"OCCULTISM" AND THE FIRST ESITERIC WAVE OF MODERN TIMES…
Especially Germans and Anglo-Saxons allowed themselves to be seized by such things.
In the years between the two world wars, occultism often increased political traits, in keeping with the spirit of the time, rightist. Different schools of thought tried to spiritual correctness and earthly justification of their views through esoteric backgrounds.
Without occultist-esoteric motifs also have questions at the cradle of the National Socialism played a role. When in 1941 in Nazi Germany all esoteric associations have been banned, the Nazi movement itself has drawn massively from the sources of occultism, and it is still not possible to define exactly what has turned out to be had a significant impact. Especially in SS circles, esoteric Motifs certainly go far beyond the known.
The After all, swastika is an esoteric sign. In doing so, the Assumption that it originated from the Germanic sun wheel, which is associated with is related to the Indian swastika. Likewise, the symbol originally from Babylon and used in Gnosticism of the four bent legs running through the ages of the world come into question, due to the direction of rotation, this may even be more likely.
The In the years between the two world wars, occultism had not only boom from a commercial point of view, it permeated the ideas and people's imaginary worlds beyond what the business of of the matter. In small but not a few in terms of number circles a demarcation from the all too obvious commerce which ultimately led to the fact that valuable assets of the profiteering.
On the occultism, two factors exerted the strongest influence On the one hand, the still relatively recent findings, theories and hypotheses of the modern natural sciences, on the other hand those from very impressions flowing up from ancient cultures, as can be seen especially from Sanskrit texts, the traditions from Arya Varta, ancient India. More or less arbitrary combinations and mixtures of these Both factors formed the basis of most esoteric Views of those years. Due to the imperfection of the scientific knowledge as well as the impossibility of to translate exotic ancient languages confidently, led to numerous errors and Tribulations. These were made even worse by business-savvy abuse impaired; for where no one could really say for sure, opened the door to bending and twisting; even people who hardly two words of the ancient languages, could be distinguished from a gullible audience as "knowers" - and that is often happen.
An old The wisdom of science is: Every researcher stands on his shoulders of his predecessor. That is undoubtedly true. But if the successor on crooked, wrong, shoulders rises, his whole successor work would necessarily be even more false than that of his predecessor, and this leads to a chain reaction of the wrong.
That's right in the time of the first esoteric wave. Sanskrit, the Mother of all Indo-European languages, is the richest and most diverse Language we know. Even highly qualified linguists come across to their limits. For many Sanskrit words, there are no other Sanskrit words language is an excellent equivalent. Completely accurate transfers are therefore impossible to this day and will be in the future.
That Sanskrit was first recognized in Germany and translatable for the first time but India was a British colonial possession at the time. Most Sanskrit texts thus first came into the hands of British Scientist. But the English language is even less than the German for a reasonably accurate translation of Sanskrit texts suitable. Translations of Sanskrit texts via the English ones would therefore have to be even more inaccurate than would have been the case with immediate transfer would have been the case. A really safe definition is with many Sanskrit words not possible in any living language anyway. At offer a simple, illustrative parable on this topic: we imagine that after thousands of years, texts in today's German language. The word "perhaps" would be used in the sense of "probably" as it is made up of the words "much" and "light”. In fact, however, "maybe" does not mean "probably", but "possibly". Such a detail alone would cause whole contexts can be misunderstood. This seemingly banal example demonstrates how difficult it is to learn old, long-extinct languages in terms of content and meaning. Nowhere does this apply as much as in Sanskrit, which has numerous words for which there is no direct equivalent at all in other languages.
As always one may take a stand on "HPB" and Franz Hartmann, is a certain achievement of both. With their Theosophy was the basis for much that followed – all of this, of course, on the basis of more than shaky ground and to be viewed critically insofar as it pretends to be more than imaginative entertainment (also Rudolph Steiner, the founder of anthroposophy, drew on the Fundus of Mrs. Blawatzky).
The The charisma of Helena Blawatzky's works had a far-reaching effect, the modern esotericism would hardly be imaginable without it – but with the emphasis on: ¡modern esotericism! All this is new, of modern times! With the old occult sciences, all to do this very little, in the majority of cases nothing at all.
This is how for example, the particularly frequent reference to Christian von Rosencreuz is simply presumptuous. Everything that happened in the time of the "first esoteric wave" - and some things to this day - "Rosicrucians" did not have the same fate as the historical Christian von Rosencreuz at least. One vaguely knew about some of the ideas of the Christian von Rosencreuz, but no more. But the one of his name emanating fascination was great. This is how this name was used – often also abused. The term "Rosicrucians" soon developed a kind of generic term for everything occult science, without to refer directly to the involuntary namesake. The few Rosencreuz's original writings that exist have been around for years in an Italian private archive. Except for a single letter, none of it was ever released. This one text, however, shows that the historical Christian von Rosencreuz thought quite differently than he had the professional occultists at random.
Such "Rosicrucians" also applies in a similar way to "Templars" to. Their difficult and from about 1170 by no means homogeneous, partly still always unclear world of thought was considered by many professional occultists to be a uncontrollable playground. This sometimes drove crazy Blossoms. For example, the salon magician "Elifas Lévy" the secret symbol of the Templars for the Eklesias (the church) as fallen angel, in a form transformed by him into the image of the Baphomet. This misconception is still widespread today. In fact, Baphomet, as is known in CN circles, as a male-female Double head, similar to a bisexual Janus head, which the braid of hair extending from the female half of the head as if from of a column. Behind this was the belief in an all-creative power the forces of the masculine and the feminine. An encrypted The Templar symbol is also the inverted pentagram. It stands for the Turning away from the Pentateuch, the five books of Moses, is therefore not a "sign of Satan", as the uninformed think.
All Well-known, who could no longer defend themselves in this world, became taken up, twisted and marketed at will. Big names, such as such as Agrippa of Nettesheim or Paracelsus, were often interspersed, usually without closer knowledge of what they really leave behind Had. Completely unrestrained, many professional occultists also proceeded with Quotations from old texts, which she noticeably often does not even mention in the original wording. Everything and everything was twisted as needed and bent.
The Ghost this occultism has therefore been that of a new esotericism! She liked to give herself the appearance of the old, but more than a coat of paint was This is just not the case. The majority of the authoritative sources had their origin in a combination of actual or only alleged medial received and uncritically adopted incorrect translations and constructed phantasialogies. Almost none of this had anything to do with the old occult sciences to do even the slightest. The "professional occultist" lacked any access to such sources. Those people who remained among themselves in silence. They did not publish books, gave no lectures, did not found any "Lodges", they did not attract attention. People who are in reincarnation theories sought salvation, put on pointed hats or with sinister "magical" Blick (à la Crowley) were not her world. In addition, there was the sharp dividing line that exists between the serious experts in ancient languages and the professional occultist. Thus, it could not lead to any interdisciplinary cooperation. This was not due to any ignorance of the Scientist. Many of these were at that time dedicated to the spiritual very open-minded. The professional occultists, however, had no interest in such cooperation, they wanted their allegations should remain unverifiable. About serious knowledge or at least they themselves had an excellent education Most of the time not. One copied from the other, which in turn always included false quotes. This led to redundancy that destroyed the monotony of the esoteric views.
"Occultism" had soon become a real business area. Curious "medals" and "lodges" sprouted out of this ground. Whether on ancient India, on Egypt or fixated on Germanic and Celtic culture, with or without political impact – the systems presented remained in principle always the same, and all were equally wrong (measured by this the much-maligned Erik Jan Hanussen was downright serious, because he always professed his profession as an artist and knew what he was talking about.).
But also the natural sciences were in many respects on thin ground at that time Ice. They will always do so, because science is always the knowledge of the Wait a minute, it may be obsolete tomorrow. This is something that everyone Scientists are aware of this. At the time when Theosophy had its popularity peak, as well as its epigones, was the theory of evolution was relatively young and impressed many. Nor did I know no one knows that the "missing link" was a fake. So there was hardly any a distance from the theory of evolution – because it is more than a theory still not, even if the majority of scholars were inclined towards it and nowadays it is generally considered to be scientifically serious. Nevertheless, there is no ultimate certainty, at least not about a evolution within species. In the era of the "first esoteric waves", the many occultists now tried to combine their systems with to reconcile those of the modern natural sciences, or, more correctly: to make them subservient to their systems. You're welcome the idea of evolution was adopted, adapted and developed by the biological also transferred to the spiritual.
The Imaginary worlds of this "first esoteric wave" were mostly just as imaginative as if far from serious foundations. However, this does not mean that nostri not many of the esotericists of that time had made a personal effort to would be to do something meaningful. But the honest ones had a hard time to penetrate the thicket that surrounded them everywhere.
In this period, the belief in "reincarnation" began its triumphal march in the Western esotericism; and that still has an effect today farther. The man of the modern industrial age has benefited a lot from the Loss of ability to grasp intellectuals effortlessly. To the many lacked access to the spiritual levels of Christianity. However the reincarnation theory seemed much simpler. At first glance it also seemed to alleviate the fear of dying. A second look on this idea, however, ¡shows that it is precisely “reincarnation” would mean nothing other than the extinction of the self-conscious Personality – i.e. death! But the idea of rebirth was also misunderstood. It started with mistranslations. Rebirth does not mean what the word "reincarnation" means. Thus speaks also the Bhagawad Gita, read correctly, does not depend on re-incarnation on of the Earth nor on other planets in this worldly cosmos, but of Rebirth on otherworldly worlds. That's something completely different. Not "re-in-carno" (back to the flesh), not dissolution of the personality and "incarnation" as a new, but rebirth without loss of self-consciousness on another, an otherworldly level in another materiality. Because reincarnation would necessarily mean Loss of self-consciousness, death of personality. So rebirth Yes – but not re-in-Carno.
Whole Basically, it is important to note that only very, very few seem to be old writings are really old and still available in the original wording. Whether the texts of the Gita, the Avesta, the tradition of Buddha – nothing the original wording of this is still available. Nowadays, only Retellings of retellings available, often on this or that manner. It has always not been the case with such things most recently about the exercise of power, about the exploitation of religion for the sake of secular purposes. We know that this also applies to the Christian Schriften zu. Of course, the Gospels of the New Testament are far from the lost original. Originally, it has only one Gospel given. John wrote it down in Aramaic, Matthew translated it into Greek and Latin. But in the III. In the nineteenth century, there were no less than 110 different "Gospels", some of which contradicted each other diametrically. Paul describes these manifold falsifications in the letter to Titus – but it has, in addition to the real, also at least five false "Paulusse". That would be a far-reaching topic in itself.
The Gnosis contributed to further confusion. There was a bizarre syncretism as well as the use of real residues of both the of primitive Christianity as well as pagan myths.
Especially the ancient Egyptians have always impressed – including the Professional occultists of the first esoteric waves.
In Roman Empire, the cult of Isis was for a time the most widespread. Even at this time, there were many variations. With the old Egypt soon had less and less to do, and at the time of the first Esoteric wave of modern times was hardly anything left of its origin. So very few people knew that Egyptian paintings depicted with animal heads deities, such as Sechmet or Anubis, did not mean animal gods, but that these representations are more or less based on the "heraldic images" of the deities in question, but these goddesses and gods were originally thought entirely in human form.
Eventually astrological influences were not to be missed, whereby very few It was clear to occultists that the Babylonians, the fathers of astrology, did not see in the stars of the firmament of this world the factors of action, but in the worlds of the gods and their Emission. For according to the belief of the ancients, behind the stars lay the entrances to the worlds of the gods; not the stars themselves formed the Power factors. This, too, was usually misunderstood, as was the expected Age of the "Aquarius". This new age does not even mean Age of Aquarius, but, correctly, Age of Water Pitcher – and that is of great importance for everything related to it.
For such reasons a confusion of ignorance with misunderstanding, the occultists of the "first esoteric wave", around which the created by Europeans, supposedly ancient Indian or Egyptian wisdom with it – and the One took it over from the Other.
One profound esoteric knowledge has led to the great majority of exponents of the first wave of esotericism simply did not pass. They adapted everything for their purposes that seemed useful to them. Some thought that even legitimate, because they imagined that they themselves were inspirations. and thought that they could set it higher than real knowledge that they didn't have anyway. Well-known names or terms were arbitrarily created without any expertise. reinterpreted, reproached the audience with foreign words, the meaning of which Users often do not understand themselves - etc.
It was a bizarre epoch – in the social and political and also with regard to the published esotericism. Above all, they wanted to: "different". For example, even Jesus Christ became the "Guru" or "Magus" explained. The combination of nonsense and ignorance often took the curliest forms, with which the majority of the audience finally increasingly saw through and the first wave of esoteric life came to a natural end Prepared.
The second esoteric wave that flowed up in the 1970s and still going on, offered some new facets, but also a lot from the years of the first esoteric wave and - sometimes adapted, sometimes also 1:1 - spread again. Of course, some things remained in the Sinking disappeared.
One certain fear of "right-wing esotericism", which is sometimes recognizable must be called nonsensical insofar as esotericism Politics according to modern understanding. Who which idea might take up is determined by the external, quite exoteric states, which are after - This or That - quasi "mental need".
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