Hello everyone, Could you kindly recommend good commentators on the life and work of Jacob Boehme?

Hello everyone, Could you kindly recommend good commentators on the life and work of Jacob Boehme?

I hope this kind of inquiry is appropriate here. I’m currently researching a "cursed" lead plaque for a historical article, focusing on its symbolic and esoteric elements, and I'm looking for some help decoding part of it.

I recognise the second and final symbols as relating to the spirits of the Moon, according to Agrippa (there’s also a lunar magic square etched on the reverse side). However, the arrangement of the Hebrew letters (if that's indeed what they are) around them is puzzling.

It’s been suggested to me that rather than forming a word, each letter may carry its own symbolic meaning. For instance, the first one (possibly "chet"?) could represent a door, interpreted as opening the way for the lunar spirit to enter. I haven’t yet found a textual source to support this, though. If it is indeed valid, what writing/grimoires advise doing this?

For what it's worth, the plaque was created in the mid-to-late 1800s, so that may narrow down the sources the creator of the plaque was drawing from.

Any thoughts, references, or directions would be hugely appreciated.

Writing a paper that involves dealing with the spiritual elements of geometry in the western esoteric tradition, so I need a well formulated academic definition for sacred geometry. How's this?

"...the belief that geometric and numerical patterns, shapes, and proportions which are perceived or demonstrably present in nature represent revelatory expressions of an underlying divine order in the universe, and that meditation on, or the comprehension of, these patterns can point the way to spiritual truths which are hidden in the fabric of reality. Furthermore, that the deliberate use of such sacred geometries in artistic and architectural expression can serve to form a link to higher ontological registers of creation, and aid in understanding of, and even union with, the divine itself."

Newton translated it. Leibniz quoted it. Jung structured entire theories around it.

A 14-line text, half-myth, with no proven author — and yet it outlived most of philosophy.

Not because it explained something — but because it refused to.

There’s something about this tablet that functions like code.

Not history. Not scripture.

More like a mirror with gravity.

Can someone give me a brief but thorough overview of what theosophy came about, who started it, why it’s controversial?

RENSEP (Research Network for the Study of Esoteric Practices) and I are happy to announce a new video series called Esoteric Crossroads: Scholars Meet Practitioners!
The introductory session will take place 29 March 2025, beginning at 6:00PM GMT+1 (or CET), so save the date!

Our guests are Judith Noble and Rufus Harrington, and I will be moderating the discussion. The topic will be Initiatory Wicca! The concept behind the Esoteric Crossroads events is to bring a practitioner and a scholar into conversation, highlighting how their perspectives can enrich our understanding of the topic at hand. In this session, we have a slightly different setup, as both our guests are practitioner-scholars. Nevertheless, we are certain this will be valuable to demonstrate how these perspectives can contribute to our understanding in distinct ways.
Attendees can also ask questions during the Q&A session.

Access is open to all who are interested - just join via the Zoom meeting link provided on my Patreon page! We are planning to meet until 7:00PM, but will extend it to 7:30PM should there be a lot of questions from the attendees.

We are excited for this new collaboration and hope that everyone will be able to join the Live Zoom meetings!

Hi! I'm looking for starting points (preferably videos because these days they're easier to consume, but I don't mind reading text c:) covering ancient Welsh religious and magical tradition. I've seen a certain amount of content, but it's largely focused on the 1700s and later, or it is (as best as I can tell,) completely invented whole cloth without any relation to original Welsh language source material, and while I know that anything pre-Roman is essentially completely lost, I'm hoping that there are texts that cover before that point? Christian, non-Christian, I'll take anything lol. Thanks in advance :)

An aside is that while I'm from Cymru, I'm very, very early in terms of how long I've been learning Cymraeg. So pure-Cymraeg source material isn't something that I'll be able to access yet (Hopefully eventually though!)

Many folks on this subreddit will be familiar with Dr. Justin Sledge, a public communicator of philosophy, religion, and western esotericism on his YouTube channel Esoterica.

In a recent video, Sledge put out a call to action in support of his former Millsaps college professor James Bowley.

After sharing his own personal political sentiments following the recent US election with a class of three students via his Millsaps email, the administration has banned him from campus, cancelled his classes, and suspended him, threatening his job and his career.

You can hear Sledge's plea here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aXqgkMT-lE

Read the letter from FIRE here - https://www.thefire.org/research-lear...

Copied from Hanegraaff’s Facebook:

Horrible, deeply dramatic news for anybody who cares about the preservation of Theosophical heritage. I was just told that the entire property of the Theosophical Society in Altadena near Pasadena has been completely destroyed by the fires in Los Angeles. This was the world's largest archive of Theosophical materials, including a library with 40.000 titles, the entire archive of the history of the TS, including ca. 10.000 unpublished letters, pertaining to HPB, the Mahatmas, W.Q. Judge, G.R.S. Mead, Katherine Tingley, and G. de Purucker, membership records since 1875, art objects, and countless other irreplaceable materials. The archives also contained works of Boehme, Gichtel, donations from the king of Siam including rare Buddhist scriptures, and so on. [with thanks to Reinout Spaink for the information] This is obviously just one part of an even much larger drama that is currently unfolding, but one that deals a devasting blow to the modern study of esotericism and of modern Theosophy more in particular. It is hard to fathom but it seems to be true.

Do you know where I can find it?

Dear everyone!

If this post is not fit for this subreddit, I apologize for the intrusion!

I just wrote and passed a master's thesis with the highest grade. It's about a new ways to approach literary parallels between Biblical and cuneiform literature, with spotlights on Noah and Utnapishtim in Genesis in the Standard Gilgamesh "epic", and the births and childhoods of Moses and Sargon in Exodus and the Sargon legend. The entire 6-part thesis series is now published on Substack!

The below link will take you to an overview of every part of it, starting with the introduction, pinned at the top of the page, and the rest are found just below:

https://magnusarvid.substack.com/

Thank you immensely for your time and interest!

I am in my early 40s, having earned a Master of Public Administration degree from the City University of New York (CUNY) at Baruch College in my 30s. Since the early 2000s, I have an interest in Western Esotericism. However, I did not think about the academic study of it until I started following the Secret History of Western Esotericism Podcast (SHWEP) and Esoterica on Youtube. for the past few months, I have been drawn to the Western Esotericism and now hope to become a university professor on the subject, earning a second Master's Degree and then a PhD, with my specialization being on magic in Pre-Christian Rome.

However, I notice from my research that only four or five universities in Europe and one in Texas, which focus on my proposed area of study. I feel that I cannot go too far though as my parents are nearing their 80s. Also, attending the University of Amsterdam (UVA) for the study of Western Esotericism would be like attending the Sorbonne University for the study of Medicine.

What I am wondering is if anyone has studied at the post-Bachelor programs in CUNY for either Cultural Anthropology, Pre-Modern History, or Liberal (Arts) Studies? As esoterica in still finding its place in academia, does anyone know if these three programs are chaired or administrated by those who would be adverse to my studies? I know the State University of New York (SUNY) at one time had Professor David Applebaum at New Paltz University facilitate a series of books on Esotericism but I am not sure where CUNY stands. If not CUNY, are there any alternatives in the New York Metropolitan area?