How to use this glossary
Esoteric writing is full of specialised words, many from Greek, Latin, Hebrew or Arabic. Meanings shift between traditions and authors, so the definitions below are general starting points, not final rulings. Terms are grouped by theme. If you are new to the subject, what esotericism is gives useful context first.
Core concepts
- Esoteric: inner, specialised or restricted; also the name of a field of study (esotericism).
- Exoteric: outer or public. See esoteric vs exoteric.
- Occult: from the Latin for “hidden”; refers to hidden forces or knowledge and the practices built on them.
- Mysticism: the pursuit or experience of direct contact with the divine or ultimate reality.
- Hermeticism: traditions based on writings attributed to Hermes Trismegistus.
- Gnosticism: a range of early movements stressing salvation through knowledge (gnosis).
- Syncretism: the blending of ideas from different traditions.
- Perennial philosophy / perennialism: the idea that all genuine religions share one underlying truth. Many scholars treat it as a modern interpretive claim rather than established fact.
The differences among the first few terms are covered in esotericism vs occultism vs mysticism.
Knowledge, initiation and practice
- Gnosis: Greek for “knowledge”; in esoteric use, direct spiritual insight rather than ordinary information.
- Initiation: a rite or process by which a person enters a group or a new level of teaching.
- Adept: an advanced practitioner.
- Arcanum (plural arcana): a secret or hidden thing. In tarot, “major arcana” and “minor arcana” name the two parts of the deck.
- Theurgy: ritual practice aimed at union with, or help from, divine powers; associated with late antique Neoplatonism.
- Magic / magick: the attempt to bring about change through ritual and symbolism. The spelling “magick” was popularised by Aleister Crowley to distinguish it from stage magic.
- Divination: methods, such as tarot, astrology or casting lots, used to seek hidden information.
- The Great Work (Magnum Opus): in alchemy and later occultism, the process of inner or spiritual transformation.
Cosmology and spiritual beings
- Microcosm and macrocosm: the idea that the human being (small world) mirrors the universe (large world).
- Correspondence: a hidden link between things at different levels, such as a planet, a metal and a colour.
- Emanation: the idea that reality flows out from a single divine source in stages.
- Demiurge: in several Gnostic systems, a lesser creator of the material world.
- Pleroma: Greek for “fullness”; in Gnostic thought, the divine realm.
- Sephirot: the ten aspects or emanations arranged on the Kabbalistic Tree of Life.
- Astral plane: a level of reality between physical and spiritual in many nineteenth and twentieth century occult systems.
- Egregore: a group-generated thought-form or collective entity, a concept found in some modern occult writing.
Arts and tools
- Alchemy: a historical art concerned with transforming matter, often read symbolically as a spiritual process.
- Prima materia: the “first matter” from which alchemists believed all substances arise.
- Astrology: the study of supposed links between celestial positions and earthly events.
- Grimoire: a book of magical instructions, such as spells or ritual procedures.
- Sigil: a symbol designed or believed to hold a specific power or intention.
- Talisman and amulet: objects thought to carry protective or empowering qualities.
- Tarot: a deck of cards used for divination and, in occult tradition, symbolic study.
Well-known sayings
- “As above, so below” is a popular paraphrase of a line in the Emerald Tablet, a short text associated with Hermes and alchemy. It expresses the idea of correspondence between higher and lower levels of reality.
- “Know thyself” is a maxim linked to the temple of Apollo at Delphi, later taken up by many philosophers and esoteric writers as a call to self-examination.
- “The lips of wisdom are closed, except to the ears of understanding” appears in The Kybalion (1908), a modern work whose claim to ancient origins is generally doubted by historians.
Related reading
Pair this page with a beginner’s reading list and the overview of esoteric literature, where many of these terms appear in context.