New Direction Defined
Earlier this year I wrote a blog post saying how I felt like I had boxed myself into one form of creativity. The past few episodes have been a way to explore a different path. I had been looking at the practice of tarot and breaking down each card into psychological concepts. However, I felt like there was something missing in each episode, something that would strengthen the points I was trying to make. The answer wouldn’t come until I discovered a YouTube channel that explores similar topics.
Esoterica is a YouTube channel by Dr. Sledge, a professor who teaches philosophy and religious as well as what’s considered the arcane and occult. You’ve most likely heard of topics such as witchcraft, paganism, astrology, and other more esoteric principles and practices. I would even classify the Laws of Attraction to this umbrella. The belief gained widespread popularity in the 2000s with the book The Secret by Rhonda Byrne. And while there’s plenty to criticize this book over, it was still a novel idea into a non-traditional way of thinking. It was another type of philosophy than the boring and confusing material I was taught in the one semester of philosophy I took in college. The Secret, which was gifted to me 3 times over the years, was my introduction into an esoteric approach to life. But like much of the material I’ve discovered over the years, The Secret didn’t include any academic approach to this Law of Attraction or the history of where this thought came from. It reads much like a long fairytale of magic and enchantment than anything substantial.
Dr. Sledge looks at the occult and esoteric principles and practices by explaining the history and culture behind them, the organizations that taught these practices, and provides books and references for further readings. These books have been written with a more academic approach, including more facts and history rather than simply giving you instructions or a long fairytale of information that you can’t quite put into practice.
One of these books was Western Esotericism: A Guide for the Perplexed by Wouter J. Hanegraaf. Despite the title, this book is perplexing to read the first time through, but it gave me the missing information I had been looking for. Hanegraaf gives an overview of Western Esotericism, which includes all the arcane and occult information I’ve mentioned, such as Tarot, Astrology, Alchemy, and other forms of esoterica that many people have heard of. Christians would call this devil-worship, and others would can it superstition and nonsense. And yet, many cultures and movements have come about because of societies practicing these philosophies. For instance, magic led to the development of modern medicine, astrology led to the development of astronomy, and alchemy contributed to the greater field of chemistry. But academia has shunned these practices and the history of them from the public until recently. Western Esotericism is a field of study that gained traction in the 1990s, so information on the subject is quite new compared to other fields. But it is one that I have unknowingly been studying for quite some time and finally have found answers and a new track to follow. I’ll do a separate episode on Western Esotericism in the future.
With all of this said, I’ll be redoing my episodes on tarot as I gather more factual and historical information beyond the polemic or fanciful stories and beliefs we come across to. For example, in astrology, people either have an ungrounded and almost delusion approach to it, or they are very skeptical and call it stupid and superstition. Neither extreme keeps in mind the history of astrology, which dates before the Ancient Greek. I’m not counting astrologers in this camp, because they are most likely the people who have studied the history and the rationale behind the techniques and aren’t just regurgitation what they found on some pop culture website.
So this is my new direction. I just finished Hellenistic Astrology by Chris Brennan, which recounts the culture, philosophy, and practice of astrology during Ancient Greece. That may very well be the next episode. But it feels good to finally have a path I can follow as I continue my journey through esoteric studies, their history, and how this all affects us today.
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