History of Western Esotericism

Catalog description

Alongside the mainstream western intellectual tradition there runs a kind of counter-tradition, an alternative, complementary approach to understanding the cosmos and our place in it. Historically, this tradition has been marginalized and today it forms a reservoir of "rejected knowledge," which nevertheless offers insights and ideas that can help balance our overly rationalised modern consciousness. Esoteric means "inner," and the esoteric tradition is concerned with the inner meaning of the great religions, but also with the reality of our "inner worlds." Beginning in the early CE and continuing to our post-everything age, the esoteric or Hermetic tradition has informed all aspects of western civilization, influencing religion, science, culture, even politics. This course will look at this lost tradition, offering a history of the hidden or "shadow side" of western consciousness. The course will look at selected representatives of our forgotten heritage and place them in the context of their times. We will explore what we can learn from our marginalised spiritual inheritance and how it may offer the possibility of uniting with its counterpart to form a consciousness quite unlike any we have experienced so far. PRIORITY REGISTRATION TO PCC AND ESR STUDENTS