Egregores: The Occult Entities That Watch Over Human Destiny - Mark Stavish 2018

Footnotes

*1 Martinism is a Christian mystical movement rooted in the teachings of Louis Claude de Saint-Martin (1743—1803). Saint-Martin was a student of the Portuguese theurgist Martines de Pasqually (1727—1774) but was later deeply influenced by the writings of Jacob Boehme and turned away from the magical path. Saint-Martin’s writings and teachings influenced diverse lines of students across France, Germany, and Russia. During the nineteenth century’s French Occult Revival, Gerard Encausse (1865—1916), better known as “Papus,” combined many of these streams into the Martinist Order. The Martinist Order and its numerous variations have played a major role in European and American esotericism in the twentieth century.

*2 The Kali Yuga is the last of four ages, or cycles, in classical Indian astrology and plays a predominant role in Indian and Tibetan Buddhist cosmologies. The Kali Yuga is dominated by strife, war, violence, and pronounced suffering as a result of spiritual ignorance. According to tradition, the Kali Yuga will end in a cataclysmic battle between the forces of spiritual enlightenment and materialism, and with it, a new spiritual age will be ushered in.

*3 Thelema is the main religious and philosophical movement established by Aleister Crowley after a series of revelations from a disembodied entity named Aiwass in 1904. The result of these encounters was Crowley’s writing of The Book of the Law. The focus of The Book of the Law is that each individual is responsible for discovering their own “True Will” or purpose for living. The motto of those who follow this path is “Do what thou wilt is the whole of the Law. Love is the law, love under will.”

†1 Assassins is the name used to refer to an eleventh-century Islamic sect that was famous for carrying out the murder of political, military, and religious leaders. Their use of drugs and mysticism combined with military training made them one of the most feared organizations for three centuries and gave rise to the word assassin as we now know it—a secret killer for hire.