Utente:Primo Lattanzio/Esoterismo occidentale

"Esoterismo occidentale" è un termine usato per indicare una vasta gamma di gruppi e scuole di pensiero che condividono una sorta di "aria di famiglia". Si riferisce a una vasta gamma di idee e di movimenti che si sono sviluppati all'interno della società occidentale, e che sono rimasti in gran parte distinti sia dall'ortodossia religiosa giudaico o cristiana che dal razionalismo illuminista. Si tratta quindi di un campo trans-disciplinare, maggiore della somma delle sue parti, che ha pervaso varie forme di filosofia occidentale, la religione, la scienza, la pseudoscienza, l'arte, la letteratura e la musica, continuando ad avere un impatto su idee intellettuali e la cultura popolare. 

La definizione precisa di "esoterismo occidentale" è stata discussa da vari studiosi e questo ha prodotto svariate proposte. Gli studiosi dell'argomento adottano la definizione di "esoterismo" riferendosi ad una tradizione nascosta ai più, una tradizione interiore, una filosofia perenne. Una seconda prospettiva sostiene che si tratta di una categoria che comprende visioni del mondo che cercano di abbracciare una visione "incantata" del mondo a fronte del crescente disincantamento materialista, legato anche alla fede scientista. Un terzo punto di vista, proposto da Wouter Hanegraaff, vede nell'"esoterismo occidentale" una categoria che comprende tutta la "conoscenza rifiutata", oltre che nascosta, della cultura occidentale, che non è accettata dalla comunità scientifica né dall'ortodossia religiosa.

Le primi tradizioni classificabili come forme di esoterismo occidentale sono emerse nel Mediterraneo orientale durante la tarda antichità. Lì ermetismo,gnosticismo e neoplatonismo, si svilupparono come scuole di pensiero distinte, dalle correnti principali del cristianesimo. 

L'idea che questi movimenti potessero essere classificati insieme sotto il nome di "esoterismo occidentale" è stata ampiamente ignorata come soggetto di ricerca accademica. Lo studio accademico dell'esoterismo occidentale è emerso come esigenza solo negli ultimi anni del 20° secolo ed è stato introdotto da studiosi come Frances Yates e Faivre. Ci sono ora diverse riviste, cattedre universitarie e società accademiche dedicate a questo settore. Le idee esoteriche hanno nel frattempo anche esercitato una influenza nella cultura popolare, apparendo in arte, letteratura, cinema, e musica.

Etimologia

L'aggettivo "esoterico" è apparso la prima volta nel secondo secolo D.C. come esôterikós, termine greco antico, in una satira scritto da Luciano di Samosata.[1]

Il sostantivo "esoterismo", nella sua forma francese "l'ésotérisme", è stato usato la prima volta nel 1828, da Jacques Matter nel suo libro, Histoire du gnosticisme. In questo momento è stato utilizzato a seguito del Secolo dei Lumi e la sua critica della religione istituzionalizzata, durante il quale i gruppi religiosi alternativi cominciarono a dissociarsi dal cristianesimo dominante in Europa occidentale. Nel corso del XIX e XX secolo, il termine "esoterismo" venne comunemente visto come qualcosa che era distinta dal cristianesimo, e che aveva formato una sottocultura che era in contrasto con la corrente principale cristiana, almeno nel Rinascimento. Il termine è stato poi reso popolare dall'occultista francese, e mago cerimoniale, Eliphas Lévi nel 1850, e è stato introdotto nella lingua inglese dal teosofo AD Sinnet nel 1883. Lévi ha anche introdotto il termine l'occultisme, che probabilmente sviluppò lui stesso. Questi termini sono stati spesso impiegati come sinonimi fino a quando non sono stati distinti l'uno dall'altro da autori successivi.[5]

Definizione

Il concetto di esoterismo occidentale è una moderna categoria di pensiero accademica piuttosto che una tradizione di pensiero antica. Gli studiosi hanno iniziato a considerare questa categoria nel tardo 18 ° secolo, identificando le "somiglianze strutturali" tra "le idee e le visioni del mondo di una grande varietà di pensatori e movimenti", che prima di allora non era stati collocati nello stesso raggruppamento. Secondo lo studioso di esoterismo Wouter J. Hanegraaff, il termine ha fornito una "etichetta generica utile" per "un grande e diversificato gruppo di fenomeni che erano stati a lungo percepiti meramente come possessori di una certa aria di famiglia". 

Vari studiosi hanno sottolineato l'idea che l'esoterismo è un fenomeno relativo al solo mondo occidentale; come Faivre ha dichiarato, una "prospettiva empirica" porterebbe a sostenere che "l'esoterismo è un concetto occidentale". Studiosi come Faivre e Hanegraaff hanno sottolineato che non esiste una categoria, paragonabile, di "esoterismo orientale". Hanegraaff ha caratterizzato questi approcci come "visioni del mondo ed approcci alla conoscenza riconoscibili, per i loro tratti comuni, che hanno svolto un ruolo importante, anche se controverso, nella storia della cultura occidentale." Lo storico delle religioni Henrik Bogdan ha affermato che l'esoterismo occidentale costituisce "un terzo pilastro della cultura occidentale" a fianco de "la fede dottrinale e razionale", considerata eretica dalla prima e irrazionale da parte della seconda. D'altra parte gli studiosi riconoscono che le varie tradizioni non occidentali hanno esercitato "una profonda influenza" sull'esoterismo occidentale, citando l'esempio di spicco della costituzione della Società Teosofica attraverso l'inclusione di concetti indù e buddisti nelle sue dottrine. Alla luce di queste influenze e data l'imprecisione del termine "occidentale", lo studioso di esoterismo Kennet Granholm ha sostenuto che gli accademici dovrebbero smettere di riferirsi all"esoterismo occidentale" e dovrebbero usare il termine "esoterismo", come descrittore di questo fenomeno.[15]

Vi è un ampio consenso tra gli studiosi su quali correnti di pensiero possono essere inserite all'interno della categoria dell"esoterismo", che vanno dall'antico gnosticismo e ermetismo, attraverso i Rosacroce e la Kabbalah, e al fenomeno più recente del movimento New Age. Tuttavia "esoterismo" rimane un termine controverso, con studiosi in disaccordo su come dovrebbe essere definito.[16]

Esoterismo come tradizione interiore e segreta.

Una definizione adottata da alcuni studiosi intende il termine "esoterismo occidentale" in riferimento alle "tradizioni interiori", che si occupano di una "dimensione spirituale universale della realtà, in contrasto con le tradizioni essoteriche (essoterismo) delle istituzioni religiose e dei sistemi dogmatici delle religioni tradizionali. Questo uso del termine "esoterico" è più vicino al significato originale della parola, come è stato utilizzato nella tarda antichità, dove è stato applicato a insegnamenti spirituali segreti che sono stati riservati a un'elite specifica e nascosta dalle masse. Di conseguenza, questo uso del termine vede l'"esoterismo occidentale", solo come una variante di un "esoterismo" diffuso in tutto il mondo, che si trova al centro di tutte le religioni e culture del mondo, che rispecchia una realtà esoterica nascosta. Nel campo accademico degli studi religiosi coloro che studiano diverse religioni alla ricerca di una dimensione universale, interiore a tutte, appartengono ad una categoria particolare chiamata "religionists", questo nei paesi anglofoni.[19]

Urbi et orbi, autore anonimo, xilografia (pubblicato per la prima volta in L'atmosphère: météorologie populaire di Camille Flammarion, Parigi, 1888). Colorazione: Heikenwaelder Hugo, Vienna 1998.

Questa definizione accademica di esoterismo è stata fortemente influenzata dalle idee di diversi movimenti esoterici stessi, in particolare dalla Massoneria Martinista e Tradizionalista (Martinismo). E' stato un termine popolare tra gli accademici francesi nel corso degli anni 80 del ventesimo secolo, che ha esercitato una forte influenza su accademici come Mircea Eliade, Henry Corbin, e sui primi lavori di Faivre. Tali idee "religionist"  hanno anche esercitato un'influenza su studiosi più recenti come Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke e Arthur Versluis. Versluis per esempio ha definito l'"esoterismo occidentale" come "conoscenza spirituale interna e nascosta trasmessa attraverso correnti storiche dell'Europa occidentale, che a loro volta hanno fertilizzato il Nord America e altri contesti non-europei". Ha aggiunto che tutte queste correnti esoteriche occidentali condividono una caratteristica di base", una pretesa di gnosi, o di intuizione spirituale diretta nella cosmologia o nell"insight" spirituale, e di conseguenza ha suggerito che queste correnti potrebbero essere indicate come "gnosticismo occidentale" così come "esoterismo occidentale".[22]

Ci sono vari problemi con questo approccio per la comprensione dell'esoterismo occidentale. Il più significativo è che esso assume il paradigma che esista davvero un "dimensione esoterica nascosta ed universale della realtà", che essa esista oggettivamente. L'esistenza di questa tradizione interiore universale non è stata scoperta attraverso l'indagine scientifica o accademica; questo aveva portato alcuni a sostenere che non esista, anche se Hanegraaff ha pensato meglio di adottare una visione basata su un'idea di "agnosticismo metodologico" dichiarando che "noi semplicemente non sappiamo - e non possiamo sapere" se esista veramente o no. Egli ha osservato che, anche se tale livello di realtà esistesse, esso sarebbe accessibile solo attraverso pratiche spirituali "esoteriche", e quindi non potrebbe essere scoperto o misurato con gli strumenti di ricerca "esoterici", accademici, della scienza. 

Esoterismo come visione incantata del mondo

Per alcuni l'esoterismo rappresenta un ritorno indietro a visioni del mondo "incantate", pre-cartesiane e precedenti al positivismo scientifico. Tuttavia proprio la crisi del positivismo scientifico, nei primi decenni del XX secolo, evidenzia come esistano ampli settori della realtà apparente che sfuggono all'indagine scientifica e strumentale. Tutti i campi nei quali si è voluto applicare un rigido approccio scientifico ed empirico, dalla psicanalisi freudiana fino alla fisica, dimostrano come sempre sia valido il detto socratico "io so di non sapere".

1. "Corrispondenze": Questa è l'idea che ci sono sia corrispondenze reali e simbolici che esistono tra tutte le cose nell'universo. Macrocosmo e microcosmo, spesso presentato come il detto di "come sopra, così sotto", così come l'idea astrologico che le azioni dei pianeti hanno un'influenza relativa diretta sulla comportamento degli esseri umani[32]
2. "Natura Vivente": Il cosmo visto come organismo "vivente" esso stesso, complesso, plurale, gerarchico.[33]
3. "Immaginazione e Mediazione": Grande enfasi sull'immaginazione e la meditazione – rituali, immagini simboliche, mandala, entità spirituali – come strumenti per accedere a mondi e livelli di realtà realmente esistenti ed intermedi tra il mondo materiale e quello divino[34]
4. "Trasmutazione": Trasmutazione di se stessi per mezzo di opportune pratiche e rituali al fine di raggiungere la gnosi.[35]
5. "Concordia":Le concordanze del mondo visibile sono la prova di un principio unificatore che pervade tutte le religioni ed i credi.[36]
6. "Trasmissione": Trasmissibilità attraverso un processo di iniziazione.[37]

[44]

[52]

Storia

Tarda periodo classico

Ermete Trismegisto, raffigurazione tardo antica.

The origins of Western esotericism are in the Hellenistic Eastern Mediterranean, then part of the Roman Empire, during Late Antiquity, a period encompassing the first centuries of the Common Era.[53] This was a milieu in which there was a mix of religious and intellectual traditions from Greece, Egypt, the Levant, Babylon, and Persia, and in which globalisation, urbanisation, and multiculturalism were bringing about socio-cultural change.[54]

One component of this was Hermetism, an Egyptian Hellenistic school of thought that takes its name from the legendary Egyptian wise man, Hermes Trismegistus.[55] In the 2nd and 3rd centuries CE, a number of texts appeared which were attributed to Hermes Trismegistus, including the Corpus Hermeticum, Asclepius, and the The Discourse on the Eighth and Ninth.[56] Although it is still debated as to whether Hermetism was a purely literary phenomenon, or whether there were communities of practitioners who acted on these ideas, it has been established that these texts discuss the true nature of God, emphasising that humans must transcend rational thought and worldly desires in order to find salvation and be reborn into a spiritual body of immaterial light, thereby achieving spiritual unity with divinity.[56]

Another tradition of esoteric thought in Late Antiquity was Gnosticism, which had a complex relationship with Christianity. Various Gnostic sects existed, and they broadly believed that the 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 humans, 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.[57]

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, 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.[58] 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, although it is known that it involved a practice designed to make gods appear, who could then raise the theurgist's mind to the reality of the divine.[59]

Middle Ages

After the fall of Rome, alchemy and philosophy and other aspects of the tradition were largely preserved in the Arab and Near Eastern world and introduced into Western Europe by Jews and by the cultural contact between Christians and Muslims that occurred due to the Crusades and the Reconquista. The 12th century saw the development of the Kabbalah in medieval Spain. The medieval period also saw the publication of grimoires which offered often elaborate formulas for theurgy and thaumaturgy. Many of the grimoires seem to have kabbalistic influence. Figures in alchemy from this period seem to also have authored or used grimoires.

Renaissance and Early Modern period

During the Renaissance, a number of European thinkers began to synthesize "pagan" philosophies which were then being made available through Arabic translations with Christian thought and the Jewish kabbalah.[60] The earliest of these individuals was the Byzantine philosopher Plethon (1355/60–1452?), who argued that the Chaldean Oracles represented an example of a superior religion of ancient humanity which had been passed down by the Platonists.[61] 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.[62] Ficino also translated part of the Corpus Hermeticum, although the rest would be translated by his contemporary, Lodovico Lazzarelli (1447–1500).[63] 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 the 900 theses that he had written with him. Mirandola argued that all of these philosophies reflected a grand universal wisdom, however Pope Innocent VIII condemned these actions, criticising him for attempting to mix pagan and Jewish ideas with Christianity.[64]

Pico's increased interest in Jewish kabbalah led to his development of a distinct form of Christian Kabbalah. His work was built on by the German Johannes Reuchlin (1455–1522) who authored a prominent text on the subject, De arte cabalistica.[65] Christian Kabbalah was expanded in the work of the German Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa (1486–1535/36), who used it as a framework through which to explore the philosophical and scientific traditions of Antiquity in his work De occulta philosophia libri tres.[66] The work of Agrippa and other esoteric philosophers had been based in a pre-Copernican worldview, but following the arguments of 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 would be deemed heresy by the Roman Catholic Church, eventually resulting in his public execution.[67]

The Masonic Square and Compasses.

A distinct strain of esoteric thought developed in Germany, where it came to be known as Naturphilosophie; although influenced by traditions from Late Antiquity and Medieval Kabbalah, it only acknowledged two main sources of authority: Biblical scripture and the natural world.[68] 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, which based its approach on the ideas of Galen. Instead, Paracelsus urged doctors to learn medicine through an observation of the natural world, although in later work he also began to focus on overtly religious questions. His work would gain significant support in both areas over the following centuries.[69] One of those influenced by Paracelsus was German cobbler Jacob 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 Ungrud, and that God himself composed of a wrathful core, surrounded by the forces of light and love.[70] Although condemned by Germany's Lutheran 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 Leade's Philadelphian Society in England.[71]

From 1614 to 1616, the three Rosicrucian Manifestos were published in Germany; these texts purporting to represent a secret initiatory brotherhood which had been founded centuries before by a German adept named Christian Rosenkreutz. There is no evidence that Rosenkreutz was a genuine historical figure, or that a Rosicrucian Order had ever existed, and instead the manifestos are likely literary creations of Lutheran theologian Johann Valentin Andreae (1586–1654). However, they inspired much public interest, with various individuals coming to describe themselves as "Rosicrucian" and claiming that they had access to secret esoteric knowledge as a result.[72] A real iniatory brotherhood was established in late 16th-century Scotland through the transformation of Medieval stonemason guilds to include non-craftsman: 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.[73]

18th, 19th and early 20th centuries

Hypnotic séance. Painting by Swedish artist Richard Bergh, 1887

The Age of Enlightenment witnessed a process of increasing secularisation of European governments and an embrace of modern science and rationality within intellectual circles. In turn, a "modernist occult" emerged that reflected varied ways in which esoteric thinkers came to terms with these developments.[74] One of the most prominent esotericists of this period was the Swedish naturalist Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772), who attempted to reconcile science and religion after experiencing a vision of Jesus Christ. His writings focused on his visionary travels to heaven and hell and his communications with angels, claiming that the visible, materialist world parallels an invisible spiritual world, with correspondences between the two that do not reflect causal relations. Following his death, followers would found the Swedenborgian New Church, although his writings would influence a far wider array of esoteric philosophies.[75] Another major figure within the esoteric movement of this period was the German physician Franz Anton Mesmer (1734–1814), who developed the theory of Animal Magnetism, which later came to be known more commonly as "Mesmerism". Mesmer claimed that a universal life force permeated everything, including the human body, and that illnesses were caused by a disturbance or block in this force's flow; he developed techniques which he claimed cleansed such blockages and restored the patient to full health.[76] One of Mesmer's followers, the Marquis de Puységur, discovered that mesmeric treatment could induce a state of somnumbulic trance in which they claimed to enter visionary states and communicate with spirit beings.[77]

These somnumbulic trance-states would heavily influence the esoteric religion of Spiritualism, which emerged from the United States in the 1840s and spread throughout North American and Europe. Spiritualism was based on the concept that individuals could communicate with spirits of the deceased during séances.[78] Although most forms of Spiritualism had little theoretical depth, being largely practical affairs, full theological worldviews based on the movement would be articulated by Andrew Jackson Davis (1826–1910) and Allan Kardec (1804–1869).[77] Scientific interest in the claims of Spiritualism resulted in the development of the field of psychical research.[77] Somnambulism also exerted a strong influence on the early disciplines of psychology and psychiatry; esoteric ideas purvey the work of many early figures in this field, most notably Carl Gustav Jung, although with the rise of psychoanalysis and behaviourism in the 20th century, these disciplines distanced themselves from esotericism.[79] Also influenced by artificial somnambulism was the religion of New Thought, founded by the American Mesmerist Phineas P. Quimby (1802–1866) and which revolved around the concept of "mind over matter", believing that illness and other negative conditions could be cured through the power of belief.[80]

Pentagram of Eliphas Levi

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.[80] 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 Eliphas Lévi (1810–1875) and Papus (1865–1916).[81] 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.[82] His Traditionalist ideas would have a strong influence on later esotericists like Julius Evola (1898–1974) and Frithjof Schuon (1907–1998).[82]

In the Anglophone world, the burgeoning occult movement owed more to Enlightenment libertines, and thus was more often of an anti-Christian bent that saw wisdom as emanating from the pre-Christian pagan religions of Europe.[82] Various Spiritualist mediums came to be disillusioned with the esoteric thought available, and sought inspiration in pre-Swedenborgian currents; the most prominent of these were 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.[83] 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.[84] In rejection of this was the breakaway Anthroposophical Society founded by Rudolf Steiner (1861–1925).[84]

These movements were also influenced, and did influence, Neo-Vedanta, an esoteric interpretation of Hinduism developed by influential Brahmo Samaj leaders, especially Ram Mohan Roy, Keshubchandra Sen and Swami Vivekananda.[85][86] Their neo-Vedanta became popular in western esoteric circles by the end of the 19th century, being regarded as an authentic, millennia-old secret tradition.[85] It was influenced by Unitarianism,[87][88] Transcendentalism,[89] and Romanticism,[90] emphasizing personal religious experience over mere reasoning and theology.[91] Vivekananda (1863-1902)[92] played a major role in the spread of Neo-Vedanta to the west[86] via the Ramakrishna Mission. Vivekananda's acquaintance with western esotericism made him very successful in western esoteric circles, beginning with his speech in 1893 at the Parliament of Religions.[86]

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 psychoative drugs could be used for magical purposes.[84] In England, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, an initiatory order devoted to magic which based itself on an understanding of kabbalah, was founded in the latter years of the century.[93] One of the most prominent members of that order was Aleister Crowley (1875–1947), who went on to proclaim the religion of Thelema and become a prominent member of the Ordo Templi Orientis.[94] 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 pupul P. D. Ouspensky (1878–1947).[95]

Emergent occult and esoteric systems found increasing popularity in the early 20th century, especially in Western Europe. Occult lodges and secret societies flowered among European intellectuals of this era who had largely abandoned traditional forms of Christianity. The spreading of secret teachings and magic 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 Wotanism 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, 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. 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.

Later 20th century

Sculpture of the Horned God of Wicca found in the Museum of Witchcraft in Boscastle, Cornwall

In the 1960s and 1970s, esotericism came to be increasingly associated with the growing counter-culture in the West, whose adherents understood themselves in participating in a spiritual revolution that would mark the Age of Aquarius.[101] By the 1980s, these currents of millenarian currents had come to be widely known as the New Age movement, and it became increasingly commercialised as business entrepreneurs exploited a growth in the spiritual market.[101] Conversely, other forms of esoteric thought retained the anti-commercial and counter-cultural sentiment of the 1960s and 1970s, namely the techno-shamanic movement promoted by figures such as Terence McKenna and Daniel Pinchbeck which built on the work of anthropologist Carlos Castenada.[101]

Academic study

London's Warburg Institute was one of the first centres to encourage the academic study of Western esotericism

The academic study of Western esotericism was pioneered in the early 20th century by historians of the ancient world and the European Renaissance, who came to recognise that – although it had been ignored by previous scholarship – the impact which pre-Christian and non-rational schools of thought had exerted on European society and culture was worthy of academic attention.[51] One of the key centres for this was the Warburg Institute in London, where scholars like Frances Yates, Edgar Wind, Ernst Cassier, and D. P. Walker began arguing that esoteric thought had had a greater impact on Renaissance culture than had been previously accepted.[109] The work of Yates in particular, most notably her 1964 book Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition, has been cited as "an important starting-point for modern scholarship on esotericism", succeeding "at one fell swoop in bringing scholarship onto a new track" by bringing wider awareness to the impact that esoteric ideas had on modern science.[110]

At the instigation of the scholar Henry Corbin, in 1965 the world's first academic post in the study of esotericism was established at the École pratique des hautes études in the Sorbonne, Paris; named the chair in the History of Christian Esotericism, its first holder was François Secret, a specialist in the Christian Kabbalah, although he had little interest in developing the wider study of esotericism as a field of research.[111] 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".[112] Faivre has since been cited as being responsible for developing the study of Western esotericism into a formalised field,[113] 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".[114] He remained in the chair until 2002, when he was succeeded by Jean-Pierre Brach.[110]

Faivre noted that there were two significant obstacles to establishing the field. One was that there was an engrained prejudice towards esotericism within academia, resulting in the widespread perception that the history of esotericism was not worthy of academic research.[115] The second was that esotericism is a trans-disciplinary field, the study of which did not fit clearly within any particular discipline.[116] 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.[117] Elsewhere, he noted that there was "probably no other domain in the humanities that has been so seriously neglected" as Western esotericism.[118]

References

Footnotes

[[Categoria:Esoterismo]] [[Categoria:Cultura dell'Europa]] [[Categoria:Cultura dell'America settentrionale]] [[Categoria:Religione]] [[Categoria:Studio delle religioni]] [[Categoria:Astrologia occidentale]] [[Categoria:Cultura occidentale]] [[Categoria:Filosofia occidentale]]