Table of Contents

Preface to the Present Edition Book One: Approaches to Western Esoteric Part One: Methodology and Reflections I) Methodology II) Some Key Concepts III) Reflections on "Tradition," or The Three Paths of Esotericism Today Part Two: A Short History of Western Esoteric Currents (Essay On Periodization) Chapter One: Ancient and Medieval Sources of Modern Esoteric Currents I) Esoteric Currents in the First Eleven Centuries II) Esotericism in Medieval Thought III) Initiatory Quests and Esoteric Arts Chapter Two: Esotericism at the Heart of the Renaissance and in the Flames of the Baroque I) Philosophia perennis, a Discovery of Humanism II) The Germanic Contribution: Naturphilosophie and Theosophy III) Reading the World and Myth Chapter Three: Esotericism in the Shadow of the Enlightenment I) Sunburst of Theosophy II) From the Arts of Reading to the Art of Subtle Fluids III) A Century of Initiations Chapter Four: From Romantic Knowledge to Programmatic Occultism I) The Era of Naturphilosophic and the Great Syntheses II) Universal Tradition and Occultism III) Esotericism in Initiatory Societies and in Art (1848-1914) Chapter Five: Twentieth-Century Esotericisms I) Gnoses in the Wake of the Western Tradition II) The Four Winds of the Tradition III) Arts and Humanities Book Two: Studies In Esotericism Faith and Knowledge in Franz von Baader and in Modern Gnosis The Inner Church and the Heavenly Jerusalem-Foundations of a Cosmic Anthropology According to Franz von Baader and Christian Theosophy The Temple of Solomon in Eighteenth-Century Masonic Theosophy The Chemical Wedding of Christian Rosencreutz as Pilgrimage of the Soul Miles Redivivus: Aspects of the Chivalric Imagination in Eighteenth-Century Alchemy, Freemasonry, and Literature Love and Androgyny in Franz von Baader -Introduction A) Ontological Androgyny B) Primitive Adam and Failed Androgyny C) Situations of Human Love: Dialectics and Oppositions D) Situations of Human Love: Philosophies and the Life of the Couple E) Knowledge and Reintegration F) Baaderand His Time The Metamorphoses of Hermes: Neognostic Cosmologies and Traditional Gnosis A Bibliographical Guide To Research Introduction General works Alchemy Esoteric Freemasonry From the second to the 15th century Renaissance and the seventeenth century A) Varia B) The Reception of Alexandrian Hermetism C)Christian Kabbalah D)Paracelsism and Philosophy of Nature E) Rosicrucianism F) Theosophy Eighteenth century Romanticism and Naturphilosophie Late nineteenth century and the twentieth century Concerning "Tradition" Esotericism and Islam Esotericism, Literature and Art Journals and serials A word about Libraries Index of Names Index of Subjects

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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.