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University of Exeter Centre for the Study of Esotericism
(EXESESO)

Centre for the Study of Esotericism - staff details

University of Exeter - MA in Western Esotericism: Course structure

Full Programme Specification with module descriptions

The new MA in Western Esotericism at the University of Exeter represents the first initiative in this subject at a UK university. The subject is already taught in Continental Europe at the University of Amsterdam and at the Sorbonne, whose Emeritus Professor in the History of Esoteric and Mystical Currents, Antoine Faivre, established its disciplinary scope and methodology from the early 1970s onwards. Exeter, Amsterdam, and the Sorbonne are presently the only universities offering postgraduate courses or doctoral supervision in Western Esotericism.

The Western esoteric traditions reach back to Hermeticism, Neo-Platonism, Gnosticism, and theurgy in the Hellenistic world during the first centuries AD. These early sources often reveal theosophia, wisdom or knowledge in things divine, attained through spiritual exercise, contemplation and ecstasy. The early Church Fathers regarded such theosophy and gnosis ambivalently, and their variable reception in the Western and Eastern churches during the early Middle Ages is now an expanding field of inquiry. The introduction of Greek, Arab and Jewish traditions into the medieval Latin West paved the way for the rediscovery of ancient texts and led to the scholarly revival of magic, astrology, alchemy and Kabbalah in the Renaissance.

After the Reformation, these Hermetic sciences gave rise to such movements as Theosophy, Rosicrucianism and Freemasonry, with their proliferation of esoteric rites and symbolic systems in the eighteenth century. The modem revival of esotericism extends from Romantic Naturphilosophie to nineteenth-century occultism involving Swedenborgianism, Mesmerism, spiritualism, the ancient wisdom-tradition, and ceremonial magic and para-masonic orders. Today, Helena Blavatsky and the Theosophical Society, Rudolf Steiner and Anthroposophy, C. G. Jung and his archetypal psychology, and Fourth Way movements are among the major currents of modem esotericism, providing an inspiration to contemporary thinkers and practitioners in the arts, education and medicine.

Western esotericism has exerted a profound and increasingly acknowledged influence on philosophy, religion and science, culture and literature, politics and society.

The purpose of the Master's programme in Western Esotericism is to introduce students to this new and expanding field of academic study, providing an adequate grounding in its historical, theological, and philosophical aspects. The MA course is designed to enable students to Investigate the Western esoteric tradition from the Hellenistic period in late antiquity through the Renaissance and early modern period to the present. There are three main objectives. Firstly, to develop an understanding of the fundamental characteristics which define esoteric spirituality (correspondences,living nature, intermediaries and hierarchies, transmutation of the soul).

This spirituality often manifests as a form of religious experience while offering a perspective upon the individual soul in the context of nature and the universe. Secondly, to gain insight into the social, religious and philosophical changes, which are conducive to the development of esotericism. Thirdly, to study a number of primary sources showing the changing content, concerns, and purposes of esotericism over the centuries.

Students begin with a historical survey course entitled The Western Esoteric Traditions (a compulsory core module) in order to appreciate the broad scope and common features of this spirituality. The optional modules then provide more specialised studies in the component traditions and subjects of Hermeticism, Neo-Platonism, Theurgy, Astrology, Alchemy, Kabbalah, Theosophy, Rosicrucianism, Freemasonry, Romantic Natural Science, and Modern Esotericism.

Students will be introduced to subjects that are spiritually subtle, theologically complex and intellectually demanding. Many sources for the earlier historical periods are in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin but much is available in English translation.

Modules available include:

I. The Western Esoteric Traditions: An Historical Survey (Prof. Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke) Part I: Ancient to Renaissance; Part II: Reformation to Present (Compulsory)

2. Gnosticism Old and New (Dr Alastair Logan)

3. Alexandrian Hermetism, Neo-Platonism and Astrology (Dr Angela Voss)

4. The Hermetic Art of Alchemy (Clare Goodrick-Clarke)

5. Renaissance Kabbalah and its Influence (Dr Peter Forshaw & Prof. Allison Coudert)

6. Rosicrucianism & Freemasonry (Tobias Churton & Dr Christopher McIntosh)

7. Nature-Philosophy from Romanticism to Anthroposophy (Prof. Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke)

8. Theosophy and the Globalisation of Esotericism (Prof. Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke)

more details (link to University of Exeter)

The Course Team

Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, B.A. (Bristol), D.Phil. (Oxon) Professor of Western Esotericism and Director of the Centre for the Study of Esotericism, University of Exeter. Current areas of supervision include Hermeticism; Rosicrucianism; Swedenborg; Theosophy and Modern Art; Rudolf Steiner and Anthroposophy; contemporary Gnostic movements. Publications include: Helena Blavatsky (2004); Emanuel Swedenborg: Visionary Savant in the Age of Reason (2002). As General Editor of Western Esoteric Masters (North Atlantic: Berkeley) he has edited Rudolf Steiner (2004), John Dee (2003), Emanuel Swedenborg (2003), Jacob Boehme (2001 ), Robert Fludd (2001).

Angela Voss, B.A. (Leicester), M.A., Ph.D. (City University) Course Lecturer in Neo-Platonism and Astrology. Currently consultant researcher and lecturer in Religious Studies at the University of Kent, Canterbury, under the sponsorship of the Sophia Trust. Publications have centred on the astrological music therapy of Marsilio Ficino and the nature of symbolism.

Clare Radene Goodrick-Clarke, B.A., M.A. (Birmingham), LBSH, RSHom Course Lecturer in Alchemy. Current research focuses on the history, symbolism and practice of alchemy, especially in Paracelsian medical alchemy (Spagyrics). Practising homeopath, Wellspring Homeopathy, Teignmouth. Currently writing Gnosis of Healing and Samuel Hahnemann: a New Biography.

Peter Forshaw, B.A., M.A., Ph.D. (London) Course Lecturer in Kabbalah. Currently conducting research on Robert Boyle's work-diaries, and teaching courses on 'Renaissance Philosophies' and 'Magic, Science, and Religion' at Birkbeck College, University of London.

Allison P. Coudert, B.A. (Vassar College), Ph.D. (Warburg Institute, University of London) Paul A. and Marie Castfranco Professor in the History of Christianity at the University of California, Davis. Course Lecturer in Kabbalah and Jewish esoteric traditions. Publications include: Impact of the Kabbalah in the 17th Century : The Life and Thought of Francis Mercury Van Helmont, 1614-1698 (1999); Alchemy: The Philosopher's Stone. (1980 and 1999).

Tobias Churton, M.A. (Oxon) Course Lecturer in Freemasonry. Churton crafted innovative religious television for the BBC and Channel 4 in the 19805, including the award-winning Gnostics series. His accompanying book The Gnostics (1987) was a best-seller. Publications include: The Golden Builders: Alchemists, Rosicrucians and the First Free Masons (2004), Gnostic Philosophy (2005). Founder-editor of the world's leading masonic magazine, Freemasonry Today.

Christopher A. Mclntosh, B.A. (London), M.A., D.Phil. (Oxon) Course Lecturer in Rosicrucianism. Currently teaching at the University of Bremen, Germany. Research interests and areas of supervision include: Rosicrucianism, history of magic, esoteric currents in Central and Eastern Europe, Paganism, Neo-Paganism, and the interface between spirituality and nature. Publications include: The Astrologers and their Creed (1969); Eliphas Levi and the French Occult Revival (1972); The Rosicrucians (latest edition 1997); The Rose Cross and the Age of Reason (1992).

more staff details (link to University of Exeter)