Scope
"Esoteric" means inner. In antiquity the word was used of teachings reserved for a philosopher's close pupils, as opposed to the exoteric teachings given to the public. The noun "esotericism" is modern, first appearing in French in the early nineteenth century.
Scholars now use "Western esotericism" as an umbrella for a family of related currents: Hermetism, Gnosticism, Kabbalah and its Christian adaptations, Rosicrucianism, Christian theosophy, and the occult revival of the nineteenth century. What the family shares is less a doctrine than a way of seeing: a living cosmos bound together by correspondences, to be known through imagination and inner transformation, and handed on from teacher to pupil.
| Class | What is shelved there |
|---|---|
| D 1 | Hermetica: the Corpus Hermeticum, the Asclepius, the Emerald Tablet, the Picatrix, and Renaissance Hermetism. Technical Hermetica on astrology and natural magic are shelved with those subjects |
| D 2 | Gnostic literature: the Nag Hammadi and related codices, the heresiologists, Manichaean and Mandaean texts, modern studies |
| D 3 | Kabbalah: Jewish mystical texts in translation, Christian Cabala, and the Hermetic Qabalah of the occult revival |
| D 4 | Rosicrucian and theosophical currents to 1800: the manifestos, Jacob Boehme and his readers, Swedenborg |
| D 5 | The occult revival and after: Eliphas Levi, Theosophy, Anthroposophy, the Fourth Way, Spiritualism and psychical research |
| D 6 | Initiatic and fraternal literature: published rituals, lecture series, and histories of esoteric orders |
| D 7 | The study of esotericism: histories, methods, and reference works of the academic field |
Strengths
- Every major English translation of the Corpus Hermeticum since 1650, in the original printing or in facsimile.
- A working collection on the Nag Hammadi codices, including photographic facsimiles of the manuscripts.
- A deep shelf of Theosophical and occult-revival titles from the library of a local study circle that met from 1911 to 1968.
- The cataloger's file of "forged ancients": books that claim an antiquity they do not have, each with a note on where it really comes from.
Where to begin
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Poimandres First treatise of the Corpus Hermeticum. Greek, about the second century CE. D 1
A visionary dialogue in which the divine Mind shows the narrator the making of the world, the fall of the primal human into nature, and the way back through the seven spheres. Twenty minutes' reading, and the best single introduction to the Hermetic outlook.
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The Gospel of Thomas Coptic, from a Greek original of the first or second century CE. D 2
One hundred and fourteen sayings attributed to Jesus, with almost no narrative. The most widely read of the texts found at Nag Hammadi in 1945, and a good first meeting with the idea of saving knowledge.
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Sefer Yetzirah The Book of Formation. Hebrew, date disputed, probably between the second and sixth centuries CE. D 3
A few pages describing creation through thirty-two paths of wisdom: ten sefirot and the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Every later Kabbalist commented on it.
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Fama Fraternitatis German, printed 1614. D 4
The first Rosicrucian manifesto: the story of Christian Rosenkreutz, his journey to the East, and the hidden brotherhood that would reform learning. No such brotherhood has ever been shown to have existed, but the pamphlet set off a furor across Europe and a tradition that has not ended.
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Isis Unveiled Helena Petrovna Blavatsky. 1877. D 5
Two large volumes arguing that an ancient wisdom underlies both science and religion. It is unreliable as history and indispensable for understanding how the occult revival saw the past.
A note on secrecy
Much that was once secret has been in print for a century or more, and we shelve it openly. Where a living body still treats its rituals as private, we follow our collection policy.
Related research guides
- Hermetic Literature (class D 1)
- Gnostic and Neoplatonic Texts (class D 2, with E 1 at the East Gate)
- Kabbalah (class D 3)