Stoic Origins of Western Occultism, Perennialism, Esoteric Hermeneutics & Magical Correspondences

Stoicism is very much in vogue from tech to the military but it may also lay at the very origins of Western Esotericism. Much of the theory of western occultism - that is to say that one can harness hidden powers in the cosmos - actually has important origins in Stoic Philosophy. Overwhelmingly known for their rationalism, materialism and famous for the notion of apatheia or the extinction of the pathe or passions or emotions, Stoicism contributed three quintessential elements to the development of western occultism: (1) ancient, sagely proximity to divine wisdom (perennialism and prisca theologia), (2) the concealment of that wisdom in religious texts and myths along with the method by which just those secrets are revealed or allegoresis and (3) the cosmic system of connections or sumpatheia by which which all of reality is united into one vast cosmobiology thus setting the stage for the metaphysical correspondences underwriting everything from magic to alchemy. Join me as we explore the Stoic background