Esotericism: The Province of Highly Educated, Affluent and Powerful Intellectuals?
“Despite the proliferation of interest in the subjects of secrecy and esotericism throughout popular culture, media and entertainment, these phenomena have only recently begun to be treated seriously by historians of religions. In this essay, I suggest a new way of looking at esotericism by engaging in a comparative, cross-cultural analysis, and by looking in particular at its social and political implications. Specifically, I compare two traditions-the Śrīvidyā school of Indian Tantra, and the Rectified Scottish Rite of French Freemasonry-juxtaposing and analogically relating them in order to shed new light on both. Contrary to many popular conceptions, I argue that esotericism is by no means primarily a “counter-cultural” or “subversive” phenomenon; rather, it is very often an elitist phenomenon, the province of highly educated, affluent and powerful intellectuals, who wish, not to undermine existing social structures, but rather subtly to reinforce them, or else to bend and reshape them according to their own interests. This essay examines three primary strategies employed by the Tantrics and Masons: 1) the creation of a new social space or private sphere, which promises “equality” and liberation for all classes, while at the same time constructing new and more rigid hierarchies; 2) a hermeneutical strategy, which appropriates the authority of traditional scriptures, while at the same time asserting the superiority of esoteric exegesis; 3) a ritual strategy, which creates a homology between the body of the initiate, the hierarchy of the cosmos and the hierarchy of the esoteric sect, inscribing the individual into the body of the order, and inscribing the order onto the human body.”
The above passage is an abstract from an essay titled Elitism and Esotericism: Strategies of Secrecy and Power in South Indian Tantra and French Freemasonry written by Hugh B. Urban (a professor of comparative studies at OSU) for the academic journal Numen: International Review for the History of Religions. If one is interested in esotericism, comparative studies or religious history It’s definitely worth a look!
I must say that I really love reading mind mindbogglingly complex books about esoteric metaphysics; seriously, I love it. I love being dazzled by imaginative, poetic, and sometimes shocking spiritual imagery, and challenged by strange concepts that push me into uncharted (and sometimes uncomfortable!) territory where I’ve never been before. But if there is one thing that pisses me off it’s when a group of people claim to have the Truth or the Knowledge or attempt to privilege one reading/exegesis of a sacred text over all others (Urban’s second point above). And, although I’m admittedly not an expert in all the World’s esoteric traditions, in my experience studying various forms of esotericism I’ve reached a lot of the same conclusions that Urban has reached, for example: esoteric practitioners generally believe that knowledge (particularly spiritual knowledge) is power. I’ve explained before why, from a process-relational, religious naturalist, pneu-materialist and non-dual spiritual perspective, I don’t’ think privileging spiritual knowledge is such a great idea and I still hold to this position for the most part (I’m open to having my mind changed! Convince me otherwise! LOL!).
But beyond that, I’ve also had another inclination regarding esotericism and it’s link to traditional/conservative tendencies that Urban puts into words rather well I think: “[esotericism] …allows the individual to live a seemingly orthodox, traditional, conservative life in the outer social world, while at the same time, leading a secret inner life, often involving powerful heterodox or even antinomian esoteric practices.” Urban actually goes further in his paper and shows how esotericism has been used to reinforce various types of racial, gender and class supremacy.
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