Slowly completing my esotericism book

The Renaissance cosmos, as shown in a cosmic diagram by Robert Fludd (1574-1637).  Here God (the hand emerging from the cloud) controls the World Soul (the female figure) which in turn controls the lower psychic nature (the ape sitting on a globe of the Earth).  In keeping with the worldview of of the Florentine hermeticists and neoplatonists Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499) and Giovanni Pico Dela Mirandella (1463-1494), the cosmos is divided into three strata: the elemental or natural world (the four elements, the inner circle), the celestial or sidereal realm (the celestial spheres of the planets), and the spiritual realm of the hierarchies of angels. Image from Science History Institute

I haven’t posted anything for a while, so I thought I should just give a brief progress report.

So, I’m still working on my book on esotericism and gnosis. It was originally to be called The Kheper Book of Gnosis, but then it became Esoteric Cosmology, and now I’ve decided to call it Esotericism, Metaphysics, and Gnosis 

It’s turned out to be a huge project, both updating Kheper net and serving as a sort of historical overview of esotericism, as well as having some of my new insights. Because there’s so much content to cover, it’s taking ages to finish.

As an example of new material, I’ve added an entire chapter on Renaissance Hermeticism (see above image). I didn’t even cover in the original Kheper net. The new material references the work of scholar of Western Esotericism Antoine Faivre (who basically established the subgenre as an academic discipline, following on Francis Yates) and others, along with my own comments.

If I include and complete all the current material, it’ll have over 50 chapters, arranged under the following headings

  • Introduction (one chapter)
  • Physicalism or Esotericism (4 chapters)
  • Historical Review (mysticism and esotericism through the ages – 27 chapters)
  • Some recent themes (about 6 or 7 chapters on various relevant topics)
  • Synthesis (my own metaphysical theory) 
  • The place of esotericism in the modern world (about half a dozen short chapters)
  • Glossary
  • Bibliography
  • Index

Anyway, hopefully it’ll all be ready soon. I’d much rather get it finished sooner then keep endlessly adding to it, as it’s impossible to include everything.