The Esoteric Tradition and The New Age

Secret societies or spiritual supermarket?

Western academia has recently started paying attention to esotericism as a field of serious study. This is a new turn of events — when I was doing research for my dissertation back in the 2000’s, there was nary a word on the topic, not even the criticism I expected to find. In this paper, I’m following the line of thought of some academics, most notably Wouter Hanagraaff, whose papers I’ll site at the end.

Defining esotericism is a tricky business, and there are at least three accepted definitions that are worth exploring.

Esotericism as Secret Knowledge…

This is perhaps the most popular definition of esoteric knowledge. It implies something that is known to only a few initiates, and thus constitutes a higher kind of knowledge than the exoteric teachings that are widely broadcast via traditional religions.

To have this knowledge is to be in with the in crowd, aware of things of which the masses are ignorant. This is apparent in the title of many New Age works, such as the popular books, The Secret and The Aquarian Conspiracy.

The problem with this definition is that most of what we consider esoteric knowledge is hardly secretive or hidden. That’s true of the New Age — the above-mentioned books are widely available in the New Age or Metaphysical section of major bookstores and online retailers — but it’s more or less always been true.

In fact, esoteric teachers and societies have usually trawled for adherents, opening themselves to anyone who wanted to become part of the group. Some barriers might be put in place (such as age), although these are rare. Certain techniques might be kept secret, but that’s usually to prevent the participant from harming themselves or skipping necessary steps in the progression of learning.

Esotericism as Gnosis…

This definition of esotericism took off in the 1960s, following the work of Francis Yates, who noted that a core facet of what we consider to be esoteric knowledge is a direct experience of a higher truth, which distinguishes it from reason or faith-based knowledge.

In this definition, esoteric means not secret but interior, as opposed to externally-based exoteric knowledge. It’s knowledge that one has to get for oneself rather than relying on authority and tradition.

Gnosis, or direct knowledge, is indeed an important fact of the New Age. Having spiritual experiences of one’s own is perhaps the defining characteristic of the New Age (although that’s subject to debate), and it stands in contrast to the doctrinal emphasis of established religions, which promise, for example, that since Saint Paul had a mystical experience two thousand years ago, you needn’t bother.

As much as it may seem paradoxical to associate esotericism and the New Age with the modern worldview of science and rationality, there is a striking similarity in the emphasis on gnosis. In both, tradition and authority are rejected as the ultimate source of truth, and are tested by experience.

A scientific experiment differs in kind from meditation, psychedelics, prayer, etc., but they all rely on setting a procedure, following instructions, gathering data, and reaching conclusions that may or may not be what is expected.

Esotericism as Rejected Knowledge…

This is one of Hanagraaff’s ideas about esotericism — that its defining characteristic is that it is knowledge or claims to knowledge that have been rejected by establish religion as well as culture in general. Ideas, beliefs, and experiences aren’t rejected because they are esoteric or New Age, they are esoteric/New Age because they are rejected.

This definition actually works well with the other two. As a reaction to being rejected, adherents of an esoteric tradition may be likely to set their teachings apart from the crowd: being rejected means being special; being marginalized is a sign of higher knowledge, and that knowledge is secret. Then, because of the emphasis on gnosis, it becomes easy to say that the masses, tradition, and authority just don’t know, and thus they reject.

Yes, but…

All of this creates a picture of the esoteric/New Age ideas and beliefs as though they were rigidly held — or at least consistent — which is not the case. There are some members of specific groups with more or less consistent teachings, but they are not typical. More common is the shopper in the spiritual supermarket, who samples and tries out various ideas, often for no more than the cost of a book or an evening lecture.

It also makes it seem like we are talking about the fringes of society, when in fact they are — and have often been — surprisingly mainstream. About a third of Americans, for example, consider themselves to be in the ‘spiritual but not religious’ category, which is at least some indication of the popularity of esoteric and New Age thinking, although there is not a one-to-one correlation.

In fact, given the shaky faith of many religious folk and the unreflective acceptance of those who adhere to scientific rationality, the spiritual but not religious group might be the most sincere, if not the most grounded, segment of society. They certainly are a large group, and that challenges many of our ideas about what esoteric means.

References

Wouter J. Hanagraaff (2008) “Reason, Faith, and Gnosis: Potentials and Problems of a Typological Construct.” In Meusburger et al., Clashes of Knowledge.

Wouter J. Hanagraaff (2005) “Forbidden Knowledge: Anti-Esoteric Polemics and Academic Discourse.” Aries: Journal for the Study of Western Esotericism.