Esotericism in Western Culture with Prof Wouter Hanegraaff

Join me for a live conversation with Professor Wouter J. Hanegraaff on his recent book Esotericism in Western Culture: Counter-Normativity and Rejected Knowledge, published by Bloomsbury in 2025. In this interview, we will explore why esotericism should not be treated as a marginal curiosity, but as a central dimension of Western cultural history. The book is presented by both the publisher and Hanegraaff as a substantially revised, rewritten, and expanded reworking of his earlier 2013 Guide for the Perplexed, now reframed around the ideas of counter-normativity and “rejected knowledge”.Together, we will discuss how dominant accounts of “Western culture” have excluded forms of knowledge associated with magic, Hermetism, paganism, and other heterodox traditions, and why Hanegraaff argues that this exclusion has been deeply tied to Eurocentric and colonial models of civilisation. We will also examine what it means to “reject the rejection of rejected knowledge”, and how this changes the way we understand the history of religion, philosophy, science, and culture in the Greater West.This livestream will be of interest to anyone working on esotericism, the history of ideas, religion, occultism, Hermeticism, or the construction of cultural norms in the academy. It promises to be a rich discussion of one of the field’s most influential scholars and a major new intervention in the study of Western esotericism.GET THE BOOK: US https://amzn.to/480nvSe UK https://amzn.to/40JtBTlCONNECT & SUPPORT💖MY COURSES 👩🏻‍🎓 https://drangelapuca.com/courseWEBSITE & NEWSLETTER 💌 https://www.drangelapuca.com/#newsletterBOOK A TUTORING OR A LECTURE 📖https://drangelapuca.com/servicesBECOME MY PATRON! 🎩 / angelapuca SUPPORT ME ON KO-FI ☕️https://ko-fi.com/drangelapucaONE-OFF DONATIONS 💰 https://paypal.me/angelasymposiumJOIN MEMBERSHIPS 👥 / @drangelapuca MY PODCAST 🎙 https://open.spotify.com/show/2TKoWTG...MY MERCH 👕 https://drangelapuca.creator-spring.com/FOLLOW ME👣YouTube (@drangelapuca)🌟Instagram (@drangelapuca) 📸TikTok (@drangelapuca) 🎵Twitter (@angelapuca11) 🐦Facebook (Dr Angela Puca) 👥⚠️ Copyright of Dr Angela Puca, in all of its parts ⚠️Music by Erose MusicBand. Check them out!Let me know in the live chat where you are joining from and bring your questions for the discussion.Want to create live streams like this? Check out StreamYard: https://streamyard.com/pal/d/5768951004397568