Podcast episodes – The Secret History of Western Esotericism Podcast (SHWEP)

We return to the history of late antiquity in the eastern Mediterranean and central Asia. Momentous events occur, empires rise and fall, and Jews, Christians, and Muslims all suddenly develop new apocalyptic notions. Come for the dry historical exposition, stay for the esoteric divine kingship.

We discuss some of the history of how the Qur'ān came to be ‘the Book’: it started in the oral milieu of the high-octane early Believers' movement, and ended up in written form as something called the ‘Uthmanic recension. Many esoteric things happen along the way.

We begin to explore the esoteric side of the Qur'ān, examining several case-studies in terms of ambiguity and esoteric themes. It turns out that every letter of the Qur'ān is an esoteric text.

We cover some basic territory in introducing the Qur'ān, the holiest text of Islām. We introduce the text, discuss the traditional story of the Qur'ān's revelation, the modern text-critical enterprise of Qur'anic studies, and try to pin down the elusive character of this book-that-is-not-a-book.

We discuss what little we know and how much we don't know about the nature of the early ‘Believers' movement’, the nature and origins of the Qur'ān, the curious case of the so-called Constitution of Medinah, and what went on during the earliest decades of the Arab conquests. Fred Donner is our guide into unknown territory.

Matthew Melvin-Koushki, a Professor of Islamic History at the University of South Carolina, returns to discuss the vital interconnections between Islam and the West. He argues for a more inclusive historical framework that embraces Islamic contributions to Western esotericism, challenging Eurocentric narratives. The conversation explores significant historical upheavals, the cultural richness of the Islamic Golden Age, and innovations like Idrisi's landmark map, all of which reveal a complex, intertwined heritage that reshapes our understanding of history.

Dive into the transformative rise of Islam and its profound impact on Western esoteric thought. Explore the geopolitical shifts that united Arab forces, expanding the Islamic empire. Unearth the rich cultural exchanges between Mandeans and Islamic thinkers like Maimonides. Discover the oral tradition of the Quran and its interpretive multiplicity. Confront modern Islamic fundamentalism and its financial influences, all while advocating for a more nuanced understanding of Islamic contributions to Western intellectual traditions.

We discuss one of the lesser-known, but most esoterically-important, classics of Syriac spiritual literature, the Book of the Holy Hierotheos. Hierotheos was said to have been the teacher of Dionysius the Areopagite, but he wrote in Syriac, and taught a suspiciously-Evagrian practice of ascent to god.

We turn to the questions: What is ‘mystical’ in the Corpus Dionysiacum? What is esoteric? The answers we come up with involve pretty much every aspect of the western esoteric traditions, and, after all the initiatory liturgy, esoteric scriptural hermeneutics, and theandric activity are cleared away, there remains the ascent to ‘the ray of the divine shadow’.

Into the divine darkness of a hyper-non-existent god walks the Pseudo-Dionysios. In this episode we join many esoteric currents from the antique and late-antique past into a new synthesis which will forever shape western esotericism going forward.