Antoine Faivre (5 June 1934 – 19 December 2021) was a French scholar of

Western esotericism Western esotericism, also known as esotericism, esoterism, and sometimes the Western mystery tradition, is a term scholars use to categorise a wide range of loosely related ideas and movements that developed within Western society. These ideas ...

. Until his retirement, he held a chair in the École Pratique des Hautes Études at the Sorbonne, University Professor of

Germanic studies Germanic philology is the philological study of the Germanic languages, particularly from a comparative or historical perspective. The beginnings of research into the Germanic languages began in the 16th century, with the discovery of literary te ...

at the University of Haute-Normandie, director of the ''Cahiers del Hermétisme'' and of ''Bibliothèque de l'hermétisme'', and was with

Wouter Hanegraaff Wouter Jacobus Hanegraaff (born 10 April 1961) is full professor of History of Hermetic Philosophy and related currents at the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. He served as the first president of the European Society for the Study of ...

and Roland Edighoffer, the editor of the journal '' Aries''.

Thought

Antoine Faivre affirmed

occultism The occult, in the broadest sense, is a category of esoteric supernatural beliefs and practices which generally fall outside the scope of religion and science, encompassing phenomena involving otherworldly agency, such as magic and mysticism a ...

gnosticism Gnosticism (from grc, γνωστικός, gnōstikós, , 'having knowledge') is a collection of religious ideas and systems which coalesced in the late 1st century AD among Jewish and early Christian sects. These various groups emphasized pe ...

and

hermeticism Hermeticism, or Hermetism, is a philosophical system that is primarily based on the purported teachings of Hermes Trismegistus (a legendary Hellenistic combination of the Greek god Hermes and the Egyptian god Thoth). These teachings are containe ...

share a set of common characteristics that include the faith in the existence of secret and syncretistic concordances -both symbolic and real- between the " macrocosm and the

microcosm Microcosm or macrocosm, also spelled mikrokosmos or makrokosmos, may refer to: Philosophy * Microcosm–macrocosm analogy, the view according to which there is a structural similarity between the human being and the cosmos Music * Macrocosm (al ...

, the seen and the unseen, and indeed all that is". Those doctrines believe in

alchemic Alchemy (from Arabic: ''al-kīmiyā''; from Ancient Greek: χυμεία, ''khumeía'') is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practiced in China, India, the Muslim ...

transmutation and on an initiatric transmission of knowledge from a master to his pupil.

Personal life and death

Faivre died on 19 December 2021 at the age of 87.Notre Frère Antoine Faivre est passé à l'Orient Éternel

Bibliography

* ''Les vampires: Essai historique, critique et littéraire,'' Paris, Le Terrain vague, 1962 * ''Kirchberger et l’Illuminisme du XVIIIe siècle'', The Hague, Nijhoff, 1966 * ''Eckartshausen et la théosophie chrétienne'', Paris, Klincksieck, 1969 (reprinted with a preface by Jean-Marc Vivenza, Hyères, La Pierre Philosophale, 2016) * ''L’ésotérisme au XVIIIe siècle en France et en Allemagne'', La Table d’Émeraude, Seghers, 1973 * ''Mystiques, théosophes et illuminés au siècle des lumières,'' Hildesheim, Olms, 1976 * ''Toison d'or et alchimie'', Milan, Archè, 1990. English transl. ''Golden Fleece and Alchemy'', Albany, State University of New York Press, 1993, reprint 1995 * ''Philosophie de la nature (physique sacrée et théosophie, XVIIIe-XIXe siècles)'', Paris, Albin Michel, 1996 (Prix de philosophie Louis Liard, de l'Académie des Sciences morales et politiques). * ''The Eternal Hermes (From Greek God to Alchemical Magus)'', Grand Rapids, Phanes Press, 1996 * ''Accès de l'ésotérisme occidental'', Paris, Gallimard ("''Bibliothèque des sciences humaines''"), vol. I, 1986, 2nd ed., 1996, vol. II, 1996. English transl. vol. I : ''Access to Western Esotericism'', Albany, State University of New York Press, 1994, vol. II: ''Theosophy, Imagination, Tradition'', Studies in Western Esotericism, Albany, State University of New York Press, 2000 * ''L'ésotérisme'', Paris, PUF, 1992, 3e éd., 2003 * ''De Londres à Saint-Pétersbourg: Carl Friedrich Tieman (1743-1802) aux carrefours des courants illuministes et maçonniques,'' Milan, Archè, 2018

References

External links

Official website
1934 births 2021 deaths 20th-century French historians École pratique des hautes études faculty Writers from Reims University of Paris alumni Western esotericism scholars {{France-academic-bio-stub