A Philosophical Happy Hour on the mystical, the esoteric, the unknown—the traditions of secret learning, their dangers, their refutation, and the true good of mystical contemplation
“I believe the universe is a great symphony of numerical correspondences, I believe that numbers and their symbolisms provide a path to special knowledge”, says the antagonist of Umberto Eco’s Foucault’s Pendulum, the mysterious figure Agliè—who goes on to suggest that “Electricity, radioactivity, atomic energy—the true initiate knows that these are metaphors, masks, conventional lies, or, at most, pathetic surrogates, for an ancestral, forgotten force, a force the initiate seeks and one day will know.”
The allure of secret knowledge—of a wisdom behind or beyond the literal and the scientific, of truths obscured by ordinary knowledge—captures the minds of many. Hermeticism, gnosticism, various schools of Neoplatonism, Kabbalah, theosophy, alchemy, Renaissance magic, Rosicrucianism, Freemasonry, Wicca, varieties of Symbolism, New Age movements, and more have sprung up time and again, promising access to the mysteries that motivate the world. So too, we find many conspiracy theories of our recent past and present draw their adherents through a similar intrigue: promising a certain re-enchantment of life, access to higher truths—truths that “they” denied you were fit to know.
Secret Knowledge
But… what is meant by “secret knowledge”? We find here a certain conceptual fuzziness. Whether the existence and terrestrial presence of aliens, secret government programs, ritual Satanic magic, command over spirits, or intimate connection with divine truths—with God Himself—the object of esoteric pursuit defies easy demonstration. No doubt, the claimant of special secret knowledge can justly say: “Of course; otherwise it would not be secret knowledge.”
But… why do people believe these claims? How does someone fall under the allure? There may be many diverse causes. But I believe that, essentially, all follow the same essential pattern: that of Faust.
Put otherwise, the pursuit of knowledge is the pursuit of power. Consider the titular doctor’s lament at the outset of Goethe’s Faust:
I have, alas, studied philosophy,
Jurisprudence and medicine, too,
And, worst of all, theology
With keen endeavor, through and through—
And here I am, for all my lore,
The wretched fool I was before.
Called Master of Arts, and Doctor to boo,
For ten years almost I confute
And up and down, wherever it goes,
I drag my students by the nose—
And see that for all our science and art
We can know nothing. It burns my heart.
Of course, I am smarter than all the shysters,
The doctors, and teachers, and scribes, and Christers;
No scruple nor doubt could make me ill,
I am not afraid of the Devil or hell—
But there I also lack all delight,
Do not fancy that I know anything right,
Do not fancy that I could teach or assert
What would better mankind or what might convert.
I also have neither money nor treasures,
Nor worldly honors or earthly pleasures;
No dog would want to live longer this way!
Hence I have yielded to magic to see
Whether the spirit’s mouth and might
Would bring some mysteries to light,
That I need not with work and woe
Go on to say what I don’t know;
That I might see what secret force
Hides in the world and rules its course.
Envise the creative blazes
Instead of rummaging in phrases.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe,1806: Faust (354-385).
Put otherwise: the path of ordinary human knowledge is long, arduous, and often comes without reward. The shortcuts of magic, of secret knowledge, promise an ability to affect change in the world without suffering the same cost. The initiate bypasses the hurdles of ordinary life.
True Mystery
At the same time: we must recognize a long tradition of mystical prayer and contemplation in the great religious traditions, including Roman Catholicism. Do we reject Saint John of the Cross, Saint Teresa of Ávila? The hermits, monks, ascetics, and stylites who retreat into silent prayer?
What is or ought to be, in other words, the proper relation of mystical contemplation to the philosophical habit of mind? What is the right locus for mystery in our relations of thought to the world?
Unveiling False Mysticism
Please join us this Wednesday (15 January 2025) for our Philosophical Happy Hour (5:45–7:15pm ET; latecomers welcome!) as we attempt situating mysteries and mysticism into a coherent conceptual framework.
philosophical happy hour
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Come join us for drinks (adult or otherwise) and a meaningful conversation. Open to the public! Held every Wednesday from 5:45–7:15pm ET.
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