Western esotericism, also known as esotericism,
esoterism, and sometimes the Western mystery
tradition, is a term under which scholars
have categorised a wide range of loosely related
ideas and movements which have developed within
Western society. These ideas and currents
are united by the fact that they are largely
distinct both from orthodox Judeo-Christian
religion and from Enlightenment rationalism.
Esotericism has pervaded various forms of
Western philosophy, religion, pseudoscience,
art, literature, and music, continuing to
affect intellectual ideas and popular culture.
The idea of grouping a wide range of Western
traditions and philosophies together under
the category that is now termed esotericism
developed in Europe during the late seventeenth
century. Various academics have debated how
to define Western esotericism, with a number
of different options proposed. One scholarly
model adopts its definition of "esotericism"
from certain esotericist schools of thought
themselves, treating "esotericism" as a perennialist
hidden, inner tradition. A second perspective
sees esotericism as a category that encompasses
movements which embrace an "enchanted" world-view
in the face of increasing disenchantment.
A third views Western esotericism as a category
encompassing all of Western culture's "rejected
knowledge" that is accepted neither by the
scientific establishment nor by orthodox religious
authorities.
The earliest traditions which later analysis
would label as forms of Western esotericism
emerged in the Eastern Mediterranean during
Late Antiquity, where Hermeticism, Gnosticism,
and Neoplatonism developed as schools of thought
distinct from what became mainstream Christianity.
Renaissance Europe saw increasing interest
in many of these older ideas, with various
intellectuals combining "pagan" philosophies
with the Kabbalah and Christian philosophy,
resulting in the emergence of esoteric movements
like Christian theosophy. The seventeenth
century saw the development of initiatory
societies professing esoteric knowledge such
as Rosicrucianism and Freemasonry, while the
Age of Enlightenment of the eighteenth century
led to the development of new forms of esoteric
thought. The nineteenth century saw the emergence
of new trends of esoteric thought that have
come to be known as occultism. Prominent groups
in this century included the Theosophical
Society and the Hermetic Order of the Golden
Dawn. Modern Paganism developed within occultism,
and includes religious movements such as Wicca.
Esoteric ideas permeated the counterculture
of the 1960s and later cultural tendencies,
from which emerged the New Age phenomenon
in the 1970s.
Although the idea that these varying movements
could be categorised together under the rubric
of "Western esotericism" developed in the
late eighteenth century, these esoteric currents
were largely ignored as a subject of academic
enquiry. The academic study of Western esotericism
only emerged in the late twentieth-century,
pioneered by scholars like Frances Yates and
Antoine Faivre.
Esoteric ideas have meanwhile also exerted
an influence in popular culture, appearing
in art, literature, film, and music.
== Etymology ==
The concept of the "esoteric" originated in
the second century AD
with the coining of the Ancient Greek adjective
esôterikós ("belonging to an inner circle");
the earliest known example of the word appeared
in a satire authored by Lucian of Samosata
(c. 125 – after 180)
The noun "esotericism", in its French form
"ésotérisme", first appeared in 1828 in
the work by Jacques Matter (1791–1864),
Histoire critique du gnosticisme (3 vols.).
The term "esotericism" thus came into use
in the wake of the Age of Enlightenment and
of its critique of institutionalised religion,
during which time alternative religious groups
began to disassociate themselves from the
dominant Christianity in Western Europe. During
the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the
term "esotericism" came to commonly be seen
as something which was distinct from Christianity,
and which had formed a subculture that had
been at odds with the Christian mainstream
from at least the time of the Renaissance.
The French occultist and ceremonial magician
Eliphas Lévi (1810–1875) popularized the
term in the 1850s, and Theosophist Alfred
Percy Sinnett (1840–1921) introduced it
into the English language in his book Esoteric
Buddhism (1883). Lévi also introduced the
term l'occultisme, a notion that he developed
against the background of contemporary socialist
and Catholic discourses. "Esotericism" and
"occultism" were often employed as synonyms
until later scholars distinguished the concepts.
== Conceptual development ==
The concept of "Western esotericism" is a
modern scholarly construct rather than a pre-existing,
self-defined tradition of thought. In the
late seventeenth century, several European
Christian thinkers presented the argument
that certain traditions of Western philosophy
and thought could be categorised together,
thus establishing the category that is now
called "Western esotericism". The first to
do so was de: Ehregott Daniel Colberg (1659–1698),
a German Lutheran who wrote Platonisch-Hermetisches
Christianity (1690–91). A hostile critic
of various currents of Western thought that
had emerged since the Renaissance—among
them Paracelsianism, Weigelianism, and Christian
theosophy—in his book he labelled all of
these traditions under the category of "Platonic–Hermetic
Christianity", arguing that they were heretical
to what he saw as true Christianity. Despite
his hostile attitude toward these traditions
of thought, he was the first to connect these
disparate philosophies and study them under
one rubric, also recognising that these ideas
linked back to earlier philosophies from late
antiquity.In Europe during the eighteenth
century, amid the Age of Enlightenment, these
esoteric traditions came to be regularly categorised
under the labels of "superstition", "magic",
and "the occult", terms which were often used
interchangeably. The modern academy, which
was then in the process of developing, consistently
rejected and ignored topics coming under "the
occult" and thus research into them was largely
left to enthusiasts outside of academia. Indeed,
according to historian of esotericism Wouter
J. Hanegraaff (born 1961), rejection of "occult"
topics was seen as a "crucial identity marker"
for any intellectuals seeking to affiliate
themselves with the academy.Scholars established
this category in the late 18th century after
identifying "structural similarities" between
"the ideas and world views of a wide variety
of thinkers and movements" which prior to
this had not been placed in the same analytical
grouping. According to the scholar of esotericism
Wouter J. Hanegraaff, the term provided a
"useful generic label" for "a large and complicated
group of historical phenomena that had long
been perceived as sharing an air de famille."Various
academics have emphasised the idea that esotericism
is a phenomenon unique to the Western world;
as Faivre stated, an "empirical perspective"
would hold that "esotericism is a Western
notion". As scholars such as Faivre and Hanegraaff
have pointed out, there is no comparable category
of "Eastern" or "Oriental" esotericism. The
emphasis on Western esotericism was nevertheless
primarily devised to distinguish the field
from a universal esotericism. Hanegraaff has
characterised these as "recognisable world
views and approaches to knowledge that have
played an important although always controversial
role in the history of Western culture." Historian
of religion Henrik Bogdan asserted that Western
esotericism constituted "a third pillar of
Western culture" alongside "doctrinal faith
and rationality", being deemed heretical by
the former and irrational by the latter. Scholars
nevertheless recognise that various non-Western
traditions have exerted "a profound influence"
over Western esotericism, citing the prominent
example of the Theosophical Society's incorporation
of Hindu and Buddhist concepts into its doctrines.
Given these influences and the imprecise nature
of the term "Western", the scholar of esotericism
Kennet Granholm has argued that academics
should cease referring to "Western esotericism"
altogether, instead simply favouring "esotericism"
as a descriptor of this phenomenon. This attitude
was endorsed by Egil Asprem.
== Definition ==
The historian of esotericism Antoine Faivre
noted that "never a precise term, [esotericism]
has begun to overflow its boundaries on all
sides", with both Faivre and Karen-Claire
Voss stating that Western esotericism consists
of "a vast spectrum of authors, trends, works
of philosophy, religion, art, literature,
and music".
There is broad agreement among scholars as
to which currents of thought can be placed
within a category of "esotericism", ranging
from ancient Gnosticism and Hermetism through
to Rosicrucianism and the Kabbalah and on
to more recent phenomenon such as the New
Age movement. Nevertheless, "esotericism"
itself remains a controversial term, with
scholars specialising in the subject disagreeing
as to how it can best be defined.
=== Esotericism as a universal, secret, inner
tradition ===
A definition adopted by some scholars has
used "Western esotericism" in reference to
"inner traditions" which are concerned with
a "universal spiritual dimension of reality,
as opposed to the merely external ('exoteric')
religious institutions and dogmatic systems
of established religions." According to this
approach, "Western esotericism" is viewed
as just one variant of a worldwide "esotericism"
which can be found at the heart of all world
religions and cultures, reflecting a hidden
esoteric reality. This usage of the term "esotericism"
is closest to the original meaning of the
word as it was used in late antiquity, where
it was applied to secret spiritual teachings
which were reserved for a specific elite and
hidden from the masses. This definition was
popularised in the published work of nineteenth-century
esotericists like A.E. Waite, who sought to
combine their own mystical beliefs with a
historical interpretation of esotericism.
It subsequently became a popular approach
within several esoteric movements, most notably
Martinism and Traditionalism.This definition—originally
developed by esotericists themselves—became
popular among French academics during the
1980s, exerting a strong influence over the
scholars Mircea Eliade, Henry Corbin, and
the early work of Faivre. Within the academic
field of religious studies, those who study
different religions in search of an inner,
universal dimension to them all are termed
"religionists". Such religionist ideas also
exerted an influence on more recent scholars
like Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke and Arthur Versluis.
Versluis for instance defined "Western esotericism"
as "inner or hidden spiritual knowledge transmitted
through Western European historical currents
that in turn feed into North American and
other non-European settings". He added that
these Western esoteric currents all shared
a core characteristic, "a claim to gnosis,
or direct spiritual insight into cosmology
or spiritual insight", and accordingly he
suggested that these currents could be referred
to as "Western gnostic" just as much as "Western
esoteric".There are various problems with
this model for understanding Western esotericism.
The most significant is that it rests upon
the conviction that there really is a "universal,
hidden, esoteric dimension of reality" that
objectively exists. The existence of this
universal inner tradition has not been discovered
through scientific or scholarly enquiry; this
had led some to claim that it does not exist,
although Hanegraaff thought it better to adopt
a view based in methodological agnosticism
by stating that "we simply do not know - and
cannot know" if it exists or not. He noted
that, even if such a true and absolute nature
of reality really existed, it would only be
accessible through 'esoteric' spiritual practices,
and could not be discovered or measured by
the 'exoteric' tools of scientific and scholarly
enquiry. Hanegraaff also highlighted that
an attitude which seeks to uncover an inner
hidden core of all esoteric currents masks
the fact that such groups often contain significant
differences from one another, being rooted
in their own historical and social contexts,
and expressing ideas and agendas which are
mutually exclusive. A third issue was that
many of those currents widely recognised as
esoteric never concealed their teachings,
and in the twentieth century came to permeate
popular culture, thus problematizing the claim
that esotericism could be defined by its hidden
and secretive nature. Moreover, Hanegraaff
noted that when scholars adopt this definition,
it shows that they subscribe to the religious
doctrines which are espoused by the very groups
that they are studying.
=== Esotericism as an enchanted world view
===
Another approach to Western esotericism has
treated it as a world view that embraces 'enchantment'
in contrast to world views influenced by post-Cartesian,
post-Newtonian, and positivist science which
have sought to 'dis-enchant' the world. Esotericism
is therefore understood as comprising those
world views which eschew a belief in instrumental
causality and instead adopt a belief that
all parts of the universe are interrelated
without a need for causal chains. It therefore
stands as a radical alternative to the disenchanted
world views which have dominated Western culture
since the scientific revolution, and must
therefore always be at odds with secular culture.An
early exponent of this definition was the
historian of Renaissance thought Frances Yates
in her discussions of a "Hermetic Tradition",
which she saw as an 'enchanted' alternative
to established religion and rationalistic
science. However, the primary exponent of
this view was Faivre, who published a series
of criteria for how to define "Western esotericism"
in 1992. Faivre claimed that esotericism was
"identifiable by the presence of six fundamental
characteristics or components", four of which
were "intrinsic" and thus vital to defining
something as being esoteric, while the other
two were "secondary" and thus not necessarily
present in every form of esotericism. He listed
these characteristics as follows:
"Correspondences": This is the idea that there
are both real and symbolic correspondences
existing between all things within the universe.
As examples for this, Faivre pointed to the
esoteric concept of the macrocosm and microcosm,
often presented as the dictum of "as above,
so below", as well as the astrological idea
that the actions of the planets have a direct
corresponding influence on the behaviour of
human beings.
"Living Nature": Faivre argued that all esotericists
envision the natural universe as being imbued
with its own life force, and that as such
they understand it as being "complex, plural,
hierarchical".
"Imagination and Mediations": Faivre believed
that all esotericists place great emphasis
on both the human imagination, and mediations
– "such as rituals, symbolic images, mandalas,
intermediary spirits" – and mantras as tools
that provide access to worlds and levels of
reality existing between the material world
and the divine.
"Experience of Transmutation": Faivre's fourth
intrinsic characteristic of esotericism was
the emphasis that esotericists place on fundamentally
transforming themselves through their practice,
for instance through the spiritual transformation
that is alleged to accompany the attainment
of gnosis.
"Practice of Concordance": The first of Faivre's
secondary characteristics of esotericism was
the belief – held by many esotericists,
such as those in the Traditionalist School
– that there is a fundamental unifying principle
or root from which all world religions and
spiritual practices emerge. The common esoteric
principle is that by attaining this unifying
principle, the world's different beliefs can
be brought together in unity.
"Transmission": Faivre's second secondary
characteristic was the emphasis on the transmission
of esoteric teachings and secrets from a master
to their discipline, through a process of
initiation.Faivre's form of categorisation
has been endorsed by scholars like Goodrick-Clarke,
and by 2007 Bogdan could note that Faivre's
had become "the standard definition" of Western
esotericism in use among scholars. However,
in 2013 the scholar Kennet Granholm stated
only that Faivre's definition had been "the
dominating paradigm for a long while" and
that it "still exerts influence among scholars
outside the study of Western esotericism".
The advantage of Faivre's system is that it
allows varying esoteric traditions to be compared
"with one another in a systematic fashion".
However, criticisms have also been expressed
of Faivre's theory, pointing out its various
weaknesses. Hanegraaff claimed that Faivre's
approach entailed "reasoning by prototype"
in that it relied upon already having a "best
example" of what Western esotericism should
look like, against which other phenomenon
then had to be compared. The scholar of esotericism
de: Kocku von Stuckrad (born 1966) noted that
Faivre's taxonomy was based on his own areas
of specialism – Renaissance Hermeticism,
Christian Kabbalah, and Protestant Theosophy
– and that it was thus not based on a wider
understanding of esotericism as it has existed
throughout history, from the ancient world
to the contemporary period. Accordingly, Von
Stuckrad suggested that it was a good typology
for understanding "Christian esotericism in
the early modern period" but lacked utility
beyond that.
=== Esotericism as claims to higher knowledge
===
As an alternative to Faivre's framework, Von
Stuckrad developed his own variant, although
argued that this did not represent a "definition"
but rather "a framework of analysis" for scholarly
usage. He stated that "on the most general
level of analysis", esotericism represented
"the claim of higher knowledge", a claim to
possessing "wisdom that is superior to other
interpretations of cosmos and history" and
which serves as a "master key for answering
all questions of humankind". Accordingly,
he believed that esoteric groups placed a
great emphasis on secrecy, not because they
were inherently rooted in elite groups but
because the idea of concealed secrets that
can be revealed was central to their discourse.
Examining the means of accessing higher knowledge,
he highlighted two themes that he believed
could be found within esotericism, that of
mediation through contact with non-human entities,
and individual experience. Accordingly, for
Von Stuckrad, esotericism could be best understood
as "a structural element of Western culture"
rather than as a selection of different schools
of thought.
=== Western esotericism as "rejected knowledge"
===
An additional definition was proposed by Hanegraaff,
and holds that "Western esotericism" is a
category representing "the academy's dustbin
of rejected knowledge." In this respect, it
contains all of the theories and world views
that have been rejected by the mainstream
intellectual community because they do not
accord with "normative conceptions of religion,
rationality and science". His approach is
rooted within the field of the history of
ideas, and stresses the role of change and
transformation over time.Goodrick-Clarke was
critical of this approach, believing that
it relegated Western esotericism to the position
of "a casualty of positivist and materialist
perspectives in the nineteenth-century" and
thus reinforces the idea that Western esoteric
traditions were of little historical importance.
Bogdan similarly expressed concern regarding
Hanegraaff's definition, believing that it
made the category of Western esotericism "all
inclusive" and thus analytically useless.
== History ==
=== 
Late Antiquity ===
The origins of Western esotericism are in
the Hellenistic Eastern Mediterranean, then
part of the Roman Empire, during Late Antiquity,
a period encompassing the first centuries
of the Common Era. This was a milieu in which
there was a mix of religious and intellectual
traditions from Greece, Egypt, the Levant,
Babylon, and Persia, and in which globalisation,
urbanisation, and multiculturalism were bringing
about socio-cultural change.One component
of this was Hermetism, an Egyptian Hellenistic
school of thought that takes its name from
the legendary Egyptian wise man, Hermes Trismegistus.
In the 2nd and 3rd centuries CE, a number
of texts appeared which were attributed to
Hermes Trismegistus, including the Corpus
Hermeticum, Asclepius, and The Discourse on
the Eighth and Ninth. Although it is still
debated as to whether Hermetism was a purely
literary phenomenon, or whether there were
communities of practitioners who acted on
these ideas, it has been established that
these texts discuss the true nature of God,
emphasising that humans must transcend rational
thought and worldly desires in order to find
salvation and be reborn into a spiritual body
of immaterial light, thereby achieving spiritual
unity with divinity.Another tradition of esoteric
thought in Late Antiquity was Gnosticism,
which had a complex relationship with Christianity.
Various Gnostic sects existed, and they broadly
believed that the divine light had been imprisoned
within the material world by a malevolent
entity known as the Demiurge, who was served
by demonic helpers, the Archons. It was the
Gnostic belief that humans, who were imbued
with the divine light, should seek to attain
gnosis and thus escape from the world of matter
and rejoin the divine source.A third form
of esotericism in Late Antiquity was Neoplatonism,
a school of thought influenced by the ideas
of the philosopher Plato. Advocated by such
figures as Plotinus, Porphyry, Iamblichus,
and Proclus, Neoplatonism held that the human
soul had fallen from its divine origins into
the material world, but that it could progress,
through a number of hierarchical spheres of
being, to return to its divine origins once
more. The later Neoplatonists performed theurgy,
a ritual practice attested in such sources
as the Chaldean Oracles. Scholars are still
unsure of precisely what theurgy involved,
although it is known that it involved a practice
designed to make gods appear, who could then
raise the theurgist's mind to the reality
of the divine.
=== Middle Ages ===
After the fall of Rome, alchemy and philosophy
and other aspects of the tradition were largely
preserved in the Arab and Near Eastern world
and reintroduced into Western Europe by Jews
and by the cultural contact between Christians
and Muslims in Sicily and southern Italy.
The 12th century saw the development of the
Kabbalah in southern Italy and medieval Spain.
The medieval period also saw the publication
of grimoires, which offered often elaborate
formulas for theurgy and thaumaturgy. Many
of the grimoires seem to have kabbalistic
influence. Figures in alchemy from this period
seem to also have authored or used grimoires.
=== Renaissance and Early Modern period ===
During the Renaissance, a number of European
thinkers began to synthesize "pagan" (that
is, not Christian) philosophies, which were
then being made available through Arabic translations,
with Christian thought and the Jewish kabbalah.
The earliest of these individuals was the
Byzantine philosopher Plethon (1355/60–1452?),
who argued that the Chaldean Oracles represented
an example of a superior religion of ancient
humanity which had been passed down by the
Platonists.Plethon's ideas interested the
ruler of Florence, Cosimo de Medici, who employed
Florentine thinker Marsilio Ficino (1433–1499)
to translate Plato's works into Latin. Ficino
went on to translate and publish the works
of various Platonic figures, arguing that
their philosophies were compatible with Christianity,
and allowing for the emergence of a wider
movement in Renaissance Platonism, or Platonic
Orientalism. Ficino also translated part of
the Corpus Hermeticum, although the rest would
be translated by his contemporary, Lodovico
Lazzarelli (1447–1500).Another core figure
in this intellectual milieu was Giovanni Pico
della Mirandola (1463–1494), who achieved
notability in 1486 by inviting scholars from
across Europe to come and debate the 900 theses
that he had written with him. Pico della Mirandola
argued that all of these philosophies reflected
a grand universal wisdom, however Pope Innocent
VIII condemned these actions, criticising
him for attempting to mix pagan and Jewish
ideas with Christianity.Pico della Mirandola's
increased interest in Jewish kabbalah led
to his development of a distinct form of Christian
Kabbalah. His work was built on by the German
Johannes Reuchlin (1455–1522) who authored
a prominent text on the subject, De Arte Cabbalistica.
Christian Kabbalah was expanded in the work
of the German Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa (1486–1535/36),
who used it as a framework through which to
explore the philosophical and scientific traditions
of Antiquity in his work De occulta philosophia
libri tres. The work of Agrippa and other
esoteric philosophers had been based in a
pre-Copernican worldview, but following the
arguments of Copernicus, a more accurate understanding
of the cosmos was established. Copernicus'
theories were adopted into esoteric strains
of thought by Giordano Bruno (1548–1600),
whose ideas would be deemed heresy by the
Roman Catholic Church, eventually resulting
in his public execution.
A distinct strain of esoteric thought developed
in Germany, where it came to be known as Naturphilosophie;
although influenced by traditions from Late
Antiquity and Medieval Kabbalah, it only acknowledged
two main sources of authority: Biblical scripture
and the natural world. The primary exponent
of this approach was Paracelsus (1493/94–1541),
who took inspiration from alchemy and folk
magic to argue against the mainstream medical
establishment of his time which, as in Antiquity,
still based its approach on the ideas of the
second-century physician and philosopher,
Galen, a Greek in the Roman Empire. Instead,
Paracelsus urged doctors to learn medicine
through an observation of the natural world,
although in later work he also began to focus
on overtly religious questions. His work would
gain significant support in both areas over
the following centuries.One of those influenced
by Paracelsus was the German cobbler Jacob
Böhme (1575–1624), who sparked the Christian
theosophy movement through his attempts to
solve the problem of evil. Böhme argued that
God had been created out of an unfathomable
mystery, the Ungrud, and that God himself
composed of a wrathful core, surrounded by
the forces of light and love. Although condemned
by Germany's Lutheran authorities, Böhme's
ideas spread and formed the basis for a number
of small religious communities, such as Johann
Georg Gichtel's Angelic Brethren in Amsterdam,
and John Pordage and Jane Leade's Philadelphian
Society in England.From 1614 to 1616, the
three Rosicrucian Manifestos were published
in Germany; these texts purported to represent
a secret, initiatory brotherhood which had
been founded centuries before by a German
adept named Christian Rosenkreutz. There is
no evidence that Rosenkreutz was a genuine
historical figure, nor that a Rosicrucian
Order had ever existed up to that point. Instead,
the manifestos are likely literary creations
of Lutheran theologian Johann Valentin Andreae
(1586–1654). However, they inspired much
public interest, with various individuals
coming to describe themselves as "Rosicrucian"
and claiming that they had access to secret,
esoteric knowledge as a result.A real initiatory
brotherhood was established in late 16th-century
Scotland through the transformation of Medieval
stonemason guilds to include non-craftsman:
Freemasonry. Soon spreading into other parts
of Europe, in England it largely rejected
its esoteric character and embraced humanism
and rationalism, while in France it embraced
new esoteric concepts, particularly those
from Christian theosophy.
=== 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries ===
The Age of Enlightenment witnessed a process
of increasing secularisation of European governments
and an embrace of modern science and rationality
within intellectual circles. In turn, a "modernist
occult" emerged that reflected varied ways
in which esoteric thinkers came to terms with
these developments. One of the most prominent
esotericists of this period was the Swedish
naturalist Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772),
who attempted to reconcile science and religion
after experiencing a vision of Jesus Christ.
His writings focused on his visionary travels
to heaven and hell and his communications
with angels, claiming that the visible, materialist
world parallels an invisible spiritual world,
with correspondences between the two that
do not reflect causal relations. Following
his death, followers would found the Swedenborgian
New Church, although his writings would influence
a far wider array of esoteric philosophies.
Another major figure within the esoteric movement
of this period was the German physician Franz
Anton Mesmer (1734–1814), who developed
the theory of Animal Magnetism, which later
came to be known more commonly as "Mesmerism".
Mesmer claimed that a universal life force
permeated everything, including the human
body, and that illnesses were caused by a
disturbance or block in this force's flow;
he developed techniques which he claimed cleansed
such blockages and restored the patient to
full health. One of Mesmer's followers, the
Marquis de Puységur, discovered that mesmeric
treatment could induce a state of somnumbulic
trance in which they claimed to enter visionary
states and communicate with spirit beings.These
somnumbulic trance-states would heavily influence
the esoteric religion of Spiritualism, which
emerged from the United States in the 1840s
and spread throughout North American and Europe.
Spiritualism was based on the concept that
individuals could communicate with spirits
of the deceased during séances. Although
most forms of Spiritualism had little theoretical
depth, being largely practical affairs, full
theological worldviews based on the movement
would be articulated by Andrew Jackson Davis
(1826–1910) and Allan Kardec (1804–1869).
Scientific interest in the claims of Spiritualism
resulted in the development of the field of
psychical research. Somnambulism also exerted
a strong influence on the early disciplines
of psychology and psychiatry; esoteric ideas
purvey the work of many early figures in this
field, most notably Carl Gustav Jung, although
with the rise of psychoanalysis and behaviourism
in the 20th century, these disciplines distanced
themselves from esotericism. Also influenced
by artificial somnambulism was the religion
of New Thought, founded by the American Mesmerist
Phineas P. Quimby (1802–1866) and which
revolved around the concept of "mind over
matter", believing that illness and other
negative conditions could be cured through
the power of belief.
In Europe, a movement usually termed "occultism"
emerged as various figures attempted to find
a "third way" between Christianity and positivist
science while building on the ancient, medieval,
and Renaissance traditions of esoteric thought.
In France, following the social upheaval of
the 1789 Revolution, various figures emerged
in this occultist milieu who were heavily
influenced by traditional Catholicism, the
most notable of whom were Eliphas Lévi (1810–1875)
and Papus (1865–1916). Also significant
was René Guénon (1886–1951), whose concern
with tradition led him to develop an occult
viewpoint termed Traditionalism; it espoused
the idea of an original, universal tradition,
and thus a rejection of modernity. His Traditionalist
ideas would have a strong influence on later
esotericists like Julius Evola (1898–1974)
and Frithjof Schuon (1907–1998).In the Anglophone
world, the burgeoning occult movement owed
more to Enlightenment libertines, and thus
was more often of an anti-Christian bent that
saw wisdom as emanating from the pre-Christian
pagan religions of Europe. Various Spiritualist
mediums came to be disillusioned with the
esoteric thought available, and sought inspiration
in pre-Swedenborgian currents; the most prominent
of these were Emma Hardinge Britten (1823–1899)
and Helena Blavatsky (1831–1891), the latter
of whom called for the revival of the "occult
science" of the ancients, which could be found
in both the East and West. Authoring the influential
Isis Unveiled (1877) and The Secret Doctrine
(1888), she co-founded the Theosophical Society
in 1875. Subsequent leaders of the Society,
namely Annie Besant (1847–1933) and Charles
Webster Leadbeater (1854–1934) interpreted
modern theosophy as a form of ecumenical esoteric
Christianity, resulting in their proclamation
of Indian Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895–1986)
as world messiah. In rejection of this was
the breakaway Anthroposophical Society founded
by Rudolf Steiner (1861–1925).New esoteric
understandings of magic also developed in
the latter part of the 19th century. One of
the pioneers of this was American Paschal
Beverly Randolph (1825–1875), who argued
that sexual energy and psychoactive drugs
could be used for magical purposes. In England,
the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, an
initiatory order devoted to magic which based
itself on an understanding of kabbalah, was
founded in the latter years of the century.
One of the most prominent members of that
order was Aleister Crowley (1875–1947),
who went on to proclaim the religion of Thelema
and become a prominent member of the Ordo
Templi Orientis. Some of their contemporaries
developed esoteric schools of thought that
did not entail magic, namely the Greco-Armenian
teacher George Gurdjieff (1866–1949) and
his Russian pupil P.D. Ouspensky (1878–1947).Emergent
occult and esoteric systems found increasing
popularity in the early 20th century, especially
in Western Europe. Occult lodges and secret
societies flowered among European intellectuals
of this era who had largely abandoned traditional
forms of Christianity. The spreading of secret
teachings and magic practices found enthusiastic
adherents in the chaos of Germany during the
interwar years. Notable writers such as Guido
von List spread neo-pagan, nationalist ideas,
based on Wotanism and the Kabbalah. Many influential
and wealthy Germans were drawn to secret societies
such as the Thule Society. Thule Society activist
Karl Harrer was one of the founders of the
German Workers' Party, which later became
the Nazi Party; some Nazi Party members like
Alfred Rosenberg and Rudolf Hess were listed
as "guests" of the Thule Society, as was Adolf
Hitler's mentor Dietrich Eckart. After their
rise to power, the Nazis persecuted occultists.
While many Nazi Party leaders like Hitler
and Joseph Goebbels were hostile to occultism,
Heinrich Himmler used Karl Maria Wiligut as
a clairvoyant "and was regularly consulting
for help in setting up the symbolic and ceremonial
aspects of the SS" but not for important political
decisions. By 1939, Wiligut was "forcibly
retired from the SS" due to being institutionalised
for insanity. On the other hand, the German
hermetic magic order Fraternitas Saturni was
founded on Easter 1928 and it is one of the
oldest continuously running magical groups
in Germany. In 1936, the Fraternitas Saturni
was prohibited by the Nazi regime. The leaders
of the lodge emigrated in order to avoid imprisonment,
but in the course of the war Eugen Grosche,
one of their main leaders, was arrested for
a year by the Nazi government. After World
War II they reformed the Fraternitas Saturni.
=== Later 20th century ===
In the 1960s and 1970s, esotericism came to
be increasingly associated with the growing
counter-culture in the West, whose adherents
understood themselves in participating in
a spiritual revolution that would mark the
Age of Aquarius. By the 1980s, these currents
of millenarian currents had come to be widely
known as the New Age movement, and it became
increasingly commercialised as business entrepreneurs
exploited a growth in the spiritual market.
Conversely, other forms of esoteric thought
retained the anti-commercial and counter-cultural
sentiment of the 1960s and 1970s, namely the
techno-shamanic movement promoted by figures
such as Terence McKenna and Daniel Pinchbeck
which built on the work of anthropologist
Carlos Castaneda.This trend was accompanied
by the increased growth of modern Paganism,
a movement initially dominated by Wicca, the
religion propagated by Gerald Gardner. Wicca
was adopted by members of the second-wave
feminist movement, most notably Starhawk,
and developing into the Goddess movement.
Wicca also greatly influenced the development
of Pagan neo-druidry and other forms of Celtic
revivalism. In response to Wicca there has
also appeared literature and groups who label
themselves followers of traditional witchcraft
in opposition to the growing visibility of
Wicca and these claim older roots than the
system proposed by Gerald Gardner. Other trends
which emerged in western occultism in the
later 20th century were satanism as exposed
by groups such as the Church of Satan and
Temple of Set, as well as chaos magick through
the Illuminates of Thanateros group.
== Popular culture ==
In 2013, Asprem and Granholm highlighted that
"contemporary esotericism is intimately, and
increasingly, connected with popular culture
and new media."Granholm noted that esoteric
ideas and images could be found in many aspects
of Western popular media, citing such examples
as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Avatar, Hellblazer,
and His Dark Materials. Granholm has argued
that there are problems with the field in
that it draws a distinction between esotericism
and non-esoteric elements of culture which
draw upon esotericism; citing the example
of extreme metal, he noted that it was extremely
difficult to differentiate between artists
who were "properly occult" and those who referenced
occult themes and aesthetics in "a superficial
way".Writers interested in occult themes have
adopted three different strategies for dealing
with the subject: those who are knowledgeable
on the subject including attractive images
of the occult and occultists in their work,
those who disguise occultism within "a web
of intertextuality", and those who oppose
it and seek to deconstruct it.
== Academic study ==
The academic study of Western esotericism
was pioneered in the early 20th century by
historians of the ancient world and the European
Renaissance, who came to recognise that – although
it had been ignored by previous scholarship
– the effect which pre-Christian and non-rational
schools of thought had exerted on European
society and culture was worthy of academic
attention. One of the key centres for this
was the Warburg Institute in London, where
scholars like Frances Yates, Edgar Wind, Ernst
Cassirer, and D. P. Walker began arguing that
esoteric thought had had a greater effect
on Renaissance culture than had been previously
accepted. The work of Yates in particular,
most notably her 1964 book Giordano Bruno
and the Hermetic Tradition, has been cited
as "an important starting-point for modern
scholarship on esotericism", succeeding "at
one fell swoop in bringing scholarship onto
a new track" by bringing wider awareness of
the effect that esoteric ideas had on modern
science.At the instigation of the scholar
Henry Corbin, in 1965 the world's first academic
post in the study of esotericism was established
at the École pratique des hautes études
in the Sorbonne, Paris; named the chair in
the History of Christian Esotericism, its
first holder was François Secret, a specialist
in the Christian Kabbalah, although he had
little interest in developing the wider study
of esotericism as a field of research. In
1979 Faivre assumed Secret's chair at the
Sorbonne, which was renamed the "History of
Esoteric and Mystical Currents in Modern and
Contemporary Europe". Faivre has since been
cited as being responsible for developing
the study of Western esotericism into a formalised
field, with his 1992 work L'ésotérisme having
been cited as marking "the beginning of the
study of Western esotericism as an academic
field of research". He remained in the chair
until 2002, when he was succeeded by Jean-Pierre
Brach.
Faivre noted that there were two significant
obstacles to establishing the field. One was
that there was an engrained prejudice towards
esotericism within academia, resulting in
the widespread perception that the history
of esotericism was not worthy of academic
research. The second was that esotericism
is a trans-disciplinary field, the study of
which did not fit clearly within any particular
discipline. As Hanegraaff noted, Western esotericism
had to be studied as a separate field to religion,
philosophy, science, and the arts, because
while it "participates in all these fields"
it does not squarely fit into any of them.
Elsewhere, he noted that there was "probably
no other domain in the humanities that has
been so seriously neglected" as Western esotericism.In
1980, the U.S.-based Hermetic Academy was
founded by Robert A. McDermott as an outlet
for American scholars interested in Western
esotericism. From 1986 to 1990 members of
the Hermetic Academy participated in panels
at the annual meeting of the American Academy
of Religion under the rubric of the "Esotericism
and Perennialism Group". By 1994, Faivre could
comment that the academic study of Western
esotericism had taken off in France, Italy,
England, and the United States, but he lamented
the fact that it had not done so in Germany.In
1999, the University of Amsterdam established
a chair in the "History of Hermetic Philosophy
and Related Currents", which was occupied
by Hanegraaff, while in 2005 the University
of Exeter created a chair in "Western Esotericism",
which was taken by Goodrick-Clarke, who headed
the Exeter Center for the Study of Esotericism.
Thus, by 2008 there were three dedicated university
chairs in the subject, with Amsterdam and
Exeter also offering master's degree programs
in it. Several conferences on the subject
were held at the quintennial meetings of the
International Association for the History
of Religions, while a peer-reviewed journal,
Aries: Journal for the Study of Western Esotericism
began publication in 2001. 2001 also saw the
foundation of the North American Association
for the Study of Esotericism (ASE), with the
European Society for the Study of Western
Esotericism (ESSWE) being established shortly
after.
Within a few years, Michael Bergunder expressed
the view that it had become an established
field within religious studies, with Asprem
and Granholm observing that scholars within
other sub-disciplines of religious studies
had begun to take an interest in the work
of scholars of esotericism.Asprem and Granholm
noted that the study of esotericism had been
dominated by historians and thus lacked the
perspective of social scientists examining
contemporary forms of esotericism, a situation
that they were attempting to correct through
building links with scholars operating in
Pagan studies and the study of new religious
movements.
On the basis of the fact that "English culture
and literature have been traditional strongholds
of Western esotericism", in 2011 Pia Brînzeu
and György Szönyi urged that English studies
also have a role in this interdisciplinary
field.
=== Emic and etic divisions ===
Hanegraaff follows a distinction between an
“emic” and an “etic” approach to religious
studies. The emic approach is that of the
alchemist or theosopher as an alchemist or
theosopher. The etic approach is that of the
scholar as an historian, a researcher, with
a critical view. An empirical study of esotericism
needs “emic material and etic interpretation”:
Emic denotes the believer’s point of view.
On the part of the researcher, the reconstruction
of this emic perspective requires an attitude
of empathy which excludes personal biases
as far as possible. Scholarly discourse about
religion, on the other hand, is not emic but
etic. Scholars may introduce their own terminology
and make theoretical distinctions which are
different from those of the believers themselves.
Arthur Versluis proposes approaching esotericism
through a “sympathetic empiricism”:
Esotericism, given all its varied forms and
its inherently multidimensional nature, cannot
be conveyed without going beyond purely historical
information: at minimum, the study of esotericism,
and in particular mysticism, requires some
degree of imaginative participation in what
one is studying.
Many scholars of esotericism have come to
be regarded as respected intellectual authorities
by practitioners of various esoteric traditions.
Although many scholars of esotericism have
sought to emphasise that "esotericism" is
not a single object, practitioners who are
reading this scholarship have begun to regard
it and think of it as a singular object, with
which they affiliate themselves. Thus, Asprem
and Granholm noted that the use of the term
"esotericism" among scholars "significantly
contributes to the reification of the category
for the general audience – despite the explicated
contrary intentions of most scholars in the
field."
== See also ==
Black magic
Involution (esoterism)
Magic (supernatural)
Metaphysics of presence
