New Perspectives on Western Esotericism

Author(s): Henrik Bogdan

Source: Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions, Vol. 13, No. 3
(February 2010), pp. 97-105
Published by: University of California Press
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Review Essay
New Perspectives on Western Esotericism

Henrik Bogdan

Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism. Edited by Wouter J.

Hanegraaff, in collaboration with Antoine Faivre, Roelof van den Broek,
and Jean-Pierre Brach. Brill Academic Publishers, 1995. 2 vols. xxix +
1228 pages. $199.00 cloth.
Western Esotericism: A Brief History of Secret Knowledge. By Kocku von
Stuckrad. Equinox Publishing Ltd., 2005. ix + 167 pages. $115.00 cloth;
$34.95 paper.
Magic and Mysticism: An Introduction to Western Esotericism. By Arthur
Versluis. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2007. vii + 179 pages.
$63.00 cloth; $22.95 paper.
Magia Sexualis: Sex, Magic, and Liberation in Modern Western Esotericism. By
Hugh B. Urban. University of California Press, 2006. xi + 336 pages.
$60.00 cloth.

ver the past 15 years, the study of Western Esotericism has developed into an important and challenging field of research, a
field that by now is well established in academia. The establishment of the field can be attested to by the fact that not only are an
increasing number of academic books dealing with various aspects of
Western Esotericism being published, but journals, book series, and
Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions, Volume 13, Issue 3, pages
97105, ISSN 1092-6690 (print), 1541-8480 (electronic). 2010 by The Regents of
the University of California. All rights reserved. Please direct all requests for permission to photocopy or reproduce article content through the University of California
Presss Rights and Permissions website, at http://www.ucpressjournals.com/reprintinfo.asp. DOI: 10.1525/nr.2010.13.3.97

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scholarly organizations devoted to Esotericism have been created. In
terms of academic journals mention should be made of Aries: Journal for
the Study of Western Esotericism (E. J. Brill Academic Publishers) and the
electronic journal Esoterica <http://www.esoteric.msu.edu>. State
University of New York Press has been publishing books on Esotericism
in the SUNY Series in Western Esoteric Traditions since 1993, with no less
than 44 books issued so far. Brill Academic Publishers has a series called
The Aries Book Series: Texts and Studies in Western Esotericism which is
devoted to the publication of textual editions and scholarly studies in
the domain of Western Esotericism. Finally, mention should be made of
the series Gnostica: Texts and Interpretations put forth by Equinox
Publishing that focuses on scholarly interpretations of esoteric movements, including the Gnostic, Hermetic, Manichaean, Theosophical
and related traditions.
As for scholarly organizations, the two most prominent are the
United States-based Association for the Study of Esotericism (ASE),
founded in 2002, and The European Society for the Study of Western
Esotericism (ESSWE), founded in 2005. Both the ASE and ESSWE
organize a conference every two years so that one conference takes
place every year in either North America or Europe. In 2007 the first
regional sub-group of ESSWE was created, the Scandinavian Network
for the Academic Study of Western Esotericism (SNASWE). In Europe
there are now three professorial chairs devoted to the field: the
University of Amsterdam (held by Wouter J. Hanegraaff), the University
of Exeter (held by Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke), and cole Pratique des
Hautes Etudes, Sorbonne, Paris (held by Jean-Pierre Brach). The latter
chair, formally entitled History of Esoteric Currents in Modern and
Contemporary Europe was held by Antoine Faivre from 1979 to 2002.
To a large extent Faivre was instrumental in establishing Esotericism
as an independent field of research. Perhaps most importantly, Faivres
definition of Western Esotericism as a particular form of thought can
be seen as a paradigm that dominated the field for over a decade.
According to Faivre, the esoteric form of thought is characterized by
four intrinsic and two secondary constituting components. First, the
idea of correspondences. These are symbolic and concrete correspondences between all the visible and invisible parts of the universe. Second,
living nature: the entire universe is a living organism traversed by a network of sympathies or antipathies that link all natural things (usually
described as mystical links). Third, imagination and mediations: to the
esotericist the imaginative faculty of humans is of incalculable importance as a tool for spiritual enlightenment. Connected to this is the
importance attributed to rituals, symbolic images and intermediary spirits between man and the Godhead. Fourth, the experience of transmutation: just as it may be possible for base metals to be transmuted into
gold, so also it may be possible to refine the spiritual properties in
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humanity and to achieve enlightenment or Unio Mystica with the
Godhead. Fifth, the praxis of the concordance: the syncretistic approach
to two or more traditions that aims at obtaining a superior illumination.
Sixth, and last, transmission: the esoteric knowledge must be transmitted from a teacher to a pupil.1 This last component includes the notion
of initiation that became an important feature of Western Esotericism
from the eighteenth century onwards, especially in organizations such
as the Order of Freemasons (1717) and later magical movements such
as The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (1887), and the modern
witchcraft movement as developed by Gerald Gardner in the 1950s.2
The main advantage of Faivres definition of Western Esotericism was
perhaps not only that it made Esotericism a defined (and for the nonspecialist, understandable) field of research, but also that it proved to be
efficient as an analytic approach to the subject itself. Nevertheless, in the
past few years the field has been undergoing a paradigmatic shift in
focus and new definitions of Esotericism have been suggested by scholars such as Wouter J. Hanegraaff and Kucko von Stuckrad. The main
criticism of Faivres definition is that he apparently based it on
Renaissance and pre-Enlightenment forms of Esotericism and that he
did not take into account how Esotericism changes, for instance, due to
the impact of modernity, secularization and globalization. This criticism not only reflects a shift in focus from historical to more contemporary currents of Esotericism, but also a theoretical shift in which
Esotericism is increasingly seen in a typological sense. The four books
under review in this essay can be seen as symptomaticeach in its own
senseof new trends in the study of Esotericism.
The Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism is by far the most important and significant work to have been published on Esotericism in recent
years, and its sheer scale is impressive: the two volumes, totaling 1228
pages, include no less than 310 entries, a number of which are divided
into different sub-entries. The list of contributors consists of 149 authors
and it reads like a veritable Whos Who in the study of Esotericism. The
entries can be divided into three main categories: esoteric currents, persons and organizations. The first category includes entries such as
alchemy, astrology, Gnosticism, Hermetic literature, Intermediary Beings,
Magic, Music, Rosicrucianism and Secrecy, and they are often divided into
chronological sub-entries. Alchemy, for instance, is divided into five sections (I, Introduction; II, Antiquity-12th Century; III 12th/13th15th
Century; IV, 16th18th Century; V, 19th20th Century). The second category forms the bulk of the entries, with persons as diverse as Cornelius
Agrippa, Francis Bacon, William Blake, Aleister Crowley, Marsilio Ficino,
Hildegard of Bingen, Athanasius Kircher, Novalis, and Valentin Weigel, to
name but a few. The third category includes well-known organizations and
movements such as Freemasonry, Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn,
Ordo Templi Orientis, and Martinism, but also more obscure organizations,
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such as the Asiatic Brethren, lus Cons, Fraternitas Saturni and the
Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor. The fact that most of the entries have
been written by leading authorities in the respective fields makes them, as
a rule, excellent both in terms of the historical data and in terms of analysis, and the harmony in form and content between the various entries
reveals a strong and highly qualified editorial hand in the process.
The wide range of topics covered in the dictionary, however, brings
to the forefront a central question in the current study of Esotericism
namely that of defining Western Esotericism. Although Faivres definition of Western Esotericism as a form of thought has been criticized
and certain scholars have suggested new definitions, there exists no
consensus today among scholars dealing with Esotericism in terms of a
definition. In the introduction to the dictionary Wouter J. Hanegraaff
gently maneuvers around the problem by stating that at the time of writing there is an ongoing theoretical and methodological debate about
definitions and demarcations in the study of Esotericism:
Since the eventual outcome of these discussions is as yet far from clear,
it would have been unwise to link the present Dictionary too specifically
to one particular definition or theoretical approach. Such an attempt
would, moreover, have been unnecessary, becauseas in the study of
religion generallyscholars in this domain often strongly disagree
about abstract theoretical definitions although they in fact share a broad
consensus about the historical phenomena covered by the term.
Specialists may quibble about boundary issues, disagreeing about
whether this or that specific current or personality should or should not
be included under the broad labels Gnosis and Western Esotericism,
but experience shows that by and large they think of the same domain
and the same currents when they are using these terms (p. xi).

While a dictionary comprising approximately 150 authors is not the

place to promote ones own particular definition, it should be remembered that Hanegraaff is one of the leading voices in the theoretical and
methodological debate, and the name of the dictionary itself can thus be
seen as a reaction against the Faivrerian understanding of Esotericism. By
including the word Gnosis in the title, as well as a large number of late
antique and medieval currents and persons in the dictionary, there is an
implicit criticism of Faivres thesis that Esotericism was formed during
the Renaissance. But perhaps more importantly, to Hanegraaff the
emphasis on gnosis is central to Western Esotericism, a conviction that
he apparently shares with other scholars, as will be discussed later in this
essay.3
It is difficult to criticize the Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism
on account of its contents, but one can in my opinion question what is
not in the dictionary. The work is almost exclusively devoted to the
English-, German- and French-speaking parts of the world. Other
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areasEastern Europe, the Mediterranean, Scandinaviaare to all
intents and purposes absent. To a certain extent this might reflect the
state of the research in Western Esotericism, i.e. scholars tend to focus
on English-, German- and French-speaking parts of the world, but it is
also probably due to an editorial decision: it is impossible to include
everything. The effect of this decision will hopefully be that scholars try
to fill in the lacunae by writing on Esotericism in geographical areas not
covered by the dictionary. In fact, this is exactly what has happened in
Scandinavia where more than 40 scholars are now involved in documenting Esotericism in Scandinavia in a forthcoming book edited by
Henrik Bogdan and Olav Hammer. Another concern is the choice not
to include a number of important modern esotericists (such as Israel
Regardie and Kenneth Grant). Moreover, there is no separate entry for
esoteric new religious movements, despite the fact that esoteric NRMs
are a significant part of our contemporary religious landscape (there is
an excellent separate entry for the New Age movement, however).
These minor objections notwithstanding, the dictionary is strongly recommended to both specialists in the field of Esotericism and also to
scholars specializing in NRMs and in the history of religions generally.
The next two books, Western Esotericism: A Brief History of Secret Knowledge
by Kocku von Stuckrad and Magic and Mysticism: An Introduction to Western
Esotericism by Arthur Versluis, are a paired match in the sense that they set
out to do the same thing: to provide the readers with a concise historical
overview of Western Esotericism. The similarities between the two books
are striking in terms of form and content. Both books begin with a theoretical discussion of Esotericism called What is esotericism? followed by
eight chapters that run almost parallel in which the historical development of Esotericism from Antiquity to modern times is discussed. Von
Stuckrads and Versluis understanding of Esotericism is similar to that of
Hanegraaff in that they both emphasize the importance of knowledge
or gnosis as central to Western Esotericism. According to von Stuckrad,
Esotericism is not something that exists as an objectthere is no essentialist Esoteric Tradition as suchbut Esotericism should rather be understood as a tool for interpreting European cultural history (hence the
designation Western Esotericism). In defining Esotericism von Stuckrad
leans heavily on discourse analysis:
Whenever I talk about esotericism in this book, I conceive of the
esoteric much more as an element of discourse in the European history of
religion. This element of discourse can be identified as follows: the
pivotal point of all esoteric traditions are claims to real or absolute
knowledge and the means of making this knowledge available. This might
be through an individual ascent as in Gnostic or Neo-Platonic texts, or
through an initiatory event as in secret societies of the modern period,
or through communication with spiritual beings, as in the channelling
of the twentieth century (p. 10).

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Von Stuckrads assertion that Esotericism centers on claims to real or
absolute knowledge could be questioned as a firm foundation for defining Esotericism since practically all religious traditions center on epistemology and the claim to absolute knowledge. However, von Stuckrad
makes an important addition to the esoteric knowledge in that it relates
to the dialectic of the hidden and revealed, in combination with an
emphasis on individual experience wherein a seeker attains higher
knowledge through extraordinary states of consciousness (p. 10). The
gnosis strived for by the esotericist is thus two-fold: on one level it pertains to knowledge transmitted through books, symbols and rituals, but
on another level it pertains to an experiential knowledge. Versluis agrees
with von Stuckrad on the importance of gnosis in defining Esotericism:
Characteristic of esotericism is a claim to gnosis, or direct spiritual
insight into cosmology or metaphysics (p. 1). It is evident that Versluis
shares von Stuckrads understanding of the double nature of esoteric
gnosis even though he uses other words to express the two levels of
knowledge. According to Versluis magic and mysticism form the
twin currents of Esotericism. Here magic is understood as cosmological gnosis and mysticism as metaphysical gnosis, and these two types
of gnosis can, at least to my mind, be connected to the two levels of gnosis discussed by von Stuckrad. Magic and the cosmological gnosis are
primarily intellectual knowledge transmitted through a construct of tradition (such as books and initiatory societies), while mysticism and metaphysical gnosis are in essence experiential knowledge (reached by
meditation, visions, ritual experience or other techniques). In esoteric
discourse these two types of gnosis are often hard to separate since they
are dependent on each other, a fact that Versluis appears to emphasize
(see figure 1.1. on p. 4).
According to von Stuckrad and Versluis the roots of Esotericism lie
in Antiquity and Late Antiquity in philosophical and religious traditions such as Platonism, Hermetism and Gnosticism, but also in
Christian and Jewish mysticism. To Versluis it is particularly with
Dionysius the Areopagite and his hierarchical cosmos and distinction
between via positiva and via negativa that a distinctly Christian Esotericism
is formed. The via positiva is the way that goes through symbols and
images, through analogies and visions, whereas the via negativa consists in denying that anything created or imagined in fact corresponds
to the divine (i.e., affirmation of the divine by way of negation). Various
forms of esoteric currents developed over the centuries and von
Stuckrad and Versluis discuss the significance of these currents from the
medieval period, through the Renaissance and the Early Modern
period, to Modern and late-Modern forms of Esotericism. Both books
are highly readable and clear guides to a complex field of research, and
they would both be excellent choices for students as introductions to
Western Esotericism.
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The final book to be reviewed in this essay, Magia Sexualis: Sex, Magic,
and Liberation in Modern Western Esotericism by Hugh B. Urban, differs
from the other works discussed in this essay in that it deals with a specific current in Western Esotericismsexual magic. After an introductory chapter in which Urban discusses the esoteric roots of sexual magic,
both historical (such as ancient Greek love magic, sexual symbolism in
Kabbalah and Renaissance magic) and mythical (such as the Knights
Templar and Medieval witches), he delves into the subject in Chapter 2
that deals with the African American Rosicrucian author Paschal Beverly
Randolph (18251875). Randolph was a well-known Spiritualist with
radical views on both womens emancipation and racial equality, whose
particular form of sexual magic became highly influential among
occultists and the many secret societies that sprang up during the second half of the nineteenth century. Arguably the most influential of
these organizations was The Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor which
became known for its strong emphasis on practical occultism. It was
probably through this organization that Theodor Reuss (18551923)
(Chapter 2) came into contact with the sexual magic of Randolph.
Reuss was the founder of Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.), a German
masonic initiatory society that openly claimed that their central secret
was sexual magic. Urban argues that the sexual teachings of Randolph
by this time became identified with Tantric practices derived from the
exotic Orient, and that sexual magic from then on became hopelessly
confused with Tantra. According to Urban the sexual magic of O.T.O.
was connected to an ideal of social transformation and liberation from
an oppressive Christian world.
This theme is further explored in Chapter 3, which deals with Reuss
successor as leader of the O.T.O., Aleister Crowley (18751947). Crowley
was fiercely critical of the Christian church and even styled himself as To
Mega Therion, or the Great Beast 666, the Antichrist of the Book of
Revelation. To Crowley, Christianity represented an abrogated form of
religion based upon the notion of slave-gods belonging to an old
aeon. According to his own esoteric religion Thelema (Greek for will),
founded in 1904, the new aeon was to be characterized by freedom.
The morals and ethics of Western society and Christianity were often
regarded as restraints and restrictions imposed upon the individual,
and in order to progress spiritually one had to break free from bonds of
the old values. Often enough, the most explicit way of breaking free was
to adopt a new antinomian sexual morality based on Crowleys holy text
The Book of the Law, which encouraged people to have sex with whomever
they wanted, provided the other partner approved. Crowleys view on
sex differed considerably from the traditional Christian belief that sex
is the cause of sin. On the contrary, Crowley regarded sex as a potent way
to spiritual enlightenment, and on the basis of this assumption he developed a particular form of sexual magic (based on the teachings he had
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received from Reuss) that he taught the elite of his disciples. To Crowley
and his followers, sex was interpreted as a way to challenge the morals
of Western society and a means to break free from them.
In Chapter 5 Urban turns his attention to the Italian fascist and
occultist Julius Evola (18981974) whose particular form of sexual magic
was linked to a traditionalist critique of the modern world. Influenced
by traditionalists such as Ren Gunon, Evola was deeply skeptical of the
materialism and secularization of the West, but also of Christianity which
he saw as an effeminate and morally destructive force. Instead, Evola
argued for a return to pre-Christian pagan values of manliness and virility and the values of the warrior by means of Tantra and sexual magic.
The return to an imaginary pagan tradition is also central to the following chapter, Chapter 6, entitled The Goddess and the Great Rite.
Here Urban discusses Gerald Gardner (18841964) and the modern
witchcraft movement, particularly the so-called Great Rite of the Wiccan
Third Degree. The sexual symbolism of this rite owed much to Crowley
(particularly his Gnostic Mass), but the influence from Crowley appears
to have been deliberately downplayed during the 1960s and 1970s by
more feminist versions of the witchcraft movement. Urban argues that
the modern witchcraft movement is paradoxical in the sense that
despite its feminist nature it promotes stereotyped gender roles based
on a nave essentialism.
Nave essentialism, however, was not restricted to the witchcraft
movement at this time, it is also applicable to the Satanism of Anton
LaVey (19301997), discussed in Chapter 7. The Church of Satan was
formed in San Francisco in 1966 at the height of the Flower Power era,
and Urban arguesrightly sothat LaVeys views on sexuality reflect
the larger preoccupation with sexual liberation during this period.
However, just as the New Age movement became increasingly commercialized during the 1970s and 1980s, so also Satanism and its views on
sexual liberation was co-opted by the forces of consumerism and commercialization. Chapter 8 brings sexual magic into post-Modern spirituality by way of Chaos Magic. This particular form of magic, promoted
by authors such as Peter J. Carroll (b. 1952), is highly eclectic and syncretic and known for its rejection of absolute truths.
Urban argues that sexual magic should not be regarded as a reaction
against modernity but rather as an expression of modern religion.
According to Urban the modern character of sexual magic has four
important dimensions. First, the emphasis on the individual self and the
power of the individual will. Second, sexual magic is seen as the ultimate
secret, or the key to the hidden aspects and potentiality, of each individual. Third, the notion that sexual magic is a science and that the
practitioners should use scientific methods when performing sexual
magic. Fourth, the practitioners of sexual magic promoted radical
emancipation, both on the individual and the social levels.
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I would argue that the most important aspect of Urbans book is not so
much the fascinating history of sexual magic itself, as its placing sexual
magic and Western Esotericism in the broader context of Western culture
and the processes of modernity. After all, practitioners of sexual magic only
make up a very small part of the Western populace. However, the phenomenon of sexual magic is illustrative of wider changes in Western spirituality and it thus merits the detailed attention that Urban has given to it.
That being said, one can only regret the fact that Urban has limited his
scope to the English-speaking world, as it would have been interesting to
see the implications of sexual magic in a non-English context. (True,
Urban does deal with Julius Evola in Chapter 5, but all his sources are
English translations and one would have liked to see a more detailed discussion of the Italian context in which Evola operated). It would, for
instance, have been interesting to contrast the forms of sexual magic that
Urban deals with, with the forms connected with the German Fraternitas
Saturni or the Colombian neo-gnostic Samael Aun Weor.
To sum up, these four volumes contribute significantly to our understanding of Western Esotericism, each in its distinctive fashion.
Hanegraaffs Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism will be the benchmark dictionary in Esotericism for years to comeit has become my
favorite sourcebook on the subject and I keep returning to it on a regular basis. Von Stuckrad and Versluis offer excellent introductions to
Esotericism while at the same time contributing to our understanding
of Esotericism as gnosis. Finally, Urban locates Esotericism and the practice of sexual magic in the broader contexts of modernity and late
modernity, and thus brings to the forefront the notion that the study of
Esotericism is important to our knowledge of Western culture.

ENDNOTES
1

Antoine Faivre, Access to Western Esotericism (Albany: State University of New York
Press, 1994), 1015.
2 For a discussion on the relationship between Western Esotericism and rituals
of initiation, see Henrik Bogdan, Western Esotericism and Rituals of Initiation
(Albany: State University of New York Press, 2007).
3 For Hanegraaffs view on Western Esotericism, see Wouter J. Hanegraaff, The
Study of Western Esotericism: New Approaches to Christian and Secular
Culture in New Approaches to the Study of Religion, Vol. 1: Regional, Critical, and
Historical Approaches, ed. Peter Antes, Armin W. Geertz and Randi R. Warne
(Berlin and New York: Walter de Gruyter 2004), 489519.

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