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/40JtBTl

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Let me know in the live chat where you are joining from and bring your questions for the discussion.

00:00:00 Introduction: Esotericism in Western Culture with Wouter Hanegraaff

00:02:16 The New Book “Esotericism in Western Culture, Counter-Normativity & Rejected Knowledge”

00:03:14 Why Woulter Rewrote His Earlier Book: Western Esotericism, The Guide for the Perplexed

00:06:36 The Greater West: Why Islam Belongs in the Story

00:07:29 The Three Pillars of Western Culture Explained

00:13:16 Colonialism and the Expansion of the West

00:15:01 Paganism, Idolatry, and the Rise of Monotheism

00:17:33 Protestantism, Enlightenment, and Rejected Knowledge

00:20:20 Internal Eurocentrism and Colonial Othering

00:30:52 Reconstructing the West Beyond Left and Right

00:34:56 Why This New Narrative Matters for Practitioners

00:38:22 Esotericism, Academia, and Practitioner Dialogue

00:48:18 Is Practice a Form of Knowledge?

00:52:20 Ficino, Plato, and Hidden Queer History

01:02:00 Rilke, Crisis, and Rethinking Western Culture

01:12:32 How to Build Esotericism Programmes in Universities

01:19:47 Counter-Normativity and Counter-Normal Experiences

01:32:13 Join Angela’s Growing Project

Want to create live streams like this? Check out StreamYard: https://streamyard.com/pal/d/5768951004397568

Published on March 23, 2026