Studying Esotericism: An Introduction – 8-Week Course

A robust introduction to the academic study of esotericism with Professor Allan Johnson.

In this eight-week in-person course, students are introduced to the key concepts and approaches that have shaped the contemporary academic study of esotericism. The course traces the history of esoteric traditions from late antiquity to the present, and considers how different forms of knowledge have been understood over time.

Combining lectures, discussions and practical exercises, it is for anyone interested in esotericism, with or without an academic background.

Please purchase a copy of Esotericism in Western Culture (Bloomsbury, 2025) by Wouter Hanegraaff.

This 8-week course runs weekly from Monday 22 February to 19 April, with an Easter break on 29 March. The full schedule is as follows:

• Week 1 (Mon 22 Feb): What Is Esotericism? Where the category came from, how scholars have approached it, and why defining it matters.
   
• Week 2 (Mon 1 Mar): Esoteric Ways of Knowing. What studying the shared ideas about visible and invisible reality found across different traditions reveals.
   
• Week 3 (Mon 8 Mar): Survey of Western Esotericism I. The major currents from late antiquity through the Renaissance.
   
• Week 4 (Mon 15 Mar): Survey of Western Esotericism II. The major currents from the Enlightenment to the present day.
   
• Week 5 (Mon 22 Mar): Knowledge, Experience and Symbol. ‘Received’ or ‘contacted’ knowledge, its relationship to magic, and how ideas are created and shared.
   
• Mon 29 Mar: Easter break, no session.
   
• Week 6 (Mon 5 Apr): From Form to Practice. Ritual, meditation, divination, alchemy, astrology and ceremonial magic, and how each aims to produce knowledge, transformation or contact with other realities.
   
• Week 7 (Mon 12 Apr): Occulture in the Everyday. Esoteric ideas in literature, art, popular culture, psychology, wellness and media.
   
• Week 8 (Mon 19 Apr): Esoteric Studies Today. What scholars can tell us about esotericism, what practitioners add, and the field’s major debates.
   
  Image by Denis Bayer on Unplash.