Building Religions 31: Esotericism

I've written a few things here before about the Western magical traditions that often provide a foundation for the magical systems of fantasy settings. I am about to do so again, although this time from a different perspective. The study of Western esotericism (which I'll define below) has emerged over the past few decades as an academic discipline in its own right. Although its focus tends to be on modern (post-mediaeval) texts, those texts often look back to the past for inspiration and legitimation, making a consideration of esotericism useful for anyone interested in this particular strand of Western thought. What I plan to provide here is a brief survey of the subject, with the hope that it can clarify some ideas and introduce readers to others for the first time.

Bibliographic Addendum

I generally don't include bibliographies, but for anyone who wants to follow up on my descriptions of mediaeval and Renaissance magic in my last post, here's where I'd recommend starting:

Richard Kieckhefer, Magic in the Middle Ages and Forbidden Rites

D.P. Walker, Spiritual and Demonic Magic (more for the Renaissance approach)

These books might give you a few ideas as well:

Owen Davies, Grimoires (a bit light on thesis, but absolutely full of interesting trivia)

Ioan Couliano, Eros and Magic in the Renaissance (his conclusions are debatable, but his argument is intriguing)

Frances Yates, Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition (very influential, although her thesis rests on extremely shaky foundations)

(I can provide plenty more for anyone who's interested. If you're going to pick one to start with, get either of Kieckhefer's books.)

In terms of online resources, Twilit Grotto is probably best, though I see it hasn't been updated recently. The Alchemy Web Site is also quite handy, if you're fond of that sort of thing.

-Geoffrey

A Short Note on Magic in History

This article has been on my mind for the past few days. It's not that different from any other piece of advice out there on how to make magic systems for fantasy worlds: decide who can use magic, set limitations, think about the mechanisms of spells, and include some sort of cost to using it. It's all quite reasonable, and provides a good set of principles to follow whether you're designing for fiction or for games.

It did, however, get me thinking about historical magic—specifically, the ritual magic of Europe's late Middle Ages and Renaissance—and why it would be terrible for fiction. You'd think that it would be a nice fit for someone who wants a bit of authenticity in their fantasy: the genre is already filled with grimoires, spells in Latin, wands, talismans, Solomonic spirits, and all sorts of similar trappings of historical ritual magic. Why not go all the way?

Well, let me explain.

Building Religions 4: Religion and Magic

Building Religions 4: Religion & Magic

I'm going to take a detour here and focus on a theme rather than a single author. For the first several decades of the academic study of religion, it seemed like everyone had to, at some point, work out definitions of religion and magic that would make clear to their readers why the two were different. It's only been recently, however, that scholars have started to ask the question of why it was so important for that distinction to be made, and what the definitions were intended to do.