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Western Esotericism is the new focus of this podcast. Let’s explore the basics of this field of study.
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Transcripts
Western esotericism is a field of study that examines philosophies and practices,
Speaker:often of a spiritual nature, that have been rejected from common knowledge.
Speaker:These groups of philosophical disciplines and religions were often
Speaker:banned by the Christian Church or ostracized by academia, pushing
Speaker:members to practice in secret.
Speaker:Nonetheless, these movements have contributed to generally
Speaker:accepted studies like natural science, psychology, and astronomy.
Speaker:Today we'll take an overview of the different practices related
Speaker:to this field and what makes them important and fascinating.
Speaker:Let's begin.
Speaker:Thank you for tuning in to an episode of Merwin's Philosophy, where I explore
Speaker:the connection between spirituality and psychology and how that coincides
Speaker:with social issues we face today.
Speaker:Now here's the show.
Speaker:Welcome to another episode.
Speaker:The last one we talked about was on Hellenistic Astrology and that
Speaker:would fall under the umbrella called Western Esotericism, which
Speaker:we'll be talking about today.
Speaker:Now most of this episode will focus on a book called Western Esotericism: A
Speaker:Guide for the Perplexed by Wouter J.
Speaker:Hanegraaff.
Speaker:And I'll just go ahead and say that, despite the subtitle, it was
Speaker:still a very complex book to read.
Speaker:I felt like I was trying to learn calculus without understanding algebra first.
Speaker:You're going to need to do some outside research to understand his points
Speaker:and maybe read it a couple of more times to really understand the book.
Speaker:But once you get the basic understanding of what he's talking about, the
Speaker:book proves very useful in trying to explain this very complex topic.
Speaker:And I do believe Hanegraaff did his best.
Speaker:When it comes to macro level topics like politics, economics, and even
Speaker:religion and philosophy, it's very complex to understand the first time
Speaker:around, unless you have some kind of background or experience in those topics.
Speaker:This is why I present myself more as a student and explorer of these
Speaker:topics rather than an expert.
Speaker:This podcast is a way for me to document that journey.
Speaker:So, like I said, despite this book being very complex, he does
Speaker:break it down in several ways.
Speaker:He gives us a brief trajectory of the different philosophies and doctrines that
Speaker:we place under this field, and then he spends several chapters listing out the
Speaker:similarities and differences of these different spiritualities and how society
Speaker:has reacted to them throughout history.
Speaker:And as we'll see, society has swung from ostracizing to embracing and
Speaker:exploring these occult teachings.
Speaker:This really started in the Renaissance period and has progressed over time
Speaker:into the modern age where now we can see these topics being openly
Speaker:discussed on social media platforms such as TikTok and even YouTube.
Speaker:So as usual, I'm going to break this episode into three parts.
Speaker:The first part we'll look at a brief overview of the related disciplines.
Speaker:Part two we'll look at the similarities and differences.
Speaker:And then part three we'll examine society's reactions and why these
Speaker:are considered occult and esoteric in contrast to the more exoteric
Speaker:religions that we hear of today.
Speaker:So, let's jump into part one.
Speaker:Western Esotericism is the study of philosophical and spiritual teachings
Speaker:that have been rejected by society either because they were banned by the church or
Speaker:ostracized, such as by the academic elite.
Speaker:The word esoteric means hidden and it kind of refers to the occult.
Speaker:It's knowledge that's only supposed to be known within the organizations
Speaker:that practice it or that inner circle.
Speaker:Exoteric would be knowledge for the outside world.
Speaker:So think public education or religious teaching spread through missionaries.
Speaker:Now, the western part of the title refers to how these have impacted the western
Speaker:side of the world, which we considered western Europe and later on America.
Speaker:I have a video linked in my show notes and in the description from the YouTube
Speaker:channel, Useful Charts, and it's called Western Esotericism Family Tree, and
Speaker:it gives a much easier to understand lineage of how all of these practices
Speaker:kind of branch together under this umbrella and apart from each other.
Speaker:If you read Hanegraaff's book, you will be a little bit confused
Speaker:without that preliminary information.
Speaker:But there are four practices that lead to the concept of Western Esotericism,
Speaker:and these four are called Gnosticism, Hermeticism, Kabbalah, and Neoplatonism.
Speaker:And they all deserve their own future episodes, but I will
Speaker:mention them in this episode.
Speaker:There's also Eastern religions that have influenced this category as well.
Speaker:We'll refer to those in passing as we look at the other disciplines one by one,
Speaker:, but they have been adapted by the West and have influenced our understanding of
Speaker:this field and the related spiritualities that we lump underneath this field.
Speaker:So let's start with the first big one, Hermeticism.
Speaker:This emerged during the Hellenistic Greece period between 200 and 300 BC
Speaker:and is based on writings attributed to the sage Hermes Trismegistus, which
Speaker:is an amalgamation of the Egyptian god Thoth and the Greek god Hermes.
Speaker:I did mention him in the last episode on Hellenistic Astrology.
Speaker:And much of Hermeticism includes aspects of astrology, alchemy, and
Speaker:theurgy, which we call today magic.
Speaker:Its main purpose was to attain some type of divine wisdom so
Speaker:the soul could reach salvation.
Speaker:It saw the physical realm as a place of exile.
Speaker:And so the main goal was to attain this divine wisdom so you could
Speaker:reach paradise or salvation.
Speaker:And it influenced many esoteric practices after it, which we will see, including
Speaker:the ones that are listed in this list.
Speaker:And like most ancient esoterica, this particular one fell out of
Speaker:practice after the fall of Rome, and it regained significance again
Speaker:during the Renaissance period
Speaker:Now the next one is Gnosticism And that came about around the first century A.
Speaker:D.
Speaker:during the Roman Empire.
Speaker:It was an early form of Christianity and it emphasized the concept of Gnosis.
Speaker:And this is a Greek word that means knowledge, awareness.
Speaker:And it refers to a sense of spiritual knowledge of a divine or
Speaker:god based on personal experiences.
Speaker:This is different than what we see in modern religions, which place
Speaker:more emphasis on institutionalized teachings such as those taught by
Speaker:a pastor or the head of a church.
Speaker:And this, like Hermeticism, saw the material world as a place
Speaker:of exile, but it went further and saw it as a place of evil.
Speaker:And the only way to find salvation was through obtaining this Gnosis,
Speaker:or hidden spiritual knowledge.
Speaker:Now over time it became banned by the Orthodox Church for heresy
Speaker:and because they had different beliefs on the concept of God.
Speaker:Next emerged Neoplatonism in the 3rd century during the Roman Empire again.
Speaker:And this was a reaction to Gnosticism founded by the Greek philosopher Plotinus.
Speaker:Now he taught that the physical world was not all bad, but instead it was hidden
Speaker:from the divine truth known as the One.
Speaker:And the goal was to move from the darkness, which would be the
Speaker:physical world, towards the light, which would be the spiritual world,
Speaker:or this idea again of Gnosis.
Speaker:Now it was similar to Platonism, which is the teachings of
Speaker:the Greek philosopher Plato.
Speaker:And some historians and philosophers argue that this is simply another
Speaker:era of Plato's teachings and not an actual separate category.
Speaker:We'll look more into that in a later episode, but that's just based on
Speaker:my preliminary research trying to figure out what the difference is.
Speaker:Now, the Christian and Arab conquests, which contributed to the fall of Rome,
Speaker:also pushed these teachings out of the mainstream until the Renaissance
Speaker:movement embraced them again.
Speaker:And last but not least, we have the Kabbalah.
Speaker:And this emerged around the 12th century in southeastern Europe, so
Speaker:think Spain and the surrounding areas.
Speaker:And it's a form of Jewish mysticism, which goes back further in time and is similar
Speaker:to Hermeticism, which includes esoteric practices for obtaining divine knowledge.
Speaker:It's a little bit more than just theoretical.
Speaker:It actually included actual practices, just like Hermeticism.
Speaker:And it's considered part of the Torah, which is the Hebrew Bible.
Speaker:Now, over time and during the Renaissance period, it became
Speaker:detached from Jewish traditions.
Speaker:And now, there are both Jewish and non Jewish Kabbalah.
Speaker:I don't think it ever fell out of popularity, but this is what I found.
Speaker:I think it just split into Jewish versus non Jewish Kabbalah.
Speaker:And it had a big influence on the practices that we see today.
Speaker:So it's in this list.
Speaker:Now as you can see, and as with most esoteric and even religious beliefs,
Speaker:the practices are focused on obtaining some type of divine and spiritual
Speaker:knowledge, or that word Gnosis again.
Speaker:I believe that pondering beyond the concrete, pondering the spiritual
Speaker:and metaphysical world, seems to be part of a human experience, and
Speaker:it's a way to explain the abstract components, like why are we here?
Speaker:Why are we alive?
Speaker:This seems to be uniquely human to me.
Speaker:And that brings us to part two.
Speaker:We like to rewrite history in a way that aligns with our beliefs, our ideals,
Speaker:and preconceived notions, regardless of the actual facts that may refute it.
Speaker:Now, hopefully before you're listening to this podcast, I have
Speaker:already posted a blog post that goes into the anti science movement.
Speaker:This kind of connects with that.
Speaker:This is the reason why we have conspiracy theories and
Speaker:misinformation readily spread around.
Speaker:Now, Hanengraff calls this mnemohistory, but I simply call it History vs Memory.
Speaker:People may do this to make sense of events or information that may
Speaker:be disturbing or hard to believe.
Speaker:And in the sense of Western Esotericism, it was a way to
Speaker:discuss whose take on religion and spirituality would be the dominant one.
Speaker:In my understanding, it seemed to be about power and control.
Speaker:Now the main way this was done was through apologetic and polemic ways.
Speaker:One defends the beliefs from doubters and other cast non
Speaker:believers as the one in the wrong.
Speaker:So let's talk about apologetic first.
Speaker:This is the reasoning that is used to defend your beliefs against doubters.
Speaker:Early Christians argued that all knowledge, spiritual and philosophical,
Speaker:which used to be one and the same, all derived from ancient Hebrew,
Speaker:including ancient Greek philosophy.
Speaker:They made connections to their religion in the teachings of the Greek philosopher
Speaker:Plato, who I mentioned earlier.
Speaker:Now, this isn't true.
Speaker:Christianity was pretty new relative to ancient Greek
Speaker:culture which came before it.
Speaker:Platonism, and later Neoplatonism, influenced Christianity, not the
Speaker:other way around as early Christians argued, but the connection helped
Speaker:persuade people at the time.
Speaker:Now during the Renaissance period around the 1400s, the
Speaker:printing press was invented.
Speaker:And more of the classical works, like Plato's teachings,
Speaker:were becoming more available.
Speaker:They were becoming translated and spread around to the public.
Speaker:And this had the effect of strengthening the argument that Christianity was
Speaker:the source of all divine knowledge.
Speaker:In fact, part of that argument was that it was a sign from God, the Christian
Speaker:God, that these works were being more readily available, and that in order
Speaker:to reach spiritual salvation, you needed to follow the Christian faith.
Speaker:In other words, it was almost like it was God's will that all of these
Speaker:teachings were becoming more available to strengthen the argument that Christianity
Speaker:was the source of all divine knowledge.
Speaker:And now that it's becoming more available, you better get on the bandwagon if
Speaker:you want to save your soul, basically.
Speaker:Now, another way that Christianity became the dominant religion over time was the
Speaker:polemic reasoning, which was to denounce all other religions and spiritual beliefs.
Speaker:And I would argue that this had a stronger impact than the apologetic route.
Speaker:They denounced most pagan beliefs as heresy, including Gnosticism,
Speaker:which again was a different belief related to the Christian God.
Speaker:Then the Protestant Reformation in the 1500s pushed this movement even further.
Speaker:This was basically a split within the Christian faith from the Catholic Church.
Speaker:And the Protestants was even more polemic against paganism
Speaker:than the Catholic Church was.
Speaker:To give more context, there were certain pagan beliefs that the
Speaker:Christian Church accepted, or the Catholic Church, excuse me.
Speaker:But the Protestants were even more hardliners and said no.
Speaker:Now it's important to note that not all Protestants and Catholics were hardliners
Speaker:against pagan thought and history.
Speaker:Like I said, some embraced certain elements and past
Speaker:philosophies into their religion.
Speaker:But overall, the majority's thoughts won out and pushed most of the
Speaker:past spiritual and philosophical beliefs out of Western society.
Speaker:Yet, this mixing of pagan beliefs into certain forms of Christianity
Speaker:did begin the field of Western esotericism as we study today.
Speaker:Now that's the religious part.
Speaker:Now we move into the more academic component into the Enlightenment period.
Speaker:The Enlightenment era was roughly between the late 1600s to the early 1800s,
Speaker:which is after the Renaissance period.
Speaker:Thinkers and philosophers of this time started to distance themselves
Speaker:from Christianity in favor of more rational thoughts and reasoning.
Speaker:They also included seeing paganism and esoteric beliefs as superstition, which
Speaker:is a belief that still holds today.
Speaker:Now, the Romantic thinkers, or people who were still holding on to the Romantic
Speaker:era of thought, they argued that the Enlightened thinkers were too harsh
Speaker:and cold, trying to shut out the human elements of emotion and imagination.
Speaker:And while I personally agree with what I've read so far, the unfortunate
Speaker:thing was the Romantic thinkers overemphasized the mystical and esoteric
Speaker:elements, leading more to an enchanted view that was more detached from
Speaker:grounded reality, which furthered the divide from the Enlightened thinkers.
Speaker:Now this attitude did resolve over time as society began to embrace both human
Speaker:emotions and rational thinking, and it led to the field of psychology, which
Speaker:developed around the 20th century.
Speaker:And in 1960, or around that time, Western Esotericism became a field of study and it
Speaker:gained a lot more traction in the 1990s.
Speaker:So, this is a relatively new field of study and only a few colleges
Speaker:around the world, I believe, actually teach it or only teach
Speaker:certain disciplines related to it.
Speaker:Now, the similarities so far that we've discussed is how these pagan beliefs
Speaker:became rejected from society and religion and therefore became esoteric,
Speaker:but also how, like Christianity, there was a concern with trying to
Speaker:find a sense of the divine truth and understand the mysteries of life.
Speaker:A third way is how all of these were practiced.
Speaker:And I see a comparison between these esoteric religions and how
Speaker:they're practiced and the exoteric religions like Christianity.
Speaker:Now, in the book, Hanegraaff lists eight ways in which these esoteric
Speaker:traditions were practiced, and I would like to go over them and explain more
Speaker:of the similarity that I have witnessed because I was raised Christian,
Speaker:so I actually saw some of this.
Speaker:So the first one is control, and these are practices where one tries
Speaker:to gain power or influence over their reality, such as using talismans
Speaker:and amulets as personal protections.
Speaker:Christians may wear a cross for the same reason and believe in the power of
Speaker:prayer to change their circumstances.
Speaker:The second way is knowledge, which is practices where one tries to gain
Speaker:information, like divination practices where one tries to gain information about
Speaker:the future, such as tarot and astrology.
Speaker:Christians may read the Bible or rely on a preacher's interpretations of events
Speaker:to also gain a deeper sense of knowledge.
Speaker:Then we have amplification, which is practices that enhances one's abilities,
Speaker:like visualization and healing.
Speaker:In the book, Hanegraaff used an example of astral magic to which my understanding,
Speaker:is practices that attune to the energy of astrological phenomena and try to harness
Speaker:some kind of power in beneficial ways.
Speaker:It corresponds to intense visualization, sort of the way intense belief
Speaker:and visualization may be used in Christianity through prayer.
Speaker:So there's a similarity.
Speaker:The fourth one is healing, which is practices that induce
Speaker:a sort of healing effect.
Speaker:Think Reiki or other esoteric alternative healing practices for the body and spirit.
Speaker:Essential oils are used for the same way, relying on personal experience
Speaker:and a little bit of pseudoscience.
Speaker:Now many legends in Christianity talk about spontaneous healing
Speaker:via hands and chanting.
Speaker:So the fifth way is progress.
Speaker:And this is practices that help the person advance on some type of spiritual path.
Speaker:Now, in a Christian Catholic context, this may look like going from a
Speaker:priest to a cardinal or even the pope.
Speaker:Freemasonry is an esoteric organization that also uses a sense of hierarchy
Speaker:and progression within their practices.
Speaker:The sixth way is contact, and this allows users to contact other supernatural
Speaker:or metaphysical beings such as angels, demons, or even spirits of the dead.
Speaker:This, in an esoteric sense, may look like the channeling work of
Speaker:mediums who allow people to speak to their deceased loved ones.
Speaker:And in pop culture, we've seen a Christian priest or preacher do exorcism
Speaker:as a way to cast out demonic spirits from someone believed to be possessed.
Speaker:That could be an example of contact.
Speaker:And similar to contact, number seven is unity.
Speaker:And these are practices used to achieve some kind of unity with God
Speaker:or a higher being, like some kind of fusion of human and supernatural.
Speaker:In my exorcism example, the one being possessed would be seen
Speaker:as unity with a demonic spirit.
Speaker:And I did run across the Christian thought of being one with Christ, which
Speaker:seems to have a similar aspect about it.
Speaker:And last but not least, you have pleasure, which is these practices that
Speaker:are simply done as pleasurable rituals.
Speaker:There's a sense of community and camaraderie that practitioners may find
Speaker:through these rituals and ceremonies.
Speaker:Both exoteric and esoteric societies have this element.
Speaker:Now basically, this whole part that I went through is a quick summary of the
Speaker:chapter 7 within Hanegraaff's book.
Speaker:And some scholars try to explain all of the esoteric practices as
Speaker:emanating from one central idea of spirituality and the search for divine
Speaker:truth, instead of seeing them as a multitude of different practices.
Speaker:There's a reason they're called esoteric, and it's because they've
Speaker:been hidden from public knowledge.
Speaker:We're more aware of mainstream religion like Christianity
Speaker:than we are esoteric rituals.
Speaker:Now, he mentioned how being faced with cold, hard facts in history can
Speaker:make people question their beliefs.
Speaker:It can lead people to developing a nihilistic view of life, as if nothing
Speaker:matters, and it's just full of events that happened randomly, and especially
Speaker:since much of history does conflict with popular religious and spiritual beliefs.
Speaker:We can't predict certain tragedies such as natural disasters
Speaker:and car accidents and death.
Speaker:We can trace certain causes such as weather patterns and risky behaviors,
Speaker:but we can't predict with certainty who will be affected on what day.
Speaker:And it's uncertainties like this that make people turn to spirituality in
Speaker:order to cope and gain some sense of a positive outlook on life.
Speaker:But my personal opinion is that we need to find a way to merge this need for a
Speaker:purpose in life and for understanding with the cold hard facts that we have.
Speaker:There's still a lot of uncertainties that science and just rational
Speaker:thinking can't quite come up with.
Speaker:And so I believe that spirituality can help with cope with the negative
Speaker:aspects of life, and it can help with gaining the positive aspects
Speaker:such as beauty and community.
Speaker:We just have to find a way to merge those two and not let one take over the other.
Speaker:Because like I said, there are some spiritual thoughts that override
Speaker:rational thinking or will try to rewrite history as we've discussed before.
Speaker:And that brings us to the last part, which is societal reactions.
Speaker:Now this last part is basically my summary of chapter 7 within his book, which
Speaker:Hanengraaff lists five ways that society has transformed throughout time in the
Speaker:way it pertains to Western esotericism.
Speaker:So here's my summary of those seven ways.
Speaker:Number one, we all have a personal way in which we believe the world functions.
Speaker:Some take a more spiritual approach, others a more scientific one.
Speaker:I believe that we need both because there's plenty of
Speaker:things science cannot explain.
Speaker:This does risk anti science and pseudo scientific beliefs becoming
Speaker:more popular, but I don't think it's fair to ignore human emotion and our
Speaker:propensity to share stories and beliefs in order to build community with
Speaker:each other, since humans are social.
Speaker:This push and pull is just part of the human experience
Speaker:and the way society functions.
Speaker:Number 2.
Speaker:The Christian Church began losing its power and control around the 18th
Speaker:century, which led more people to discover other religions and philosophies.
Speaker:That kind of goes to part 1, in which we were allowed to embrace the
Speaker:diverse ways in which we believe the world functions and not told strictly
Speaker:through the idea of a religious lens.
Speaker:Number three.
Speaker:Ideas about divine evolution and spiritual progress became
Speaker:diverse, as I just alluded to.
Speaker:Ideas such as reincarnation and others derived from eastern philosophy
Speaker:became entertained and developed away from the Christian lens.
Speaker:Number four, development of psychology broke apart the idea of God and
Speaker:humankind being one and the same.
Speaker:Psychology taught that the human mind and soul operated on its own.
Speaker:Spirituality and psychology began to divert from one another.
Speaker:I actually have an old episode that kind of looks at
Speaker:spirituality versus psychology.
Speaker:Now, admittedly, I feel like there's some things missing in that episode
Speaker:because this was before I started this dive into Western Esotericism
Speaker:and kind of a more mature lens of what I was trying to talk about.
Speaker:But I think some things in there still stand and I think it still is a
Speaker:good episode, all things considered.
Speaker:But that brings us to number five.
Speaker:Religious freedom allows people to embrace their own version of spirituality and
Speaker:philosophical beliefs without the fear of persecution, at least here in the West.
Speaker:We do have this thing called separation of church and state,
Speaker:which is a modern version of this.
Speaker:It allows us to not be beholden by whatever the church says.
Speaker:And allow this religious freedom, which I would argue is
Speaker:currently being challenged today.
Speaker:But that is a whole, that's more related to politics and that's
Speaker:beyond the scope of this podcast.
Speaker:Now, all of these five major ways of transformations
Speaker:have led to a pagan revival.
Speaker:You can find almost any esoteric belief from astrology to witchcraft
Speaker:being discussed on social media.
Speaker:And that brings me to my conclusion.
Speaker:Western esotericism is just a modern umbrella for spiritual
Speaker:and philosophical practices that were shunned due to religious
Speaker:persecution and societal ridicule.
Speaker:Just like with mainstream religion, these Esoteric ones represent diverse
Speaker:ways of thinking about the uncertainties of human experience, which does
Speaker:include the spiritual and emotional.
Speaker:While these are fascinating practices to study, it's important to remember
Speaker:the cultural and historical context in which these practices were developed.
Speaker:This gives a deeper understanding of them and keeps us from being
Speaker:overly enchanted by them, such as the Romantic thinkers or overly critical
Speaker:as we've seen early Christians do.
Speaker:Now Hanegraaff's book is dense and complex and I honestly just scratched the surface.
Speaker:There are many details I glossed over and left out and because I wanted to
Speaker:give a general overview of both the book and a framework to think about Western
Speaker:Esotericism, since it encapsulates what I plan on talking about in the future.
Speaker:Now I would encourage you to get the book if you would like to learn more
Speaker:about the finer details I left out.
Speaker:I most likely will talk about the related disciplines in other episodes because they
Speaker:definitely deserve their other episodes.
Speaker:I'll do a few more episodes on Hellenistic Astrology because I wasn't
Speaker:quite done with that subject as well.
Speaker:So stay tuned.
Speaker:Thank you for listening to this episode.
Speaker:If you're watching on YouTube, be sure to leave me a comment and subscribe for more.
Speaker:For those of you listening through a podcast app, make sure you
Speaker:subscribe and leave me a review.
Speaker:Click the link in the show notes or head on over to merwinmccrady.
Speaker:com to leave me a comment there.
Speaker:Thank you so much and I'll see you in the next one.
