By contemplating the world around me I think about the paradox of modern life. On one hand we have religious extremists throwing bombs in the name of God. On the other hand we have the soulless world of science and technology, which while full of promise seems empty of meaning.

What are the alternatives? Years of historical and archaeological research disproved literal interpretations of all the world’s sacred books. Simple faith seems appealing, but ultimately unsatisfying.

What about alternative spirituality? Well, this is a can of worms. Here we have esoteric texts so profound their confusion is only matched by what seems to be deliberate mystification. They are so saturated with meaning that nobody understands them!

We also have the ‘new age’ which seems to be modern excess at its very worst, the spiritual verities reduced to consumer commodities. In the parlance of the common man, we have from the sublime to the ridiculous.

Where do we turn? We need a map, a guidebook, and this is what Hidden Wisdom offers. Written from an intelligent and rational perspective, critical but not cynical, open-minded but not gullible. These authors know the field well, having been the editors of the most significant esoteric magazine of the late 20th century, Gnosis.

Hidden Wisdom was originally published in 1999 and is now issued in a new edition with added content.

The introduction begins by defining esotericism or Hidden Wisdom and its role in the modern world. Though occultism has been degraded by both mainstream religion and science, it was actually once the fountainhead of wisdom and teachings that both religion and science drew inspiration and ideas. This book works to help us appreciate its origins and context.

A note should be made on the presentation of each chapter. Smoley and Kinney offer a very well thought out approach to exploring esotericism. Key concepts are delineated into sections and suggested reading is offered at the end of each chapter.

Carl Jung is a great place to start when exploring esotericism. He pioneered modern psychology, but also explored religious beliefs and came to a deep understanding of the nature of the unconscious and its relation to deeper states of consciousness.

Smoley and Kinney use Jung to give a solid outline of the psychological basis for Hidden Wisdom. By introducing key concepts within Jungian psychology, the authors help us get a solid footing before we enter the world of occultism. Since Jung had a special interest in Gnosticism, that is where we go next.

The next chapters explore the hidden side of the traditions we know best in the West. We get the inside story on Gnosticism, though considered by many to be a heresy is now considered a major source of Christian thinking.

Next is a very comprehensive examination of mystical or esoteric Christianity and then onto Kabbalah, the esotericism of Judaism. These chapters cover in detail the esoteric heart of the West’s best known traditions and offer solid coverage of their basic theories and practices, if not perhaps a little too refracted through a Jungian lens when it comes to Gnosticism.

The next section moves into more contentious territory where we begin with Magic. Smoley and Kinney offer an extensive exploration of the Western magical tradition, with a solid look at the Golden Dawn and key concepts such as the Astral Light and Correspondences. I would have liked to see more on such movements as Thelema and the Magic of Julius Evola, and found the section on Chaos Magick superficial. But as a summary of Magic in one chapter this is an impressive achievement.

From Magic we move into the world of Witchcraft and Neopaganism. This chapter attempts the impossible, to summarise these subjects in a short space. The basic approach is to examine the nature of modern Witchcraft or Wicca and consider its prime tenets, beliefs and practices with some reference to such issues as historicity and the witch trials. This is followed by a section on other Neopagan movements.

This is then followed by consideration of indigenous esotericism such as Shamanism with key concepts such as traditional cosmology examined. There follows sections on Gurdjieff, Sufism, Hermeticism, and so on.

When I consider the book as a whole I come away very impressed. While there have been many attempts to produce an introduction to the Hidden Wisdom, most fall terribly short or ended as nothing more than dictionaries.

This is clearly a volume written by people who have a practical interest in the subject and lead an active spiritual life. Certainly, their own interests show, the sections on Gnosticism and inner Christianity are probably the more extensive and the section on Magic the least.

Perhaps I would have made different choices and worked to include other individuals and movements such as Aleister Crowley and Thelema, Julius Evola, Traditionalism and Guenon, Asatru, Druidism, the Runic Magic of Edred Thorsson etc. However, authors and editors need to make choices which reviewers do not, and at the end of the day this is the very best introduction to esotericism on the market today.

When someone comes to me and says with the river of information flooding through the Internet, thousands of books, masters and Gurus, what would be the best first step into esotericism? My advice: purchase Hidden Wisdom by Richard Smoley and Jay Kinney.

– Reviewed by Robert Black in New Dawn No. 98