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164-439: Thelema ( / θ ə ˈ l iː m ə / ) is a Western esoteric and occult social or spiritual philosophy and a new religious movement founded in the early 1900s by Aleister Crowley (1875–1947), an English writer, mystic, occultist, and ceremonial magician. Central to Thelema is the concept of discovering and following one's True Will , a unique purpose that transcends ordinary desires. Crowley's system begins with The Book of

328-433: 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

492-558: A " point-event " and all individual point-events within the body of Nuit. Hadit is said, in The Book of the Law , to be "perfect, being Not." Additionally, it is written of Nuit in Liber AL bel Legis that "men speak not of Thee [Nuit] as One but as None." The third deity of Thelemic theology is Ra-Hoor-Khuit , a manifestation of the ancient Egyptian deity Horus . He is symbolized as a throned man with

656-432: 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

820-484: A "universal spiritual dimension of reality, as opposed to the merely external ('exoteric') religious institutions and dogmatic systems of established religions." This approach views Western esotericism as just one variant of a worldwide esotericism at the heart of all world religions and cultures, reflecting a hidden esoteric reality. This use is closest to the original meaning of the word in late antiquity, where it applied to secret spiritual teachings that were reserved for

984-573: A 'k' to distinguish it from stage magic. He recommended magick as a means for discovering the True Will . Generally, magical practices in Thelema are designed to assist in finding and manifesting the True Will, although some include celebratory aspects as well. Crowley believed that after discovering the True Will, the magician must also remove any elements of himself that stand in the way of its success. Crowley

1148-506: A Hellfire Club that met at the George and Vulture Inn throughout the 1730s. It was again at the George and Vulture that in 1746 Dashwood founded the precursor of his own Hellfire Club, a group called the "Knights of St. Francis". This was a parody of a religious order, based on a pun upon his own name and that of the medieval Italian saint, Francis of Assisi . Dashwood first had the idea of founding

1312-484: A Thelemite is anyone who bases their actions on striving to discover and accomplish their true will, when a person does their True Will, it is like an orbit, their niche in the universal order, and the universe assists them: But the Magician knows that the pure Will of every man and every woman is already in perfect harmony with the divine Will; in fact, they are one and the same. For the individual to follow their True Will,

1476-466: 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 initiatory rites of mystery religions , Plato and his philosophy began the Western perception of esotericism, to

1640-530: A category of esotericism —ranging from ancient Gnosticism and Hermeticism through to Rosicrucianism and the Kabbalah and on to more recent phenomenon such as the New Age movement. Nevertheless, esotericism itself remains a controversial term, with scholars specialising in the subject disagreeing as to how best to define it. Some scholars have used Western esotericism to refer to "inner traditions" concerned with

1804-540: A communion cup to pour out libations to heathen deities. These details, possibly embellished, were described in a contemporary novel by the Anglo-Irish satirist Charles Johnstone . As a contrast to the frivolity of Medmenham Abbey, Dashwood erected a church on a neighbouring hill. Charles Churchill , who previously labeled Dashwood "a disgrace to manhood" over his actions at Medmenham Abbey, and John Wilkes criticized this, implying it to be disingenuous. Wilkes wrote that

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1968-400: 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

2132-469: A descriptor of this phenomenon. Egil Asprem has endorsed this approach. The historian of esotericism Antoine Faivre noted that "never a precise term, [esotericism] has begun to overflow its boundaries on all sides", with both Faivre and Karen-Claire Voss stating that Western esotericism consists of "a vast spectrum of authors, trends, works of philosophy, religion, art, literature, and music". Scholars broadly agree on which currents of thought fall within

2296-640: A genuine Catholic Mass, even if he saw it himself and even if the underground version followed its public model precisely. Aleister Crowley's system of Thelema begins with The Book of the Law , which bears the official name Liber AL vel Legis . It was written in Cairo, Egypt , during his honeymoon with his new wife Rose Crowley ( née  Kelly ). A small book, Liber AL vel Legis , contains just three chapters, each of which Crowley said he had written in exactly one hour—beginning at noon on April 8, April 9, and April 10, 1904, respectively. Crowley also maintained that

2460-558: 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 distinct form of 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

2624-826: A member of the Lincoln Club in the mid-1740s and the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce in 1754. He had connections with the Spalding Society and became vice-president of both the Foundling Hospital and the General Medical Asylum. In 1744, he and John Montagu founded the short-lived Divan Club for those who had visited the Ottoman Empire to share their experiences, but this club

2788-520: A naked woman covered in stars, representing the ultimate source of possibilities. Hadit , the infinitely small point, symbolizes manifestation and motion. Ra-Hoor-Khuit , a form of Horus , represents the Sun and active energies of Thelemic magick. Crowley believed that discovering and following one's True Will is the path to self-realization and personal fulfillment, often referred to as the Great Work . Magick

2952-630: A new seat in Parliament for Weymouth and Melcombe Regis ; he was re-elected on 9 June 1762 on his appointment as Chancellor of the Exchequer , which he owed to his dependence upon the Prime Minister, John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute . Dashwood's ability in government was criticized: "Of financial knowledge he did not possess the rudiments, and his ignorance was all the more conspicuous from the great financial ability of his predecessor Legge . His budget speech

3116-432: A notion that he developed against the background of contemporary socialist and Catholic discourses. "Esotericism" and "occultism" were often employed as synonyms until later scholars distinguished the concepts. In the context of Ancient Greek philosophy , the terms "esoteric" and "exoteric" were sometimes used by scholars not to denote that there was secrecy, but to distinguish two procedures of research and education:

3280-503: A parody of the Franciscan order when he returned from one of his Grand Tours, around 1731. He had visited various monastic communities in Europe, "founded, as it were, in direct contradiction to Nature and Reason", and he thought that by founding "a burlesque Institution in the name of St Francis", he could substitute "convivial gaiety, unrestrained hilarity, and social felicity [...] in lieu of

3444-689: A pornographic poem, An Essay on Woman . During Lord North 's administration from 1770 to 1781, Dashwood was joint Postmaster General . Dashwood died at West Wycombe after a long illness on 11 December 1781. He was buried in the mausoleum he had built there, next to his wife who had died on 19 January 1769. On 19 December 1745, Dashwood married Sarah, daughter of George Gould of Iver , Buckinghamshire. Horace Walpole described her as "a poor forlorn Presbyterian prude"; The marriage had no effect upon Dashwood's profligacy; according to Wraxall he "far exceeded in licentiousness of conduct any model exhibited since Charles II ". Dashwood left no legitimate issue, and

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3608-475: A practice Crowley also applied in his informal written correspondences. The two primary terms in these statements are 'will' and 'love', respectively. Using the Greek technique of isopsephy , which applies a numerical value to each letter, the letters of words thelema ('will') and agape ('love') each sum to 93: In this way, the first phrase is abbreviated to "93" while the second is abbreviated to "93 93/93", with

3772-480: 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 esoteric thinkers came to terms with these developments. One of the esotericists of this period was the Swedish naturalist Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772), who attempted to reconcile science and religion after experiencing

3936-459: A radical alternative to the disenchanted world views that have dominated Western culture since the scientific revolution , and must therefore always be at odds with secular culture. 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

4100-535: A ritual for the invocation of the Holy Guardian Angel ; eucharistic rituals such as The Gnostic Mass and The Mass of the Phoenix ; and Liber Resh , consisting of four daily adorations to the sun. He also discussed sex magick and sexual gnosis in various forms involving masturbation and sexual intercourse between heterosexual and homosexual partners; practices which are among his suggestions for those in

4264-420: A selection of different schools of thought. Hanegraaff proposed an additional definition that "Western esotericism" is a category that represents "the academy's dustbin of rejected knowledge." In this respect, it contains all of the theories and world views rejected by the mainstream intellectual community because they do not accord with "normative conceptions of religion, rationality and science." His approach

4428-623: A similar instruction: "Love, and what you will, do." ( Dilige et quod vis fac ). In the Renaissance , a character named "Thelemia" represents will or desire in the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili of the Dominican friar and writer Francesco Colonna . The protagonist Poliphilo has two allegorical guides, Logistica (reason) and Thelemia (will or desire). When forced to choose, he chooses fulfillment of his sexual will over logic. Colonna's work

4592-484: A specific elite and hidden from the masses. This definition was popularised in the published work of 19th-century esotericists like A.E. Waite , who sought to combine their own mystical beliefs with a historical interpretation of esotericism. It subsequently became a popular approach within several esoteric movements, most notably Martinism and Traditionalism . This definition, originally developed by esotericists themselves, became popular among French academics during

4756-400: A third statement: "Every man and every woman is a star." These three statements have specific meanings: Thelema places its principal gods and goddesses—three altogether—from Ancient Egyptian religion as the speakers presented in Liber AL vel Legis . The highest deity in the theology of Thelema is the goddess Nuit (also spelled Nuith ). She is envisioned as the night sky arching over

4920-496: 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

5084-525: 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 founded the Swedenborgian New Church —though his writings influenced a wider array of esoteric philosophies. Another major figure within

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5248-616: A wide range of interpretation of Thelema. Modern Thelema is a syncretic philosophy and religion, and many Thelemites try to avoid strongly dogmatic thinking. Crowley emphasized that each individual should follow their own inherent " True Will ", rather than blindly following his teachings, saying he did not wish to found a flock of sheep. Thus, contemporary Thelemites may practice more than one religion, including Wicca , Gnosticism , Satanism , Setianism and Luciferianism . Many adherents of Thelema recognize correlations between Thelemic and other systems of spiritual thought; most borrow freely from

5412-427: A world view that embraces "enchantment" in contrast to world views influenced by post- Cartesian , post- Newtonian , and positivist science that sought to " dis-enchant " the world. That approach understands esotericism as comprising those world views that eschew a belief in instrumental causality and instead adopt a belief that all parts of the universe are interrelated without a need for causal chains. It stands as

5576-439: 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

5740-456: Is a central practice in Thelema, involving various physical, mental, and spiritual exercises aimed at uncovering one's True Will and enacting change in alignment with it. Practices such as rituals, yoga , and meditation are used to explore consciousness and achieve self-mastery. The Gnostic Mass , a central ritual in Thelema, mirrors traditional religious services but conveys Thelemic principles. Thelemites also observe specific holy days, such as

5904-476: Is a modern scholarly construct, not an autonomous tradition that already existed out there and merely needed to be discovered by historians. The concept of "Western esotericism" represents a modern scholarly construct rather than a pre-existing, self-defined tradition of thought. In the late 17th century, several European Christian thinkers presented the argument that one could categorise certain traditions of Western philosophy and thought together, thus establishing

6068-562: Is a rarely used word in Classical Greek. There are very few documents, the earliest being Antiphon the Sophist (5th century BCE). In antiquity it was beside the divine will which a man performs, just as much for the will of sexual desire. The intention of the individual was less understood as an overall, generalized, ontological place wherever it was arranged. The verb thelo appears very early ( Homer , early Attic inscriptions) and has

6232-406: Is confronted with the divine aspect of existence. As an alternative to Faivre's framework, Kocku von Stuckrad developed his own variant, though he argued that this did not represent a "definition" but rather "a framework of analysis" for scholarly usage. He stated that "on the most general level of analysis", esotericism represented "the claim of higher knowledge", a claim to possessing "wisdom that

6396-524: Is described as "A note on the chief rules of practical conduct to be observed by those who accept the Law of Thelema." It is not a numbered " Liber " as the other documents Crowley intended for A∴A∴ ; instead, it is listed as a document explicitly intended for Ordo Templi Orientis . There are four sections: In Liber II: The Message of the Master Therion , the Law of Thelema is summarized briefly as "Do what thou wilt—then do nothing else." Crowley describes

6560-578: Is having been to Italy, and the real one, being drunk; the two chiefs are Lord Middlesex and Sir Francis Dashwood, who were seldom sober the whole time they were in Italy". However, the society did increasingly have a serious side, and Dashwood's work resulted in his election as a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in June 1746, and a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London (FSA) in June 1769 . He also became

6724-591: Is little direct evidence of what Dashwood's Hellfire Club practiced or believed. The one direct testimonial comes from John Wilkes, a member who never got into the chapter-room of the inner circle. Sir Nathaniel Wraxall in his Historical Memoires (1815) accused the Monks of performing Satanic rituals, but these reports have been dismissed as hearsay. Daniel Willens argued that the group likely practiced Freemasonry , but also suggests Dashwood may have held secret Roman Catholic sacraments. He asks if Wilkes would have recognized

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6888-578: 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

7052-526: Is not a natural term but an artificial category, applied retrospectively to a range of currents and ideas that were known by other names at least prior to the end of the eighteenth century. [This] means that, originally, not all those currents and ideas were necessarily seen as belonging together:... it is only as recently as the later seventeenth century that we find the first attempts at presenting them as one single, coherent field or domain, and at explaining what they have in common. In short, 'Western esotericism'

7216-508: Is rooted within the field of the history of ideas , and stresses the role of change and transformation over time. 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

7380-721: Is similar to the Mass of the Eastern Orthodox Church and Roman Catholic Church , communicating the principles of Thelema. It is the central rite of Ordo Templi Orientis and its ecclesiastical arm, Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica . The Book of the Law gives several holy days to be observed by Thelemites. There are no established or dogmatic ways to celebrate these days, so as a result Thelemites will often take to their own devices or celebrate in groups, especially within Ordo Templi Orientis . These holy days are usually observed on

7544-710: Is superior to other interpretations of cosmos and history" that serves as a "master key for answering all questions of humankind." Accordingly, he believed that esoteric groups placed a great emphasis on secrecy, not because they were inherently rooted in elite groups but because the idea of concealed secrets that can be revealed was central to their discourse. Examining the means of accessing higher knowledge, he highlighted two themes that he believed could be found within esotericism, that of mediation through contact with non-human entities, and individual experience. Accordingly, for Von Stuckrad, esotericism could be best understood as "a structural element of Western culture" rather than as

7708-526: 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. 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 reintroduced into Western Europe by Jews and by

7872-583: The Chaldean Oracles represented an example of a superior religion of ancient humanity that had been passed down by the Platonists . 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

8036-568: The Cistercian Order and was situated on the banks of the Thames near Marlow, Buckinghamshire . It was owned by Francis Duffield, from whom it was rented by Dashwood, his half-brother Sir John Dashwood-King , his cousin Sir Thomas Stapleton , the satirist Paul Whitehead , and John Wilkes . The men frequently went to Medmenham Abbey during the summer. They had the buildings restored by

8200-554: 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

8364-706: The English Qaballa , and Nema Andahadna developed Maat Magick . The word θέλημα ( thelēma ) is rare in Classical Greek , where it "signifies the appetitive will: desire, sometimes even sexual", but it is frequent in the Septuagint . Early Christian writings occasionally use the word to refer to the human will, and even the will of the Devil , but it usually refers to the will of God . In his 5th-century sermon, Catholic philosopher and theologian Augustine of Hippo gave

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8528-790: The Equinoxes and the Feast of the Three Days of the Writing of the Book of the Law, commemorating the writing of Thelema's foundational text. Post-Crowley figures like Jack Parsons , Kenneth Grant , James Lees , and Nema Andahadna have further developed Thelema, introducing new ideas, practices, and interpretations. Parsons conducted the Babalon Working to invoke the goddess Babalon , while Grant synthesized various traditions into his Typhonian Order . Lees created

8692-538: The Holy Guardian Angel , a daimon unique to each individual. The spiritual quest to find what you are meant to do and do it is also known in Thelema as the Great Work . Liber AL vel Legis makes some standards of individual conduct clear. The primary of these is "Do what thou wilt", which is presented as the sum of the law and a right. Some interpreters of Thelema believe that this right includes an obligation to allow others to do their own wills without interference, but Liber AL vel Legis makes no clear statement on

8856-660: The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament of 1938 ("Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven"). In the same way the term is used in Paul the Apostle and Ignatius of Antioch . For Tolli it follows that the genuine idea of Thelema does not contradict the teachings of Jesus. François Rabelais was a Franciscan and later a Benedictine monk of the 16th century. Eventually he left the monastery to study medicine, and moved to

9020-661: 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

9184-566: 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 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. From 1614 to 1616,

9348-589: The Vulgate text, the terms are translated into the Latin voluntas ("will"). Thus, the different meaning of both concepts was lost. In the original Greek version of the New Testament the word thelema is used 62 or 64 times, twice in the plural ( thelemata ). Here, God's will is always and exclusively designated by the word thelema (θέλημα, mostly in the singular), as the theologian Federico Tolli points out by means of

9512-523: The Waldensians were thought to have utilized esoteric concepts. During the Renaissance , a number of European thinkers began to synthesize " pagan " (that is, not Christian) philosophies, which were then being made available through Arabic translations, with Christian thought and the Jewish kabbalah. The earliest of these individuals was the Byzantine philosopher Plethon (1355/60–1452?), who argued that

9676-541: 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 through an observation of

9840-484: The philosopher and theologian Antonio Niccolini . In 1733, between his visits to Italy, Dashwood accompanied George, Lord Forbes , to St Petersburg , stopping on the way at Copenhagen . In 1732, Dashwood formed a dining club called the Society of Dilettanti with around 40 charter members who had returned from their travels with an appreciation of classical art. William Hogarth drew Sir Francis Dashwood at his Devotions for Dilettante Viscount Boyne . "[I]f not

10004-647: The sinecure Keepership of the Wardrobe . In 1763, Dashwood was summoned to Parliament as 11th Baron le Despencer . He inherited the barony after the death of his uncle, John Fane, 7th Earl of Westmorland and 10th Baron le Despencer. By 1763 Dashwood was premier baronet of England, and he was made Lord-Lieutenant of Buckinghamshire , being succeeded in the colonelcy of the militia by John Wilkes. As Lord le Despencer, his public image became less associated with his past controversial actions. He joined John Montagu in leveling obscenity charges against John Wilkes for writing

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10168-696: 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

10332-580: 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 ,

10496-546: The Age of Enlightenment, these esoteric traditions came to be regularly categorised under the labels of " superstition ", " magic ", and " the occult "—terms often used interchangeably. The modern academy , 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 historian of esotericism Wouter J. Hanegraaff (born 1961), rejection of "occult" topics

10660-478: The Barony of le Despencer again fell into abeyance. His illegitimate daughter unsuccessfully claimed a right to the title. His sister Rachael illegally assumed the title Baroness le Despencer, but on her death the abeyance was once more terminated in favour of her cousin, Thomas Stapleton. After Dashwood's death, his baronetcy passed to his half-brother, Sir John Dashwood-King. Francis Dashwood has appeared in works by

10824-478: The Dilettanti. During the general election of 1741 Dashwood fought vigorously against Walpole's supporters and secured a seat for himself at New Romney on 5 May. In Parliament he followed Samuel Sandys, 1st Baron Sandys and vehemently attacked Sir Robert Walpole, declaring that abroad he was looked upon with contempt. Walpole's fall made no difference to Dashwood's position, and as a courtier of Frederick Lewis he

10988-570: The Earth, represented as a nude woman and typically depicted with stars covering her body. Nuit is conceived as the " Great Mother " and the ultimate source of all things, the collection of all possibilities, "Infinite Space, and the Infinite Stars thereof", and the circumference of an infinite circle or sphere. Nuit is derived from the Egyptian sky goddess Nut and is referred to poetically as "Our Lady of

11152-610: The French author's beliefs with the Thelema of Aleister Crowley . In the previously mentioned story of Thélème, which critics analyze as referring in part to the suffering of loyal Christian reformists or "evangelicals" within the French Church, the reference to the Greek word θέλημα "declares that the will of God rules in this abbey". Sutin writes that Rabelais was no precursor of Thelema, with his beliefs containing elements of Stoicism and Christian kindness. In his first book (ch. 52–57), Rabelais writes of this Abbey of Thélème, built by

11316-419: The French city of Lyon in 1532. There he wrote Gargantua and Pantagruel , a connected series of books. They tell the story of two giants—a father (Gargantua) and his son (Pantagruel) and their adventures—written in an amusing, extravagant, and satirical vein. Most critics today agree that Rabelais wrote from a Christian humanist perspective. The Crowley biographer Lawrence Sutin notes this when contrasting

11480-510: The Golden Hawk , a play by Florence Farr . Evans says this may have resulted from the fact that "both Farr and Crowley were thoroughly steeped in Golden Dawn imagery and teachings", and that Crowley probably knew the same materials that inspired some of Farr's motifs. Sutin also found similarities between Thelema and the work of W. B. Yeats , attributing this to "shared insight" and perhaps to

11644-422: The Law , a text he maintained was dictated to him by a non-corporeal entity named Aiwass . This work outlines key principles, including the axiom "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law," emphasizing personal freedom and the pursuit of one's true path, guided by love . The Thelemic cosmology features deities inspired by ancient Egyptian religion . The highest deity is Nuit , the night sky symbolized as

11808-461: The Law and the writings of Aleister Crowley. Aleister Crowley wrote in The Antecedents of Thelema (1926), an incomplete work not published in his day, that Rabelais not only set forth the law of Thelema in a way similar to how Crowley understood it, but predicted and described in code Crowley's life and the holy text that he received, The Book of the Law . Crowley said the work he had received

11972-403: The Law distill the practice and ethics of Thelema. Of these statements, one in particular, known as the "Law of Thelema", forms the central doctrine of Thelema."Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law". The first statement is then supplemented by a second, follow-up statement: "Love is the law, love under will." These two statements are generally believed to be better understood in light of

12136-546: The Stars" and, in The Book of the Law , as "Queen of Space" and "Queen of Heaven". The second principal deity of Thelema is the god Hadit , conceived as the infinitely small point , and the complement and consort of Nuit. Hadit symbolizes manifestation, motion, and time. He is also described in Liber AL vel Legis as "the flame that burns in every heart of man, and in the core of every star." Hadit has sometimes been said to represent

12300-471: The Thelemite. Rabelais has been variously credited with the creation of the philosophy of Thelema, as one of the earliest people to refer to it. The current National Grand Master General of the U.S. Ordo Templi Orientis Grand Lodge has opined that: Saint Rabelais never intended his satirical, fictional device to serve as a practical blueprint for a real human society ... Our Thelema is that of The Book of

12464-590: The actual projector and founder of the Dilettanti Society, he was certainly its leading member in 1736". Dashwood took a prominent part in the proceedings of the Dilettanti Society , and in 1742 George Knapton painted his portrait for the Society. On 2 March 1746, when John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich was suspended from his office of archmaster for "his misbehaviour to and contempt of the Society", Dashwood

12628-505: The adage on a doorway of his abbey at Medmenham , where it served as the motto of the Hellfire Club . Rabelais's Abbey of Thelema has been referred to by later writers Sir Walter Besant and James Rice , in their novel The Monks of Thelema (1878), and C. R. Ashbee in his utopian romance The Building of Thelema (1910). In Classical Greek there are two words for will : thelema ( θέλημα ) and boule ( βουλή ). ' Thelema '

12792-456: 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

12956-405: 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. Somewhat crudely, esotericism can be described as a Western form of spirituality that stresses the importance of the individual effort to gain spiritual knowledge, or gnosis , whereby man

13120-479: 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

13284-584: The architect Nicholas Revett in the style of the 18th-century Gothic revival . Hogarth may have painted murals for this building but none survive. The members included " Frederick, Prince of Wales , the Duke of Queensberry, the Earl of Bute, Lord Melcombe, Sir William Stanhope, K.B, Sir John Dashwood-King, bart., Sir Francis Delaval, K.B., Sir John Vanluttan, kt., Henry Vansittart, Benjamin Franklin [...] and Paul [Whitehead]

13448-607: The austerities and abstemiousness there practised." In 1752, he moved the group's headquarters to his family home in West Wycombe , holding the first meeting on Walpurgis Night . The group was now known as "the Order of the Friars of St. Francis of Wycombe". The group subsequently moved their meetings to Medmenham Abbey , about 6 miles from West Wycombe, where they called themselves the "Monks of Medmenham". Medmenham Abbey had been built by

13612-466: The book was dictated to him by a non-corporeal entity named Aiwass , whom he later identified as his Holy Guardian Angel . Crowley stated that "no forger could have prepared so complex a set of numerical and literal puzzles" and that study of the text would dispel all doubts about the method of how the book was obtained. Besides the reference to Rabelais made in the book, an analysis by Dave Evans found similarities to The Beloved of Hathor and Shrine of

13776-498: The category now labelled "Western esotericism". The first to do so, Ehregott Daniel Colberg  [ de ] (1659–1698), a German Lutheran theologian, wrote Platonisch-Hermetisches Christianity (1690–91). A hostile critic of various currents of Western thought that had emerged since the Renaissance—among them Paracelsianism , Weigelianism , and Christian theosophy —in his book he labelled all of these traditions under

13940-413: The category of "Platonic–Hermetic Christianity", portraying them as heretical to what he saw as "true" Christianity. Despite his hostile attitude toward these traditions of thought, Colberg became the first to connect these disparate philosophies and to study them under one rubric, also recognising that these ideas linked back to earlier philosophies from late antiquity . In 18th-century Europe, during

14104-654: The category of Western esotericism "all inclusive" and thus analytically useless. The origins of Western esotericism are in the Hellenistic Eastern Mediterranean, then part of the Roman Empire , during Late Antiquity . This was a milieu that mixed religious and intellectual traditions from Greece, Egypt, the Levant, Babylon, and Persia—in which globalisation , urbanisation, and multiculturalism were bringing about socio-cultural change. One component of this

14268-562: The church was "built on the top of a hill for the convenience and devotion of the town at the bottom of it". In 1754, Dashwood was re-elected to parliament for New Romney, and when the Buckinghamshire militia was raised on the outbreak of the Seven Years' War in 1757, Dashwood became its first colonel with Wilkes as his lieutenant colonel. In the same year, he attempted to prevent Admiral John Byng 's execution. On 28 March 1761, he found

14432-506: 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,

14596-609: 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, where it became known as Naturphilosophie . Though influenced by traditions from Late Antiquity and medieval Kabbalah, it only acknowledged two main sources of authority: Biblical scripture and

14760-496: The covetous driving force in man." In the Septuagint the term is used for the will of God himself, the pious desire of the God-fearing, and the royal will of a secular ruler. It is thus used only for the representation of high ethical willingness in the faith, the exercise of authority by the authorities, or the non-human will, but not for more profane striving. In the Septuagint, the terms boule and thelema appear, whereas in

14924-595: The cultural contact between Christians and Muslims in Sicily and southern Italy. The 12th century saw the development of the Kabbalah in southern Italy and 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. Medieval sects deemed heretical such as

15088-558: 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 ,

15252-441: 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 Gustav Jung —though with the rise of psychoanalysis and behaviourism in the 20th century, these disciplines distanced themselves from esotericism. Also influenced by artificial somnambulism

15416-415: The division "93/93" symbolizing love "under" will. Western esotericism 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

15580-438: The earliest known example of the word appeared in a satire authored by Lucian of Samosata ( c.  125 – after 180). 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

15744-682: The effectiveness of magick in producing certain subjective experiences that do not ordinarily result from taking hashish , enjoying oneself in Paris, or walking through the Sahara desert. It is not strictly necessary to practice ritual techniques to be a Thelemite, as due to the focus of Thelemic magick on the True Will, Crowley stated "every intentional act is a magickal act." Crowley wrote 'The Gnostic Mass' — technically called Liber XV or " Book 15 " — in 1913 while travelling in Moscow, Russia . The structure

15908-508: The ego. If the aspirant is unprepared, he will cling to the ego instead, becoming a Black Brother. According to Crowley, the Black Brother slowly disintegrates, while preying on others for his own self-aggrandisement. Crowley taught skeptical examination of all results obtained through meditation or magick, at least for the student. He tied this to the necessity of keeping a magical record or diary, that attempts to list all conditions of

16072-653: 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

16236-491: The esoteric movement of this period was the German physician Franz Anton Mesmer (1734–1814), who developed the theory of Animal Magnetism , which later became 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 he claimed cleansed such blockages and restored

16400-400: The event. Remarking on the similarity of statements made by spiritually advanced people of their experiences, he said that fifty years from his time they would have a scientific name based on "an understanding of the phenomenon" to replace such terms as "spiritual" or "supernatural". Crowley stated that his work and that of his followers used "the method of science; the aim of religion", and that

16564-402: The everyday self's socially instilled inhibitions may have to be overcome via deconditioning. Crowley believed that to discover the True Will, one had to free the desires of the subconscious mind from the control of the conscious mind, especially the restrictions placed on sexual expression, which he associated with the power of divine creation. He identified the True Will of each individual with

16728-406: The first reserved for teachings that were developed "within the walls" of the philosophical school, among a circle of thinkers ("eso-" indicating what is unseen, as in the classes internal to the institution), and the second referring to those whose works were disseminated to the public in speeches and published ("exo-": outside). The initial meaning of this last word is implied when Aristotle coined

16892-616: 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

17056-466: The following dates: The number 93 is of great significance in Thelema. The central philosophy of Thelema is in two phrases from Liber AL: "do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law" and "love is the law, love under will". Crowley urged their use in everyday communications, and himself used them to greet people. Today, rather than using the full phrases, Thelemites often use numerological abbreviations to shorten these greeting in informal contexts,

17220-557: 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 Hindu and Buddhist 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

17384-479: The genuine powers of the magician could in some way be objectively tested. This idea has been taken on by later practitioners of Thelema. They may consider that they are testing hypotheses with each magical experiment. The difficulty lies in the broadness of their definition of success, in which they may see as evidence of success things which a non-magician would not define as such, leading to confirmation bias . Crowley believed he could demonstrate, by his own example,

17548-486: The giant Gargantua. It is a classical utopia presented in order to critique and assess the state of the society of Rabelais's day, as opposed to a modern utopian text that seeks to create the scenario in practice. It is a utopia where people's desires are more fulfilled. Satirical, it also epitomises the ideals considered in Rabelais's fiction. The inhabitants of the abbey were governed only by their own free will and pleasure,

17712-518: The head of a hawk who carries a wand. He is associated with the Sun and the active energies of Thelemic magick . Other deities within the pantheon of Thelema are Hoor-paar-kraat (or Harpocrates ), the god of silence and inner strength and the twin of Ra-Hoor-Khuit, as well as Babalon , the goddess of all pleasure known as the Virgin Whore, and Therion , the beast upon which Babalon rides who represents

17876-529: The higher degrees of Ordo Templi Orientis . One goal in the study of Thelema within the magical Order of the A∴A∴ is for the magician to obtain the knowledge and conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel: conscious communication with their own personal daimon , thus gaining knowledge of their True Will. The chief task for one who has achieved this goes by the name of "crossing the abyss "; completely relinquishing

18040-626: The household of George, Prince of Wales were suspected. Dashwood supported the influence of George Dodington and opposed the Regency Bill of 15 May 1751. On 13 April 1749 he was created Doctor of Civil Law of Oxford University, and on 19 June 1746 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society Dashwood was too young to have been a member of the first Hellfire Club , founded by Philip, Duke of Wharton in 1719 and disbanded in 1721, but he and John Montagu are alleged to have been members of

18204-530: 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 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

18368-552: The ideas of Rabelais and invoked the same rule in French, when he founded a group called the Monks of Medmenham (better known as the Hellfire Club ). An abbey was established at Medmenham, in a property which incorporated the ruins of a Cistercian abbey founded in 1201. The group was known as the Franciscans, not after Saint Francis of Assisi , but after its founder, Francis Dashwood, 11th Baron le Despencer . John Wilkes , George Dodington and other politicians were members. There

18532-532: The individual's rights implied by the overarching right, "Do what thou wilt". For every individual, these include the right to "live by one's own law"; "live in the way that one wills to do"; "work, play, and rest as one will"; "die when and how one will"; "eat and drink what one will"; "live where one will"; "move about the earth as one will"; "think, speak, write, draw, paint, carve, etch, mould, build, and dress as one will"; "love when, where and with whom one will"; and "kill those who would thwart these rights". Duty

18696-736: 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 orientalist academic 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

18860-434: 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

19024-630: 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 . According to examples in Lucian, Galen and Clement of Alexandria , at that time it

19188-473: 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 . The concept of the "esoteric" originated in the 2nd century with the coining of the Ancient Greek adjective esôterikós ("belonging to an inner circle");

19352-457: 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

19516-526: The leader, which changed regularly, as "Abbot". During meetings members supposedly wore ritual clothing: white trousers, jacket and cap, while the "Abbot" wore a red ensemble of the same style. Prostitutes were supposedly referred to as "nuns". Club meetings were said to have included mock rituals, items of a pornographic nature, much drinking, "wenching" and banqueting. The "monks" were said to have performed obscene parodies of Christian rites, as well as orgies of drunkenness and debauchery in which Dashwood used

19680-616: 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

19844-420: The matter. Crowley himself wrote that there was no need to detail the ethics of Thelema for everything springs from "Do what thou Wilt". Crowley wrote several additional documents presenting his personal beliefs regarding individual conduct in light of the Law of Thelema, some of which indeed address the topic interference with the will of others: Liber OZ , Duty , and Liber II . Liber OZ enumerates some of

20008-488: The meanings of "ready", "decide" and "desire" (Homer, 3, 272, also in the sexual sense). " Aristotle says in the book On Plants that the goal of the human will is perception - unlike the plants that do not have ' epithymia ' (translation of the author). " Thelema ", says the Aristoteles, "has changed here, ' epithymia '", and ' thelema ', and that ' thelema ' is to be neutral, not somehow morally determined,

20172-858: The methods and practices of other traditions, including alchemy , astrology , qabalah , tantra , tarot divination and yoga . For example, Nu and Had are thought to correspond with the Tao and Teh of Taoism , Shakti and Shiva of the Hindu Tantras , Shunyata and Bodhicitta of Buddhism , Ain Soph and Kether in the Hermetic Qabalah . Thelemic magick is a system of physical, mental, and spiritual exercises which practitioners believe are of benefit. Crowley defined magick as "the Science and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity with Will", and spelled it with

20336-487: The natural world, though in later work he also began to focus 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,

20500-422: The neighbourhood of the complexion of those hermits." Over the grand entrance to the abbey was placed, in stained glass, the famous inscription on Rabelais ' abbey of Theleme, " Fay ce que voudras " [do what thou wilt]. Dashwood's garden at West Wycombe contained numerous statues and shrines to different gods: Daphne and Flora , Priapus , Venus and Dionysus . The members addressed each other as "Brothers" and

20664-403: The older man's knowledge of Crowley's work. Crowley wrote several commentaries on The Book of the Law , the last of which he wrote in 1925. The latter commentary, dubbed " The Comment ", warns against discussing the book's contents, states that all "questions of the Law are to be decided only by appeal to my writings", and is signed by Ankh-ef-en-Khonsu i . Three statements from The Book of

20828-403: The only rule being "Do What Thou Wilt". Rabelais believed that men who are free, well born and bred have honour, which intrinsically leads to virtuous actions. When constrained, their noble natures turn instead to remove their servitude, because men desire what they are denied. Some modern Thelemites consider Crowley's work to build upon Rabelais's summary of the instinctively honourable nature of

20992-555: The patient to full health. 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. 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

21156-418: 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. The later Neoplatonists performed theurgy , a ritual practice attested in such sources as

21320-440: The poet". Meetings occurred twice a month, with an annual general meeting lasting a week or more in June or September. According to Horace Walpole , who visited the abbey, the members' "practice was rigorously pagan: Bacchus and Venus were the deities to whom they almost publicly sacrificed; and the nymphs and the hogsheads [casks of spirits] that were laid in against the festivals of this new church, sufficiently informed

21484-527: The point that Kocku von Stuckrad stated "esoteric ontology and anthropology would hardly exist without Platonic philosophy." In his dialogues, he uses expressions that refer to cultic secrecy (for example, ἀπορρήτων , aporrhéton , one of the Ancient Greek expressions referring to the prohibition of revealing a secret, in the context of mysteries ). In Theaetetus 152c, there is an example of this concealment strategy: Can it be, then, that Protagoras

21648-413: 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

21812-610: 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. The Age of Enlightenment witnessed

21976-485: The pursuit of True Will as not merely detaching from possible results but also involving tireless energy. It is Nirvana but in a dynamic rather than static form. The True Will is described as the individual's orbit, and if one seeks to do anything else, one will encounter obstacles, as doing anything other than the Will is a hindrance to it. The core of Thelemic thought is "Do what thou wilt". However, beyond this, there exists

22140-490: 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). Francis Dashwood, 11th Baron le Despencer Francis Dashwood, 11th Baron le Despencer , PC , FRS (December 1708 – 11 December 1781)

22304-536: 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

22468-520: 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. 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

22632-402: The term "exoteric speeches" ( ἐξωτερικοὶ λόγοι ), perhaps to refer to the speeches he gave outside his school. 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

22796-427: 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 ." 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

22960-521: 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 before then. Instead, the manifestos are likely literary creations of Lutheran theologian Johann Valentin Andreae (1586–1654). They interested

23124-406: 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. Various Gnostic sects existed, and they broadly believed that the divine light had been imprisoned within

23288-459: 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

23452-455: The wild animal within humankind and the force of nature. According to Crowley, every individual has a True Will , which is to be distinguished from the ordinary wants and desires of the ego. The True Will is essentially one's "calling" or "purpose" in life. "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law" for Crowley refers not to hedonism , fulfilling everyday desires, but to acting in response to that calling. According to Lon Milo DuQuette ,

23616-534: The work by Protestant historian of gnosticism Jacques Matter (1791–1864), Histoire critique du gnosticisme (3 vols.). 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 Rosicrucians began to disassociate themselves from the dominant Christianity in Western Europe. During

23780-668: 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

23944-567: Was Hermeticism, an Egyptian Hellenistic school of thought that takes its name from the legendary Egyptian wise man, 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

24108-483: 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. 'Western esotericism'

24272-454: Was a great influence on the Franciscan friar and writer François Rabelais , who in the 16th century used Thélème , the French form of the word, as the name of a fictional abbey in his novels, Gargantua and Pantagruel . The only rule of this Abbey was " fay çe que vouldras " (" Fais ce que tu veux ", or, "Do what you will"). In the mid-18th century, Sir Francis Dashwood inscribed

24436-401: Was a prolific writer, integrating Eastern practices with Western magical practices from the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn . He recommended a number of these practices to his followers, including: basic yoga ( asana and pranayama ); rituals of his own devising or based on those of the Golden Dawn, such as the lesser ritual of the pentagram , for banishing and invocation; Liber Samekh ,

24600-438: 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

24764-670: Was an English politician and rake , Chancellor of the Exchequer (1762–1763) and founder of the Hellfire Club . Dashwood was born in Great Marlborough Street, London, in December 1708. He was the only son of Sir Francis Dashwood, 1st Baronet , and his second wife Mary, eldest daughter of Vere Fane, 4th Earl of Westmorland . Sir Francis and Mary had two children: a son, Francis, and a daughter, Rachael. Sir Francis also had two surviving daughters from his first marriage, and later two daughters and two sons from his third. Dashwood

24928-400: 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

25092-460: Was deeper, showing in more detail the technique people should practice, and revealing scientific mysteries. He said that Rabelais confines himself to portraying an ideal, rather than addressing questions of political economy and similar subjects, which must be solved in order to realize the Law. Rabelais is included among the Saints of Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica . Sir Francis Dashwood adopted some of

25256-473: Was disbanded two years later. On Dashwood's return to England, he obtained a minor post in the household of Frederick Lewis, Prince of Wales . This connection, coupled with the dismissal of his uncle, the Earl of Westmorland , from his colonelcy of the first troop of horse guards, made Dashwood a violent opponent of Robert Walpole 's administration. He sponsored George Dodington, 1st Baron Melcombe 's membership of

25420-619: Was educated at Eton College where he became associated with William Pitt the Elder . Upon the death of his father in 1724, Dashwood, who was only fifteen, inherited his father's estates and the Baronetcy of Dashwood of West Wycombe . Dashwood spent his youth and early adulthood abroad, gaining a reputation for notoriety while travelling around Europe. He impersonated Charles XII of Sweden while in Russia and attempted to seduce Anna Ioannovna . Dashwood

25584-464: Was elected in his place. Dashwood presented to King George II various petitions from the Dilettanti Society when it was seeking a permanent location. In 1740, Dashwood was in Florence with Horace Walpole , Gray, and others, and shortly afterwards, got into trouble with Sir Horace Mann . In 1743 Horace Walpole critically described the Dilettanti Society as "a club for which the nominal qualification

25748-484: 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 in a pre-Copernican worldview, but following the arguments of Copernicus , a more accurate understanding of

25912-511: Was in opposition to all of George II's governments. In 1747 he introduced a poor-relief bill that recommended commissioning public works (such as the Hellfire Caves he later had excavated at West Wycombe Park ) to combat unemployment. The bill failed. Dashwood was re-elected for New Romney on 26 June 1747, and in January 1751 disavowed Jacobitism , of which Andrew Stone and others of

26076-559: Was later expelled from the Papal States . Dashwood's journeys abroad included classical aspects of the European Grand Tour . He travelled to France and Germany for several months in 1726. He went abroad again from 1729 to 1731 and visited Italy during this time. He later returned to Italy between 1739 and 1741, staying in Florence and Rome and visiting Livorno and the excavations at Herculaneum . While in Italy he befriended

26240-425: 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,

26404-420: Was so confused and incapable that it was received with shouts of laughter. An excise of four shillings in the hogshead, to be paid by the grower, which he imposed on cider and perry, raised a resistance through the cider counties hardly less furious than that which had been directed against the excise scheme of Walpole ". Dashwood and the Prime Minister resigned from the ministry on 8 April 1763. Dashwood received

26568-463: 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. Another approach to Western esotericism treats it as

26732-530: 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 (1890-1981) who is popular in Scandinavia. New esoteric understandings of magic also developed in

26896-479: 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

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