Questions about Western esotericism
Short answers, pulled from the story.
What is Western esotericism and how is it defined by scholars?
Western esotericism is a broad category of ideas and movements that developed within Western society, distinguished from orthodox Abrahamic religion and Enlightenment rationalism. Scholars disagree on a single definition; Antoine Faivre's six-characteristic framework, published in 1992, became the standard definition for many years, while Wouter Hanegraaff has described it as the academy's category for rejected knowledge that fits neither mainstream science nor orthodox religion.
Where did Western esotericism originate historically?
The earliest traditions of Western esotericism emerged in the Hellenistic Eastern Mediterranean during Late Antiquity, when the region was part of the Roman Empire. Hermeticism, Gnosticism, and Neoplatonism all developed there in the 2nd and 3rd centuries as distinct schools of thought, drawing on Greek, Egyptian, Levantine, Babylonian, and Persian traditions.
Who were the key figures in Renaissance Western esotericism?
Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499) translated Plato and the Corpus Hermeticum into Latin for Cosimo de' Medici. Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463-1494) synthesized Kabbalah, pagan philosophy, and Christianity in 900 theses debated in 1486. Paracelsus (1493/94-1541) challenged Galenic medicine using alchemy and folk magic, and Jakob Böhme (1575-1624) launched the Christian theosophy movement.
When did the academic study of Western esotericism begin?
The first academic post dedicated to esotericism was established in 1965 at the École pratique des hautes études in the Sorbonne, at the instigation of scholar Henry Corbin. Antoine Faivre assumed that chair in 1979 and is credited with formalizing the field; his 1992 work L'ésotérisme is cited as marking the beginning of Western esotericism as an academic discipline.
What role did the Theosophical Society play in Western esotericism?
Helena Blavatsky co-founded the Theosophical Society in 1875 and authored Isis Unveiled (1877) and The Secret Doctrine (1888). Later leaders Annie Besant and Charles Webster Leadbeater incorporated Hindu and Buddhist concepts including reincarnation and proclaimed Jiddu Krishnamurti a world messiah, which prompted Rudolf Steiner to found the breakaway Anthroposophical Society.
How did Western esotericism connect to the Nazi movement in Germany?
Several early members of the Nazi Party had connections to the Thule Society, an occult secret society in interwar Germany. Thule Society activist Karl Harrer was one of the founders of the German Workers' Party, which became the Nazi Party, and figures including Alfred Rosenberg and Rudolf Hess were listed as guests of the Society. After coming to power, the Nazis persecuted occultists; the Fraternitas Saturni magical order, founded on Easter 1928, was prohibited by the Nazi regime in 1936.