The author traces the roots and anticipations of contemporary discussions, in the Neoplatonic, late Transcendentalist journal, The Platonist , and other North American sources. With such "over the top" syncretism and the increasing confusion of an incipient late nineteenth-century "spiritual crisis", perhaps the "American Baroque" is a suitable name for the era's heterodox branches of occult and religious thought. The syncretistic, Neoplatonizing later Transcendentalists hoped that Theosophy and other occult movements would provide them with an organized church of exoteric esotericism. In Neoplatonism, Chaldaean style, the aether could be conceived of as the "vehicle" of the world soul. Many authors, artists and thinkers, comprising a wide range of sensibilities, have revived and brought to the attention of the contemporary world the essentially "gnostic mission" of the "American Baroque's" spiritual seekers. Neoplatonizing and Gnosticizing Neoplatonism in any of the chameleon forms outlined above were decisive for the American Baroque. Keywords: American Baroque; Chaldaean style; contemporary world; Gnosticizing neoplatonism; Platonist