AbstractThe term “esotericism” refers here to the modern esoteric currents in the West (15th to 20th centuries), i.e. to a diverse group of works, authors, trends, which possess an “air de famille” and which must be studied as a part of the history of religions because of the specific form it has acquired in the West from the Renaissance on. This field is comprised of currents like: alchemy (its philosophical and/or “spiritual” aspects); the philosophia occulta; Christian Kabbalah; Paracelsianism and the Naturphilosophie in its wake; theosophy (Jacob Boehme and his followers, up to and including the Theosophical Society); Rosicrucianism of the 17th century and the subsequent similarly-oriented initiatic societies; and hermetism, i.e. the reception of the Greek Hermetica in modern times.
Paracelsus (Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, 1493–1541): Essential Theoretical Writings. Edited and translated with a Commentary and Introduction by Andrew Weeks. Leiden, Boston, Brill, 2008. (Aries Book Series, Texts and Studies in Western Esotericism, 5). X, 975 p. € 219.–; $ 325.–. ISBN 978-90-04-15756-9.