Resources

Azogue is an online periodical devoted to historical research into alchemy. It comes from Spain, but you can find articles in many European languages.

A super-classy online source for Newton’s works; you can search his notebooks and stuff like that. This is the sort of thing that makes the internet worthwhile.

Mike Zuber works on early-modern alchemy, and this is his blog. Good quality stuff, but seemingly not active since 2017.

The journal of the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry, Ambix has been the single greatest force for promoting the serious study of alchemy for many decades. An indespensible companion for the serious alchemy-head.

The SHAC has been going strong since 1935, back when no one thought doing history of chemistry was worthwhile, never mind alchemy. Much respect. They publish Ambix, the leading journal for the study of alchemy (okay, and chemistry as well).

A project of unprecedented scope led by Matteo Martelli, combining the finest in lab-based research and historiography to broaden our understandings of hugely neglected areas in the history of alchemy. Their blurb is: Alchemy in the Making: From ancient Babylonia via Graeco-Roman Egypt into the Byzantine, Syriac and Arabic traditions (1500 BCE – 1000 AD). This is a hugely significant project, both from the purely historiographical point of view and from the point of view of modern funding in the humanities; it is rare that a funding body recognises the significance of research into esoteric subjects to this degree, and shows that there are still gleams of light in the increasing darkness of the academy.

An enormous, labyrinthine treasure-trove of all things alchemical: imagery, texts, a searchable database of alchemical MSS and printed books (!), you name it. The work of Adam McLean, himself a practising alchemist/Hermetist, the approach taken might offend some scholars, but no one can deny the usefulness of this incredible resource, even to the most hard-nosed ‘mechanical Philosopher’.

The CENOB project (that’s Corpus des énoncés des noms barbares to you) is a searchable resource for anyone trying to track down a particular ‘nomen barbarum‘, ‘vox magica‘, ‘barbarian name’, or whatever your term of choice is, not only in magical papyri and their ilk, but in Late Platonist philosophers and theirs. Essential.

Here’s what they say: ‘La base de données CÉNOB (« Corpus des énoncés des noms barbares ») est la seule base de données scientifique et internationale portant sur les énoncés des « noms barbares » dont sont témoins, jusqu’à la fin de l’Antiquité principalement, les documents et les textes magiques, mais aussi des écrits philosophiques (notamment néoplatoniciens) et théologiques (en particulier gnostiques), dans la Méditerranée orientale et occidentale. Mobilisant une approche interdisciplinaire et comparatiste, la base de données CÉNOB offre à la communauté scientifique un corpus complet des énoncés des « noms barbares » utilisés entre le VIe siècle avant notre ère et le VIe siècle de notre ère – période de la production des tablettes de défixion, objets archéologiques localisés, datés, et donc pris comme points de repère chronologique.’

Maintained by the Bavarian Academy of Sciences, the CGLO is a resource for looking up Latin words as they appear in surviving ancient dictionaries. Very useful for you Latin-nerds, and fully-compliant with the needs of open-source computer-nerds as well.

Synesius of Cyrene, the philosopher-bishop, wrote a cornucopia of insightful and extraordinary things in late antiquity. Here they are in English. Thanks to the Livius project for posting these!

A big research-project based at the University of Würzburg, looking at doing the largest-yet comparative study of ancient magical materials from the western heartlands (i.e. from the eastern Mediterranean right across western Asia).

“With the establishment of an international centre for interdisciplinary and comparative research on magical text traditions, we want to complement the juxtaposition of disciplinary contributions with joint, interdisciplinary work formats; we want to enable a direct engagement with the textual sources in an interdisciplinary context, and consolidate ephemeral meetings with long-term collaboration.”

Expect some fascinating results as this project gets up a head of steam.

A tool for searching for zodiacal and astronomical/astrological terms across an enviable range of languages from the Zodiac – Ancient Astral Science in Transformation project (q.v.). A superb research tool for anyone interested in the history of astronomy/astrology.

The Hathi Trust has put a lot of the CCAG online; if you study ancient astronomy/astrology, this should be a resource of inestimable value.

A useful tool for scholars starting from a number and wondering whether there might be a Greek word or words corresponding with that number. Just click on the number and away you go! It’s always worth checking numbers found in ancient Greek texts, particularly when they appear prominently in magical, astrological, alchemical contexts, or in symbolic contexts, such as some apocalyptic works, where the author is clearly encoding stuff in the arithmoi. Explore, but beware of arithmomania!

A reasearch-project at the Freie, Berlin, led by Mathieu Ossendrijver, this large-scale investigation into the development of ancient astrology/astronomy describes itself thusly:

Astrology, Astronomy, Mathematics, Religion and Philosophy – all these different aspects and their theories and practices, texts and images, meet in the concept of the zodiac. 2500 years ago, in the 5th century BCE, the introduction of the zodiac in Babylonia marked a turning point in human culture and science. The zodiacal turn was accompanied by a mathematical turn in the astral sciences and a personal turn in astrology. From Babylonia, zodiacal astral science spread to Egypt, the Greco-Roman world, and beyond.

Features a blog with regular postings on interesting topics, a news and events section, and all manner of goodies. If you are really interested in the knowledge-transfer which we know must have occurred between the Mesopotamian diary-texts and Hermes, Nechepso, and Petosiris and beyond, this is the project for you.

The single best online resource for Simplicius of Cilicia, the great Late Platonist. Heh.

An online, searchable database of ancient ‘curse-tablets’, our most plentiful type of ancient magical text outside of the Egyptian papyrological record. Maintained by the Universität Hamburg.

AWOL (Ancient World Online), the much-appreciated work of the indefatigable Charles E. Jones, is a powerful resource gathering all manner of online research materials to do with the antique Mediterranean. This unbelievably-useful page links to nearly 2,000 open-access journals across an legit range of languages (no jingoism here; we find Arabic, modern Greek, and Russian, among others, alongside the usual suspects). Beware getting lost in the riches of open-access scholarship!

This ambitious project, led by Christopher A. Faraone and Sofía Torallas Tovar but truly collegial and collaborative by the looks of things, is an attempt to do a number of important things, including:

Bring the Papyri magicæ græcæ up to date with a new edition, both as regards editing but also as regards including not only Greek, or even Greek and Demotic, but Greek, Demotic, and Coptic materials,

And by including all the papyri discovered since Preisendanz did his thing between the wars.

They are also interested in the codicological side of the question, with a view to examining how these texts circulated in the form of collections and handbooks.

Maintained by Paul Dilley of the University of Iowa, this is a collection of digital resources of great interest to anyone working on late-antique western religions, including Manichæism, Islam, and many another fascinating tradition. Ridiculously full of useful links; worth lengthy exploration.

A very ambitious online resource for the study of Late Platonism and Platonistic religious currents maintained by Luciana Gabriela Soares Santoprete and Anna van den Kerchove. It aims to become a digital tool ‘capable of performing inter-disciplinary searches between the philosophical, Gnostic, Hermetic, and Chaldaean text corpuses using vocabulary, doctrines, and pertinent bibliographies.’ It’s not there yet, but this is a very promising project indeed. Especially useful for researching Plotinus (though the project will doubtless expand to encompass other Platonists in due course).

One feature is an online text of Plotinus with numerous modern and ancient sources that can all be linked up; say you are interested in the question of matter in a given Ennead; you click on that Ennead, click all the scholars you think might be relevant, maybe throw in the French keyword ‘matière’, and hit ‘rechercher’. It’s pretty cool.

There is also a ‘carnet de recherche’, which is essentially an ongoing tabulation of new publications, theses, bibliographic resources, and all that good stuff.

Dreams of Antiquity is a searchable database of accounts of dreams and other visions from antiquity. Dig.

The Pythagoras Foundation is an information center about the philosophy of Pythagoras, Pythagoreans, and Presocratic philosophers. They publich a free, yearly newsletter which often has some interesting material in it. Their definition of ‘Pythagoreanism’ is pretty broad (or, to put it another way, mirrors ancient definitions of what it meant to be Pythagorean rather than more strict, modern approaches to the question).

A browseable and searchable online photo-archive of all things Nag-Hammadi.

This online database collects papyrus and epigraphic sources from Egypt from roughly 800 BCE to 800 CE, including a special section of texts considered magical  (the criterion for inclusion as “magical” is rather loose; any text that seems to involve divination or ritual may be included). The database provides publication information as well as data regarding provenance and dating.

The ISNS website is actually full of useful stuff, as well as being the online presence of a cool organisation which does a yearly conference and puts out the International Journal of the Platonic Tradition. Clicking on ‘Scholars Directory’ will take you to a page with some very useful tools, including the Web Resources and Primary Texts sections, which are thorough and obviate the need for us to list a load of online resources for the study of Platonism(s). A must for researchers of an esoteric Platonist bent.

If you want to go way, way back into the roots of western esotericism, you actually need to leave the west behind. The CDLI is the best online source for cuneiform texts; an essential scholarly resource for all things Sumerian, Akkadian, and so forth.

The Coptic Magical Papyri: Vernacular Religion in Late Roman and Early Islamic Egypt is a five-year research project (2018-2023) based at the Chair of Egyptology of the Julius Maximilian University Würzburg. The aim is to put all known magical texts from Egypt online in a searchable database, and eventually intended to serve as the go-to resource for the corpus of magical texts known from Roman, Byzantine, and Islamic Egypt. We’ll be keeping a watchful eye on this project.

A good, quick resource if you want to check something in a classical text (useful for fact-checking the SHWEP, for example). Lots and lots of texts available, gathered from all over the internet.

A staggeringly-well-maintained blog on all things relating to ancient Judaism (understood broadly) by Professor James Davila of the University of St Andrews. By no means an ‘esoteric’ blog, but there’s a whole lotta ‘esoteric’ in garden-variety Judaism, so well worth keeping an eye on.

The primary aim of the Campbell Bonner Magical Gems Database (CBd) is to bring the entire corpus of magical gems online in order to make them more accessible for both scholars and the public, and to facilitate their study through the potentials of a digital database.

A ‘thematic network’ of the ESSWE, devoted to collecting useful information on all things esoteric from the earliest times until late antiquity (and beyond). This website is the first port of call for anyone looking for online resources useful to scholars of antique esotericism. Also posts relevant conferences, events, etc. Highly useful, a quality resource (but, full disclosure: your host is a regular contributor).

A useful resource for all of you who wake up in the morning thinking, ‘How did the Romans phrase their curses, anyway?’ Also very useful for scholars who study ancient magic.

The mandate of the Online Critical Pseudepigrapha is to develop and publish electronic editions of the best critical texts of the “Old Testament” Pseudepigrapha and related literature. A great first stop if you want to get a rundown on an apocryphal text from a scholarly point-of-view, as well as being a great resource for in-depth research.

A one-stop shop for all things Hellenistic-astrological. Set up with practitioners of astrology in mind, this website is nevertheless an excellent resource for scholars interested in Hellenistic astrology.

A major online hub for the academic study of astrology in historical context. A crucial resource. Features many amazing interviews with scholars on different aspects of astrology on the youtube channel.

A reasearch-project at the Freie, Berlin, led by Mathieu Ossendrijver, this large-scale investigation into the development of ancient astrology/astronomy describes itself thusly:

Astrology, Astronomy, Mathematics, Religion and Philosophy – all these different aspects and their theories and practices, texts and images, meet in the concept of the zodiac. 2500 years ago, in the 5th century BCE, the introduction of the zodiac in Babylonia marked a turning point in human culture and science. The zodiacal turn was accompanied by a mathematical turn in the astral sciences and a personal turn in astrology. From Babylonia, zodiacal astral science spread to Egypt, the Greco-Roman world, and beyond.

Features a blog with regular postings on interesting topics, a news and events section, and all manner of goodies. If you are really interested in the knowledge-transfer which we know must have occurred between the Mesopotamian diary-texts and Hermes, Nechepso, and Petosiris and beyond, this is the project for you.

The Hathi Trust has put a lot of the CCAG online; if you study ancient astronomy/astrology, this should be a resource of inestimable value.

A tool for searching for zodiacal and astronomical/astrological terms across an enviable range of languages from the Zodiac – Ancient Astral Science in Transformation project (q.v.). A superb research tool for anyone interested in the history of astronomy/astrology.

An amazing collection of useful texts in Greek, Latin, Arabic, Sanskrit, and other languages – even English.

Tony (Associate Professor of Biblical Studies at York University in Toronto) Burke’s blog ‘devoted to the study of Christian apocrypha’. A good place to follow new discoveries and debates about old discoveries in the field of non-biblical bible texts.

Founded in 2001 by director Gabriele Boccaccini, the Enoch Seminar is an open and inclusive forum of international specialists in early Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. They work on Abrahamic apocalyptic, but this is by no means a narrow focus; “Our primary mission is to foster scholarship on the ancient Mediterranean world that transcends conventional, and often isolated, disciplinary and methodological boundaries. We encourage discussion among specialists in the Hebrew Bible, Second Temple Judaism, New Testament, Late Antique Judaism and Christianity, and Early Islam through our many international meetings (the Enoch Seminars, the Graduate Enoch Seminars, the Nangeroni Meetings, the Enoch Colloquia). These meetings are characterized by a distinctive format, where papers circulate in advance, are thoroughly discussed among participants, and then are disseminated to a wider audience via publication. ”

The Enoch Seminar Online is the web-presence of this important constellation of scholars, and is always of interest to researchers into Abrahamic esotericisms.

Synesius of Cyrene, the philosopher-bishop, wrote a cornucopia of insightful and extraordinary things in late antiquity. Here they are in English. Thanks to the Livius project for posting these!

A super-classy online source for Newton’s works; you can search his notebooks and stuff like that. This is the sort of thing that makes the internet worthwhile.

This site seems to be the best starting-point for web-based resources on Böhme. Jacob Böhme is one of the all-time titans of western esotericism, but his works have, incredibly, still not been critically edited! Get to work, kids.

Mike Zuber works on early-modern alchemy, and this is his blog. Good quality stuff, but seemingly not active since 2017.

Humorous but serious site devoted to Böhme, featuring loads of scans of visual art inspired by the Teutonic Philosopher, making it a must for enthusiasts of the great cobbler of Görlitz. Sections on different followers of Böhme are a great starting-point for further research. Recommended, though the views expressed on the site should probably be approached as ‘editorials’, rather than as measured historical interpretation.

An interesting site, put together by Alexis Brandkamp, comprising a multi-layered introduction to esotericism (most relevant, I think, to western-European traditions easily subsumed under the loose notion of ‘occult’, from say Dee and Agrippa right the way through neopaganisms, Satanism, and so forth, but interested in other stuff as well). Contains some useful links, some sound basic bibliographies, and lots of other useful resources. Generally responsible and anti-echo-chamber, while taking the intriguing step of addressing itself explicitly to academics, to practitioners, and to the wo/man in the street, which is well done and commendable.

Might be a very good place to send someone who asked you ‘What is this western occult tradition thing?’, and was really starting from scratch, but also a good place for seasoned academics (or practitioners!) to root around for interesting links and ideas. Worth a look for sure, and hopefully it will expand as a project.

The ISNS website is actually full of useful stuff, as well as being the online presence of a cool organisation which does a yearly conference and puts out the International Journal of the Platonic Tradition. Clicking on ‘Scholars Directory’ will take you to a page with some very useful tools, including the Web Resources and Primary Texts sections, which are thorough and obviate the need for us to list a load of online resources for the study of Platonism(s). A must for researchers of an esoteric Platonist bent.

A research project led by Dragos Calma of University College, Dublin, concentrating on Abrahamic reception of Late Platonist ideas, in particular the Elements of Theology of Proclus which came to travel through the Middle Ages under various titles, and the authorship of Aristotle.

A very ambitious online resource for the study of Late Platonism and Platonistic religious currents maintained by Luciana Gabriela Soares Santoprete and Anna van den Kerchove. It aims to become a digital tool ‘capable of performing inter-disciplinary searches between the philosophical, Gnostic, Hermetic, and Chaldaean text corpuses using vocabulary, doctrines, and pertinent bibliographies.’ It’s not there yet, but this is a very promising project indeed. Especially useful for researching Plotinus (though the project will doubtless expand to encompass other Platonists in due course).

One feature is an online text of Plotinus with numerous modern and ancient sources that can all be linked up; say you are interested in the question of matter in a given Ennead; you click on that Ennead, click all the scholars you think might be relevant, maybe throw in the French keyword ‘matière’, and hit ‘rechercher’. It’s pretty cool.

There is also a ‘carnet de recherche’, which is essentially an ongoing tabulation of new publications, theses, bibliographic resources, and all that good stuff.

A series of excellent presentations on late-antique Platonism writ very broadly, and tending to stray into Christian, Gnostic, and other interesting religious developments.

If you are interested in esotericism, you are interested in philosophy (whether you know it or not). PhilPapers and PhilArchive is a pretty huge online collection of articles, books, etc. on the subject of philosophy writ broadly. Not everything is immediately downloadable, but you can import citations in many formats. Try search terms like ‘esoteric’ or ‘Pythagoras’ and you’ll find all manner of interesting stuff.

The Religious Studies Project (RSP) is an international collaborative enterprise producing weekly podcasts with leading scholars on the social-scientific study of religion. This is a huge endeavour, and there is much here to interest students of esotericism.

This is a very promising site, currently linking to a few interesting resources, but with all the makings of a proper hub for the study of the occult. There seems to be a slant toward ceremonial, conjuration-type stuff if I had to file this one by genre. Worth keeping an eye on.

A blog by Professor Wouter Hanegraaff of the Universiteit van Amsterdam, nominally devoted to the art of reading books, but also full of fascinating reflections on esotericism, its study in academe, and the philosophical problems which arise at the juncture between the esoteric and the academic.

A staggeringly-well-maintained blog on all things relating to ancient Judaism (understood broadly) by Professor James Davila of the University of St Andrews. By no means an ‘esoteric’ blog, but there’s a whole lotta ‘esoteric’ in garden-variety Judaism, so well worth keeping an eye on.

Mike Zuber works on early-modern alchemy, and this is his blog. Good quality stuff, but seemingly not active since 2017.

Ethan Doyle White’s personal blog – devoted to interdisciplinary scholarship on religion, magic, and the preternatural. Interesting stuff from time to time, and a particularly nice interview series, which addresses both esoteric religions and the academic study thereof.

This is a cool blog on anthropology, Tibetan stuff, and (western) esotericism by Ben Joffe. Lots of interesting musings, and has the right idea in terms of having one foot in academe and one foot in the ‘real world’.

This is the ongoing blog and web-presence of a group of scholars at the University of Exeter doing cross-disciplinary work on magic and esotericism. Interesting things are often posted here, and we are watching developments with a keen eye.

Describing itself as a ‘global, interdisciplinary research center and information hub’, Counterpoint is an interesting and difficult-to-pidgeonhole project bringing in all manner of interesting perspectives on bioethics, religion, esoteric movements, the hegemonic and subversive interplays of knowledge, and much more. There is much here to interest researchers of esoteric currents, and particularly those interested in how such currents interact with cutting-edge theory in the academy. A particular strength of this project is its emphasis on engagement of scholarship and the world we live in, particularly in its aspect as unfolding environmental crisis.

Tony (Associate Professor of Biblical Studies at York University in Toronto) Burke’s blog ‘devoted to the study of Christian apocrypha’. A good place to follow new discoveries and debates about old discoveries in the field of non-biblical bible texts.

The blog of Egil Asprem, currently Assistant Professor in History of Religions at Stockholm University. One of the best ongoing blogs about all things eso-academic. Wide-ranging, but with a special interest in modern occultism in its various forms.

A classy and interesting collection of people and projects circling around the twin poles of art and the eso. They say: “Black Mirror seeks to examine ways in which the occult and the esoteric have been at the heart of art practice now and throughout the modernist period. It is part of a growing movement that seeks to critique the dominant twentieth-century notion of disenchantment, and that rejects notions of the esoteric and occult as irrational, escapist, regressive and essentially anti-modern.”

The network is an institutional collaboration with Arts University Bournemouth, Fulgur Press, Plymouth College of Art and NYU Steinhardt.

This site is a work-in-progress, documenting the Warburg Institute’s amazing iconographic collection in digital form. While we highly recommend consulting the hallowed filing-cabinets at the Warburg for yourself, those who cannot get to London can benefit from this website. Treasures within!

This project describes itself as ‘a multilingual classification system for cultural content’, but that doesn’t do it justice. It is an international project aimed at creating a digital library of iconography, the dream of Aby Warburg coming to fruition! Anyone interested in alchemical, magical, or religious imagery, or graphic symbolism more generally, should explore this labyrinth.

An open-access photo-archive centred on the Middle East, full of all kinds of wonders. Searchable.

ENSIE is a thematic network, a part of the ESSWE dealing specifically with Islamic Esotericism. A lot of exciting new work is emerging from this part of the field, and we should keep a close eye on the ENSIE. They say:

‘ENSIE’s mission is to help scholars of Islamic esotericism and mysticism to benefit from the understandings and perspectives that have been achieved in the study of Western Esotericism, and to help scholars of Western Esotericism benefit from knowledge of Islamic esotericism. There are also benefits in areas where the distinction between “Islamic” and “Western” does not really make sense, for example in the medieval period, when Western esotericists drew heavily on Arab and Islamic sources, and in the modern period, when Western esotericists have again drawn on Islamic sources, and when Western esotericism has also been received in the Muslim world, especially in Turkey, but also elsewhere.’

A research project led by Dragos Calma of University College, Dublin, concentrating on Abrahamic reception of Late Platonist ideas, in particular the Elements of Theology of Proclus which came to travel through the Middle Ages under various titles, and the authorship of Aristotle.

An ambitious online project, edited by Dag Nikolaus Hasse with a large team of scholars. A very useful resource for a number of specialisms, notably astrology, alchemy, and theology.

The Arabic and Latin Glossary is a dictionary of the vocabulary of the Arabic–Latin translations of the Middle Ages. It unites the entries of all existing Arabic–Latin glossaries in modern editions of medieval works. The Glossary has a double aim: to improve our understanding of the Arabic influence in Europe, especially with respect to scientific vocabulary, and to be a lexical tool for the understanding of Arabic and Latin scientific texts.

Corpus coranicum is the first stop for scholars working on the textual history of the Qur’ān. Organised through the Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften, under the direction of Prof. Angelika Neuwirth, established in 2007 and currently funded through 2025. One can search by sura, and an ongoing online commentary provides heaps of useful (con)textual information. The ongoing plan is to create a comprehensive, searchable, online Qur’ānic commentary.

Founded in 2001 by director Gabriele Boccaccini, the Enoch Seminar is an open and inclusive forum of international specialists in early Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. They work on Abrahamic apocalyptic, but this is by no means a narrow focus; “Our primary mission is to foster scholarship on the ancient Mediterranean world that transcends conventional, and often isolated, disciplinary and methodological boundaries. We encourage discussion among specialists in the Hebrew Bible, Second Temple Judaism, New Testament, Late Antique Judaism and Christianity, and Early Islam through our many international meetings (the Enoch Seminars, the Graduate Enoch Seminars, the Nangeroni Meetings, the Enoch Colloquia). These meetings are characterized by a distinctive format, where papers circulate in advance, are thoroughly discussed among participants, and then are disseminated to a wider audience via publication. ”

The Enoch Seminar Online is the web-presence of this important constellation of scholars, and is always of interest to researchers into Abrahamic esotericisms.

Brill’s Encyclopædia of Islam is an ongoing project which keeps improving, and which generally speaking can supply researchers with a superb starting-point, and often with a thorough overview, on most important themes, people, books, and so forth in the Islamicate world writ fairly broadly. It isn’t open-access, and you need institutional sponsorship (or a very hefty bank-balance) to get at the full articles, but intrepid researchers have their ways ….

A staggeringly-well-maintained blog on all things relating to ancient Judaism (understood broadly) by Professor James Davila of the University of St Andrews. By no means an ‘esoteric’ blog, but there’s a whole lotta ‘esoteric’ in garden-variety Judaism, so well worth keeping an eye on.

If you need to check out a Qumran scroll in the comfort of your own home, this is the place to go.

A huge and fascinating ‘online encyclopedia of second temple Judaism and Christian origins’ maintained by Gabriele Boccaccini. It takes a while to get to know your way around, but this site is a tremendous resource for hard-to-find stuff, and is particularly strong in the history-of-the-history; i.e., if you want to know how a given group of texts like the Old Testament Apocrypha came to be bundled together under that name, or the printed publication history of the first Book of Enoch, or the history of scholarship of this or that aspect of early Christian thought, this is the place.

We’re not sure if the name of this website is an exclamation or a jussive command, but the site offers a lot of useful links to and coverage of scholarship on aspects of medieval Jewish life and thought, including plenty of esoteric material.

Based at the Jagiellonian University, Krakow, this project is absolutely amazing,  offering `an exploitable and customizable system of quantitative and qualitative analysis of the traditions involving the supernatural entities in various cultural and religious entourages. Initiated back in 2016 to construe the comprehensive inventory of the supernatural entities in the early rabbinic literature, it was gradually expanded to cover other literary corpora and media.’

Basically, if you need a searchable database of supernatural entities found in the Hebrew scriptures and Babylonian Talmud (and who doesn’t???), this is your project-site. Also features a very savvy methodological framework bringing the cognitive science of religions, cognitive linguistics, and similar methodologies to cast light on this material. Absolutely fascinating, and worthy of exploration!

Founded in 2001 by director Gabriele Boccaccini, the Enoch Seminar is an open and inclusive forum of international specialists in early Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. They work on Abrahamic apocalyptic, but this is by no means a narrow focus; “Our primary mission is to foster scholarship on the ancient Mediterranean world that transcends conventional, and often isolated, disciplinary and methodological boundaries. We encourage discussion among specialists in the Hebrew Bible, Second Temple Judaism, New Testament, Late Antique Judaism and Christianity, and Early Islam through our many international meetings (the Enoch Seminars, the Graduate Enoch Seminars, the Nangeroni Meetings, the Enoch Colloquia). These meetings are characterized by a distinctive format, where papers circulate in advance, are thoroughly discussed among participants, and then are disseminated to a wider audience via publication. ”

The Enoch Seminar Online is the web-presence of this important constellation of scholars, and is always of interest to researchers into Abrahamic esotericisms.

Azogue is an online periodical devoted to historical research into alchemy. It comes from Spain, but you can find articles in many European languages.

The journal of the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry, Ambix has been the single greatest force for promoting the serious study of alchemy for many decades. An indespensible companion for the serious alchemy-head.

An amazing journal examining archaeology specifically through the lens of esotericism: the ways in which archaeological science is assimilated in the construction of ‘ancient wisdom’ discourses and related topics.  Fascinating reading for those interested in the construction of imagined lineages.

This is an interesting journal, ranging from the ancient to the modern. Probably of interest to literate neo-Pagans (or Heathens, or term-of-choice) as much as to scholars, but the offerings are to a high standard.

Running from 2009-2014, Abraxas was a visually-luscious journal devoted to living esoteric currents, with an emphasis on the way these intersect with artistic forms. If the dry, historicist approach emphasised on the SHWEP podcast gets you down from time to time, settle down with an issue of Abraxas and slake your thirst. Not a scholarly journal, but full of high-end material of use to scholars in many ways.

Melancolia is a quality academic journal devoted to the huge topic of western esotericism in the Latin-American context. They publish some amazing stuff, and tend to be off the radar of us non-latinoamerican@s. Well worth a read.

A peer-reviewed journal on, well, what the title says. ‘Draws from a broad spectrum of perspectives, methods, and disciplines, offering the widest possible geographical scope and chronological range, from prehistory to the modern era and from the Old World to the New. In addition to original research, the journal features book reviews, editorials, and lists of newly published work.’

Aries is the first professional academic journal specifically devoted to Western Esotericism. Peer-reviewed and of a high standard. Highly recommended.

Journal of western esotericism based in Italy, but with articles in many languages.

Correspondences is a peer-reviewed online journal devoted to western esotericism. Freely available and highly recommended.

A peer-reviewed academic journal devoted to the transdisciplinary study of Western esotericism: Western esoteric traditions including alchemy, astrology, Gnosticism, gnosis, magic, mysticism, Rosicrucianism, and secret societies, and their ramifications in art history, history, literature, and politics.

A peer-reviewed publication devoted to the study of Gnostic religious currents from the ancient world to the modern, where ‘Gnostic’ is broadly conceived as a reference to special direct knowledge of the divine, which either transcends or transgresses conventional religious knowledge. It aims to publish academic papers on: the emergence of the Gnostic, in its many different historical and local cultural contexts; the Gnostic strands that persisted in the middle ages; and modern interpretations of Gnosticism – with the goal of establishing cross-cultural and trans-historical conversations, together with more localized historical analyses.

A.k.a. the Ritman library, the world’s only open library devoted to the western esoteric traditions taken broadly. The BPH houses priceless manuscripts as well as standard secondary sources in abundance. One-of-a-kind.

Eileen Gardiner’s online compendium of all things Underworld is ‘a comprehensive on-line collection of over 100 visions, tours and descriptions of the infernal otherworld from the cultures of the world: principally from the Hindu, Buddhist, Christian, Zoroastrian, Islamic and Jewish traditions from 2000 BCE to the present.’ What’s not to like?

This online image bank, by Jill Caskey, Adam S. Cohen, and Linda Safran, rocks the house.

The primary aim of the Campbell Bonner Magical Gems Database (CBd) is to bring the entire corpus of magical gems online in order to make them more accessible for both scholars and the public, and to facilitate their study through the potentials of a digital database.

The Societas Magica is an organisation devoted to bringing together scholars working on magic, both magic as practiced by mages of various sorts, and magic as a polemical category used by its enemies. They sponsor sessions at congresses (and offer travel bursaries to said conferences in some cases), and generally act as a hub for scholars working on magic.

The Coptic Magical Papyri: Vernacular Religion in Late Roman and Early Islamic Egypt is a five-year research project (2018-2023) based at the Chair of Egyptology of the Julius Maximilian University Würzburg. The aim is to put all known magical texts from Egypt online in a searchable database, and eventually intended to serve as the go-to resource for the corpus of magical texts known from Roman, Byzantine, and Islamic Egypt. We’ll be keeping a watchful eye on this project.

This is the ongoing blog and web-presence of a group of scholars at the University of Exeter doing cross-disciplinary work on magic and esotericism. Interesting things are often posted here, and we are watching developments with a keen eye.

This online database collects papyrus and epigraphic sources from Egypt from roughly 800 BCE to 800 CE, including a special section of texts considered magical  (the criterion for inclusion as “magical” is rather loose; any text that seems to involve divination or ritual may be included). The database provides publication information as well as data regarding provenance and dating.

The CENOB project (that’s Corpus des énoncés des noms barbares to you) is a searchable resource for anyone trying to track down a particular ‘nomen barbarum‘, ‘vox magica‘, ‘barbarian name’, or whatever your term of choice is, not only in magical papyri and their ilk, but in Late Platonist philosophers and theirs. Essential.

Here’s what they say: ‘La base de données CÉNOB (« Corpus des énoncés des noms barbares ») est la seule base de données scientifique et internationale portant sur les énoncés des « noms barbares » dont sont témoins, jusqu’à la fin de l’Antiquité principalement, les documents et les textes magiques, mais aussi des écrits philosophiques (notamment néoplatoniciens) et théologiques (en particulier gnostiques), dans la Méditerranée orientale et occidentale. Mobilisant une approche interdisciplinaire et comparatiste, la base de données CÉNOB offre à la communauté scientifique un corpus complet des énoncés des « noms barbares » utilisés entre le VIe siècle avant notre ère et le VIe siècle de notre ère – période de la production des tablettes de défixion, objets archéologiques localisés, datés, et donc pris comme points de repère chronologique.’

This ambitious project, led by Christopher A. Faraone and Sofía Torallas Tovar but truly collegial and collaborative by the looks of things, is an attempt to do a number of important things, including:

Bring the Papyri magicæ græcæ up to date with a new edition, both as regards editing but also as regards including not only Greek, or even Greek and Demotic, but Greek, Demotic, and Coptic materials,

And by including all the papyri discovered since Preisendanz did his thing between the wars.

They are also interested in the codicological side of the question, with a view to examining how these texts circulated in the form of collections and handbooks.

An online, searchable database of ancient ‘curse-tablets’, our most plentiful type of ancient magical text outside of the Egyptian papyrological record. Maintained by the Universität Hamburg.

A big research-project based at the University of Würzburg, looking at doing the largest-yet comparative study of ancient magical materials from the western heartlands (i.e. from the eastern Mediterranean right across western Asia).

“With the establishment of an international centre for interdisciplinary and comparative research on magical text traditions, we want to complement the juxtaposition of disciplinary contributions with joint, interdisciplinary work formats; we want to enable a direct engagement with the textual sources in an interdisciplinary context, and consolidate ephemeral meetings with long-term collaboration.”

Expect some fascinating results as this project gets up a head of steam.

Carminabase is an online database of medieval incantation formulas. This work and research instrument is intended for medievalists specializing in magic, medicine or speech. It provides both direct and easy access to the sources of practice and a powerful tool that makes it possible to serialize texts and examine them systematically. The search-criteria are really interesting and useful. Note that the milieu is western Christendom from the tenth century until the fifteenth; do not expect a catalogue of medieval incantations across the board.

A project devoted to the history of amulets, organised under the auspices of the Centro Interdisciplinar de História, Culturas e Sociedades. Universidade de Évora and the Centro de Estudos Clássicos da Faculdade de Letras de Lisboa. They organise the International Conference on Amulets and the site features some useful resources, including a bibliography on amulets and some other things.

An online Latin text of one of Aristotle’s greatest works, only it isn’t by Aristotle, but by an Arab author drawing on Proclus’ Elements of Theology. An important source for later medieval Platonism hiding within church-sanctioned Aristoteleanism in the Scholastic period.

A research project led by Dragos Calma of University College, Dublin, concentrating on Abrahamic reception of Late Platonist ideas, in particular the Elements of Theology of Proclus which came to travel through the Middle Ages under various titles, and the authorship of Aristotle.

An ambitious online project, edited by Dag Nikolaus Hasse with a large team of scholars. A very useful resource for a number of specialisms, notably astrology, alchemy, and theology.

The Arabic and Latin Glossary is a dictionary of the vocabulary of the Arabic–Latin translations of the Middle Ages. It unites the entries of all existing Arabic–Latin glossaries in modern editions of medieval works. The Glossary has a double aim: to improve our understanding of the Arabic influence in Europe, especially with respect to scientific vocabulary, and to be a lexical tool for the understanding of Arabic and Latin scientific texts.

A superb resource for accessing works of the Angelic Doctor in English.

Carminabase is an online database of medieval incantation formulas. This work and research instrument is intended for medievalists specializing in magic, medicine or speech. It provides both direct and easy access to the sources of practice and a powerful tool that makes it possible to serialize texts and examine them systematically. The search-criteria are really interesting and useful. Note that the milieu is western Christendom from the tenth century until the fifteenth; do not expect a catalogue of medieval incantations across the board.

A blog centred on the study of Traditionalism, an important current of modern esotericism springing from the work of René Guénon and ramifying in all sorts of unlikely places in modern literature, religion, and even politics. Moderated by Mark Sedgwick, who is also a board member of the ENSIE.

These folks are a very interesting organisation doing good work. Of interest to all those studying movements like (neo-)paganisms, but also hosting lively debates and cool conferences documenting the intersections between the living environment, humans, and our cultural artifacts.

A well-stocked web-resource, the work of Sasha Chaitow, devoted to the French esotericist, fin-de-siècle Paris man-about-town, Neo-Rosicrucian, novelist, and generally heavy cat Joséphin Péladan.

Daniel H. Caldwell’s collection of Blavatsky-texts, Blavatsky-adjacent materials, and loads of other Theosophiania. A good first stop if you are looking for the text of a Theosophical Society publication. Not designed for the needs of scholars per se, but a very useful resource for scholars working in the important field of Theosophical history.

An excellent online library of downloadable pdf’s of Theosophical materials including pamphlets and other errata which you won’t find down the public library. Maintained by The Theosophical Society in Australia.

The official site for the museum devoted to Roerich’s life and art in New York City. Lots of useful Roerichiana.

An interesting site, put together by Alexis Brandkamp, comprising a multi-layered introduction to esotericism (most relevant, I think, to western-European traditions easily subsumed under the loose notion of ‘occult’, from say Dee and Agrippa right the way through neopaganisms, Satanism, and so forth, but interested in other stuff as well). Contains some useful links, some sound basic bibliographies, and lots of other useful resources. Generally responsible and anti-echo-chamber, while taking the intriguing step of addressing itself explicitly to academics, to practitioners, and to the wo/man in the street, which is well done and commendable.

Might be a very good place to send someone who asked you ‘What is this western occult tradition thing?’, and was really starting from scratch, but also a good place for seasoned academics (or practitioners!) to root around for interesting links and ideas. Worth a look for sure, and hopefully it will expand as a project.

The Contemporary Esotericism Research Network is an ESSWE thematic network devoted to the study of western esotericism  in the contemporary world. They have a youtube channel with some cool talks.

The IAPSOP is a US-based private organization focused on the digital preservation of Spiritualist and occult periodicals published between the Congress of Vienna and the start of the Second World War. It is a fascinating resource; beware of getting lost in the digital pages!

The SHAC has been going strong since 1935, back when no one thought doing history of chemistry was worthwhile, never mind alchemy. Much respect. They publish Ambix, the leading journal for the study of alchemy (okay, and chemistry as well).

The EANASE is a grouping of scholars working on esotericism both eastern and western. Their roster includes Japanese academics, Europeans, and a number of folks with a foot in both realms.  Their stated remit is as follows;

First, it includes the research of pre-modern esotericism in the West like hermeticism, alchemy or astrology.

Second, modern esotericism in the West and its influences on contemporary spirituality.

Third, modern Western Esotericism and its related spiritual movements in Japan and Asia, which would cover everything, from pre-WWII techniques like Reiki to the New Religious Movements.

Fourth, pre-modern esoteric religious thoughts in Asia, such as Shintoism, Buddhism or Daoism. The main object of our group is to clarify how far the term “esotericism” could be applied to the Asian history of religions.

A classy and interesting collection of people and projects circling around the twin poles of art and the eso. They say: “Black Mirror seeks to examine ways in which the occult and the esoteric have been at the heart of art practice now and throughout the modernist period. It is part of a growing movement that seeks to critique the dominant twentieth-century notion of disenchantment, and that rejects notions of the esoteric and occult as irrational, escapist, regressive and essentially anti-modern.”

The network is an institutional collaboration with Arts University Bournemouth, Fulgur Press, Plymouth College of Art and NYU Steinhardt.

A very interesting scholarly initiative. They say:

“RENSEP is an unincorporated association whose mission is to promote and advance the interdisciplinary and comparative study of esoteric practices from a global perspective. RENSEP’s ambition is to organise and structure a stimulating intellectual and methodological environment that allows researchers from different backgrounds and disciplines to meet and exchange their analyses and interpretations of esoteric practices from an open-minded, data-based, non-ideological and apolitical perspective. RENSEP’s unique approach is to provide a shared cognitive and interactional space – the RENSEP website – that transcends traditional academic boundaries by supporting the participation and encounter of both scholars and practitioners of esoteric practices.”

Be sure to check out their interesting funding-opportunities.

The Center for the Study of Western Esotericism of the Union of South American Nations (Centro de Estudios sobre el Esoterismo Occidental -CEEO-UNASUR) is an international network of South-American scholars, whose main mission is to advance academic research and teaching in the field of western esotericism. They organise colloquia, publish academic works and mass-media dissemination, and put out a newsletter and the journal Melancolia, which deserves to be far better-known outside of the Latin-American sphere.

The ASEM is a scholarly association based in Russia. They actively organise conferences, some of which look really interesting. Their website has Russian and English versions. Here is their mission-statement:

“The Association for the Study of Esotericism and Mysticism (ASEM) is a scholarly non-profit organization that unites scholars of a humanitarian disposition who engage in the academic study of esotericism and mysticism.

ASEM aims to unite the efforts of interested scholars to systematically study these promising phenomena, and aids in the creation of original methodologies and a corresponding descriptive language, in describing different worldviews on which esoteric and mystical movements are based, in the analysis of their symbols, categories, and social structures, in codification of the stages of development of these phenomena in history, and so on.

ASEM’s priority aims are to determine the reason for a staunch prevalence of mystical and esoteric aspects in human culture in different states of its history and to determine the extent of their influence on contemporary culture. ASEM aspires to make connections with corresponding scholarly organizations in other regions of the world, scholarly projects, and joint publications.”

These folks are a very interesting organisation doing good work. Of interest to all those studying movements like (neo-)paganisms, but also hosting lively debates and cool conferences documenting the intersections between the living environment, humans, and our cultural artifacts.

Cognitive Science of Religion is a great place, where lab-based and other ‘hard-science’ approaches to human consciousness meet with the esoteric in its experiential manifestations. The IACSR publishes the Journal for the Cognitive Science of Religion, which deals with this interesting field. Those interested in ‘esoteric experience’ will want to keep an eye on this site and the journal.

This is the ongoing blog and web-presence of a group of scholars at the University of Exeter doing cross-disciplinary work on magic and esotericism. Interesting things are often posted here, and we are watching developments with a keen eye.

A ‘thematic network’ of the ESSWE, devoted to collecting useful information on all things esoteric from the earliest times until late antiquity (and beyond). This website is the first port of call for anyone looking for online resources useful to scholars of antique esotericism. Also posts relevant conferences, events, etc. Highly useful, a quality resource (but, full disclosure: your host is a regular contributor).

CEENASWE is a regional network of the ESSWE, covering Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, the countries of ex-Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Albania and Greece. Expect a lot of really interesting work to come out of this region in the near future.

INSEP is a regional network of the ESSWE. It is a multidisciplinary research network for academics working on any aspect of Esotericism (historical or contemporary) or Contemporary Paganism that relates to the Irish context. Its mission is to provide a forum for networking among scholars based in Ireland and those based abroad who have research interests in these subject areas as they relate to Ireland.

ENSIE is a thematic network, a part of the ESSWE dealing specifically with Islamic Esotericism. A lot of exciting new work is emerging from this part of the field, and we should keep a close eye on the ENSIE. They say:

‘ENSIE’s mission is to help scholars of Islamic esotericism and mysticism to benefit from the understandings and perspectives that have been achieved in the study of Western Esotericism, and to help scholars of Western Esotericism benefit from knowledge of Islamic esotericism. There are also benefits in areas where the distinction between “Islamic” and “Western” does not really make sense, for example in the medieval period, when Western esotericists drew heavily on Arab and Islamic sources, and in the modern period, when Western esotericists have again drawn on Islamic sources, and when Western esotericism has also been received in the Muslim world, especially in Turkey, but also elsewhere.’

An international platform for scholarly work on the inclusion/exclusion dynamic, by no means confined to the religious sphere. There folks organise interesting conferences and the essays on their site are worth a read. Lots here relevant to the study of western esotericism, particularly as regards its supposed ‘outsider’ status.

The Prometheus Trust is an interesting project, having one foot within western esotericism, but definitely of interest to scholars who study it from an outsider perspective as well. They are devoted to the Platonist tradition as a living philosophic path, and host annual conferences where you can meet some of the top names in Platonist scholarship alongside a fascinating array of non-professional thinkers. They publish the Purple Books, a series of important reprints which include the entire works of Thomas Taylor.

The website for the ESSWE, one of the most active scholarly organisations for the study of western esotericism. If you are an active scholar in this field, consider becoming a member of the ESSWE. Their conferences are second-to-none.

The Contemporary Esotericism Research Network is an ESSWE thematic network devoted to the study of western esotericism  in the contemporary world. They have a youtube channel with some cool talks.

The ASE is an academic organisation devoted to the study of esotericism, based in the USA but international in its scope. They run conferences every two years, in alternating years to the ESSWE conferences, so between the two organisations the keen scholar of esotericism can have one excellent summer conference per year.

The ISNS website is actually full of useful stuff, as well as being the online presence of a cool organisation which does a yearly conference and puts out the International Journal of the Platonic Tradition. Clicking on ‘Scholars Directory’ will take you to a page with some very useful tools, including the Web Resources and Primary Texts sections, which are thorough and obviate the need for us to list a load of online resources for the study of Platonism(s). A must for researchers of an esoteric Platonist bent.

Maintained by the multitalented John Uebersax, this page seems to be the best place for finding all the out-of-copyright English and French translations and whatnot, but also online text of Henry and Schwyzer’s Greek  and hard-to-find gems like Ficino’s Latin translation.

A series of excellent presentations on late-antique Platonism writ very broadly, and tending to stray into Christian, Gnostic, and other interesting religious developments.

Synesius of Cyrene, the philosopher-bishop, wrote a cornucopia of insightful and extraordinary things in late antiquity. Here they are in English. Thanks to the Livius project for posting these!

A site organised across a number of universities by a team who love the great scholarch of Alexandria. A great resource for those studying Olympiodorus, where you can currently access downloadable texts of his Alcibiades commentary and other interesting matters; we look forward to seeing how this project expands over time.

The Prometheus Trust is an interesting project, having one foot within western esotericism, but definitely of interest to scholars who study it from an outsider perspective as well. They are devoted to the Platonist tradition as a living philosophic path, and host annual conferences where you can meet some of the top names in Platonist scholarship alongside a fascinating array of non-professional thinkers. They publish the Purple Books, a series of important reprints which include the entire works of Thomas Taylor.

A series of excellent presentations on late-antique Platonism writ very broadly, and tending to stray into Christian, Gnostic, and other interesting religious developments.

Under the ægis of the Instituto Nazionale di Studi sul Rinascimento; Ficino’s works in an easy-to-access format.

A good online collection of resources, projects, and primary texts of Giovanni Pico della Mirandola. The website has English, Italian, and Latin options. Quam ob rem altissimos honores ei adhibimus!

The brainchild of Dr Egil Asprem of the University of Stockholm, Occult Minds documents his work in bringing the cognitive science of religion to bear on the study of esotericism. In addition to information about the project,  also features a research blog, and useful links to journals, scholarly societies, and websites of interest.

A project of unprecedented scope led by Matteo Martelli, combining the finest in lab-based research and historiography to broaden our understandings of hugely neglected areas in the history of alchemy. Their blurb is: Alchemy in the Making: From ancient Babylonia via Graeco-Roman Egypt into the Byzantine, Syriac and Arabic traditions (1500 BCE – 1000 AD). This is a hugely significant project, both from the purely historiographical point of view and from the point of view of modern funding in the humanities; it is rare that a funding body recognises the significance of research into esoteric subjects to this degree, and shows that there are still gleams of light in the increasing darkness of the academy.

A research project led by Dragos Calma of University College, Dublin, concentrating on Abrahamic reception of Late Platonist ideas, in particular the Elements of Theology of Proclus which came to travel through the Middle Ages under various titles, and the authorship of Aristotle.

This ambitious project, led by Christopher A. Faraone and Sofía Torallas Tovar but truly collegial and collaborative by the looks of things, is an attempt to do a number of important things, including:

Bring the Papyri magicæ græcæ up to date with a new edition, both as regards editing but also as regards including not only Greek, or even Greek and Demotic, but Greek, Demotic, and Coptic materials,

And by including all the papyri discovered since Preisendanz did his thing between the wars.

They are also interested in the codicological side of the question, with a view to examining how these texts circulated in the form of collections and handbooks.

A reasearch-project at the Freie, Berlin, led by Mathieu Ossendrijver, this large-scale investigation into the development of ancient astrology/astronomy describes itself thusly:

Astrology, Astronomy, Mathematics, Religion and Philosophy – all these different aspects and their theories and practices, texts and images, meet in the concept of the zodiac. 2500 years ago, in the 5th century BCE, the introduction of the zodiac in Babylonia marked a turning point in human culture and science. The zodiacal turn was accompanied by a mathematical turn in the astral sciences and a personal turn in astrology. From Babylonia, zodiacal astral science spread to Egypt, the Greco-Roman world, and beyond.

Features a blog with regular postings on interesting topics, a news and events section, and all manner of goodies. If you are really interested in the knowledge-transfer which we know must have occurred between the Mesopotamian diary-texts and Hermes, Nechepso, and Petosiris and beyond, this is the project for you.

Based at the Jagiellonian University, Krakow, this project is absolutely amazing,  offering `an exploitable and customizable system of quantitative and qualitative analysis of the traditions involving the supernatural entities in various cultural and religious entourages. Initiated back in 2016 to construe the comprehensive inventory of the supernatural entities in the early rabbinic literature, it was gradually expanded to cover other literary corpora and media.’

Basically, if you need a searchable database of supernatural entities found in the Hebrew scriptures and Babylonian Talmud (and who doesn’t???), this is your project-site. Also features a very savvy methodological framework bringing the cognitive science of religions, cognitive linguistics, and similar methodologies to cast light on this material. Absolutely fascinating, and worthy of exploration!

A big research-project based at the University of Würzburg, looking at doing the largest-yet comparative study of ancient magical materials from the western heartlands (i.e. from the eastern Mediterranean right across western Asia).

“With the establishment of an international centre for interdisciplinary and comparative research on magical text traditions, we want to complement the juxtaposition of disciplinary contributions with joint, interdisciplinary work formats; we want to enable a direct engagement with the textual sources in an interdisciplinary context, and consolidate ephemeral meetings with long-term collaboration.”

Expect some fascinating results as this project gets up a head of steam.

A project devoted to the history of amulets, organised under the auspices of the Centro Interdisciplinar de História, Culturas e Sociedades. Universidade de Évora and the Centro de Estudos Clássicos da Faculdade de Letras de Lisboa. They organise the International Conference on Amulets and the site features some useful resources, including a bibliography on amulets and some other things.

Currently the best graduate programme on western esotericism, and the only university centre devoted solely to this subject. Yes, it’s ‘Hermetic philosophy’, but don’t be misled: you can study everything from ancient esoteric Platonism to the links between western esotericism and Surrealism, and much more at Amsterdam. A unique institution in a brilliant city, and with close links to the BPL, the Amsterdam programme is recommended in the highest terms to anyone wishing to pursue graduate studies on any aspect of western esotericism.

This centre, located at the University of Wales, Llanbedr Pont Steffan (Lampeter in English) looks intriguing. They have a Masters by Research in religious experience, which might be very interesting to serious phenomenologists — we can’t say anything about it beyond what’s on their website, but the programme (and associated project, documenting contemporary accounts of religious experience) seems to have the potential to facilitate very interesting work.

The GEM programme at Rice University, in Houston, Texas, is a certificate available within Rice’s Department of Religion. They say:

“The GEM certificate provides graduate students with a theoretical orientation, which they then can apply to their chosen concentrations (i.e., African-American religions; African religions; Bible and Beyond; Buddhism; Christianity; Hinduism; Islam; Judaism; American Religion; New Age and New Religious Movements, New Testament and Early Christianity; etc.). “

When this programme was launched the press went crazy, with Harry Potter quips abounding, but don’t worry, this course is the real deal. One of only a few options for studying aspects of western esotericism at university level. Note, however, that, unlike the Amsterdam programme, this programme currently does not have a departmental ‘home’, properly-speaking: it is interdepartmental, so there is no physical home base for the course beyond the Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies, which is currently its de jure base.