# On The Foundation Of Esotericism

I think this also applies to the worship part of a religion in
general.



I'm going to talk about Shinto first. Because I think it's the
exemplar of what I want to talk about.

Shinto started as an ancient nature worship. Similar to other
religions of this kind. It was rather a culture than a formal
religion.

Then Emperor Tenmu made the history and mythology book Nihon Shoki.
In Nihon Shoki, it is written that the loyal family is the descendant
of the sun goddess Amaterasu. Why the flag of Japan is the sun is
because of this. Though he was also a big fan of Buddhism too. He
didn't think Shinto, Buddhism, Taoism are mutually exclusive. He
did absolute monarchy and have founded the concept of Japan as a
nation or a race. It was Yamato before. Well this kind of things
is nothing uncommon in ancient history.

After then, Shinto and Buddhism had been mixed. The deities in
Shinto had been considered as the appearances of Buddhas. So Shinto
had been able to continue with Buddhistic interpretations. Since
the military dictatorships by the samurai class who believed in
Zen Buddhism started, this accelerated.

After the start of Edo period and its long peace, the samurai class
lost their military nature. Confucianism became the dominant ideology
instead of Buddhism. Some of those Confucianists started to revisit
ancient books like Nihon Shoki and Kojiki. To be against Buddhism.
Confucianism and Shinto were quite compatible because of the secular
and humanistic tendencies those two share.

After the modernisation named as the Meiji restoration, that tendency
of returning violently exploded. The ideal returned to the Emperor
Tenmu. But much more violently. They harshly seperated Shinto and
Buddhism. To make it free of the foreign influence called Buddhism.
And they made Shinto the state religion and the emperor a god in
Shinto.

Of course this ended with the WW2. The emperor was confirmed as a
normal human being. Shinto is no more the state religion. And the
state Shinto was just one form of Shinto. Shinto is not an unified
religion. There are many variants. Also the seperation was not 100%
sucessful. But it has made some irreversible impacts. Today there
are almost no shrines worshipping Buddha. While many temples in
Japan still worship Shinto deities in Buddhistic names as the
appearances of Buddhas.



What I want to talk about is the foundation of esotericism. Though
calling Shinto an esotericism might not truly fit.

From the history of Shinto, I think there are two ways for an
esotericism. Nationalism vs Theology and philosophy. And I see this
dichotomy as Aristotelian vs Platonic.

If there is no proper theological foundation for esoteric practices,
the only alternative is pragmatism. God exists if and only if there
are believers. God is revealed by their lives themselves.

So there are believers whose lives are full with god. And non-believers
who are morons. This often leads to nationalism. In that case, the
leader becomes a religious symbol. Like Agamemnon being a descendant
of Zeus in The Iliad. Maybe Hitler was also the case. Or the
religious leader also becomes the secular leader.

Though I don't think that not all things about this are bad. Honestly
I like Greek mythology despite of it. Someone like Julius Evola
eagerly argued that this kind of pagan nationalism is what we should
strive for.

Without being political, Feyerabend also argued for. He criticised
Xenophanes for regarding god as an abstract concept for the first
time in the Greek history. By rationally treating god, Xenophanes
has made humanistic Homeric gods into a monotheistic inhumane
monster.



But for an esotericism, the esoteric practices are already somewhat
Aristotelian. Therefore as the golden mean between Platonic vs
Aristotelian, I think esotericism with a strong theological and
philosophical foundation is the way. I don't support the other
extreme like Thomism either.

> This is the god who is greater than any name; this is the god
> invisible and entirely visible. This god who is evident to the
> eyes may be seen in the mind. He is bodiless and many-bodied; or
> rather, he is all-bodied. There is nothing that he is not, for
> he also is all that is, and this is why he has all names, because
> they are of one father, and this is why he has no name, because
> he is father of them all.
>
> [...]
>
> Corpus Hermeticum V, 10

Panentheism.

In Hinduism, there are deities like Shiva, Vishunu, &c. But
simultaneously there is Vedanta as the theological core. Similar
to that there has been the Buddhistic interpretations for Shinto
deities. Hermeticism has been that foundation for the occult in
general. So I think many occult practices would be far better if
those are strictly based on Hermeticism.

Although the context is a bit different, Palamism in the Orthodox
Church goes this direction. The essence of god is totally unknowable.
But you can sense the energies of god. God is invisible and entirely
visible.