Esotericism today and your reading year

In this lesson: how esotericism became an academic field, how to respect living traditions and a step-by-step plan for a year of reading.

You have followed the Western esoteric traditions from the Hermetica to the twentieth century, and you can read a source and trace a claim. In this last lesson you meet the people who study esotericism today, you think about how to treat living traditions with respect, and you plan a year of reading that will take you further than any course.

A young academic field

Historical For a long time universities ignored esotericism or treated it as superstition. That changed in the late twentieth century. In 1986 the French scholar Antoine Faivre proposed, and in the early 1990s published in English, a set of characteristics of esoteric thought, such as correspondences, living nature, imagination and transmutation; his book appeared in English as Access to Western Esotericism in 1994. In 1999 the University of Amsterdam created a chair for the history of Hermetic philosophy and related currents, held by Wouter Hanegraaff, and the European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism was founded in 2005.

Modern Scholars today argue about definitions, and Faivre’s list is debated, but they agree that esotericism is a serious part of Western culture, connected to science, religion, art and politics. Studying it historically is not the same as believing or debunking it.

Where the field lives now

Modern Today the study of esotericism has university chairs, master’s programs, journals and conferences. The University of Amsterdam’s Center for History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents, where Wouter Hanegraaff took the chair in 1999, is the best known. The University of Exeter has also taught the subject. The journal Aries is published by Brill, and Correspondences is a free online journal. Societies such as the European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism (ESSWE) and the Association for the Study of Esotericism in North America hold regular conferences.

Many conference talks and articles are free online. Reading a few is the quickest way to see how scholars actually work: slowly, with footnotes and with plenty of disagreement.

Inside and outside

Scholars use two handy words. An emic view is the insider’s view, how a tradition describes itself. An etic view is the outsider’s view, how a historian or anthropologist describes it. Both are useful. Trouble starts when one pretends to be the other: when an insider’s story is presented as history, or when an outsider tells insiders what they “really” believe.

Respecting living traditions

Modern Many of the traditions in this course are alive: Kabbalah in Jewish communities, Hermetic and Rosicrucian orders, Wicca, Thelema and others. Read their own writers as well as outside scholars, describe them in their own terms, and be careful with traditions that are closed or tied to a particular community. Good history is curious and fair.

Your reading year, step by step

What you need: your notebook, a calendar, a library card or an internet connection to free libraries, and about an hour a week.

1. Write twelve lines in your notebook, one for each month.
2. For each month choose one primary source with a free edition, such as Ficino’s Hermetica, the Fama Fraternitatis, Agrippa, Lévi or the 1904 Goetia.
3. Add one question you want that source to answer.
4. Choose one secondary source for the year, such as an introduction by a scholar of esotericism.
5. Each week, read for about an hour and write half a page of notes, using the five questions from lesson 8.
6. Each month, add your source to the timeline from lesson 9.
7. At the end of the year, write two pages on how your picture of esotericism has changed.

Journal prompts: Which period or current do you want to know better, and why? How do you feel about studying traditions from the outside and from the inside at the same time? Which “ancient” belief of yours has changed most during this course?

Questions beginners ask

Can I study esotericism at university? Yes, in a small number of programs, and many religious studies and history departments include it.

Do scholars of esotericism believe in magic? Some do, many do not, and the field asks them to set belief aside while they study.

Can I practice and study at the same time? Many people do. Keep your notes honest about which hat you are wearing.

Myths to drop: “Academics only want to debunk.” The field exists to understand, not to mock. “Esotericism means secret teachings.” Much of it was printed and widely read. “You must choose between practice and history.” You can hold both with care.

A worked example

A learner makes her plan. January: the first treatise of the Corpus Hermeticum, asking “What does it say about the mind?”. February: the Emerald Tablet in Newton’s version. March: the Fama Fraternitatis, asking “What did the Rosicrucians promise?”. Her secondary source for the year is Hanegraaff’s short guide. By April she notices that each text quotes the ones before it, and her timeline starts to look like a family tree.

A beginner’s worry, answered. “An hour a week does not sound like much.” It adds up to about fifty hours a year, which is enough to read several primary sources and two or three good histories carefully. Steady, small amounts of reading teach more than occasional marathons, and they fit into a real life with work, family and rest.

Try this

Plan a reading year: write twelve lines, one per month, each naming one primary source with a free edition and one question you want it to answer. Start the first one this week.

A sample reading year, in prose

Modern If you would like a ready-made plan to adapt, here is one that follows the order of this course, using sources with free editions. In January, read the first treatise of the Corpus Hermeticum in Mead’s 1906 translation, and ask what it says about the mind. In February, read the Emerald Tablet in Newton’s translation and one modern version, and ask what the “one thing” might be.

In March, read the first ten chapters of Agrippa’s first book in the 1651 English, and ask how he connects nature and the stars. In April, read a few pages of the Sefer Yetzirah in Westcott’s 1887 version alongside a scholar’s introduction, and ask what the 32 paths really are. In May, read the Fama Fraternitatis in an English translation, and ask what kind of reform it calls for. In June, read a chapter from a history of alchemy and look at a digitized alchemical manuscript.

In July, read about the Fox sisters in a newspaper archive from 1848 or later and a historian’s account, and compare them. In August, read the three objects of the Theosophical Society and a chapter on Blavatsky by a historian. In September, read the Golden Dawn’s history in a scholarly book and look at the Rider-Waite-Smith cards with fresh eyes.

In October, read a chapter of Ronald Hutton’s The Triumph of the Moon. In November, read a short scholarly article on a modern movement you are curious about, such as chaos magic or the New Age. In December, read back through your notes and write your two-page reflection. Change any month freely; the plan is a frame, not a syllabus.

How scholars write, and how you can too

Modern Reading academic writing can feel slow at first. A few tips help. Read the introduction and conclusion first, then the middle. Look at the footnotes, because they show you where the evidence lies. Notice the careful language: “probably”, “the earliest known”, “scholars disagree”. These words are not weakness; they are honesty about the limits of the evidence. When you write your own notes, borrow the same habits. Write “the earliest source I found” rather than “the first”. Write “debated” when two good historians disagree. Your notebook will become a small, trustworthy history of your own.

Insider and outsider, a worked example

Imagine a learner reads a modern Rosicrucian group’s website, which says its teachings come from ancient Egypt. She writes two notes. The emic note: “The group describes its tradition as ancient and Egyptian, and this is meaningful to its members.” The etic note: “Historically, the Rosicrucian story begins with manifestos printed in Germany in 1614 and 1615, and modern Rosicrucian orders were founded in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.” Both notes are true, and neither mocks the group. Holding both views at once, respectfully, is one of the most valuable skills this course can give you.

Questions graduates ask

What should I read after this course? A good general history, such as Hanegraaff’s short guide, followed by one book on the period you liked most. The further reading in each lesson is a ready-made list.

How do I avoid falling for confident nonsense? Keep asking for dates and sources, read two good historians on any big question, and be kind to yourself when you get something wrong.

Can I share what I have learned? Yes, and please do. Share your sources too, so that others can check and learn.

Is there a certificate? Yes. When you have marked every lesson as done, you can claim your certificate of completion, as described below.

Recap

Western esotericism became an academic field from the 1990s, with Faivre’s characteristics, the Amsterdam chair in 1999 and the European society in 2005. Study living traditions with fairness and respect. A reading year, one primary source and one question a month, is the best next step.

What next

Follow your reading year. The esoteric art page and Art History for Beginners show these ideas in images, Demons for Beginners goes deep into the grimoires and Tarot for Beginners into the cards.

You have finished Occult History for Beginners. Press “Mark as done” and claim your certificate of completion. Then read my history of witchcraft with your new eyes.

Further reading: Wouter J. Hanegraaff, Esotericism and the Academy (Cambridge University Press, 2012). Egil Asprem and Julian Strube (eds.), New Approaches to the Study of Esotericism (Brill, 2021). The free journal Correspondences (correspondencesjournal.com).

Sources

• Antoine Faivre, Access to Western Esotericism (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1994).
• Wouter J. Hanegraaff, Esotericism and the Academy: Rejected Knowledge in Western Culture (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012).
• Wouter J. Hanegraaff, Western Esotericism: A Guide for the Perplexed (London: Bloomsbury, 2013).

Go deeper: the art history and Goetia pages on this site

Mark as done