This is from a blog post from August 28 at http://www.arcanology.com/?p=538.
I thought people here might have some useful comments on it. It is still my
plan of record for my thesis work.
My thesis is a roughly 60 or so standard size page document (maybe a little
longer).
Thesis Question
I may have found my thesis topic after some thought. I realized that there
had been an ongoing discussion in years past between me and members of my
old hermetic lodge. This was centered on how Hermeticism had changed during
the 20th century as it moved away from being "esoteric Christianity" or
"esoteric Judaism" into this stage following convention religion in modern
times. Esotericism was once the "inner" to an "outer" that was simply
conventional religion. You were a Christian (or, if you were in the Golden
Dawn, normally a member of the Church of England) or a Jew. This is where
your primary religion training took place.
For those that sought more, there was (and still is, actually) an esoteric
side to any of the major religions. In the West, this often expressed itself
as the Hermetic and Cabalistic aspects of the faith. People didn't generally
quit being Christians in order to study angels, goetic demons, or the Tree
of Life. It was a layer on top of things.
With the decline of mainstream religion, at least amongst the bohemians and
intelligentsia, occultism didn't undergo a similar decline. In fact, it
grew. The formerly "inner" aspects became merely occult or hidden but it was
no longer always the case (and with some groups, not even often the case)
that people had a separate exoteric faith.
This leads to my question, focusing on the 20th century:
"Can Golden Dawn-derived Western Magical practices and beliefs be
considered as a religion distinct unto themselves in form and practice? Do
these beliefs and practices constitute an entity unto themselves, deriving
from earlier traditions, but not requiring them any longer?"
I also think about, in this, the use of the Tree of Life and Cabala by many
pagan and non-pagan magicians that I have known. They are practicing Jewish
forms. The standard Western Esoteric forms are about 500 years removed from
Judaism with occasional cross-connections and explicit borrowings or
influences. This was done largely by Christians. Almost none of the
practitioners of this that I have known have been Christian though.
I figure that there is room to examine the modern, academic literature on
Western Esotericism (Faivre and Hanegraaf being good examples), literature
on defining religion and religious cults, and the actual practices and
beliefs of Western Magical groups that have sprung up in the English
speaking world since the beginning of the 20th century.
I'll explicitly avoid Thelema in this for a variety of reasons, the main one
being that for many Thelemites, Thelema is explicitly a religion with an
established Church, revealed holy texts, a prophet and standard practices
and holy days. It makes it a much less interesting examination. My own
involvement in Thelema currently also makes it easier to avoid it as well.
Al
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