manu/mldr-zoomed-100char-total-queries-documents

chunk_id stringlengths 3 9	chunk stringlengths 1 100
9858_373	especially in Western Europe. Occult lodges and secret societies flowered among European
9858_374	intellectuals of this era who had largely abandoned traditional forms of Christianity. The
9858_375	spreading of secret teachings and magic practices found enthusiastic adherents in the chaos of
9858_376	Germany during the interwar years. Notable writers such as Guido von List spread neo-pagan,
9858_377	nationalist ideas, based on Wotanism and the Kabbalah. Many influential and wealthy Germans were
9858_378	drawn to secret societies such as the Thule Society. Thule Society activist Karl Harrer was one of
9858_379	the founders of the German Workers' Party, which later became the Nazi Party; some Nazi Party
9858_380	members like Alfred Rosenberg and Rudolf Hess were listed as "guests" of the Thule Society, as was
9858_381	Adolf Hitler's mentor Dietrich Eckart. After their rise to power, the Nazis persecuted occultists.
9858_382	While many Nazi Party leaders like Hitler and Joseph Goebbels were hostile to occultism, Heinrich
9858_383	Himmler used Karl Maria Wiligut as a clairvoyant "and was regularly consulting for help in setting
9858_384	up the symbolic and ceremonial aspects of the SS" but not for important political decisions. By
9858_385	1939, Wiligut was "forcibly retired from the SS" due to being institutionalised for insanity. On
9858_386	the other hand, the German hermetic magic order Fraternitas Saturni was founded on Easter 1928 and
9858_387	it is one of the oldest continuously running magical groups in Germany. In 1936, the Fraternitas
9858_388	Saturni was prohibited by the Nazi regime. The leaders of the lodge emigrated to avoid
9858_389	imprisonment, but in the course of the war Eugen Grosche, one of their main leaders, was arrested
9858_390	for a year by the Nazi government. After World War II they reformed the Fraternitas Saturni.
9858_391	Several religious scholars such as Hugh Urban and Donald Westbrook have classified Scientology as
9858_392	being a modern form of Western Esotericism.
9858_393	Later 20th century
9858_394	In the 1960s and 1970s, esotericism came to be increasingly associated with the growing
9858_395	counter-culture in the West, whose adherents understood themselves in participating in a spiritual
9858_396	revolution that marked the Age of Aquarius. By the 1980s, these currents of millenarian currents
9858_397	had come to be widely known as the New Age movement, and it became increasingly commercialised as
9858_398	business entrepreneurs exploited a growth in the spiritual market. Conversely, other forms of
9858_399	esoteric thought retained the anti-commercial and counter-cultural sentiment of the 1960s and
9858_400	1970s, namely the techno-shamanic movement promoted by figures such as Terence McKenna and Daniel
9858_401	Pinchbeck, which built on the work of anthropologist Carlos Castaneda.
9858_402	This trend was accompanied by the increased growth of modern Paganism, a movement initially
9858_403	dominated by Wicca, the religion propagated by Gerald Gardner. Wicca was adopted by members of the
9858_404	second-wave feminist movement, most notably Starhawk, and developing into the Goddess movement.
9858_405	Wicca also greatly influenced the development of Pagan neo-druidry and other forms of Celtic
9858_406	revivalism. In response to Wicca there has also appeared literature and groups who label themselves
9858_407	followers of traditional witchcraft in opposition to the growing visibility of Wicca and these
9858_408	claim older roots than the system proposed by Gerald Gardner. Other trends that emerged in western
9858_409	occultism in the later 20th century included satanism, as exposed by groups such as the Church of
9858_410	Satan and Temple of Set, as well as chaos magick through the Illuminates of Thanateros group.
9858_411	Additionally, since the start of the 1990s, countries inside of the former Iron Curtain have
9858_412	undergone a radiative and varied religious revival, with a large number of occult and new religious
9858_413	movements gaining popularity. Gnostic revivalists, New Age organizations, and Scientology splinter
9858_414	groups have found their way into much of the former Soviet bloc since the cultural and political
9858_415	shift resulting from the dissolution of the USSR. In Hungary, a significant number of citizens
9858_416	(relative to the size of the country’s population and compared to its neighbors) practice and/or
9858_417	adhere to new currents of Western Esotericism. In April 1997, the Fifth Esoteric Spiritual Forum
9858_418	was held for two days in the country and was attended at-capacity; In August of the same year, the
9858_419	International Shaman Expo began, being broadcast on live TV and ultimately taking place for 2
9858_420	months wherein various neo-Shamanist, Millenarian, mystic, neo-Pagan, and even UFO religionist
9858_421	congregations and figures were among the attendees.
9858_422	Academic study
9858_423	The academic study of Western esotericism was pioneered in the early 20th century by historians of
9858_424	the ancient world and the European Renaissance, who came to recognise that—even though previous
9858_425	scholarship had ignored it—the effect pre-Christian and non-rational schools of thought on European
9858_426	society and culture was worthy of academic attention. One of the key centres for this was the
9858_427	Warburg Institute in London, where scholars like Frances Yates, Edgar Wind, Ernst Cassirer, and D.
9858_428	P. Walker began arguing that esoteric thought had had a greater effect on Renaissance culture than
9858_429	had been previously accepted. The work of Yates in particular, most notably her 1964 book Giordano
9858_430	Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition, has been cited as "an important starting-point for modern
9858_431	scholarship on esotericism", succeeding "at one fell swoop in bringing scholarship onto a new
9858_432	track" by bringing wider awareness of the effect that esoteric ideas had on modern science.
9858_433	In 1965, at the instigation of the scholar Henry Corbin, École pratique des hautes études in the
9858_434	Sorbonne established the world's first academic post in the study of esotericism, with a chair in
9858_435	the History of Christian Esotericism. Its first holder was François Secret, a specialist in the
9858_436	Christian Kabbalah, though he had little interest in developing the wider study of esotericism as a
9858_437	field of research. In 1979 Faivre assumed Secret's chair at the Sorbonne, which was renamed the
9858_438	"History of Esoteric and Mystical Currents in Modern and Contemporary Europe". Faivre has since
9858_439	been cited as being responsible for developing the study of Western esotericism into a formalised
9858_440	field, with his 1992 work L'ésotérisme having been cited as marking "the beginning of the study of
9858_441	Western esotericism as an academic field of research". He remained in the chair until 2002, when he
9858_442	was succeeded by Jean-Pierre Brach.
9858_443	Faivre noted that there were two significant obstacles to establishing the field. One was that
9858_444	there was an engrained prejudice towards esotericism within academia, resulting in the widespread
9858_445	perception that the history of esotericism was not worthy of academic research. The second was that
9858_446	esotericism is a trans-disciplinary field, the study of which did not fit clearly within any
9858_447	particular discipline. As Hanegraaff noted, Western esotericism had to be studied as a separate
9858_448	field to religion, philosophy, science, and the arts, because while it "participates in all these
9858_449	fields" it does not squarely fit into any of them. Elsewhere, he noted that there was "probably no
9858_450	other domain in the humanities that has been so seriously neglected" as Western esotericism.
9858_451	In 1980, the U.S.-based Hermetic Academy was founded by Robert A. McDermott as an outlet for
9858_452	American scholars interested in Western esotericism. From 1986 to 1990 members of the Hermetic
9858_453	Academy participated in panels at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion under the
9858_454	rubric of the "Esotericism and Perennialism Group". By 1994, Faivre could comment that the academic
9858_455	study of Western esotericism had taken off in France, Italy, England, and the United States, but he
9858_456	lamented that it had not done so in Germany.
9858_457	In 1999, the University of Amsterdam established a chair in the History of Hermetic Philosophy and
9858_458	Related Currents, which was occupied by Hanegraaff, while in 2005 the University of Exeter created
9858_459	a chair in Western Esotericism, which was taken by Goodrick-Clarke, who headed the Exeter Center
9858_460	for the Study of Esotericism. Thus, by 2008 there were three dedicated university chairs in the
9858_461	subject, with Amsterdam and Exeter also offering master's degree programs in it. Several
9858_462	conferences on the subject were held at the quintennial meetings of the International Association
9858_463	for the History of Religions, while a peer-reviewed journal, Aries: Journal for the Study of
9858_464	Western Esotericism began publication in 2001. 2001 also saw the foundation of the North American
9858_465	Association for the Study of Esotericism (ASE), with the European Society for the Study of Western
9858_466	Esotericism (ESSWE) being established shortly after.
9858_467	Within a few years, Michael Bergunder expressed the view that it had become an established field
9858_468	within religious studies, with Asprem and Granholm observing that scholars within other
9858_469	sub-disciplines of religious studies had begun to take an interest in the work of scholars of
9858_470	esotericism.
9858_471	Asprem and Granholm noted that the study of esotericism had been dominated by historians and thus
9858_472	lacked the perspective of social scientists examining contemporary forms of esotericism, a

9858_373

especially in Western Europe. Occult lodges and secret societies flowered among European

9858_374

intellectuals of this era who had largely abandoned traditional forms of Christianity. The

9858_375

spreading of secret teachings and magic practices found enthusiastic adherents in the chaos of

9858_376

Germany during the interwar years. Notable writers such as Guido von List spread neo-pagan,

9858_377

nationalist ideas, based on Wotanism and the Kabbalah. Many influential and wealthy Germans were

9858_378

drawn to secret societies such as the Thule Society. Thule Society activist Karl Harrer was one of

9858_379

the founders of the German Workers' Party, which later became the Nazi Party; some Nazi Party

9858_380

members like Alfred Rosenberg and Rudolf Hess were listed as "guests" of the Thule Society, as was

9858_381

Adolf Hitler's mentor Dietrich Eckart. After their rise to power, the Nazis persecuted occultists.

9858_382

While many Nazi Party leaders like Hitler and Joseph Goebbels were hostile to occultism, Heinrich

9858_383

Himmler used Karl Maria Wiligut as a clairvoyant "and was regularly consulting for help in setting

9858_384

up the symbolic and ceremonial aspects of the SS" but not for important political decisions. By

9858_385

1939, Wiligut was "forcibly retired from the SS" due to being institutionalised for insanity. On

9858_386

the other hand, the German hermetic magic order Fraternitas Saturni was founded on Easter 1928 and

9858_387

it is one of the oldest continuously running magical groups in Germany. In 1936, the Fraternitas

9858_388

Saturni was prohibited by the Nazi regime. The leaders of the lodge emigrated to avoid

9858_389

imprisonment, but in the course of the war Eugen Grosche, one of their main leaders, was arrested

9858_390

for a year by the Nazi government. After World War II they reformed the Fraternitas Saturni.

9858_391

Several religious scholars such as Hugh Urban and Donald Westbrook have classified Scientology as

9858_392

being a modern form of Western Esotericism.

9858_393

Later 20th century

9858_394

In the 1960s and 1970s, esotericism came to be increasingly associated with the growing

9858_395

counter-culture in the West, whose adherents understood themselves in participating in a spiritual

9858_396

revolution that marked the Age of Aquarius. By the 1980s, these currents of millenarian currents

9858_397

had come to be widely known as the New Age movement, and it became increasingly commercialised as

9858_398

business entrepreneurs exploited a growth in the spiritual market. Conversely, other forms of

9858_399

esoteric thought retained the anti-commercial and counter-cultural sentiment of the 1960s and

9858_400

1970s, namely the techno-shamanic movement promoted by figures such as Terence McKenna and Daniel

9858_401

Pinchbeck, which built on the work of anthropologist Carlos Castaneda.

9858_402

This trend was accompanied by the increased growth of modern Paganism, a movement initially

9858_403

dominated by Wicca, the religion propagated by Gerald Gardner. Wicca was adopted by members of the

9858_404

second-wave feminist movement, most notably Starhawk, and developing into the Goddess movement.

9858_405

Wicca also greatly influenced the development of Pagan neo-druidry and other forms of Celtic

9858_406

revivalism. In response to Wicca there has also appeared literature and groups who label themselves

9858_407

followers of traditional witchcraft in opposition to the growing visibility of Wicca and these

9858_408

claim older roots than the system proposed by Gerald Gardner. Other trends that emerged in western

9858_409

occultism in the later 20th century included satanism, as exposed by groups such as the Church of

9858_410

Satan and Temple of Set, as well as chaos magick through the Illuminates of Thanateros group.

9858_411

Additionally, since the start of the 1990s, countries inside of the former Iron Curtain have

9858_412

undergone a radiative and varied religious revival, with a large number of occult and new religious

9858_413

movements gaining popularity. Gnostic revivalists, New Age organizations, and Scientology splinter

9858_414

groups have found their way into much of the former Soviet bloc since the cultural and political

9858_415

shift resulting from the dissolution of the USSR. In Hungary, a significant number of citizens

9858_416

(relative to the size of the country’s population and compared to its neighbors) practice and/or

9858_417

adhere to new currents of Western Esotericism. In April 1997, the Fifth Esoteric Spiritual Forum

9858_418

was held for two days in the country and was attended at-capacity; In August of the same year, the

9858_419

International Shaman Expo began, being broadcast on live TV and ultimately taking place for 2

9858_420

months wherein various neo-Shamanist, Millenarian, mystic, neo-Pagan, and even UFO religionist

9858_421

congregations and figures were among the attendees.

9858_422

Academic study

9858_423

The academic study of Western esotericism was pioneered in the early 20th century by historians of

9858_424

the ancient world and the European Renaissance, who came to recognise that—even though previous

9858_425

scholarship had ignored it—the effect pre-Christian and non-rational schools of thought on European

9858_426

society and culture was worthy of academic attention. One of the key centres for this was the

9858_427

Warburg Institute in London, where scholars like Frances Yates, Edgar Wind, Ernst Cassirer, and D.

9858_428

P. Walker began arguing that esoteric thought had had a greater effect on Renaissance culture than

9858_429

had been previously accepted. The work of Yates in particular, most notably her 1964 book Giordano

9858_430

Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition, has been cited as "an important starting-point for modern

9858_431

scholarship on esotericism", succeeding "at one fell swoop in bringing scholarship onto a new

9858_432

track" by bringing wider awareness of the effect that esoteric ideas had on modern science.

9858_433

In 1965, at the instigation of the scholar Henry Corbin, École pratique des hautes études in the

9858_434

Sorbonne established the world's first academic post in the study of esotericism, with a chair in

9858_435

the History of Christian Esotericism. Its first holder was François Secret, a specialist in the

9858_436

Christian Kabbalah, though he had little interest in developing the wider study of esotericism as a

9858_437

field of research. In 1979 Faivre assumed Secret's chair at the Sorbonne, which was renamed the

9858_438

"History of Esoteric and Mystical Currents in Modern and Contemporary Europe". Faivre has since

9858_439

been cited as being responsible for developing the study of Western esotericism into a formalised

9858_440

field, with his 1992 work L'ésotérisme having been cited as marking "the beginning of the study of

9858_441

Western esotericism as an academic field of research". He remained in the chair until 2002, when he

9858_442

was succeeded by Jean-Pierre Brach.

9858_443

Faivre noted that there were two significant obstacles to establishing the field. One was that

9858_444

there was an engrained prejudice towards esotericism within academia, resulting in the widespread

9858_445

perception that the history of esotericism was not worthy of academic research. The second was that

9858_446

esotericism is a trans-disciplinary field, the study of which did not fit clearly within any

9858_447

particular discipline. As Hanegraaff noted, Western esotericism had to be studied as a separate

9858_448

field to religion, philosophy, science, and the arts, because while it "participates in all these

9858_449

fields" it does not squarely fit into any of them. Elsewhere, he noted that there was "probably no

9858_450

other domain in the humanities that has been so seriously neglected" as Western esotericism.

9858_451

In 1980, the U.S.-based Hermetic Academy was founded by Robert A. McDermott as an outlet for

9858_452

American scholars interested in Western esotericism. From 1986 to 1990 members of the Hermetic

9858_453

Academy participated in panels at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion under the

9858_454

rubric of the "Esotericism and Perennialism Group". By 1994, Faivre could comment that the academic

9858_455

study of Western esotericism had taken off in France, Italy, England, and the United States, but he

9858_456

lamented that it had not done so in Germany.

9858_457

In 1999, the University of Amsterdam established a chair in the History of Hermetic Philosophy and

9858_458

Related Currents, which was occupied by Hanegraaff, while in 2005 the University of Exeter created

9858_459

a chair in Western Esotericism, which was taken by Goodrick-Clarke, who headed the Exeter Center

9858_460

for the Study of Esotericism. Thus, by 2008 there were three dedicated university chairs in the

9858_461

subject, with Amsterdam and Exeter also offering master's degree programs in it. Several

9858_462

conferences on the subject were held at the quintennial meetings of the International Association

9858_463

for the History of Religions, while a peer-reviewed journal, Aries: Journal for the Study of

9858_464

Western Esotericism began publication in 2001. 2001 also saw the foundation of the North American

9858_465

Association for the Study of Esotericism (ASE), with the European Society for the Study of Western

9858_466

Esotericism (ESSWE) being established shortly after.

9858_467

Within a few years, Michael Bergunder expressed the view that it had become an established field

9858_468

within religious studies, with Asprem and Granholm observing that scholars within other

9858_469

sub-disciplines of religious studies had begun to take an interest in the work of scholars of

9858_470

esotericism.

9858_471

Asprem and Granholm noted that the study of esotericism had been dominated by historians and thus

9858_472

lacked the perspective of social scientists examining contemporary forms of esotericism, a