Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2017/09/30/new-documentary-is-a-magic-por.html
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Esoteric literally means “outside the text.” Many occult philosophies, cults, and traditions have knowledge that is passed from master to disciple, and may be not captured in a book, or if it is in a book, you may need guidance and secret knowledge to fully understand what is in there. So the library is a valuable source of information, but there is esoteric knowledge that is outside of it.
I’ve always thought that this subject and its study was about finding or creating an emotional connection between the universe and the human mind, as well as an exercise in personal aesthetics, in attempting to understand reality via projection. Like a hammer understanding something bigger than itself by imagining that thing as a nail.
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No it doesn’t. It’s derived from the Greek esoteros, the comparative form of eso, “within”. So literally “more within”, “inner”; and by extension, “for an inner circle”.
It is its antonym, “exoteric”, that carries the sense of “outside” (exoteros, “outer”, comparative of exo, “outside”).
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Frances Yates! Thou shouldst be living at this hour.
But do they have any copies of The Nine Gates of the Kingdom of Shadows by Aristide Torchia?
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You are stuck in the illusion of dichotomy. Remove the veil, and see that here is no separate hammer or nail, there is only hammer-nail-all!!!
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Uh… sure.
And if so, which version(s)?
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You’re supposed to wash with the Dr. Bronner’s soap…
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Nonsense, my daily gin and Bronner’s is the only thing that keeps me aluminum.
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Take the red pill, and nail it with a hammer!
I am not a Greek scholar. But the #1 definition in Merriam-Webster is “designed for or understood by the specially initiated alone.”
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Yes, exactly. For those on the inside.
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Despite misunderstanding the word, nevertheless the spirit of kiki’s statement is generally correct, and that’s frankly what matters if you hope against hope to maintain any hope, ye who enter here.
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