Access to Western Esotericism

Antoine Faivre is Directeur d'Etudes a l'Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes (Section des Sciences Religieuse), Sorbonne, Paris.

• Preface to the Present Edition Book One: Approaches to Western Esoteric Part One: Methodology and Reflections I)   MethodologyII)  Some Key ConceptsIII) Reflections on "Tradition," or The Three Paths of Esotericism TodayPart Two: A Short History of Western Esoteric Currents (Essay On Periodization) Chapter One: Ancient and Medieval Sources of Modern Esoteric CurrentsI)    Esoteric Currents in the First Eleven CenturiesII)   Esotericism in Medieval ThoughtIII) Initiatory Quests and Esoteric ArtsChapter Two: Esotericism at the Heart of the Renaissance and in the Flames of the BaroqueI)   Philosophia perennis, a Discovery of HumanismII)  The Germanic Contribution: Naturphilosophie and TheosophyIII) Reading the World and MythChapter Three: Esotericism in the Shadow of the EnlightenmentI)   Sunburst of TheosophyII)  From the Arts of Reading to the Art of Subtle FluidsIII) A Century of InitiationsChapter Four: From Romantic Knowledge to Programmatic OccultismI)   The Era of Naturphilosophic and the Great SynthesesII)  Universal Tradition and OccultismIII) Esotericism in Initiatory Societies and in Art (1848-1914)Chapter Five: Twentieth-Century EsotericismsI)   Gnoses in the Wake of the Western TraditionII)  The Four Winds of the TraditionIII) Arts and HumanitiesBook Two: Studies In Esotericism Faith and Knowledge in Franz von Baader and in Modern GnosisThe Inner Church and the Heavenly Jerusalem—Foundations of a Cosmic Anthropology According to Franz von Baader and Christian TheosophyThe Temple of Solomon in Eighteenth-Century Masonic TheosophyThe Chemical Wedding of Christian Rosencreutz as Pilgrimage of the SoulMiles Redivivus: Aspects of the Chivalric Imagination in Eighteenth-Century Alchemy, Freemasonry, and LiteratureLove and Androgyny in Franz von Baader—IntroductionA) Ontological AndrogynyB) Primitive Adam and Failed AndrogynyC) Situations of Human Love: Dialectics and OppositionsD) Situations of Human Love: Philosophies and the Life of the CoupleE) Knowledge and ReintegrationF) Baaderand His TimeThe Metamorphoses of Hermes: Neognostic Cosmologies and Traditional GnosisA Bibliographical Guide To Research IntroductionGeneral worksAlchemyEsoteric FreemasonryFrom the second to the 15th centuryRenaissance and the seventeenth centuryA) VariaB) The Reception of Alexandrian HermetismC)Christian KabbalahD)Paracelsism and Philosophy of NatureE) RosicrucianismF) TheosophyEighteenth centuryRomanticism and NaturphilosophieLate nineteenth century and the twentieth centuryConcerning "Tradition"Esotericism and IslamEsotericism, Literature and ArtJournals and serialsA word about LibrariesIndex of Names Index of Subjects

Antoine Faivre is Professor at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Religious Studies Section, Sorbonne, Paris. He holds the Chair of "History of Esoteric and Mystical Currents in Modern and Contemporary Europe." He is the author of The Golden Fleece and Alchemy published by SUNY Press.