Esotericism currently suffers a tarnished image and this mishmash word has almost become pejorative. Indeed, a westerner who is now interested by that may be exposed to three "cyclone eyes" powerful, vampirics and antagonists. On one hand he has to face dogmas from established churches, on the other hand he has to tries to fertilize the cast-iron secular and horizontal screed, which shaped our academies, and besides, he has to float over the giant, parodic and consumerist tidal wave (pleonasm made on purpose), called "personal development" which corrupted our bookshops and the internet.
However if we make an effort to stand back, from the Renaissance, and the discover of Alexandrian philosophy, then ancient Egypt: the interpretation of divine wisdom, the Sophia, of despair of God or wrath of God gave many fascinating interpretations (hermeneutics), with a great wealth, and which language is based on myths and symbols.
Do you think that Tradition, transmission of immutable realities, who teach man what he was, what he is, and what he is going to become takes root at the university ? In nature contemplation ? In everyday life ? Or in different initiatory cenacles ? Hard question where "the one who is quiet" but on which Antoine Faivre, Jean-Pierre Laurant and David Lucas will try to lighten...
Do you want to know how to distinguish the imaginary, the vivid imagination evoked by Paracelsus and Pascal from the creating imagination important for Böhme, Willermoz or Corbin and which enabled to access higher reality levels ?
Is the scientific rigor of the "relation to the text" (Marsile Ficin, Pic de la Mirandole) opposed to the ecstatic experience (Jean de la Croix, Ibn’Arabî, Jakob Böhme), or these two ways are complementary ?
Answer of our three participants in this 55-minutes debate, filmed at the Forum 104 and presented by Michel Cazenave.
