THE WESTERN ESOTERIC TRADITIONS – A HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION

This book should display a warning message on its title page: Caution – A magnum opus: contagious reading! First and foremost what struck me forcibly was how successfully the author has eschewed any attempt to promote himself at the expense of his subject. These days we are flooded with books of questionable value ranging from the so-called occult to the pseudo-psychic from authors claiming to be experts but evincing little more than book-knowledge combined with overt attempts at self-publicity by resorting to hype and 'wow factor'. That the book evinces none of this, instead allowing the subject to speak accurately for itself without interference or personal opinions from the author is a commendation of Professor Goodrick-Clarke's integrity and sober scholarship. The subject matter is, to put it mildly, vast – but condensed into 286 pages. Esoteric traditions refer to a Truth that in its pure and original form is primordial in that it is the birthright of mankind and has existed from the dawn of humanity. But this truth is esoteric and universal: esoteric in that it requires a key to unlock the arcana of meaning, therefore only those few individuals capable of understanding such knowledge were allowed access to it; nonetheless universal in that all great minds the world over have enunciated essentially the same Wisdom. In the West the major religions, including the Judeo-Christian-Islamic traditions have a strong esoteric core (for example, in Judaism it is embodied in the Kabbalah or Jewish mysticism); and esotericism has flourished among non-religious movements such as Hermeticism, Rosicrucianism, Freemasonry, Alchemy and Theosophy. Quite an undertaking: so what qualifications would we legitimately expect of the author? Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke B.A. (Bristol), D.Phil. (Oxon) is Professor of Western Esotericism and Director of the Exeter Centre for the Study of Esotericism within the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Exeter in England. His current research interests include patterns of globalisation of esotericism, Theosophy and esoteric theories of spiritual evolution in the twentieth century, Hermeticism, pietism, and alchemy in the Enlightenment era. His current areas of supervision include Hermeticism, Rosicrucianism, Swedenborg, Theosophy and Modern Art, Rudolf Steiner and Anthroposophy, contemporary Gnostic movements, and millenarianism. Add to this Professor Goodrick-Clarke's decades of research plus an impressive array of academic papers and books on a wide range of occult, esoteric and historical topics, and I can think of no one better qualified to his task. Commencing with ancient Hellenistic sources of Western esotericism we are taken all the way to Helena Blavatsky and The Theosophical Society; then beyond to Modern Esotericism and New Paradigms. Major steps en route concern the magical arts dealt with under Italian Renaissance Magic and Cabala, Planetary and Angel Magic in the Renaissance, Mesmerism and Spiritualism, and Ritual Magic from 1850 to the Present. Jacob Boehme and Emanuel Swedenborg are fully represented as major figures contributing to esoteric thought. Then there are accounts of Alchemy, Paracelsus, and the German Naturphilosophie, Rosicrucianism, and High-Grade Freemasonry and Illuminism in the Eighteenth Century. There are some outstanding features that render this book much more than a mere dryly accurate historical survey. First Professor Goodrick-Clarke describes the way in which historical patterns are woven so that we can discern the cultural, political and of course intellectual currents that have led up to the esoteric tapestry of major epochs up to the present time: we can see for ourselves the influence of the past in the present of any time and age. Next, he shows that esotericism is far more than merely an intellectual pursuit enjoyed by just the elite: that it owes its spread to the intermingling and cross-fertilisation of cultures both Eastern and Western, thus to globalisation and associated geopolitics. For example Greek esotericism can be traced to ideas gleaned from Babylonia, Assyria, Persia and Egypt. We realise how theosophy (in the wide sense of the term), Rosicrucianism and Freemasonry became the refuge and expression of the various schisms caused by the Reformation and post-Reformation spirituality from the late sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries. We also see how the uprising and spread of the theosophy of Blavatsky owed its genesis on the one hand to the increasing dissatisfaction with scientific materialism, and on the other hand, growing disillusionment with traditional Christianity, hence a turning to the East for spiritual inspiration. Modern esoteric thought is cast in the light of new paradigms in science and medicine from the likes of I. K. Taimni, Stephen Phillips, Rudolf Steiner, Rupert Sheldrake, Ehrenfried Pfeiffer, Samuel Hahnemann and William Reich, along with insights from the analytic psychology of Carl Jung. In covering such vast tracts it is easy to get bogged down in detail and lose our sense of perspective. The author expertly sorts out the wheat from the chaff and presents the salient features of the various esoteric traditions placing them in their intellectual as well as their geographical and historical contexts. In the Introduction we are treated to a 'route map' of the six fundamental characteristics of esoteric spirituality following Antoine Faivre (which incidentally are in consonance with the fundamental propositions and other ideas expounded by Blavatsky in The Secret Doctrine). Then each headed section within a chapter generally ends with a pithy summary of the preceding narrative. The tempo is occasionally relieved by some interesting figures from ancient and modern sources, such as the Tarot correspondences in Eliphas Levi's The Key of the Mysteries and the clairvoyant readings of chemical elements in Occult Chemistry by Besant and Leadbeater. If I were forced to pick out my one favourite page from the whole book it would have to be page 19 where the key themes in The Corpus Hermeticum are set out in a masterful way showing why such a text is Hermetic and how it implies an indissoluble bond between the divine and man. It would be good to see future editions of this book containing a comprehensive glossary of terms. Although individually defined within the text the reader would benefit from a high level appreciation of abstract words used with many different shades of meaning. One case in point is the word 'theosophy' used severally with subtly different nuances pertaining to the context of different esoteric traditions, for example in the ancient Christian sense, as used by Jacob Boehme, and in the modern movement by Blavatsky. Another example is the different, but overlapping usage of the words 'Cabala' and 'Kabbalah'. Another useful addition would be a chapter or major section on Newton's alchemy and Leibniz's monadology to complement even further the fine depictions of esotericism of the Renaissance period in England and Europe. These minor quibbles apart, the general index, references and notes to pages from individual chapters, and the further reading list after each chapter are all readily accessible, indeed quite indispensible in a compact work of such erudition. This book will surely make a major contribution in releasing esotericism from its popular superstitious quarantine and planting it on a firm footing within the mainstream of philosophy and science, thus aiming esoteric study at those who can 'drive themselves to think', to quote Blavatsky's exasperated remark about what it takes to be a student theosophy. Obviously it is not meant for a quick coffee-table read, nor should it be. Otherwise the reader may be in danger of becoming overwhelmed by just too many rich ideas poured out all at once plus having to grapple with many exotic terms. Like fine wine it must be savoured to release its full flavour. The effort will repay itself a hundredfold. The book comes with an attractive cover and carries a touching dedication 'To Clare', the author's wife, 'who has always shared the journey'.