This epic study unveils the esoteric masters who have covertly impacted the intellectual development of the West, from Pythagoras and Zoroaster to the little-known modern icons Jean Gebser and Schwaller de Lubicz.
Running alongside the mainstream of Western intellectual history there is another current which, in a very real sense, should take pride of place, but which for the last few centuries has occupied a shadowy, inferior position, somewhere underground.
In this clarifying, accessible, and fascinating study, the acclaimed historian explores the Western esoteric tradition - a thought movement with ancient roots and modern expressions, which, in a broad sense, regards the cosmos as a living, spiritual, meaningful being and humankind as having a unique obligation and responsibility in it.
The historical roots of our “counter tradition," as Lachman explores, trace an extraordinary arc of history from ancient Egypt and other primeval cultures, through the reawakening of the Western mind during the Renaissance and Enlightenment, through the occult revival of the late 19th Century, to the psychedelic and thought experiments of the 1960s, to our present era which has experienced the rebirth of a more critical, rigorous investigation of the ancient wisdom.
Author: Gary Lachman
Pages: 510
Cover: Paperback
