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Western esotericism, also known as the Western mystery tradition,Morris, Brian. Religion and Anthropology: A Critical Introduction, Cambridge University Press, 2006, p. 298. is a wide range of loosely related ideas and movements that developed within Western world. These ideas and currents are united since they are largely distinct both from orthodox Abrahamic religion and Age of Enlightenment rationalism. (2025). 9781119092780, Wiley. ISBN 9781119092780 It has influenced, or contributed to, various forms of Western philosophy, mysticism, religion, science, pseudoscience, art, literature, and music.
The idea of grouping a wide range of Western traditions and philosophies together under the term esotericism developed in 17th-century Europe. Various academics have debated numerous definitions of Western esotericism. One view adopts a definition from certain esotericist schools of thought themselves, treating "esotericism" as a perennial hidden inner tradition. A second perspective sees esotericism as a category of movements that embrace an "enchanted" worldview in the face of increasing disenchantment. A third views Western esotericism as encompassing all of Western culture's "rejected knowledge" that is accepted neither by the scientific establishment nor orthodox religious authorities.
The earliest traditions 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 Kabbalah and Christian theosophy. The 17th century saw the development of initiatory societies professing esoteric knowledge such as Rosicrucianism and Freemasonry, while the Age of Enlightenment of the 18th century led to the development of new forms of esoteric thought. The 19th century saw the emergence of new trends of esoteric thought now known as occultism. Significant groups in this century included the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia, the Theosophical Society and the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. Also important in this connection is Martinus Thomsen's "spiritual science". Modern paganism developed within occultism and includes religious movements such as Wicca. Esoteric ideas permeated the counterculture of the 1960s and later cultural tendencies, which led to the New Age phenomenon in the 1970s.
The idea that these disparate movements could be classified as "Western esotericism" developed in the late 18th century, but these esoteric currents were largely ignored as a subject of academic enquiry. The academic study of Western esotericism only emerged in the late 20th century, pioneered by scholars like Frances Yates and Antoine Faivre.
In the 15th and 16th centuries, differentiations in Latin between exotericus and esotericus (along with internus and externus) were common in the scholar discourse on ancient philosophy. The categories of doctrina vulgaris and doctrina arcana are found among Cambridge Platonists. Perhaps for the first time in English, Thomas Stanley, between 1655 and 1660, would refer to the Pythagorean exoterick and esoterick. John Toland in 1720 would state that the so-called nowadays "esoteric distinction" was a universal phenomenon, present in both the West and the East. As for the noun "esotericism", probably the first mention in German of Esoterismus appeared in a 1779 work by Johann Georg Hamann, and the use of Esoterik in 1790 by Johann Gottfried Eichhorn. But the word esoterisch had already existed at least since 1731–1736, as found in the works of Johann Jakob Brucker; this author rejected everything that is characterized today as an "esoteric corpus". In this 18th century context, these terms referred to Pythagoreanism or Neoplatonic theurgy, but the concept was particularly sedimentated by two streams of discourses: speculations about the influences of the Egyptians on ancient philosophy and religion, and their associations with Masonic discourses and other secret societies, who claimed to keep such ancient secrets until the Enlightenment; and the emergence of Oriental studies, which since the 17th century identified the presence of mysteries, secrets or esoteric "ancient wisdom" in Persian, Arab, Indian and Far Eastern texts and practices (see also Early Western reception of Eastern esotericism).
The noun "esotericism" (in its French form "ésotérisme") first appeared in 1828 in the work by Protestant historian of gnosticism Jacques Matter (1791–1864), Histoire critique du gnosticisme (3 vols.).. "The adjective 'esoteric' first appeared in the second century CE, but the substantive is of relatively recent date: it seems to have been coined in German ( Esoterik) in 1792, migrated to French scholarship ( l'estoterisme) by 1828 and appeared in English in 1883. ... In short, 'Western esotericism' is a modern scholarly construct, not an autonomous tradition that already existed out there and merely needed to be discovered by historians." The term "esotericism" thus came into use in the wake of the Age of Enlightenment and of its critique of institutionalised religion, during which alternative religious groups such as the Rosicrucianism began to disassociate themselves from the dominant Christianity in Western Europe. During the 19th and 20th centuries, scholars increasingly saw the term "esotericism" as meaning something distinct from Christianity—as a subculture at odds with the Christian mainstream from at least the time of the Renaissance. After being introduced by Jacques Matter in French, the occultist and ceremonial magician Eliphas Lévi (1810–1875) popularized the term in the 1850s. Lévi also introduced the term l'occultisme, a notion that he developed against the background of contemporary socialism and Catholicism discourses. "Esotericism" and "occultism" were often employed as synonyms until later scholars distinguished the concepts.
However, Aristotle never employed the term "esoteric" and there is no evidence that he dealt with specialized secrets; there is a dubious report by Aulus Gellius, according to which Aristotle disclosed the exoteric subjects of politics, rhetoric and ethics to the general public in the afternoon, while he reserved the morning for "akroatika" (acroamatics), referring to natural philosophy and logic, taught during a walk with his students. Furthermore, the term "exoteric" for Aristotle could have another meaning, hypothetically referring to an extracosmic reality, ta exo, superior to and beyond Heaven, requiring abstraction and logic. This reality stood in contrast to what he called enkyklioi logoi, knowledge "from within the circle", involving the intracosmic physics that surrounds everyday life. There is a report by Strabo and Plutarch, however, which states that the Lyceum's school texts were circulated internally, their publication was more controlled than the exoteric ones, and that these "esoteric" texts were rediscovered and compiled only with the efforts of Andronicus of Rhodes.
Plato would have orally transmitted intramural teachings to his disciples, the supposed "esoteric" content of which regarding the First Principles is particularly highlighted by the Tübingen School as distinct from the apparent written teachings conveyed in his books or public lectures. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel commented on the analysis of this distinction in the modern hermeneutics of Plato and Aristotle:
To express an external object not much is required, but to communicate an idea a capacity must be present, and this always remains something esoteric, so that there has never been anything purely exoteric about what philosophers say.
In any case, drawing from the tradition of discourses that supposedly revealed a vision of the absolute and truth present in mythology and Initiation of mystery religions, Plato and his philosophy began the Western perception of esotericism, to the point that Kocku von Stuckrad stated "esoteric ontology and anthropology would hardly exist without Platonic philosophy."Coniglione, Francesco (April 2018). "Some Remarks on the Meaning of Esotericism and Plato's Unwritten Doctrines". Mondi 1 (1): 5–51 In his dialogues, he uses expressions that refer to cultic secrecy (for example, ἀπορρήτων, , one of the Ancient Greek expressions referring to the prohibition of revealing a secret, in the context of mysteries).Stein, Charles (2016). «Ancient Mysteries». In: Magee, Glenn Alexander. The Cambridge Handbook of Western Mysticism and Esotericism. S.l.: Cambridge University Press In Theaetetus 152c, there is an example of this concealment strategy:
Can it be, then, that Protagoras was a very ingenious person who threw out this obscure utterance for the unwashed like us but reserved the truth as a secret doctrine (ἐν ἀπορρήτῳ τὴν ἀλήθειαν) to be revealed to his disciples?
The Neoplatonists intensified the search for a "hidden truth" under the surface of teachings, myths and texts, developing the hermeneutics and allegorical exegesis of Plato, Homer, Orpheus and others. Plutarch, for example, developed the justification of a theological esotericism, and Numenius wrote "On the Secrets of Plato" ( Peri tôn para Platoni aporrhèta).
Probably based on the "exôtikos/esôtikos" dichotomy, the Hellenic world developed the classical distinction between exoteric/esoteric, stimulated by criticism from various currents such as the Patristics.Trompf, Garry W. (19 September 2008). «From the Esoteric to the Exoteric and Back Again: Themes from Antiquity to Post-Modernity». Sydney Studies in Religion (em inglês). 5: 36, note 2. ISSN 1444-5158. In Crangle, Edward (2004). Esotericism and the Control of Knowledge. According to examples in Lucian, Galen and Clement of Alexandria, at that time it was a common practice among philosophers to keep secret writings and teachings. A parallel secrecy and reserved elite was also found in the contemporary environment of Gnosticism. Later, Iamblichus would present his definition (close to the modern one), as he classified the ancient Pythagoreans as either "exoteric" mathematicians or "esoteric" acousmatics, the latter being those who disseminated enigmatic teachings and hidden allegorical meanings.
In 18th-century Europe, during the Age of Enlightenment, these esoteric traditions came to be regularly categorised under the labels of "superstition", "magic", and "Occult"—terms often used interchangeably. Academia, then in the process of developing, consistently rejected and ignored topics coming under "the occult", thus leaving research into them largely to enthusiasts outside of academia. Indeed, according to the 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" that, previously, had not been 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.". "... in the usage of, the two terms 'esotericism' roughly covered the traditional 'occult sciences' and a wide range of religious phenomena connected or loosely associated with it sic. Thus, he provided useful generic labels for a large and complicated group of historical phenomena that had long been perceived as sharing an air de famille ...."
Various academics have emphasised 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 though 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 example of the Theosophical Society's incorporation of Hinduism and Buddhism concepts like reincarnation 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. Egil Asprem has endorsed this approach.. "Why can we not have a comparative study of esotericism on a truly global rather than a narrowly conceived 'Western' scale?"
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, though 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 pointed out that an approach that seeks a common inner hidden core of all esoteric currents masks that such groups often differ greatly, being rooted in their own historical and social contexts and expressing mutually exclusive ideas and agendas. A third issue was that many of those currents widely recognised as esoteric never concealed their teachings, and in the 20th century came to permeate popular culture, thus problematizing the claim that esotericism could be defined by its hidden and secretive nature. He noted that when scholars adopt this definition, it shows that they subscribe to the religious doctrines espoused by the very groups they are studying.
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. 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:
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. 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 facilitates comparing varying esoteric traditions "with one another in a systematic fashion." Other scholars criticised his theory, pointing out 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 phenomena then had to be compared. The scholar of esotericism 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.
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.
One component of this was Hermeticism, an Egyptian Hellenistic school of thought that takes its name from a legendary Egyptian wise man named Hermes Trismegistus. In the 2nd and 3rd centuries, a number of texts attributed to Hermes Trismegistus appeared, including the Corpus Hermeticum, Asclepius, and The Discourse on the Eighth and Ninth. Some still debate whether Hermeticism was a purely literary phenomenon or had communities of practitioners who acted on these ideas, but it has been established that these texts discuss the true nature of God, emphasising that humans must transcend rational thought and worldly desires 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. Gnostic sects broadly believed that the so-called 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 people, 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 of Tyre, 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, but know it involved a practice designed to make gods appear, who could then raise the theurgist's mind to the reality of the divine.
The medieval period also saw the publication of , which often offered elaborate formulas for theurgy and thaumaturgy. Many of the grimoires seem to have kabbalistic influence. Figures in alchemy from this period also seem to have authored or used grimoires. Medieval sects deemed heretical, such as the Waldensians, were thought to have utilized esoteric concepts.
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, though the rest was 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 with him 900 theses that he had written. Pico della Mirandola argued that all of these philosophies reflected a grand universal wisdom. Pope Innocent VIII condemned these ideas, 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 distinctly Christian Kabbalah. His work was built on by the German Johannes Reuchlin (1455–1522) who authored an influential text on the subject, De Arte Cabalistica. Christian Kabbalah was expanded in the work of the German Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa (1486–1535/36), who used it as a framework 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 on a pre-Copernican worldview, but following the arguments of Nicolaus 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 were deemed heresy by the Roman Catholic Church, which eventually publicly executed him.
A distinct strain of esoteric thought developed in Germany, which became known as Naturphilosophie. Though influenced by traditions from Late Antiquity and medieval Kabbalah, it acknowledged two main sources of authority: the Christian Bible 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 by observing the natural world, though in later work he also focused on overtly religious questions. His work gained significant support in both areas over the following centuries.
One of those influenced by Paracelsus was the German cobbler Jakob 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 Ungrund, and that God himself was composed of a wrathful core, surrounded by the forces of light and love. Though condemned by Germany's Lutheranism 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 Lead'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 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. Instead, the manifestos are likely literary creations of Lutheran theologian Johann Valentin Andreae (1586–1654). They interested the public, so several people described themselves as "Rosicrucian", claiming access to secret esoteric knowledge.
A real initiatory brotherhood was established in late 16th-century Scotland through the transformation of medieval stonemason guilds to include non-craftsmen: 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.
These somnambulic trance-states heavily influenced the esoteric religion of Spiritualism, which emerged in the United States in the 1840s and spread throughout North America and Europe. Spiritualism was based on the concept that individuals could communicate with spirits of the deceased during séances. Most forms of Spiritualism had little theoretical depth, being largely practical affairs—but full theological worldviews based on the movement were 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 pervade the work of many early figures in this field, most notably Carl Jung—though 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). It 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 Éliphas 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 strongly influenced later esotericists like Julius Evola (1898–1974), founder of the UR Group, and Frithjof Schuon (1907–1998).
In the English-speaking world, the burgeoning occult movement owed more to Libertine, 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, including 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). According to Maria Carlson, "Both turned out to be 'positivistic religions,' offering a seemingly logical theology based on pseudoscience." Another form of esoteric Christianity is the spiritual science of the Danish mystic Martinus Thomsen (1890-1981), who was popular in Scandinavia.
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 based on Kabbalah—was founded in the latter years of the century. One of the members of that order was Aleister Crowley (1875–1947), who went on to proclaim the religion of Thelema and become a member of 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 became popular in the early 20th century, especially in Western Europe. Occult lodges and secret societies flourished among European intellectuals of this era who had largely abandoned traditional forms of Christianity. The spreading of secret teachings and magical 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 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,Hermann Gilbhard: Thule-Gesellschaft . 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.Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke: The Occult Roots of Nazism. London: Tauris Parke Paperbacks 2005, p. 149. 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.Wouter Hanegraaff: "The most important magical secret lodge of the 20th century in the German-speaking world." "Fraternitas Saturni" at Wouter Hanegraaff (ed). Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism. Brill. 2006. p. 379 In 1936, the Fraternitas Saturni was prohibited by the Nazi regime. The leaders of the lodge emigrated 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.Stephen E. Flowers. Fire & Ice: The History, Structure and Rituals of Germany's Most Influential Modern Magical Order: The Brotherhood of Saturn. St Paul, MN: Llewellyn, 1994 pp. 23–24
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 developed 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 Gardner.Robert Cochrane and the Gardnerian Craft: Feuds, Secrets, and Mysteries in Contemporary British Witchcraft Ethan Doyle White. The Pomegranate: The International Journal of Pagan Studies. 2011. pp. 205–206. Other trends that emerged in western occultism in the later 20th century included satanism, as exposed by groups such as the Church of Satan and Temple of Set,"Satanism" at Wouter Hannegraaff (ed). Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism. Brill. 2006. p. 1035 as well as through the Illuminates of Thanateros group.Colin Duggan. "Perennialism and iconoclasm. Chaos magick and the legitimacy of innovation". Egil Asprem and Kennet Granholm (eds). Contemporary esotericism. Equinox Publishing. 2013
Additionally, since the start of the 1990s, countries inside the former Iron Curtain have undergone a radical and varied religious revival, with many occult and new religious movements gaining popularity. Neo-Gnostic, New Age organizations, and Scientology splinter groups have found their way into much of the former Eastern Bloc since the cultural and political shift resulting from the dissolution of the Soviet Union. In Hungary, a significant number of citizens (relative to the size of the country's population and compared to its neighbors) practice or adhere to new currents of Western Esotericism. In April 1997, the Fifth Esoteric Spiritual Forum was held for two days in the country and was attended Seating capacity; in August of the same year, the International Shaman Expo began, being broadcast on live television and ultimately taking place for two months wherein various Neoshamanism, millenarian, Mysticism, neo-pagan, and UFO religion congregations and figures were among the attendees.
In 1965, at the instigation of the scholar Henry Corbin, École pratique des hautes études in the Sorbonne established the world's first academic post in the study of esotericism, with a chair in the History of Christian Esotericism. Its first holder was François Secret, a specialist in the Christian Kabbalah, though 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 two significant obstacles to establishing the field. One was an ingrained prejudice toward esotericism within academia, resulting in the widespread perception that the history of esotericism was not worthy of academic research. The other was esotericism's status as 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 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, 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 science 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 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.
The emic approach is that of the alchemist or theosopher. The etic approach is that of the scholar as a historian, a researcher, with a critical view. An empirical study of esotericism needs "emic material and etic interpretation":
Arthur Versluis proposes approaching esotericism through an "imaginative participation":
Many scholars of esotericism have come to be regarded as respected intellectual authorities by practitioners of various esoteric traditions. Many esotericism scholars have sought to emphasise that esotericism is not a single object, but practitioners who read 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."
Granholm noted that esoteric ideas and images appear 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 that draw upon esotericism. He cites extreme metal as an example, noting that it is extremely difficult to differentiate between artists who were "properly occult" and those who superficially referenced occult themes and aesthetics.
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.
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