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The question of constructing tradition, concepts of origin, and memory as well as techniques and practices of knowledge transmission, are central for cultures in general. In esotericism, however, such questions and techniques play an outstanding role and are widely reflected upon, in its literature. Esoteric paradigms not only understand themselves in elaborated mytho-poetical narratives as bearers of older, hidden, higher knowledge. They also claim their knowledge to be of a particular origin. And they claim this knowledge has been transmitted by particular (esoteric) means, media and groups. Consequently, esotericism not only involves the construction of its own tradition; it can even be understood as a specific form of tradition and transmission. The various studies of the present voume, which contains the papers of a conference held in Tubingen in July 2007, provide an overview of the most important concepts and ways of constructing tradition in esotericism."
- Sales Rank: #7803932 in Books
- Published on: 2010-10-05
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.50" h x 6.25" w x 1.00" l, .0 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 476 pages
About the Author
Andreas B. Kilcher, PhD. (1996) in German Litreature, University of Basel, is Professor of Literature and Cultural Studies at ETH Zurich since 2008. From 2004-2008 he has been Professor of Modern German Literature at the University of Tubingen. His research interests cover the history of German-Jewish literature and culture, literary and science; studies in esotericism. He recently published "Die Enzyklopadik der Esoterik: Allwissenheitsmythen und universalwissenschaftliche Modelle in der Esoterik der Neuzeit" with Wilhelm Fink Verlag, 2010."
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Constructing Tradition: Means and Myths of Transmission in Western Esotericism by Andreas Kilcher, Antoine Faivre, Matthias Heiduk, and Philipp Theisohn (Aries Book Series: Brill Academic) The question of constructing tradition, concepts of origin, and memory as well as techniques and practices of knowledge transmission, are central for cultures in general. In esotericism, however, such questions and techniques play an outstanding role and are widely reflected upon, in its literature. Esoteric paradigms not only understand themselves in elaborated mytho-poetical narratives as bearers of "older", "hidden", "higher" knowledge. They also claim their knowledge to be of a particular origin. And they claim this knowledge has been transmitted by particular (esoteric) means, media and groups. Consequently, esotericism not only involves the construction of its own tradition; it can even be understood as a specific form of tradition and transmission. The various studies of the present volume, which contains the papers of a conference held in Tubingen in July 2007, provide an overview of the most important concepts and ways of constructing tradition in esotericism.
Andreas B. Kilcher received his PhD. (1996) in German Literature, University of Basel, is Professor of Literature and Cultural Studies at ETH Zurich since 2008. From 2004-2008 he has been Professor of Modern German Literature at the University of Tubingen. His research interests cover the history of German-Jewish literature and culture, the relation between literature and science as well as studies in esotericism. He recently published Die Enzyklopädik der Esoterik: Allwissenheitsmythen und universalwissenschaftliche Modelle in der Esoterik der Neuzeit with Wilhelm Fink Verlag, 2010.
excerpt: The question of constructing tradition, concepts of origin and memory as well as techniques and practices of knowledge transmission are central for culture in general. In esotericism and its literature, however, such questions and techniques play an outstanding role and are widely reflected upon. Esoteric paradigms not only understand themselves in elaborate mytho-poetical narratives as bearers of "older", "hidden", "higher" knowledge. They also claim their knowledge to be of a particular origin. And they claim this knowledge has been transmitted by particular (esoteric) means, media and groups. Consequently, esotericism not only involves the construction of its own tradition; it can even be understood as a specific form of tradition and transmission.
This was precisely the topic of the inaugural conference of the Euro-pean Society for the Study of Western Esotericism (ESSWE), which took place in Tübingen between the 19th and the 22nd of July 2007 under the title Constructing Tradition. Means and Myths of Trans-mission in Western Esotericism. / Die Konstruktion von Tradition. Praktiken und Mythen der Überlieferung in der europäischen Esoterik. The present volume contains a selection of the papers held at this conference.
The topic of this conference and of the present volume needs to be explained more accurately: in the construction of their own traditions, both pre-modern and modern esoteric paradigms-including magic, alchemy, Kabbalah as well as occultism and theosophy-claim to represent or restore an ancient, primordial wisdom tradition as a kind of "secret knowledge". The conceptualisation and realisation of such claims places a major emphasis on ideas of tradition, passed on either by oral transmission or by the discovery and dissemination of mythic or absolute books. In this sense, the questions of heritage and tradition, of origin and genealogy are crucial to the foundation of any esoteric knowledge. It defines, and moreover legitimates itself, through its origins, its ancestry, and its means of esoteric transmission. In so doing, esotericism seeks to invent its own tradition, to map its master narratives, to construct its myths of origin and its myths of transmission.
An example may provide a more concrete understanding of this phenomenon: Romeyn de Hooghe's Hieroglyphica of Merkbeelden der Oude Volkeren (1735), or in the German translation Hieroglyphica oder Denkbilder der alten Völker (1744). A well-known engraver of the late Dutch Baroque period, de Hooghe was by no means an esotericist himself, but nevertheless described and represented esoteric understandings of tradition. Through the numerous copperplate engravings of this remarkable book, he actually wanted to help writers and artists to form an appropriate picture of the ancient cultures and their now forgotten emblems or Merkbeelden ('Denkbilder, literally thought pictures), which he depicts as "hieroglyphs", as cryptic, mysterious and enigmatic pictorial characters. He thus understands cultural history as the accumulation of signs from different spheres and eras, which throughout the course of history became less and less comprehensible, more and more emblematic and mysterious. Consequently, the historical differences between different cultures collapse in these `Denkbilder', as they mingle in syncretistic amalgams transgressing the boundaries of distinct traditions, religions and languages. What de Hooghe therefore shows is the transition from one religion to another ('den Uebergang bei einen Religion zu der andern'). Based on this understanding, the book supplies its readers with pictures of hybrid spaces. It is in some sense a museum of heterogeneous Delphic objects and figures. Culture, for de Hooghe, seems to be a practice of engraving and decoding old signs. This leads to the ars hieroglyphica, which he explains as the art of making pictorial languages ('Die Kunst, Bildersprache zu machen'), as well as to a scientia hieroglyphica, which he explains as the science of understanding pictorial languages ('die Wissenschaft, dieselben zu verstehen'). In this way de Hooghe divides the cultures of antiquity into a variety of hieroglyphic arts and sciences, such as
Sapientia Memphitica, the Memphitic wisdom. Symbola Aegyptiaca, Egyptian symbols, Emblemata Thebaica, Theban emblems, Allegoriae Chaldaicae, Chaldean allegories, Mysteria Insculpta, graven mysteries. Imagines Thebaicae, Theban images.Typi Phoenici, Phoenician archetypes,Icones Absconsae Sapientiae, images of hidden wisdom.'One of these emblematic `Denkbilder'--which 'give little to the eye but nevertheless say a great deal in meaningful pictures' ('da sie weniger zu sehen geben, und doch in Sinnbildern vieles sagen')--portrays the founding of these artes hieroglyphicae in the biblical Orient. Among these types of esoteric writers he depicts the 'Chaldean magus, who engraves the elements in the pyramid' (letter D), which lies, as de Hooghe explains, in darkness to stress that these magical matters are barely comprehensible. As a similar type, he depicts Seth, the third son of Adam (after Cain and Abel), who is engraving on two pillars the history as well as the primordial knowledge given to Adam by God (letter A). De Hooghe gives the following explanation (subscriptio) for this section of the emblem (pictura):
Here in the distance there appear two round pillars [ ...], all around which in the whitewashed clay the patriarch Seth engraved and etched in emblems the facts concerning him, his father, his mother and his brothers, and presumably [.. .] this God-fearing teacher bequeathed them for his descendants, along with the foundations and laws of a certain divine service.
This reading of the "oriental" emblem is obviously poised to construct an esoteric tradition. Indeed, in esoteric discourse, Seth--like Adam before him and Enoch after him--is known as one of the biblical founding fathers of a tradition of hidden knowledge. He plays this role not only in Jewish magical literature and the Kabbalah but also in a specific Sethian literature associated with Gnosticism and Manichaeism. In this context Seth belongs (as shith-il) to the divine sphere; he turns into a powerful embodiment of the divine nous, a revealer and saviour, teaching a doctrine of intermixture and confusion. In this role, the biblical Seth seems to be fused (as he is in the Coptic magical texts) with the homonymous Egyptian god Seth and is thereby turned into a pantheistic Godhead of the world. Some of the Gnostic texts of the Nag Hammadi library are attributed to this type of Seth: for example, the Three Steles of Seth, which report what Seth inscribed as primordial and hidden knowledge on the pillars; or the Gospel of the Egyptians, a book supposedly written by Seth, who hid it in the mountain "Charaxio"--it is said that the book will be revealed at the end of time. Thus, when Hooghe shows Seth as a hieroglyphic engraver (obviously also mirroring his own work), he refers subtextually to an esoteric tradition of biblical antiquity, even suggesting a possible Egyptian foundation for Seth's esoteric knowledge. This mythopoetic invention of tradition is typical of esotericism.
Naturally, the esoteric construction of tradition needs to be described not only by examples, but also systematically. Indeed, many esoteric paradigms of early modern and modern times claim to represent or restore an ancient, primordial or lost secret wisdom. Precisely these claims place a major emphasis on processes of tradition and trans-mission, whether based on orality or the dissemination of sacred and mythic books. Thus, questions of heritage and tradition, of origin and genealogy, are crucial to the foundation of any esoteric knowledge.
In the construction of tradition, a differentiation can be made between concepts and myths on the one hand and the history and means of transmission on the other. The former refers to the more mythical or philosophical aspects of tradition, the latter to its technical, material and historical aspects. The investigation of these aspects brings together various methodological approaches and perspectives that compare the traditions of esoteric knowledge with corresponding concepts and practices in religion, literature or science. Indeed, the question of how esoteric knowledge may be examined either via its concepts or myths within the literature of a given tradition itself, or via the actual historical and sociological practice of esoteric groups in bequeathing their knowledge to posterity. Accordingly, one can distinguish between a) concepts, b) myths, and c) the historical practices and procedures of transmission in esotericism.
a) Theoretical and interpretational frameworks (concepts and ideas of tradition) The many varied concepts of tradition in esotericism imply theories of esoteric communication and information, involving the construction and conception of genealogies and the transmission of such primordial and secret knowledge. These theories may be investigated from various points of view (which may also find a place within non-esoteric concepts of knowledge), through the philosophy and/or theology of history, but also through media or information theory. Consequently, the following aspects may be taken into consideration:philosophy of history (concepts of tradition and transmission)theology of history (soteriological and messianic expectations of restoration; hidden or lost traditions)media concepts (oral and literary transmission and communication as well as imagery, symbolism and any visual communication and "iconic action")b) Mythical and literary approaches (myths and imagined tradition) A second field may be distinguished by mythical and literary, i.e. less conceptual, more imaginative framings of tradition and transmission in esotericism. Ultimately quite distinct from actual historical reality, transmission can be the object of mythical construction as well as literary narration. Moreover, esoteric models of transmission might some-times be viewed as generators of literary and mythical narration. The following aspects may be considered:mythical agents and bearers of esoteric tradition inside and out-side the biblical framework (Adam, Seth, Moses, Zoroaster, Hermes Trismegistus)myths of origin, genealogy, transmissionliterary narratives of esoteric tradition and transmissionc) Historical approaches (practices and procedures of transmission) The actual historical practice of transmission can differ widely from the theoretical construction and the imaginative plane of mythical invention. Sociology, communication and media studies, history and related disciplines have developed instruments of analysis that are fruitful in exploring practices of transmission. In order to understand processes of group formation, projects in translation and criticism, or the function of oral, literary and visual traditions, the following aspects seem worth considering:sociology: groups, circles, (secret) societiespolitics: religious and confessional strategiesdoctrine: master-disciple relationships versus direct inspirationmedia: oral, literary, image, symbolismphilology: projects in translation, criticism, editionslibrary and museum: books, collectionsThe present volume does not follow this systematic description of possible perspectives in an encyclopaedic manner. As it is not a handbook of esotericism but a conference volume, it participates in this field through a combination of general and exemplary studies, always following the theme of constructing tradition in esotericism. In this combination of general and exemplary analysis, the papers in this volume can be classified into three sections.
The first section analyses the "master narratives of tradition" in esotericism, firstly in systematic studies, then also in historical studies. What is at stake here is the theoretical and mythical construction, the invention and narration of tradition in esotericism from medieval times to modernity (see the papers by Andreas B. Kilcher, Antoine Faivre, Matthias Heiduk, Philipp Theisohn, Wouter Hanegraaff, Nicholas Goodrick-Clark, Tim Rudbøg, Monika Neugebauer-Wolk and Kocku von Stuckrad). The second section discusses the central topic of constructing tradition with reference to a significant example: Kabbalah. Indeed, Kabbalah--literally meaning "reception" of tradition--is a central example for the question of constructing tradition, as it not only involves specific practices of transmission, but also reflects explicitly on concepts and models of tradition (see the papers by Moshe Idel, Giulio Busi, Jean-Pierre Brach and Konstantin Burmistrov). A third section focuses on myths of origin in esotericism. As the construction of tradition generally has a vector in the past, it focuses specifically on the question of origins, placing in view the founding of this tradition by relating narratives of origin ("Ursprungsgeschichten"). Egypt, India, Islamic Sufism are examples of such narratives of origin, which are discussed in the con-tributions by Wilhelm Schmidt-Biggemann, Jan Assmann, Christine Maillard, Mark Sedgwick, Joscelyn Godwin and Bernd Roling.
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