclusion: "This is not philosophy, but fantasy and, if you like, also a bit of poetry. Are exotic flowers brought from the East, where burns the blazing sun, where there is winter, where there are nights soft next to tranquil rivers where blossoms the white lotus. It is the belief in the sweetness of the life of exhausted people that rarely has fought the hard battles of the self-denial, and who wants to escape from the voices of the coming judgment through reincarnation."

By the way, it is also said that Anton Aškerc (1856-1912) flirted with theosophy due to his interest in eastern religions. According to Eugene Jarce, Theosophy was started by people disillusioned with the Spiritualism because of the deceptions demonstrated. The leaders of the Catholic Church is opposed even more to the Theosophy that the Spiritism, as they felt that their teaching is opposed directly to christianity, and the theosophists even they were wrong when they proclaimed that the christian teaching in Europe would be replaced by the buddhist theosophical. The first few articles pointing out the errors of theosophy can be found already in the 70's in Early Danica, but we also find references to the theosophy in other contexts, for example in the Black Chronicle.

Pavel Turner (1842-1924), Oton Župančič (1878-1949), and even Ivan Cankar (1876-1918), of whom it is said that he was a supporter of the reincarnation, may also be counted among the members of the theosophical movement before the First World War. It is said that theosophy is spread mainly among intellectuals. Mention should also be made to Alma Karlin, of whom it is said that he met the Theosophy during your stay in London. It is said that Župančič was interested in the occult when he was in charge of the library of a German countess in 1908.

After the First World War, however, Theosophy experienced a new boom. In 1921, Šerk founded the preparatory committee of the Theosophical Society Yugoslav along with Anton Zajc, he wrote a pamphlet to spread Theosophy, which was published in an edition of 500 copies, and shortly after began to receive the newsletter "Letters Esoteric". In 1923, the authorities yugoslav approved the statutes of the Theosophical Society of Ljubljana, but the interest in the society, whose number of members is estimated to be between 20 and 25 people, was not great. Shortly after the founding of a lodge of the Theosophical Society in Zagreb, from which sprang the Theosophical Society of Yugoslavia.

Also founded informal groups of followers for all Slovenia, for example in Celje, where he later fifteen theosophists formalizarían their activities, and in Maribor. In the second half of the 1930s, the members of the Society translated quickly the most important texts in the slovenian language, and at the same time, there was a circle of anthroposophists in Slovenia, among them Alojz Gradnik (1882-1967), Miran Jarc (1900-1942) and Martin Kojc (1901-1978).

The difference between theosophy and anthroposophy was explained by A. Gradnik in the sense that theosophy is interested in the secrets of the cosmos, while anthroposophy is interested in the secrets of the man and his connection with the higher worlds. In addition to the visible world, there is a supernatural world, invisible to humans, that inhabit individual beings without a body. Spiritualism and the occult were considered something vulgar by members of the theosophy movement in the period between the wars, but they believed that there was foreknowledge in every human being that could be exacerbated by the clairvoyant.

The Spiritism was very popular in Slovenia and, although the catholic Church did not approve of such practices, the interest in the sessions spiritualists, who were the most popular of spiritualism, was spreading more and more. Prior to the discovery of a series of frauds, Spiritism was seen as one of the possibilities for a new development of the science. On the contrary, the interest in Theosophy was not so widespread, as it was believed that he demanded a systematic study of "texts elevated", which only a few enthusiasts could perform, and the most popular of Theosophy also attracted a lot of attention.