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Welcome to Hermetic and Western Esoteric Traditions
Welcome to Hermetic and Western Esoteric Traditions.
For two thousand years, people in the West have searched for a hidden wisdom: a knowledge of God, the cosmos, and the self that ordinary religion and ordinary science do not give. They found it, or believed they found it, in the writings of an Egyptian sage called Thrice-Great Hermes, in the alchemist’s furnace, in the stars, in secret brotherhoods, in the voices of the dead, and in teachers who claimed to speak for hidden masters. These currents shaped Renaissance art and philosophy, early science, the Enlightenment, Black American institutions, Indian nationalism, modern psychology, and the spirituality of millions of people today.
This intermediate course follows that story from Roman Egypt to the present. You will read the Hermetic writings themselves; trace alchemy from Alexandria through Baghdad to Isaac Newton; study the Renaissance magus and the witch hunts that happened at the same time; meet the Rosicrucians, the Freemasons, and Prince Hall; sit at the séance tables of the Spiritualists; follow the Theosophists to India; and end with the New Age, the Satanic panic, and the seekers you will meet in ministry. Throughout, you will see how women were treated in each tradition: excluded and persecuted, and also, again and again, finding in esoteric circles an authority that the churches of their time denied them.
This course combines and replaces two earlier introductory courses, Hermetic Traditions and Western Esotericism, and goes further than either. It asks you to read primary sources and to weigh real scholarly debates.
How This Course Works
| Topic | Details |
|---|---|
| Recommended preparation | Five 100-level courses are recommended first, but not required. This is a 200-level course, open to every student. Gnosticism (106) and Mysticism (117) are helpful background. |
| Pace | Self-paced. Most students finish in six to eight weeks, studying about five hours a week. There are no deadlines. |
| Structure | Eight modules. Each module has a lesson, a reading assignment, and a ten-question quiz. |
| Book report | Read one of the two book report choices in full, pass its ten-question quiz, and write a one-paragraph summary, after Module 8. |
| Final exam | Fifteen multiple-choice questions and one written project of 1,500 to 2,000 words, taken after Module 8. |
| Credit | 3 credit hours toward further titles and degrees. |
Grading
| Part | To pass |
|---|---|
| Module quizzes (8) | Pass each with 70% or higher. Retakes allowed. |
| Book report quiz (10 questions) | Pass with 70% or higher. Retakes allowed. |
| Book report summary (one paragraph) | Approved by the school |
| Final exam, Part 1 (multiple choice) | Pass with 70% or higher. Retakes allowed. |
| Final exam, Part 2 (written project, 1,500 to 2,000 words) | Approved by the school |
Required texts
- Hermetica: The Greek Corpus Hermeticum and the Latin Asclepius, translated by Brian P. Copenhaver (Cambridge University Press, 1992)
- Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition, Frances A. Yates (University of Chicago Press, 1964; any edition)
- The Western Esoteric Traditions: A Historical Introduction, Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke (Oxford University Press, 2008)
- Western Esotericism: A Guide for the Perplexed, Wouter J. Hanegraaff (Bloomsbury, 2013)
You will not read every page of these books. Each module assigns specific treatises or chapters, and later courses may assign other parts of the same books. All four are available from public libraries, used bookstores, and as ebooks. The Emerald Tablet, Pico’s Oration, the Fama Fraternitatis, and The Kybalion are free online. For the book report you will read one more book, chosen from the two listed in the Book Report section.
What you will study
Module 1: Hidden Knowledge and Thrice-Great Hermes Module 2: The Hermetic Writings Module 3: Alchemy: The Great Work Module 4: Magic, Kabbalah, and the Renaissance Magus Module 5: Rosicrucians, Christian Theosophy, and Freemasonry Module 6: Spirits and Mediums Module 7: Theosophy, the Golden Dawn, and Modern Magic Module 8: The New Age, Esotericism Today, and Ministry
Book report choices
Divine Feminine: Theosophy and Feminism in England, Joy Dixon; Radical Spirits: Spiritualism and Women’s Rights in Nineteenth-Century America, Ann Braude
Academic honesty
All written work must be your own. You may quote and discuss the course readings and other sources, but you must say where the words and ideas came from. Submitting work written by someone else, including work generated entirely by AI tools, is not permitted. If you write about a living person’s spiritual practice, change their name and identifying details unless they have given you permission.