Edward Tiryakian

Toward the Sociology of Esoteric Culture

Edward Ashod Tiryakian - Professor Emeritus at Duke University (North Carolina, USA), durkhm@soc.duke.edu

The point of departure of this paper is an examination of the sociological literature on the recent occult revival in modern societies. This phenomenon, which clashes with the image of secularization, is particularly notable among the youth of the counterculture. To further sociological analysis, a conceptualization of esoteric culture is proposed. It is further argued that esoteric culture has played a significant role in Western cultural change, in such areas as artistic expressions, political ideas, and even scientific thought. Esoteric culture is thus treated as a source of ideational innovations in Western modernization.

Keywords: modernization, secularization, societal change, esotericism, occult, esoteric culture, exoteric culture, occult revival, counterculture, occult establishment, occult underground.

AMONG other surprising aspects of the kaleidoscopic cultural landscape of Western societies, a complex of phenomena has emerged in recent years that, for lack of a more precise definition, are usually referred to by the term "occult rebirth." In this context, various forms of pop culture associated with the occult are particularly well-known.

Tiryakian, E. A. (1972) "Toward the Sociology of Esoteric Culture", American Journal of Sociology 78 (3): 491 - 512. Revised version of a report presented in 1971 at the meeting of the American Sociological Association. Translation and publication rights are provided by the University of Chicago Press.

topics include a hit from the musical" Hair "called" Age of Aquarius", films such as "Rosemary's Baby" and "Mephisto's Waltz", as well as the television series "Bewitched". Clairvoyants such as Jeanne Dixon in the United States and Madame Soleil in France have also become public figures and best-selling authors. Self-proclaimed sorcerers and even ministers of the devil (the cases of Sybil Leake and Anton LaVey, respectively) have attracted public attention through the media, along with the horrific Tate-Manson case and other cases of organized ritual murder and suicide involving occult motives. Many bookstores have sprung up, specializing in occult books of various kinds and often located near university campuses. Sales of various products with zodiac signs have increased dramatically, and in France, since 1969, this trend has even received some kind of official recognition in the form of special monthly images on National Lottery tickets. Academic "ivory towers" also did not escape the influence of the occult revival: numerous seminars and courses appeared, both involving certification and not. The logical conclusion of this process was the formation of the "Aquarius University" in Maryland, which offers a full range of esoteric academic disciplines from alchemy to Zen Buddhism.

The sociological understanding of these new cultural processes is just beginning. One of the tasks of this article is to consider the sociological interpretations of this phenomenon that have been recently proposed. At the same time, we will try to push the discussion a little further by outlining exactly how the ongoing occult revival pushes the scope of sociological research, regardless of whether this revival is a short-term trend that does not have much significance, or whether it is destined for a longer existence. Thus, in these pages we will first attempt to develop the original formulation of the sociology of esoteric culture and consider its relation to the broader sociological context.

Sociology of the Occult Renaissance

One of the earliest and most extensive sociological studies of the occult renaissance is the work of Mar-

cello Truzzi ¹, which, in particular, provides a large amount of information about the spread and organization of witchcraft in modern American urban society. This material is analyzed from the point of view of the sociology of mass culture; at the same time, modern occultism is interpreted as a "pop religion", which Truzzi considers as "the process of demystifying what was previously considered to be frightening and threatening cultural elements". For example, people who play the role of sorcerers and witches are breaking down the last lines of Western psychic containment; in a sense, by taking on a role that was previously publicly branded odious and was subject to social suppression, they are demonstrating the ultimate liberation of the Western person (including women). from traditional cultural prohibitions related to the supernatural. The occult revival can thus be seen as another step towards modernizing Western society, as a secularization of the demonic, at least if we talk about the fascination with witchcraft of certain segments of the middle class. This point of view is quite consistent with the secularization hypothesis, which describes the relationship of religion to modern society. ²

Complementing Truzzi's concept of the connection of witchcraft to popular and popular culture, Marti ³ studied many publications related to astrology and psychic phenomena, and on this basis drew a distinction between the occult establishment, which is responsible for the most common publications in this field, and the occult underground. Marty focuses mainly on the former and notes that the occult establishment is primarily focused on the American middle class. This kind of literature lacks any social message, so that "like some forms of conservative orthodoxy, the occult establishment focuses almost entirely on individual life and otherworldly issues." ⁴

1. Truzzi, M. (1970) "The Occult Revival as Popular Culture: Some Random Observations on the Old and Nouveau Witch", Sociological Quarterly 13: 16 - 36.

2. Wilson, B. R. (1966) Religion in Secular Society. London: Watts. For the latest treatment of secularization theory, see Robertson, R. (1971) Sociologists and Secularization, Sociology 5: 297-312.

3. Marty, M. (1970) "The Occult Establishment", Social Research 37: 212 - 30.

4. Ibid., p. 228.

The opposite rating was given to Stouda ⁵ and Greeley ⁶. Stoudeh interprets today's youth's interest in occult practices and mysticism as a search for meaning and identity, as "they experience alienation and disillusionment with their parents 'progressive liberal ideology and totalitarian ideologies"⁷.In this respect, he believes, the current cultural situation is similar to the religious and cultural renewal of the Renaissance. Greeley, much more than Stoudeh, paid attention to the significance of modern youth's interest in occult behavior for the sociology of religion. While Marty points out that there is no communal impulse in the literature of the occult establishment, Greeley points out that such an impulse exists in the broader "neo-sacral" movement today: "young people claim that their sacred, or mystical, or occult interests actually provide them with the opportunity to make sense, participate in the community, set goals for the future." contact with the transcendent and follow certain standards of life. " ⁸

Greeley, like Stoudeh, sees the fascination with occult behavior in university colleges as a symptom of the alienation of young people from the scientific and rationalistic ethos of modern society, which is accompanied by a conversion to new deities: superstition, ecstasy and "groupism"⁹. He notes a certain similarity between those on campus who are involved in occult practices and the new left, not only in their rejection of the dominant institutional ethos, but also in their shared value orientations: the affirmation of innate human kindness (an echo of Rousseau's ideas and the much older Pelagius heresy) and the rejection of the new left. attention to the manifestation of transcendent forces in human interaction ¹⁰. In addition, the new beliefs are, as he believes, the most important.-

5. Staude, J. R. (1970) "Alienated Youth and the Cult of the Occult", in Morris L. Medley and James E. Conyers (eds.) Sociology for the Seventies, pp. 86 - 95. New York: Wiley.

6. Greeley, A. M. (1970) "Implications for the Sociology of Religion of Occult Behavior in the Youth Culture", Youth & Society 2: 131 - 140; Greeley, A. M. (1970) "Superstition, Ecstasy and Tribal Consciousness", Social Research 37: 203 - 211.

7. Staude, J. R. "Alienated Youth and the Cult of the Occult", p. 13.

8. Greeley, A. M. "Implications for the Sociology of Religion of Occult Behavior in the Youth Culture", p. 6.

9. The justification for Greeley's terms such as "tribal gods" and " tribal consciousness "is the self-designation of some communes as"tribes".

10. Greeley, A. M. "Superstition, Ecstasy and Tribal Consciousness", p. 208.

for example, millenarian, charismatic and anti-liturgical. Greeley's main thesis is that the occult revival should be viewed as a "neosacral" current in contemporary culture, the existence of which is further evidence against the claim that increasing secularization accompanies modernization or is an integral aspect of it.¹¹

Greeley's work on the significance of occult behavior among young people, as well as his earlier empirical study12, is the most important example of a critique of secularization theory13. Further evidence of the significance of occult revival literature can be found in Shepherd's article, ¹⁴ which describes "a new mysticism emerging among young people in developed countries and not rigidly tied to any already known and strictly defined religious context." ¹⁵ Arguing that the new religious lifestyle is similar to the aesthetic experience of music-a theme that echoes Rozsak's thesis [¹⁶] that modern dissident youth have returned to the archaic aesthetic vision of shaman's beauty, a vision shared by youth communities - Shepherd suggests that "countercultural youth in the West can become an active force in the process of 'reorientation', what is happening within our own culture, and a harbinger of spring, a new value consciousness " ¹⁷.

In this sense, one could argue that the function of occult practices is to create a value opposition to what is perceived as the "establishment" mentality with its emphasis-

11. Howard Becker developed a theoretical critique of the secularization model in his report to the American Sociological Association, which unfortunately went unnoticed. Becker could easily interpret the modern occult revival and neo-evangelical movement as examples of "normative responses to normlessness." See Becker, H. (1960)" Normative Reactions to Normlessness, " American Sociological Review 25: 803-810.

12. Greeley, A. M. (1968) Religion in the Year 2000. New York: Sheed & Ward.

13. Like Greeley, I believe that this hypothesis arose either from a misreading of Durkheim and Weber's theories about the modernization process, or from a completely correct reading of Spencer's erroneous concept.

14- Shepherd, W. C. (1972) "Religion and the Counter Culture - a New Religiosity", Sociological Inquiry 42: 3 - 9.

15. Ibid., p. 8.

16. Roszak, Th. (1969) The Making of a Counter Culture. Garden City, N. Y: Doubleday Anchor.

17. Shepherd, W. C. "Religion and the Counter Culture - a New Religiosity", p. 8.

the most common apparatus of modern societies: despotic "technocracy", "reductionist rationality", "objectivist consciousness", to borrow Rozsak's terms. Occult practices are attractive, among other things, because they seem to be a spectacular contrast to the empirical practices of science and the depersonalizing industrial order.The appeal of occultism can thus be related to the passion for crafts among young university students, since craft is also a non-industrial practice that allows the individual to reconnect with the product of his work. ¹⁸

Another recent sociological study on the occult in modern society, which should be noted here, is a joint work of French researchers on modern astrology ¹⁹. It is difficult to summarize in a few words the content of this book, which is generally a sociology of astrology, but this study develops in more detail some of the topics that were discussed earlier. Edgar Morin ²⁰ believes that the appeal of astrology for today's youth stems from the cultural crisis of bourgeois society, with astrology offering people symbols of identity, presenting itself as a science of subjectivity. Paradoxically, modern astrology performs simultaneously opposite functions. In popular culture, the popularization of astrology in the mass media plays the role of integrating bourgeois civilization, reconciling individuals with their life situation. On the other hand, Morin suggests that among countercultural youth, astrology is also part of a new gnosis based on the revolutionary concept of a new age - the Age of Aquarius.

In the chapter" Astrology and Society, " Fischler ²¹ discusses other hidden functions of astrology. Modern society increases the number of fragmented contacts between outsiders, and there are no traditional norms that guide the behavior of such individuals; in the face of the need to make more and more complex decisions, especially in the inter-ethnic context.-

18. It is a tempting prospect to consider both handicraft and occult practices among university youth as indicators of a new non-industrial form of orientation towards internally directed achievements.

19. Defrance, Ph., Fischler, C., Morin, E. et Petrossian, L. (1971) Le retour des astrologues. Paris: Les Cahiers du Club du Nouvel Observateur.

20. Ibid., pp. 110 - 125.

21. Ibid., pp. 69 - 81.

in the personal sphere, turning to astrology and other forms of prediction reduces the degree of uncertainty of intersubjective behavior. Since astrology is subjectively oriented, it is also a means of self-understanding and self-awareness. In addition, Fischler presents data collected in 1963 by the French Institute of Public Opinion, which shows, in a cross-sectional view of French society, how widespread is the commitment to astrology. The survey was aimed at identifying the social distribution of respondents who had three characteristics, namely: they (a) knew their zodiac sign, (b) read their horoscopes quite often, and (c) thought that there was some truth in astrological definitions of character. The results are presented in table 1.

Table 1

Social characteristics of believers in astrology (France)

Noting the high percentage of women who believe in astrology and those under the age of 35, Fischler suggests ²² that the more these previously isolated segments of society become involved in it and the less stigmatized they are by the dominant culture's belief system, the more likely they are to turn to astrology compared to other segments of society.

Additional data provided by Fischler23 are also of interest, showing the social distribution of two groups: (a) those who have at least once consulted a card reader, clairvoyant or fortune teller, and (b) those who have at least once consulted an astrologer. In general, the results were quite consistent with the first survey (for example, the more populous the area, the greater the percentage of people who believe in astrology live in it), with the exception of the category of 18-to 25-year-olds, among whom the percentage was lower (9 and 1.5, respectively). higher than in other age categories (where the share is almost always the same - about 13% and 3%, respectively). Although Fischler believes that this correlation can be explained by the fact that the older generation is more inclined to practice applied astrology, and young people are driven by speculative curiosity, another explanation is quite likely: young people practice astrology (and other predictive practices) on their own, while considering the appeal to professionals (that is, part of the occult establishment) damaging damage to the personal search for meaning and confidence in this ambiguous and uncertain world.

While these findings are more suggestive than definitive, they allow us to rethink the sociological image of the distribution of superstition and rationality in society. After all, the greatest interest in astrology is not found in rural areas among farmers or in other lower strata of the professional structure of society, but rather in the lower strata of the professional structure of society.

22. Defrance, Ph., Fischler, C., Morin, E. et Petrossian, L. Le retour des astrologues, p. 80.

23. Ibid., p. 75.

in the most densely populated urban centers among the "white-collar workers". Moreover, although the French material is silent about this, my own observations suggest that a higher degree of faith in astrology and in general an interest in the occult sciences exists more among those who have a high level of education received in college or university than among those who are studying in high school or have not become get a higher education. Of course, this is just a foundation for future empirical research.

Analyzing various sociological studies on the occult revival, we touched on several topics. Most importantly, this phenomenon should be viewed in terms of the broader social context of cultural change. As a protest against the rationalist-industrial-bureaucratic ethos of modern society, the occult revival is part of the counterculture. Similarly, it can be seen as part of a new religious and cultural renewal, drawing comparisons with both the burgeoning neo-evangelical movement that crosses denominational boundaries and the vibrant political movement of the new left in developed societies.

As we continue to subject the occult in modern societies to sociological interpretation, we need to develop a clearer way of understanding this problem. On the one hand, we need to distinguish between the main elements of the occult, and on the other hand, we need to reconsider the attitude of the occult to the process of modernization in its cultural aspect. This will be discussed in the next section of the article.

Components of esoteric culture

The sociological literature on occult rebirth, which we discussed earlier, connects this phenomenon, on the one hand, with the sociology of mass society, and on the other-with the sociology of religion. But since we postulate that the sociology of the occult also falls under the heading of studies of cultural change and the dynamics of modernization, it can be considered in a broader context as part of the sociology of culture. It is from this point of view that I would like to explain the meaning of the main terms that are most important for this essay: "occult"," esoteric "and" secret society". These terms are well-known to everyone, however

they are not widely used in the standard sociological literature ²⁴. Before conceptualizing these terms, it is necessary to define a preliminary understanding of"culture". Here we will understand culture as a collective paradigm that provides us with basic interpretations and legitimizes social existence. Anthropologist Ward Goodenough put it this way: "Culture consists of 'concepts' and 'models' that are held in people's minds to organize and interpret their experiences." It is worth noting that Goodenough also takes into account the non-linguistic aspects of culture (which is very important for understanding the symbols of esoteric culture, in which symbols and images are generally the main way to connect with reality), adding: "non-linguistic forms enter into systematic relationships with each other within certain paradigms"²⁵.

Parsons ' definition of culture as an integral component of the system of social action, which contains the fundamental symbolic foundations for solving the existential problem of meaning inherent in social existence, is also relevant in our context. Although the term "meaning" implies cognitive and rational orientation, it also has a complex moral aspect, including the evaluation of social action. As Parsons states: "The highest level of the problem of meaning is the concept of ultimate reality, in a religious and philosophical sense. This concept refers to the basic conditions that define the non-empirical components of an entire cultural belief system. " ²⁶

24. In the sociological literature on the occult revival, I have come across well-known examples of the occult (astrology, witchcraft, etc.), but I have not found any analytical definitions or classification schemes related to this category. The International Encyclopedia of Social Sciences does not include the "occult" or "esoteric" articles, and "secret societies" are only mentioned in passing in a few articles. In the UNESCO-sponsored Dictionary of Social Sciences, one can find the following remark (attributed to anthropologist Kenneth Little) under the heading "Secret Societies": "In this context, it is difficult to say anything about the nature of modern organizations, such as Freemasonry, but in primitive cultures, secret societies usually form an integral part of the social system" (Gould, J. And Kolb, W. L. (eds) (1964) A Dictionary of the Social Sciences, p. 624. London: Tavistock). What is the difficulty, the author does not explain.

25. Цит. в Singer, М. (1968) "Culture", in Sills, D. L. (ed.) International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, Vol. 3, p. 538. New York: Macmillan and Free Press.

26. Talcott, P. (ed.) (1961) Theories of Society, Vol. 2, p. 971. New York: Free Press.

To the above understanding of culture, we should add one clarification that is crucial for the main idea of this article. Namely, we are talking about the fact that a given social complex, for example, modern Western society, can have more than one set of basic prerequisites in its cultural matrix; that is, there are always several cultural paradigms that determine the semantic basis of social action, and one of them can dominate the organized "factory" of society, while the other one can be used as a basis for while others can be hidden and remain in the shadows ²⁷. A cultural paradigm that manifests itself in public institutions, a set of cognitive and value orientations that are publicly recognized and legitimized by networks of social institutions, will be referred to by the term "exoteric culture". Exoteric culture provides a semantic basis and orientation for the everyday social world. This is the social basis for what the phenomenologist Husserl called the "natural attitude", in which subjects take the existence of the world for granted, that is, in the sociological sense, they accept the institutionalized structures of the social world as something unproblematic. It is obvious that most sociologists and anthropologists formulated their theories about culture and society in relation to exoteric culture.

I suggest that the unified interpretation of the historical development of the cultural system of Western civilization through the concept of "modernization "should be revised; and in order to approach a more complex understanding of cultural systems and social transformations, we need to turn to what, for lack of a better term for heuristic purposes, I will call"esoteric culture". At this stage of our analysis, it is necessary to clearly identify the three main components of esoteric culture, three elements that are common to any cultural system, but take a special form within the esoteric culture: a set of beliefs and teachings (cognitive and moral orientations); a set of practices aimed at specific empirical actions; and a social organization that is based on the principles of in which these actions are modeled and ordered.

27. Florence Kluckhohn's concept and research on dominant and alternative value orientations may be relevant in this case. See: Kluckhohn, F. (1950) "Dominant and Substitute Profiles of Cultural Orientations", Social Forces 28: 276 - 296; Kluckhohn, F. and Strodtbeck, F. L. (1961) Variations in Cultural Values. Value Orientations. Evanston: Row, Peterson.

Although the terms "esotericism" and "occultism" are often used interchangeably and there is no generally accepted agreement on their meanings, it may still be useful to allow an analytical distinction to be made between them. Both of them, of course, refer to something that is not given directly in sensation or perception, that is, to something non-empirical.

By" occult " I mean purposeful practices, techniques, or techniques that are (a) based on hidden or secret forces of nature or the cosmos that cannot be measured or recognized by the tools of modern science, and (b) have as their desired consequences specific empirical results, such as gaining knowledge about the nature of the universe. an empirical course of events, or a change in these events in a different direction from what they would have taken without such intervention. As you can see, I leave out such occult phenomena as extrasensory perception and deja vu, since they are more difficult to include in the sociological scheme. Further, we can also speak of special occult sciences and arts in the case when the subject of occult activity is not just its performer, but has special knowledge and qualifications, while occult skills are taught and transmitted in a socially organized (although not publicly accessible) and ritualized way.²⁸

Generally accepted occult practices include a wide variety of phenomena, such as magic ²⁹ and divination practices ³⁰, which are widespread and cross-cultural in nature (astrology, Tarot, I Ching have gained special significance in the modern occult renaissance); they also include those practices that are aimed at changing the physical nature of inanimate objects through the use of magic. active participation and personal involvement of the subject, for example, in the case of alchemy.

I will call" esoteric " such religious and philosophical belief systems that underlie occult techniques. -

28. It is worth noting that occultism has both scientific and aesthetic aspects, which brings us back to the comments on the significance of the occult revival for young people. We will not dwell on the fact that many manifestations of scientific creativity have an aesthetic dimension, and vice versa.

29. Stage tricks and tricks do not belong here, but rather refer to such practices as witchcraft, witchcraft, ritual or ceremonial magic, and the like.

30. A brief anthropological explanation of divination can be found in Sills, D. L. (ed.) International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, Vol. 13, p. 440. New York: Macmillan and Free Press.

the term refers to all-encompassing "cognitive maps" of nature and the cosmos, epistemological and ontological reflections on higher reality, which form a kind of repository of knowledge that can become a support for occult operations. Drawing an analogy, we can say that esoteric knowledge is for occult practices the same as the system of theoretical physics for applied engineering. Critically, esoteric knowledge is the secret knowledge of the "true" essence of things, hidden truths that are transmitted most often orally and only gradually to a small group of people who usually receive initiation from those who already possess this knowledge. Moreover, it should be added that this knowledge is not neutral or objective knowledge of the external reality that is before the observer, as this page is before the reader; esoteric knowledge rather presupposes participation, namely, it is knowledge (gnosis) the gradual attainment of this knowledge contributes to the internal development of the subject and frees him from the bonds of everyday life.

Since esoteric knowledge claims to understand the true, though hidden, nature of things, the ultimate reality (and thus this knowledge is divine, theosophical in a broad sense), it is important that its possessor deserves it and demonstrates compliance with certain criteria necessary for admission to the inner circle of true knowers. Hence, it is necessary to subject the candidate to a series of trials and temptations at various stages of his initiation, during which the adept becomes more and more socialized within the esoteric culture and desocialized in relation to the "natural attitude" of the exoteric culture.³¹

The "core" of esoteric knowledge is its concealment from public dissemination, from the views of the profane or uninitiated. In order to protect this knowledge from vulgarization, it conveys-

31. The academic world can be seen in some ways as a more simplified and secularized version of the esoteric gnosis experience. At the lower levels, students go through stages that are characteristic of neophytes, which we call "classes". At higher levels, special rites of passage arise, such as PhDs, as we initiate students into the higher degrees of the academic fraternity. The Phi Beta Kappa Fraternity ceremony is a symbolic initiation of those who have shown a special aptitude for the academic sacraments, although few of the participants in this ceremony are aware of its esoteric origins.

The adept does not speak directly, but usually symbolically or metaphorically, so that the neophyte has to gradually decipher it, discovering new levels of meaning at various stages of initiation. As a correlate of this process, the social organization of esoteric culture tends to take the form of secret societies, that is, societies whose ways and norms of organization and membership are not publicly disclosed and may even be unknown to those members who have not reached high degrees of initiation and spiritual perfection.

The sociology of mystery and secret societies, which is indispensable in the study of esoteric culture, has remained largely undeveloped since Georg Simmel's seminal essay. ³² Meanwhile, mystery has a fundamental sociological significance, as it is one of the forming forces of social structure and social interaction, as Simmel briefly noted. Even the most democratic countries, de jure or de facto, organize many institutions in secret and have agencies that specialize in covert activities; information about the activities of various formal organizations is often not intended for public consumption, but only for qualified members of these organizations, and for some of them it is more accessible, than for others. This situation forces third parties to obtain this information in special ways (private and state espionage aimed at disclosing industrial, military and state secrets), while such activities themselves, in turn, become secret.

Of course, not all secret societies belong to esoteric culture, and not all social organizations that have secrets can be called secret societies. However, those secret societies that are social forms of esoteric culture have similar features. They usually have their own initiation rituals and hierarchical structure, with different levels corresponding to different degrees of initiation. At the same time, leadership and authority are derived from the level of esoteric knowledge obtained, at least in theory. The upper echelon includes a very small elite group, which can be called "Magicians", "Grand Masters" or something else, as well as a kind of council responsible for making final decisions regarding the internal and external course of the organization. Similar advice

32. Simmel, G. (1905) "The Sociology of Secrecy and of Secret Societies", American Journal of Sociology 11: 441 - 498.

It can be compared to the executive committee of formal organizations, and the expanded board may include, as in the case of Freemasonry, people who hold high positions in the exoteric sphere of society, including heads of state. ³³ Although the hierarchical principle of organization is basic for secret societies, the highest levels are accessible to all. Moreover, fraternal solidarity is strongly emphasized: regardless of social status in society, all members are brothers (or sisters), and in a difficult situation, a member of a secret society can count on any possible help from any other member of this organization who happens to be nearby, even on the battlefield, and even if they belong to belligerents.

These are, in general, the main components of esoteric culture. An analysis of a particular esoteric belief system or the details of the organization of any particular secret societies is beyond the scope of this article. It is much more important to show that the esoteric culture is not cut off from ^the exoteric one, that they co-exist with each other, although not in an obvious way34, in other words, there are many relationships between them.

Esoteric culture often refers to well-known cultural material, such as religious texts or figures (such as the Torah, the Apocalypse, Adam, Christ, etc.), while considering that their meaning is not limited to public definitions and recognition; rather, the esoteric group sees itself as a true repository of knowledge about how the ultimate reality is it manifests itself in these texts and shapes. Only a select few initiated into the sacraments can decipher and transmit in a continuous chain the real meaning hidden in the allegories. Only a few, therefore, can be admitted to comprehend the secret name of God, which Moses learned on Mount Sinai and which is transmitted orally to those who can correctly understand Kabbalah; only a few can learn the secret teaching of Christ, which he passed on to his chosen disciples, and so on.

33. This state of affairs has been established in Sweden and Great Britain, where the monarch or a member of the ruling family, respectively, is the nominal head of Freemasonry in the country. Although this custom was not formally approved in the United States, most presidents became Masons of the highest level - 33 degrees of initiation.

34. Cultural traditions of all major civilizational complexes and highly developed religions have an esoteric side. Thus, in Islam, Christianity, Hinduism and Judaism, there are Sufism, theosophy (in such forms as Illuminism, Rosicrucianism, as well as in modern versions of Blavatsky, Gurdjieff, Steiner, etc.), tantric yoga and Kabbalah, respectively.

Since these secrets reveal the ultimate essence of reality, the hidden forces of the cosmic order, esoteric knowledge becomes the ultimate source of power, which is allowed to be shared and used only by a relatively small group of initiates. Such power should never be associated with improving the material living conditions of the bearers of esoteric knowledge, but only with superpersonal goals, humanistic ideals, etc. Therefore, the ways in which esoteric culture is expressed are necessarily vague, since they are designed to shut out the general public; such language is similar to the jargon of the underground world or even the speech of some psychotics who use a special code that protects them from attempts by society to penetrate their consciousness. Exoteric language may use expressions from esoteric sources, such as "third degree" (from Masonic initiation), magnum opus (from alchemy), or sub rosa (from Rosicrucianism); similarly, exoteric culture also absorbs other phenomena of esoteric culture, such as playing cards (the main suits of which go back to the Tarot, esoteric images). dialectical process of human existence).

Esoteric culture and sociocultural changes

In this article, we are particularly interested in the attitude of esoteric culture to various aspects of Western modernization. We would like to show that much of what relates to modernity, and even the sources of the ideology of modernization itself, comes from esoteric culture; however, paradoxically, the value orientations of Western exoteric culture, embodied in rationalism, scientific ethos and industrialism, have replaced esoteric culture, giving it the role of a marginal and underground movement. In other words, modern Western civilization (which dates back to the Renaissance and Reformation) increasingly gives esoteric culture the appearance of a counterculture, while at the same time co-opting many of its values and the fruits of its development.

I suggest that the concept of higher reality in the esoteric tradition can be analyzed in terms of Parsons ' theory of structural differentiation of the social action system as part of the latency subsystem ³⁵. Next, we will approve-

35. Parsons, T. (1969) Politics and Social Structure. New York: Free Press.

we expect that in the case of Western civilization, at least (a) esoteric concepts and models of interpretation of reality form a cultural paradigm that is directed against the institutionalized paradigm, and therefore their function is to stimulate the emergence of new systems of social actions; and (b) that at various historical moments these concepts and models began to operate in a broader social environment. in the social sphere as channels for social and cultural change.

Moreover, although this is difficult to document, since it will require much more space than is possible in this article, the basic cognitive model of the underlying hidden reality, central to esoteric thought, describes reality as being governed by forces, energies that are constantly in motion and collide with each other; this model is completely independent of the underlying hidden reality. It is the opposite of the static, stable, harmonious view of things inherent in the "natural attitude". Consequently, we believe that there are certain esoteric influences at the very core of the ideology of modernization (modernism). This ideology, which positively evaluates everything new as opposed to everything old, which sees in the unfolding present a time of liberation from the yoke of the stagnant past, is the ideology of the coming new order and this-worldly salvation through human forces, that is, an ideology that, according to at least one author of ^the book, can be considered as the fruit of the esoteric (in in this case, Gnostic) symbolism, which manifested itself in the history of the Puritan Revolution.

In this context, it is appropriate to discuss the relationship between esoteric culture and the avant-garde, since esoteric representations, descriptions and interpretations of reality are expressed in works of art (in literature, painting, architecture, even music), whose esoteric meaning escapes the general public. For initiates, such symbols are much more than art: they also carry a specific message and are therefore expressive symbols in the most precise sense of the word.

In a recent article, Daniel Bell writes, pointing out the antithetical relationship between social structures.-

36. Voegelin, E. (1952) The New Science of Politics, p. 133. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

37. Bell, D. (1970) "The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism", Public Interest 21: 16 - 43.

He noted that the latter is dominated by the prevailing impulse "to everything new and original, and the idea of change and novelty overshadows real changes"^.38 Bell relates this ideology of change, that is, modernism as such, to the cultural tradition of avant-garde art, which appeared in the XIX century as a counterculture based on the concept of modern art. in relation to the rising bourgeois culture of industrial society ³⁹.

Bell does not trace any connection between occultism and the formation of the avant-garde in the nineteenth century, although he does note in passing ⁴⁰ that the values of the avant-garde, namely anti-structuralism, anti-historicism, radical freedom, in other words, the values of nihilism and anarchism, are part of an older Western tradition, namely Gnostic esotericism.⁴¹

Vytautas Kavolis recently explored the sociopsychological relationship between avant-garde culture and what he called the "satanic" and "Promethean" personality types, with the former characterized by a "negative-destructive mechanism" and the latter by "compassionate concern for the needs of others" ^.42 These personal orientations manifest themselves in the activist and nihilist aspects of avant-garde culture, which is focused both on the destruction of the established order of things, and on the endless innovation and renewal of forms. Moreover, Cavolis believes that the avant-garde culture gives a certain value to the world.

38. Bell, D. "The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism", p. 17.

39. For a more complete discussion of the origin and main characteristics of avant-garde literary culture, see Irving Howe's essay " The Idea of Modernity "(Howe, I. (ed.) (1967) Literary Modernism, pp. 11-40. Greenwich, Conn.: Fawcett).

40. Bell, D. "The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism", p. 34.

41. In the same vein, Edgar Morin argued that the revival of astrology today is an expression of a new gnosis (Defrance, Ph., Fischler, C, Morin, E. et Petrossian, L. Le retour des astrologues, p. 123). See also Hans Jonas ' remarks on the gnostic features of some contemporary political trends, including the theme of alienation (Jonas, H. (1963) The Gnostic Religion. Boston: Beacon).

42. Fans of astrological characteristics may be surprised to notice the coincidence of the Satanic and Promethean personality types with two sides born under the sign of Aquarius (that is, children of the current era): "Negative Aquarius... it demands permissiveness under the guise of freedom and declares the right of people to public goods, without caring about anyone's good, except its own. Positive Aquarius is... a humanist who seeks freedom not for himself, but for others, is concerned with the problems of the country or even the entire planet, persuades all of humanity to move up and forward, and goes ahead of everyone to show them the way" (Keane, J. L. (1967) Practical Astrology, p. 34. West Nyack, N. J.: Parker).

positive value is attached to symbols of "Satanic" psychological orientation, which, as it were, in miniature reflect anti-social values within the established social order: "To some extent, avant-garde culture can be understood as an attempt to legitimize much of what was delegitimized in Satanic mythology" ⁴³.

The influence of occult themes, especially those related to demonism and Satanism, is a very noticeable aspect in the historical development of avant-garde culture, which we understand here as both a literary and political protest against the institutionalization of the rationalist-industrial bourgeois social order. This protest against modernization was a kind of common denominator of the Romanticism movement, and esoteric culture provided material for a protest against the new social order, although neither esoteric culture nor avant-garde culture sought a return to the old regime. Ritual magic, the" forces of darkness", and Satan as such have become symbols of identity, rallying points, and, in short, revolutionary forces drawn from the occult counterculture [⁴⁴] in the course of the struggle against bourgeois values. Therefore, occult motifs as a source of inspiration can be found in abundance in the works of both famous and little-known romantics, such as Goethe, Novalis, Gautier, Nerval, Byron, Lautreamont and Baudelaire.

These occult themes were also taken up by the next generations of avant-garde culture, ⁴⁷ especially by the "damned"ones

43. Kavolis, V. (1970) "The Social Psychology of Avant-Garde Cultures", Studies in the Twentieth Century 6: 13 - 34.

44. For a fuller account of the social significance of Satan in the past century, see the following section. in Eugene Weber (Weber, E. (1964) Satan franc macon. Paris: Julliard).

45. Lepinte, Ch. (1957) Goethe et l'occultisme. Paris: Societe d'Edition les Belles Lettres.

46. Bays, G. (1964) The Orphic Vision: Seer Poets from Novalis to Rimrbaud. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. Note Howe's observation in his comments on a Baudelaire passage: "This seems to be a statement of the desire to create... a new basis of being through a permanent revolution of sensuality and style, through which art can elevate itself to the level of white or (more likely) black magic" (Howe, I. (ed.) Literary Modernism, p. 17).

47. In order to finally assign a fair place to esoteric culture as the inspirational force of avant-garde culture, it is necessary to examine esoteric influences on earlier innovators in literature and art, for example, Shakespeare (Arnold, P. (1965) Esotericisme de Shakespeare. Paris: Mercure de France; Reed, R. R. (1965) The Occult on the Tudor and Stuart Stage. Boston: Christopher) и Рабле (Masters, G. M. (1969) Rabelaisian Dialectics and the Platonic-

symbolist poets like Rimbaud and Verlaine, ⁴⁸ as well as Yeats and Thomas Mann, and finally Henri Breton, the main figure of surrealism, which has a special sociological significance, since this movement clearly expresses the idea of artistic protest and political radicalism.⁴⁹ Many Surrealists (Breton himself, Aragon, Eluard, Naville) were or still are adherents of left-wing radicalism, and the influence of surrealism can even be found in the works of E. Cesar, one of the creators of the ideology of the Negro, a cultural manifestation of the struggle for the liberation of blacks. Breton drew on many different sources of inspiration (including Marx, Freud, and the occult) to express a revolutionary worldview directed against the bourgeois world (the world of utility, reason, realism, and technological society). The essence of this worldview was the intention to "always make possible the breakthrough of 'wild' images that will excite perception, breaking the coherence of 'stable' images that create for each individual the so-called objective world "⁵⁰. The actual significance of surrealism as one of the sources of inspiration for the revolutionary movement in France in May 1968 was analyzed in detail in a brilliant sociological study by Willner ⁵¹. In the political development of modern society, both in the West and in Third world countries undergoing a process of Westernization (including in the form of imperial domination), esoteric culture also influenced avant-garde political movements and ideologies that opposed themselves to established regimes. Secret societies have become the most important social channel for this kind of protest: Weishaupt's "Bavarian Illuminati" in the 18th century, Freemasonry in France in the 18th and 19th centuries, Carbonari

Hermetic Tradition. Albany: State University of New York Press), not to mention esoteric trends in painting and architecture (Van Lennep, J. (1966) Art & Alchimie. Brussels: Meddens).

48. Senior, J. (1959) The Way Down and Out: The Occult in Symbolist Literature. Ithaca, N. Y.: Cornell University Press.

49. Commenting on Surrealism and Revolution, Camus stated: "The essential enemy of Surrealism is rationalism. Breton's method is a special form of that branch of Western thought that prefers analogy to the detriment of the principles of identity and contradiction... Magic rituals, ... alchemy... and many other wonderful stages on the way to unity and the Philosopher's Stone." (Howe, I. (ed.) Literary Modernism, p. 218).

50. Willener, A. (1970). The Action-Image of Society, p. 224. London: Tavistock.

51. Ibid.

in Italy and France, Mazzini's Young Italy, Sinn Fein in Ireland and many others. For the most part, the ideology of these secret societies was nationalist, republican, anti-clerical, and sometimes internationalist. All these organizations borrowed images and expressive symbols from the esoteric worldview, especially symbols of human liberation from the shackles of darkness (interpreted in a political sense as the shackles of traditional institutions or foreign invaders) on the path to light. For the most part, these movements succeeded in creating political regimes that at least partially met their requirements.⁵² Of course, not all secret societies based on esoteric symbolism, rituals, and interpretations can be classified as progressive, since some of them (although a minority) are reactionary, such as the Ku Klux Klan in the United States, the Cahulars in France in the 1930s; in the light of a recent study Povel and Bergier ⁵³ esoteric influences can be found even in secret societies (such as the Thule Order), which played a hidden role in the formation of Nazism. It is quite significant that from the esoteric culture, which has an amazing wealth of images and symbols, completely different political interpretations can be derived. However, no matter what specific examples we consider, it can be argued that esoteric culture gives impetus to the struggle against the existing order, rooting political consciousness ^and action in a reality that goes beyond everyday life.,

52. Thus, the symbols of the Great Seal of the United States (the radiant delta, the pyramid) are esoteric symbols of Freemasonry, to which most of the founding fathers belonged; the same applies to the symbols of the French Republic (especially in 1848), whose motto "Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity" is a favorite ideal of Freemasonry, formulated in the French Constitution. lodges before the French Revolution. Simon Bolivar, the liberator of South America from the rule of Spain, was just as inspired by Masonic ideals as Garibaldi in Italy, etc.

53. Pauwels, L. and Bergier, J. (1968) The Morning of the Magicians. New York: Avon.

54. It is appropriate to recall in this case S. N. Eisenstadt's assessment of the ability of Chinese Communists to link various protest movements together, directing them in the direction of a common cause. He notes that such a connection "allowed some representatives of the small-scale nobility, some secret societies, military leaders and peasant insurgents to go beyond the narrow limits of their own social interests and find a common basis, forming broader social orientations "(Eisenstadt, S. N. (1971) "Some Reflections on the Significance of Max Weber's Sociology of Social Development"). Religions for the Analysis of Non-European Modernity", Archives de sociologie des religions 32: 49). From our point of view, such orientations are derived, at least in part, from esoteric doctrines formed by-

but it can be implemented in a possible historical future, turning the modern world order upside down.

Another political aspect of the modern counterculture that needs to be mentioned here is Marxism. His main contribution to the struggle against bourgeois mentality is the development of dialectical materialism, which became for Marx and Engels the key with which they tried to reveal the hidden laws of the historical process. Hegel is usually considered the progenitor of modern dialectics, but a recent study by Benz ⁵⁵ showed the extent to which Hegelianism and Marxism were influenced by German mystical and esoteric sources. Among them are theosophy, philosophical alchemy, and Kabbalah, which received a spiritual boost from the writings of earlier mystics such as Meister Eckhart and especially Jacob Boehme, and were reinterpreted in the early nineteenth century in German theosophical and evangelical circles, as well as in the circles of philosophers involved in the Romantic movement.⁵⁶

The last aspect of the influence of esoteric culture on the development of modern Western civilization that needs to be considered is the attitude to scientific thought. The latter, being based on an empiricist and positivist image of objective reality, measured by empirical means and existing independently of the subject, is probably the key form of thought in the process of modernization, which devalued and made the practice of the occult sciences illegitimate. Yet, paradoxically, esoteric influences in the form of symbolism, imagery, practices, and cosmological teachings were the background against which scientific disciplines emerged.

For example, in the case of modern depth psychology, Bakan ⁵⁷ identified numerous elements of Jewish mystical trawling within secret societies. In the case of China, the growth of national consciousness during the Taiping rebellion is noteworthy (Shih, V. (1967) The Taiping Ideology. Seattle: University of Washington Press).

55. Benz, E. (1968) Les Sources mystiques de la philosophie romantique allemande. Paris: Vrin.

56. In particular, in the esoteric conception of the theologian Etinger, a generation before Marx, one can find such themes as an eschatological view of history and the coming freedom of man in the era of the "Golden Age", when the state, private property and the monetary economy will disappear in the universal kingdom of equality and love (Benz, E. Les Sources mystiques de la philosophie romantique allemande, pp. 32-53).

57. Bakan, D. (1958) Sigmund Freud and the Jewish Mystical Tradition. Princeton, N. J.: Van Nostrand.

Freud's theory of libido and the meaning of symbols in the mental process (including the analogical connection between symbols) can be regarded as a scientific formulation of certain elements of Kabbalah and the Zohar. His successor, Jung, intensively studied medieval and Renaissance alchemy, ⁵⁸ which he associated with personal development. Early Freud was influenced by Charcot's experiments with hypnotism, and the foundations of hypnotism were laid a century earlier by the occultist Mesmer in his experiments with magnetism.⁵⁹

Even in the natural sciences, esoteric influences played an important role, which can only be mentioned in passing here. Although today the use of alchemical symbols of chemical elements is just a beautiful relic, it should be noted that chemistry originated from medieval alchemy as its matrix ⁶⁰. Alchemy and astrology also played a role in the emergence of medicine. Paracelsus, for example, was a key figure in connecting esoteric culture and modern scientific thought, as he put forward the groundbreaking theory that the treatment of human bodies should be based on an inherently astrological attempt to establish correlations between different parts of the body, diseases, and the effects of different zodiac signs. Astrology and theosophy were also part of a cultural heritage that was used rather than denied by modern scientists such as Kepler or even Newton.⁶¹ Even the social organization of modern science itself, in the form of academies of sciences, goes back in many ways to Francis Bacon's New Atlantis with its idea of a "Paradise of Scientists", a book that was largely part of the "Hermetic-Kabbalistic" stream. ⁶²

58. Jung, C. G. (1968) Psychology and Alchemy. Princeton, N. J.: Princeton University Press; Jung, C. G. (1968) Alchemical Studies. Princeton, N. J.: Princeton University Press.

59. Mesmer, F. A. (1971) Le magnetisme animal. Paris: Payot.

60. Stillman, J. M. (1960) The Story of Alchemy and Early Chemistry. New York: Dover.

61. Hutin, S. (1960) Les disciples anglais de Jacob Boehme. Paris: Denoel.

62. Yates, F. A. (1964) Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition, p. 450. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. After the scientific community became an organized force, it broke with esoteric culture. A symbolic event in this regard was the emergence of the French Academy of Sciences in 1666, whose membership excluded astrology classes. However, just a few years before this event, France still had its official state astrologer, Morin de Villefranck, a professor of mathematics at the University of Paris.-

These are some basic indications, inevitably incomplete and brief, of the wide range of esoteric influences on the historical process of modernization.

Conclusion

Although at first glance occult revival may seem like a marginal subject for sociology, in fact the study of the esoteric affects many aspects of our scientific discipline, such as the sociology of knowledge, the sociology of art, the sociology of religion, and the sociology of deviant behavior. ⁶³ For heuristic purposes, this essay focuses mainly on esoteric culture as an important component of the counterculture that is constantly present within Western civilization. In fact, we have found that the main function of esoteric culture is to be a "hotbed" and cultural source of change and large-scale innovation in the arts, politics, and even science. This function is similar to that of the "hotbed societies" mentioned by Parsons ⁶⁴ in relation to Israel and Greece ⁶⁵. In his other works⁶⁶. In discussing societal change, I suggested that important ideational components of change (i.e., transformations in social awareness of reality) may often originate from non-institutionalized groups or sectors of society, whose paradigms of reality may, at certain historical moments, replace the institution of the Collège de France, which has tried to modernize and rationalize astrology in order to improve its understanding of reality. using precise mathematical methods.

63. For the latter, see Currie, E. P. (1968) "Crimes without Criminals: Witchcraft and Its Control in Renaissance Europe", Law & Society Review 3: 7-28, for a study of the various responses to witchcraft in England and on the Continent. For other studies of witchcraft, deviance, and social structure, see Erikson's work on New England (Erikson, K. (1966) Wayward Puritans. New York: Wiley).

64. Parsons, T. (1966) Societies: Evolutionary and Comparative Perspectives. Englewood Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice-Hall.

65. It can be noted that esoteric culture is deeply rooted in the cultural traditions of Israel and Greece, especially in the prophetic and Kabbalistic traditions of Israel, as well as in the rituals and mystery cults of Greece.

66. Tiryakian, E. A. (1967) "A Model of Societal Change and Its Lead Indicators", in Klausner, S. Z. (ed.) The Study of Total Societies, pp. 69 - 97. Garden City, N. Y.: Doubleday Anchor; Tiryakian, E. A. (1970) "Structural Sociology", in Tiryakian, E. A. and McKinney J. C. (eds) Theoretical Sociology: Perspectives and Developments, pp. 111 - 135. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.

institutionalized paradigms and, in turn, become new social projects. Correlating this thesis with the topic of this essay, we can assume that esoteric culture, as well as groups and individual intermediaries between esoteric and exoteric culture, are the main sources of inspiration for cultural and societal innovations.

Evidently, it is not so easy to document this model. To do this, it is necessary to demonstrate a significant sociohistorical relationship between seemingly heterogeneous spheres of social action. This methodological problem is essentially the same one that Max Weber tried to solve when he studied the relationship between Protestant asceticism and the ethical basis of modern capitalism. However, the complexity of studying the relationship between esoteric culture and societal innovations in exoteric culture is even greater than in the case of Protestantism. To do this, it is necessary to develop such analysis tools that will allow us as sociologists to give meaning to esoteric texts and documents, many of which require deciphering the meanings of expressive symbols that are inherently qualitative and cannot be quantified. Techniques of linguistics and structural anthropology, such as those used to interpret mythologies that have many similarities to esoteric models of reality, can be a promising method in this regard. Particularly fruitful in this respect may be the increasing application of phenomenology (which ultimately aims to understand the inner meaning of structures of consciousness) in the social sciences, ⁶⁷ for example, as it is done in the framework of ethnomethodology.⁶⁸

Serious methodological problems also arise when trying to identify the connection between, on the one hand, esoteric symbolism, imagery, concepts of reality, and, on the other hand, social behavior. In this case, we are talking about the question of how the concepts of the structure of reality are translated into the language of paradigms of social action and social imagery (for example, as the esoteric concept of androgyny, Adam Kadmon,

67. Natanson, M. (ed.) (1972) Phenomenology and the Social Sciences. Evanston: Northwestern University Press.

68. Harold Garfinkel's student, Trent Eglin, is currently working on an ethnomethodological study of alchemy.

related to modern fashion and unisex clothing design). This is all the more difficult because the main intermediary groups between the two cultures tend to operate in secret social organizations that are invisible to society. This means that there are very few informative documents that are easily accessible, and those that are available often come from government and other institutional bodies that seek to suppress such esoteric groups.

Nevertheless, these methodological difficulties should be considered more as a challenge to the sociological imagination than as fundamentally unsolvable problems. The very formulation of theoretical questions related to the relationship between esoteric and exoteric culture, especially in the field of analysis of the dynamics of societal changes, can lead to the emergence of new methodological developments in sociology.

In making final remarks on occult rebirth, it is appropriate to review the concept of modernization. Perhaps, instead of seeing modernization as a process that has only occurred in the last two hundred years, it is more fruitful to understand it as a process that ^began in ancient times, during which modern ideas replace previously institutionalized paradigms in the so-called "decisive periods"of global societal change, and this process is constantly repeated in the development of Western societies. The result may be, if we use an analogy, the idea of a stochastic process of change instead of the idea of continuous development; this process is interrupted by adaptive mutations in the cultural code of Western civilization, if we use another analogy.

In the historical development of Western civilization, occult revival accompanies crucial periods of transition from one cultural matrix to another. What comes to mind is the period of the decline of the Roman Empire, when esoteric culture and esoteric symbols flourished (many of which were absorbed by the original Christianity, before it was institutionalized by Constantine). The Renaissance and Reformation era is

69. I borrow this suggestive term from Balandier (G. (1971) Sens et puissance, p. 202. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France), preferring it to the hackneyed "periods of crisis". In this, as well as in his other works (Balandier, G. (1970) Sociologie des mutations, Paris: Anthropos; Balandier, G. (1971) "Reflexions sur une anthropologic de la modernite", Cahiers internationaux de sociologie 51: 197-221), Balandier developed a theory of modernization that seems particularly fruitful when applied to modernity. reviewing the dynamics of social change.

another important period of changing cultural paradigms, which represented the rejection of the rationalism of medieval scholasticism and the established church authority, and caused changes in many social spheres. It was during this period, and not in the Middle Ages that preceded it, that the occult revival took place, and esoteric culture became the main channel for spreading new expressive symbols and belief systems, and a source of new value orientations. ⁷⁰

In both cases, the success of the esoteric culture was ensured, I think, by the fact that the exoteric culture lost confidence in ingrained symbols and cognitive models of reality, and there was an inflation of institutionalized collective identity symbols, so to speak. During these periods, there was what might be called a "withdrawal from reason into the realm of the occult," ⁷¹ a withdrawal not in the sense of being completely "out of the field," to use Kurt Levin's terminology, but rather in the religious sense of detachment, that is, a temporary retreat for the sake of inspiring reflection that allows you to restore the spiritual energy needed to return into everyday life with even more enthusiasm.

From this point of view, the occult revival today is quite comparable to previous similar phenomena, even including modern attacks on institutionalized rationality, which take on irrational forms in our generation. The main challenge for the sociology of the occult is to analyze this irrationality, its forms and conditions of occurrence, as well as possible social consequences. If we come to understand that the occult revival today is not just a passing fascination of mass society, but an integral component of the formation of a new cultural matrix, more international than national in its scope; if we find in this phenomenon an important channel for changing collective perceptions of social reality, we will see (with the help of the "third eye" or without his help), that the beginning of the Age of Aquarius is a major sociological event.

Translated from English by Yuri Khalturin

70. See Yates ' outstanding historical study of this cultural context: Yates, Y. A. Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition.

71. Ibid., p. 449.

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