Esotericism

With its origin, the esotericism indicates a teaching professed inside a school and in fact reserved to the members initiated in his centre. Commonly, the term of esotericism indicates a knowledge reserved for some and is included/understood primarily compared to its opposite, itexoterism, which corresponds as for him to , and lesson conveyed by and traditions and which is addressed indifferently to all the members of a community. The esotericism is not to confuse with paranormal and itoccultism.

One can notice that the esotericism makes a great use of symbols. The latter are borrowed from the worlds of physics, chemistry, biology or mathematics. It is true that to speak about mysterious things requires the recourse to more widespread concepts and the recourse to preexistent geometrical figures. For example one often speaks about the pentagram, crowned Hexagramme, the magic and mysterious properties of the Golden section, of number pi. These relations between esotericism and mathematics and complex sciences, relations, deserve to be studied thoroughly from a rational point of view.

The esotericism more precisely indicates the secret part of a given teaching, in general , part which the student reaches who received the exoteric part (public) of teaching, following one initiation, it must keep the secret content, thus conferring the statute of initiate to him. In short, any teaching coming from what is called a "school of the mysteries", such as for example those of Rosicrucian brotherhood, of Templiers, of Cathares, of Gnosis, comprises a exoteric part (for the layman) and a esoteric part (for the initiate). With the wire of time, the official religions always comprised aspects esoteric, more or less occulted with general public to which some practise concerning magic could be judged "satanic" according to the cases and times' and thus presented.

Point of view rational

In " The Pendulum of Foucault », presents one model occult sciences. This model rests on the concept of secrecy: the greatest secrecy is that which hides only itself, a little as an onion which with the wire of the skins which one removes does not reveal anything other than an onion; however, more it is peeled, more that made cry the eyes.

Always according to Eco, Professor of Semiology and satrap of College of ' Pataphysique, where the esotericism takes a whole direction lies in this system of knowledge which calls upon itself with a great richness of direction. Among some remarkable examples, one finds and it Tarot of Marseilles.

Notes

• The word esotericism was defined by the occultists and the esoterists in XX^E century in its applicability. It is included in traditional sciences.
• Its adjective esoteric also indicate, in the language running, an opinion, a theory, an obscure thought.
• This current appears mainly by the membership of supposed secret societies to hold a "traditional" knowledge, by an interest for the occult knowledge, or by a consumption of specialized articles (alchemical works, "magic" stones or talismans, objects symbolic systems etc.).
• The spring of this social current is the search for being able, the elitism, or the interest for the hidden things, the secret history, or the direction of crowned and ritual traditional...
• The scientific step with the current direction of the term misses of these "traditional" practices. It rather acts of an individual step of "initiatory research" founded on transmitted knowledge of generations in generations. (source: GERP)