Esoteric stuff is very ambiguous. Most people have a completely wrong idea of what is Esoteric, and indeed there are many myths associated with it all. Them I’m going to debunk a bit. Many imagine that esoteric is a kind of magic, occultism, evocation, spell, and so on stuff.

What can I say, even if the type in Google the word esoteric, what comes across in the first ten sites offering to tell fortunes destiny, to bewitch the money to restore damage to competitors, etc. That’s all it really has nothing to do with the esoteric, just these business of magic (for magic, too, they do not have) seen a beautiful word, and took them as a package.

The word esoteric of Greek origin and means – the inner, or secret. It’s just some kind of knowledge available to a narrow circle of people. For example knowledge of atomic physics or quantum mechanics can also be called esoteric, as available only to a narrow circle of scholars. Another word synonymous to esoteric is mysticism. Mystery translates as simply a mystery, nothing to do with spirits, the occult and other garbage. Also, there are people who are called mystics, mystic, it’s just the media mysteries. If for example, will tell you a great secret, the secret recipe for a delicious apple pie, you also become mystics. But that recipe will not be telling all and sundry, only people who deserve to be initiated into the great mystery of making apple pie.

But seriously, esoteric and mysticism have a very clear binding to religion, esoteric is an inner, secret side of religion. But let’s look at what is a religion. The word itself comes from the Latin word that means “relegere” – to collect, communicate. As St. Augustine once said – religion – relationship with God. Something about this really is. A lot of religions and all religions are manifested in very different ways and at many levels. Take the case of Christianity, which is the most common religion in the world, in fact, almost half the world’s population call themselves Christians. (However, this did not prevent this part to make war among themselves, going to the Crusades, etc.) Christianity is manifested on the external surface level, so that people on Sundays go to church, sometimes (usually before Easter) to confession, wear crosses take on marriage in the church and so on. Christianity also can occur on an emotional level as the sincere belief of some people, the love of God, when people gather and sing psalms and pray earnestly, trying to follow God’s laws. Christianity on an intellectual level is manifested in reading and intellectual analysis of the Bible, the Fathers of the Church, in theology. And finally, for the esoteric, mystical Christianity is manifested in the immediate knowledge of God, in holiness, in righteousness. (The great Christian saints such as St. Seraphim of Sarov, St. Francis of Assisi are true mystics) A very esoteric – is part of religion, which is responsible for the improvement of the human spirit (as it brings together the emotional and intellectual level of the religion manifestations), and since work on the improvement of the spirit rather complicated, then it has at all times very few people involved, and that’s turned out that only a small handful of people possess that knowledge.

In every religion there are trends which are called esoteric, this means that these trends are the greatest attention being paid to the spiritual perfection of man, while all external things, rituals, rites are secondary. And Hinduism is yoga, in Buddhism – Zen in Islam – Sufism, in Judaism – Hasidism and Kabbalah, and Christianity – Hesychasm. All these trends will be discussed in our site. Come again. 🙂