Access to Western Esotericism

Antoine Faivre is a scholar of Western esotericism, and this State University of New York Press book is his foundational scholarly study proposing a defining analytic framework for Western esotericism as a field of academic study, identifying its recurring historical currents and defining characteristics. Its strength is that it remains the framework much of the subsequent academic study of Western esotericism was built on, establishing the field's basic vocabulary and scope. Its limit is that it is a foundational framework text about esotericism as a category, not a source for the specific practical content of any one named grimoire, society or practitioner, so a claim about a specific esoteric text or organization needs a source focused directly on that particular subject rather than this broader defining framework.