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As Below, So Above | James Lindsay

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The Importance of Syncretic Philosophy in the Middle Ages

John Fetser ran a thing called the Fetser Institute, which was devoted to new age spirituality. His library is basically composed of every single wacky new age Hermetic, Gnostic, anything esoteric he could find. He commented and said, I don't believe some of it. Some of it seems downright evil. So when we come through the Middle Ages to see somebody like Hegel picking pieces of it and cobbling it together into his German systematic philosophy is not a surprise. But again, this isn't at all a surprise because Hermeticism is by definition syncretic. It mixes things together and adds them on and does cafeteria religion or cafeteria spirituality.

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