Hidden teachings. A series of religions and sects present occult elements of some importance that differentiate them from other types of religiosity. It is beneficial to separate what is purely “religious” from what is essentially “esoteric.” Esotericism would include for some the totality of esoteric practices. ® ALCHEMY, ® DRUIDISM, ® HERMETISM, ® ROSICRUCROSIS, ® SPIRITISM, etc. are indicated as esoteric.
Source: Dictionary of Religions Denominations and Sects
SUMMARY: I. Apocalyptic.-II. Hermeticism.-III. Gnosticism.-IV. Classic esotericism: mysticism and philosophy.-V. Theosophy and Theosophism.-VI. Esotericism and science.-VII. Esoteric supermarket: popularizations.-VIII. Critical Judgment: The Christian Difference.
Exoteric is that knowledge that is open to all. Esoteric, on the other hand, the one that is offered and cultivated only among a few initiates who penetrate, in this way, the mystery of things or the sciences, thus surpassing the level of life and knowledge of the great vulgar, of the crowd of the ignorant.
Esotericism is the science of initiates. Thus it appears as true or deeper gnosis that cannot be opened to everyone, because they would not understand it. It is usually presented, sometimes, as a hermetic or closed knowledge, typical of those who know how to penetrate the secrets of the Great Hermes, God of wise men. Other times it appears as theosophy or deeper understanding of God, which must now be seen as different from the theology open to all ordinary believers in religions. Normally, esotericism functions as mysticism that leads to personal contact with the divine.
Christianity has sometimes presented esoteric aspects, linked to a kind of cult or arcane discipline: only after passing a demanding catechumenate could the neophytes openly proclaim the Creed, then recite the Our Father and celebrate with the rest of the faithful-initiates the mystery of the Eucharist. However, strictly speaking, Christianity is exoteric: it has offered its word to all the men and women of the earth, proclaiming its message in the middle of the squares.
Christianity is exoteric because it is linked to the message and history of Jesus who has openly proclaimed the kingdom of God on earth. The members of his Church do not gather in secret, as a hidden society: they publicly announce the way of Jesus and publicly link and gather within this world, offering everyone the reason for his hope. Certainly, they know that Jesus is a mystery that cannot be proved by earthly reasons; but it is a mystery for everyone, not just for some initiates.
In the following pages we study some of the main features of Western religious esotericism, in reference to Christianity. That is why we dispense with the oriental forms (linked to Buddhism and Hinduism); we refer only in passing to the most typical esoteric features of Islam and Judaism (Sufis, Kabbalah), in order to deal with those movements that are more linked to Christian history. As a starting point and place of first reference we will deal with the Jewish apocalyptic (tradition of Enoch) and the Greco-Egyptian hermeticism (especially Poimandres). In this way we will be able to deal with the gnosis and the later tendencies that have arisen in relation to Christianity.
We study the subject from a theological perspective, that is, in reference to the Christian God. That is why we highlight, from now on, some notes that are repeated in all contexts (except in the Jewish apocalyptic): God and man form a kind of original unity and one cannot speak of strict creation or freedom or autonomy human staff; the souls are part of a kind of “spiritual continuum” in such a way that they are immersed in a process of fall and general salvation (of transmigrations); evidently, there is no place for supernatural revelation nor condemnation or strict salvation of men. A type of sacred need has expanded over the orb of souls: they discover themselves and truly realize themselves as divine’.
1. Apocalyptic
Strictly speaking, the Jewish (and Judeo-Christian) apocalyptic that has come to extend from the s. IV a. from C. to the II d. C. cannot be interpreted as esoteric in a radical sense, since in it God is transcendent and reveals his mystery from above. In addition, the souls of men are not subject to a rhythm of transmigrations (reincarnations) that can lead them to the original nucleus of the divine from which they descended. However, it presents many traits that herald and prepare what will later become the esotericism of the main trends in the West.
Apocalyptic means unveiling or revelation of something that was hidden from the whole of men. Usually it is offered in the form of a vision: the most hidden heavens are opened and the witness of inner things sees and describes what was hidden from the time of the beginning; a hermeneutic angel accompanies him and interprets the meaning of what he has grasped or discovered; The seer travels through the superior worlds and discovers the most hidden mysteries, he knows how to read in the stars of the future or in the books of the destiny of history.
The apocalyptic seer is a man who gets in touch with the wise men and geniuses of the past (Enoch, Noah, Melchizedek, Daniel…). They open the doors of the hidden and reveal the mystery of God and history. Now we are dealing especially with Enoch, whom the tradition of Gen 5, 21-24 has presented as the “young patriarch” and perfect whom God himself wanted to raise to his height. He “walked with the Lord and is an example of religion for all ages” (Eclo 44, 16). An “Apocalyptic Pentateuch” (1 En or Ethiopic Enoch) and a “Book of Secrets” (2 En or Slavonic Enoch) have been written in his name which are still held in high esteem by modern esoteric teachers. Here we leave aside the themes of other apocalyptic authors of the OT and the NT, to indicate some esoteric features more typical of this tradition of Enoch, written between the fourth century B.C. of Christ and 1 d. of Christ. We initially highlight eight reasons.
1. The Apocalyptic Sage has climbed to the House of God, thereby discovering its secrets. “His soil was of fire; overhead were lightning bolts and astral orbits; its roof of blazing fire. I looked and saw in it a high throne, whose appearance was like frost and had a circle around it, like a shining sun and the voice of cherubim. Rivers of blazing fire poured out from under the throne, so that it was impossible to see. The Great Majesty was sitting on him, with his robe brighter than the sun…” (1 En 14, 17-20). This God where in a powerful paradox all opposites are linked (cold and heat, light and darkness) is usually presented as the principle of time (Ancient of days) and guide of souls (Lord of Spirits).
2. The seer knows the mysteries of creation and in this way can write with more depth and more detail of secrets the primitive account of Gen 1. Thus God confesses to his great sage: “Then I thought to lay a foundation and create visible nature . And I gave orders on high for a visible being to descend from the Invisible. And Adoil descended (eternity of God? Light of God?), Great in the extreme, and when I looked at him I saw that he had a great light in his belly. And I told him: Ab rete Adoil and let what is being born in you become visible. And when it opened, a great light came out and I found myself in the middle of it. And when it seemed that it was being created, the light came out of it the great with, showing all the things that I had thought to create” (2 En 11, 7-12). The seer has penetrated the mystery, daring to say what Gen 1-2 did not dare to say: it seems that God himself becomes a source of light, a maternal womb from which all things proceed.
3. The apocalyptic seer (Noah, Melchizedek, Ezra, Daniel, Enoch…) somehow penetrates into the mystery of God, discovering there his own profound truth. From here the process of revelation is understood, with the superhuman figure of the sage who unveils the mysteries and reveals the being of the divine. Dan 7, 13-14 presents us with a “human figure” (Son of Man) who receives power, honor and glory. 1 En identifies him with the Chosen One of God, who dwells in original justice and who carries out his great judgment on the world (1 En 46-47; 62). Logically, reaching the end of that line, 1 En 71 identifies Enoch himself (superhuman wise-seer) with that Son of Man who was born for justice: God himself reveals his secrets to the wise, reveals the truth to them deepest of him; the elect of the apocalyptic group participate in the science of God. This is esotericism.
4. Once started, the “cycle of occult science” continues: the seer penetrates into the mystery of God’s angels. Until now the Bible of Israel had been voluntarily sober, leaving aside all speculations about celestial beings. But once the floodgates of knowledge (or curiosity) have been opened, the seers can describe the names (Michael, Uriel, Raphael…), the nature and functions of the angels of God (1 En 9, 1). “These are the names of the holy angels who watch: Uriel, angel of the throne and trembling; Rafael, the one in charge of the spirits of men; Raguel, the one who punishes the universe and the luminaries (the fallen angels); Miguel the one in charge of the best part of men and of the nation (Israel); Saraqel, in charge of the spirits of the human race that make the angels sin; Gabriel, in charge of paradise, the serpents and the cherubim…” (1 En 20). The list and offices of the great spirits are extended and applied in a thousand ways. Esotericism will be the science of the angelic.
5. But next to the good angels who guide and sustain the entire universe by God’s command, there are the sinful or fallen angels who pervert men. Gen 2-3 the same as Rom 5 speaks of a “sin of Adam” (of man). But all esotericism sees sin as prehuman: a kind of first angelic fall. More than guilty of the evil of this world, men are “victims” of a great process of degeneration that, in the line of Gén 6, 1-4, has detailed 1 En 6-8: “the angels of God (Semyaza, Urakiva, Rameel, Kokabiel, Tamiel, Ramiel…) took women for themselves and began to stain themselves with them; they were taught to make swords and all kinds of war instruments; they corrupted their customs and taught them charms and sorceries, charms and tricks…”. This is the original sin: the desire of the flesh, possessive sex that links angels and men, leading them to deception and violence. At the bottom of this myth of the great fall, esotericism has always seen the sign of a fundamental perversion that makes us slaves of a kind of “evil God”.
6. God has fallen, but not completely. His universe goes on…