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The Philby, Burgess and MacLean Affair was peanuts compared to this infestation in the US, Europe, and the UK.

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Image: Sleeping Beauty / Victor Gabriel Gilbert (1847–1933) / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0.

A young woman, sleeping beauty, with long fair hair, in a dark dress, and with the fingers of her hand interlaced in front of her, lies asleep, with her head raised, perhaps on a reddish-coloured couch.

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“There is ... a class of fancies of exquisite delicacy, which are not thoughts, and to which, as yet, I have found it absolutely impossible to adapt language. ... They arise in the soul only at its epochs of most intense tranquility ...” ~ Edgar Allan Poe, Marginalia. #Hypnagogia

Image containing a text quotation. The text, from Edgar Allan Poe, Marginalia, reads:

Poe's “Psychal Fancies”: On the Edge of Dreams:

“There is ... a class of fancies of exquisite delicacy, which are not thoughts, and to which, as yet, I have found it absolutely impossible to adapt language. ... They arise in the soul only at its epochs of most intense tranquility—when the bodily and mental health are in perfection—and at that mere points of time where the confines of the waking world blends with those of the world of dreams. I am aware of these ‘fancies’ only when I am upon the very brink of sleep with the consciousness that I am so.”

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The Philby, Burgess and MacLean Affair was peanuts compared to this infestation in the US, Europe, and the UK.

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Image: The Unholy Worship / Gwabryel, Illustrator of Weird Fiction / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0.

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The Root Causes of Why We're FUBAR or “Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea” ... esowteric.vivaldi.net/2026/01/16/t... Materialist, post-enlightenment, post-trust, post-truth, post-rationality, post-honour, and post-chivalry.

Image: The Unholy Worship / Gwabryel, Illustrator of Weird Fiction / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0. A painting by Gwabryel, based on H. P. Lovecraft's story The Call of Cthulhu. It shows a man with arms outstretched worshipping a very tall, black figure. To his left and right, victims are suspended upside down from gallows, and in front of the dark figure are several other, perhaps tormented figures.

Image: Song of Shambhala / Nicholas Roerich (1874–1947) / Wikimedia Commons / Public domain.

"Song of Shambhala", a painting by Nicholas Roerich. A traveller atop a mountain peak looks toward a distant mountain range, highlighted in pink, under a red and blue sky.

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Esowteric @esowteric.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

“A young man set off on the quest for Shambhala. After crossing many mountains, he came to the cave of an old hermit ...“ Image: Song of Shambhala / Nicholas Roerich (1874–1947) / Wikimedia Commons / Public domain.

An image containing an old Tibetan story, and with a small mandala in the bottom left-hand corner. The story reads:

The Quest:

A young man set off on the quest for Shambhala. After crossing many mountains, he came to the cave of an old hermit, who asked him:

“Where are you going across these wastes of snow?”

“To find Shambhala,” the youth replied.

“Ah, well then, you need not travel far,” the hermit said. “The kingdom of Shambhala is in your own heart.”

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“Knowledge is not gained, it is there all the time. It is the ‘veils’ which have to be dissolved in the mind.” ~ Idries Shah, Neglected Aspects of Sufi Study. Image: Salome (Melody Moore) Dance of the Seven Veils / Florida Grand Opera / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 2.0).

A wide shot of a scene at Florida Grand Opera in which Salome (played by Melody Moore) is performing the Dance of the Seven Veils, while other members of the cast look on.

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Esowteric @esowteric.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Image: Schattenspiele (Shadow Games or Shadow Plays) / Lovis Corinth (1858–1925) / Wikimedia Commons / Public domain.

Four young boys have fun watching as one of them plays shadow games in a section of wall illuminated by the sun. He is using his hands to make shadows in the form of animals.

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Esowteric @esowteric.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

“Plato illustrated the unreality of our normal perception of the world by an extended analogy. We are like people in a cave, he says, who sit facing a wall with a fire burning behind them ...” ~ Patrick Harpur, The Philosopher's Secret Fire: A History of the Imagination.

Image containing a text quotation, with someone using two hands to perform shadow play in the shape of a rabbit against a wall, in the bottom left-hand corner. The text, from Patrick Harpur, The Philosopher's Secret Fire: A History of the Imagination, reads:

Plato's Allegory of the Cave:

“Plato illustrated the unreality of our normal perception of the world by an extended analogy. We are like people in a cave, he says, who sit facing a wall with a fire burning behind them. As people and objects pass to and fro in front of the fire, we see only their shadows, and the shadows of ourselves, as they are cast on the wall. We mistake these shadows for reality. (It is as if we mistake a film at the cinema for reality.) To achieve a truer perception of reality we have to turn around - to revert our point of view - and see both the fire and the objects in front of it directly. This is perhaps as close to reality as most of us ever come.

“Yet even then we are still a long way from reality because we believe that the fire is the only source of illumination. The true philosopher goes further: he leaves the cave and sees the world in the light of the sun.”

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Reposted by Esowteric

Elizabeth James @lizijames.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

I've thought that - you have memories come up and you realise some part of you has been keeping them under wraps until the time is ripe.

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Esowteric @esowteric.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

On a Need to Know Basis: “Not all who hesitate are lost. The psyche has many secrets in reserve. And these are not disclosed unless required.” ~ Joseph Campbell, The Hero With a Thousand Faces. Image: Secret Agent, illustration / Ben Crowder / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 2.0.

Illustration of a secret agent, dressed in a black coat with the collar turned up and a black wide-brimmed hat. Instead of legs, the figure has a single red-rimmed wheel with a black tyre, and is shown descending an incline.

Esowteric @esowteric.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

esowteric.vivaldi.net

The Root Causes of Why We’re FUBAR

Or “Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea” I’m tempted to simply post: “The U/S is FUBAR and the UK is heading the same way. “That’s it. That’s the post.” I was going to say that coming in the wake…

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Reposted by Esowteric

T. Tex Edwards @ttexed.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

"C. S. Lewis on why you NEED to read old books. This has never been more vital than it is today." (via Dylan O'Sullivan)

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Esowteric @esowteric.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Image: The Damsel of the Sanct Grael / Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828–1882) / Wikimedia Commons / Public domain.

The Damsel of the Sanct Grael. A young lady holding the holy grail in her right hand and with her left arm and forefinger raised. Behind her head is a white dove.

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Esowteric @esowteric.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

“[Henry] Corbin was profoundly struck by the fact that the Grail romances posit a hidden succession of Grail Keepers who neither challenge Rome nor defer to it. In one of his first references to the grail ...” ~ John Carey, “Henry Corbin and the Secret of the Grail”.

An image containing text from John Carey, “Henry Corbin and the Secret of the Grail”, that reads:

The Way of the Secret Church:

“[Henry] Corbin was profoundly struck by the fact that the Grail romances posit a hidden succession of Grail Keepers who neither challenge Rome nor defer to it. In one of his first references to the grail, he spoke of the way in which the dynasty of the Guardians of the Grail in our Western Tradition projects above the official hierarchy of the Church.

“Corbin's ideas on this subject were strongly influenced by A.E. Waite's book, The Hidden Church of the Holy Grail: an influence that can be clearly seen in his repeated references, when speaking of the Grail, to the Way of the Secret Church concealed in the secret shrine of the Soul.”

Esowteric @esowteric.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Source: A.E. Waite, The Hidden Church of the Holy Graal: Its Legends and Symbolism. Image: Perceval arrives at the Grail Castle / Unknown artist/ Wikimedia Commons / Public domain.

Perceval arrives at the Grail Castle, to be greeted by the Fisher King.

Esowteric @esowteric.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

“[I]t has [been] assumed that we are concerned with some corporate and organised body, whereas we are concerned only with the course of experience in the higher consciousness.” ... “I am not speaking of formal institutions ...” ~ A.E. Waite, The Hidden Church of the Holy Graal.

Image containing a text quotation, with a chalice, perhaps the Holy Grail, in the lower left-hand corner. The text, from A.E. Waite, The Hidden Church of the Holy Graal: Its Legends and Symbolism, reads:

The Way of the Secret Church

“[I]t has [been] assumed that we are concerned with some corporate and organised body, whereas we are concerned only with the course of experience in the higher consciousness.” ...

“I am not speaking of formal institutions, of esoteric brotherhoods, or incorporations of any kind; it is a question of the direction of consciousness and of its growth in that direction.”

Esowteric @esowteric.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Sources: Idries Shah, The Way of the Sufi, and The Sufis. Image: Stillness / Abelcovarrubias / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0.

A man sits inside a building, by an open doorway through which potted plants and perhaps a tree are visible in the sunlight. The doorway itself, and the large wall in which the door is set, are made of many panes of stained glass in yellow, orange, and red hues.

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Esowteric @esowteric.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

“... In the lower reaches the members are organized into circles and lodges. In the higher — sakina (stillness) — form, they are bound together by baraka (blessing, power, sanctity) and their interaction with this force influences their lives in every way.” ~ Idries Shah, The Way of the Sufi.

Text from The Way of the Sufi, reads in part:

Sufism is the teaching as well as the fraternity of the Sufis, who are mystics sharing the belief that inner experience is not a department of life, but life itself. Sufi means love. In the lower reaches the members are organized into circles and lodges. In the higher – sakina (stillness) – form, they are bound together by baraka and their interaction with this force influences their lives in every way.

And from The Sufis:

QUTUB: “This is the reputed invisible head of all the Sufis. The word literally means the Magnetic Pole, Pivot, Polestar, Chief. Transposed into figures, it totals 111—the thrice-repeated unity, the threefold unity, the threefold affirmation of truth, which is a unity. If this is split up into 100, 10, 1, and substituted, we get the letters Q, Y & A. The word QYAA, spelled from these letters, means "to be vacant, voided." It is the vacant, voided, purged "house" into which the baraka descends (human consciousness).

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Esowteric @esowteric.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Are You Experienced? Have You Ever Been Experienced? ~~~~~~~ “You gain experience through watching an experienced person, or even through being near that person.” ~ The Diffusion of Sufi Ideas in the West: An Anthology of New Writings by and about Idries Shah.

Front cover of The Diffusion of Sufi Ideas in the West: An Anthology of New Writings by and about Idries Shah.

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Esowteric @esowteric.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

esowteric.vivaldi.net

The Root Causes of Why We’re FUBAR

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Reposted by Esowteric

H.M. Forester @hmforester.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Banned Books Week® ... bannedbooksweek.org

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Esowteric @esowteric.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Source: Philip K. Dick, The Divine Invasion. Image: Gipsy [Roma] Family in Prison / Carl d'Unker (1828–1866) / Wikimedia Commons / Public domain.

A Roma family in a spartan prison cell. A mother nurses an infant, a young girl sits on straw, and a man stands looking up at the small, barred window high on the wall to the left.

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Esowteric @esowteric.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

“What a tragic realm this is ... Those down here are prisoners, and the ultimate tragedy is that they don’t know it; they think they are free because they have never been free, and do not understand what it means. This is a prison, and few men have guessed ...” ~ Philip K. Dick.

Image containing a text quotation, with a man in manacles in the bottom left-hand corner. The text, from Philip K. Dick, The Divine Invasion, reads:

A Tragic Realm

“What a tragic realm this is ... Those down here are prisoners, and the ultimate tragedy is that they don’t know it; they think they are free because they have never been free, and do not understand what it means. This is a prison, and few men have guessed. But I know, he said to himself. Because that is why I am here, to burst the walls, to tear down the metal gates, to break each chain.”

Esowteric @esowteric.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Source: Colin Wilson, The Mind Parasites. Image: Back garden - Coleridge Cottage - Nether Stowey - Somerset, England - DSC01109 / Daderot / Wikimedia Commons / CC0 1.0 Public Domain Dedication.

A photo of the back garden of a house, with two folding wooden deck chairs on the right, facing a neatly manicured lawn (you might say a green desert). Behind the chairs is a wide flower bed. In the centre of the lawn is an arrangement of pegs and some small hoops, as used in the game quoits or hoopla. Further back is the back of a house and high garden wall, and beside the house, held in by a low drystone wall are shrubs and a tall bush or tree.

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Esowteric @esowteric.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

“Man is a continent, but his conscious mind is no larger than a back-garden. This means that man consists almost entirely of unrealized potentials. The so-called ‘great men’ are the men who have had the courage to realize some of these potentialities ...” ~ Colin Wilson.

An image containing a text quotation. The text, from Colin Wilson, The Mind Parasites, reads:

Unrealized Potentials:

“Man is a continent, but his conscious mind is no larger than a back-garden. This means that man consists almost entirely of unrealized potentials. The so-called ‘great men’ are the men who have had the courage to realize some of these potentialities. The ‘average man’ is too timid and cowardly to make the attempt. He prefers the security of the back-garden.

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Esowteric @esowteric.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Source: Carl Jung, “Epilogue”, Psychological Types, Collected Works Volume 6. Image: Paris - Playing chess at the Jardins du Luxembourg - 2966 / Jorge Royan / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0.

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Esowteric @esowteric.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

“We should not pretend to understand the world only by the intellect; we apprehend it just as much by feeling. Therefore the judgement of the intellect is, at best, only a half-truth, and must, if it is honest, also admit its inadequacy.” ~ Carl Jung, Collected Works Volume 6.

Old retired man wearing a wide-brimmed straw hat playing chess in the Jardin du Luxembourg, Paris. His right hand is hovering over the board as he considers his next move. On the left, beside the chess board are two timers.

Esowteric @esowteric.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Source: David Tacey, The Darkening Spirit: Jung, spirituality, religion. Image: Apollo's enchantment / Henry Howard (1769–1847) / Wikimedia Commons / Public domain.

Surrounded by the pantheon of Greek gods and the Muses, Apollo, god of the sun and of music, enchants his divine colleagues with his skill at the lyre.

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Esowteric @esowteric.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

“Perhaps we can plot the development of human thought in 3 stages. The first is enchantment through animism and pantheism. The second is disenchantment through rationality and reason. The third, and this is the possibility that interests me, is re-enchantment ...” ~ David Tacey.

Image containing a text quotation. The text, from David Tacey, The Darkening Spirit: Jung, spirituality, religion, reads:

Enchantment, Disenchantment and Re-Enchantment:

“Perhaps we can plot the development of human thought in three stages. The first is enchantment through animism and pantheism. The second is disenchantment through rationality and reason. The third, and this is the possibility that interests me, is re-enchantment through postmodern science, philosophy and depth psychology. In the third stage, we return to the ancient perception of the world and know it differently, with a new understanding.”

Esowteric @esowteric.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Source: Eugene McCarraher, The Enchantments of Mammon: How Capitalism Became the Religion of Modernity. Image: Woodstock-kids / Ric Manning / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 3.0.

Black-and-white photo showing cars near the Woodstock festival, with six young people sitting on the boot of a car in the foreground.

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Esowteric @esowteric.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

“Demanding release from the Apollonian prison of instrumental rationality, the counterculture beckoned to Orpheus and Dionysus unbound, a gemeinschaft of festivity, pleasure, and mysticism embodied in communes, rock concerts ...” ~ Eugene McCarraher, The Enchantments of Mammon.

Image containing a text quotation, with the word "LOVE" in light blue and the "O" made into a ban-the-bomb peace sign, in the lower left-hand corner. The text, from Eugene McCarraher, The Enchantments of Mammon: How Capitalism Became the Religion of Modernity, reads:

“Demanding release from the Apollonian prison of instrumental rationality, the counterculture [of the 1960s] beckoned to Orpheus and Dionysus unbound, a gemeinschaft of festivity, pleasure, and mysticism embodied in communes, rock concerts, “be-ins,” handicrafts, and organic farming. Sponsoring a profusion of experiments in consciousness, it practiced “expressive individualism,” in Robert Bellah’s words, another Romantic celebration of unrestrained feeling and sensuality.”

Esowteric @esowteric.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

“You're a Slave to Money, Then You Die”: Church Life Journal Lecture 2020 with Eugene McCarraher ... www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGVy... Video (1 hr 24 min).

Source: Eugene McCarraher, The Enchantments of Mammon: How Capitalism Became the Religion of Modernity. Image: Mammon / Louis Le Breton (1818–1866) / Wikimedia Commons / Public domain.

Mammon. Illustration from the Infernal Dictionary of Jacques Auguste Simon Collin de Plancy by Louis Le Breton, 6th edition, 1863. A black-and-white drawing titled “Mammon”, showing a man who looks like Ebenezer Scrooge sitting on a large wooden chest clutching bags of money to his chest.

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“To mitigate, let alone prevent, our impending ecological and economic disasters, we desperately need, to borrow Naomi Klein’s words, “a new civilizational paradigm.” And yet, as Klein also realizes, “post-Enlightenment Western culture does not offer a road map ...” ~ Eugene McCarraher.

Image containing a text quotation with a factory in the lower left-hand corner, in a patch of blue sky, with three tall chimneys emitting grey smoke. The text, from Eugene McCarraher, The Enchantments of Mammon: How Capitalism Became the Religion of Modernity, reads:

“To mitigate, let alone prevent, our impending ecological and economic disasters, we desperately need, to borrow Naomi Klein’s words, ‘a new civilizational paradigm.’ And yet, as Klein also realizes, ‘post-Enlightenment Western culture does not offer a road map for how to live that is not based on an extractivist, nonreciprocal relationship with nature.’”

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Source: Eugene McCarraher, The Enchantments of Mammon: How Capitalism Became the Religion of Modernity. Image: Wanderer above the sea of fog / Caspar David Friedrich (1774–1840) / Wikimedia Commons / Public domain.

Wanderer above the sea of fog, a painting by Caspar David Friedrich (1774–1840). A male figure in the foreground stands atop rocky terrain, looking out over a sea of fog from which some rocks protrude. In the distance, hills can be seen.

“In the Romantic sensibility, imagination was not a talent for inspiring fantasy, but the most perspicuous form of vision—the ability to see what is really there, behind the illusion or obscurity produced by our will to dissect and dominate ...” ~ Eugene McCarraher.

Image containing a text quotation, with a bouquet of bright yellow and orange flowers in the lower left-hand corner. The text, from Eugene McCarraher, The Enchantments of Mammon: How Capitalism Became the Religion of Modernity, reads:

The Romantics’ Imagination:

“In the Romantic sensibility, imagination was not a talent for inspiring fantasy, but the most perspicuous form of vision—the ability to see what is really there, behind the illusion or obscurity produced by our will to dissect and dominate. For Blake, imagination provided access to “the real and eternal world, of which this vegetable universe is but a faint shadow.”

Esowteric @esowteric.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Image: Silk Crazy Quilt / Mrs. Brown (c. 1890) / Wikimedia Commons / Public domain.

Esowteric @esowteric.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Soul-Making ~~~~~~~ “We cultivate soul by seeking depth, interiority, and connectedness – in short, by exercising imagination.” ~ Patrick Harpur, The Secret Tradition of the Soul / A Complete Guide to the Soul.

Image: Silk Crazy Quilt / Mrs. Brown (c. 1890) / Wikimedia Commons / Public domain.

A quilt made from many crazy patches of coloured and patterned silk.

Esowteric @esowteric.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Source: Mary Watkins, “Breaking the Vessels: Archetypal Psychology and the Restoration of Culture, Community, and Ecology”. Image: A Lively Discussion [Brightened] / Francesco Bergamini (1815–1883) / Wikimedia Commons / Public domain.

Four men are standing in an old tavern, engaged in a lively discussion. A woman, serving three men at a nearby table from a large jug has her head turned toward the discussion and appears to be smiling.