{{Short description|Occult concept}} {{about|the esoteric concept|the album by Smak|Egregor (album)}} {{Esotericism}} An '''Egregore''' (also spelled '''egregor'''; {{etymology|fr|égrégore}}, {{etymology|grc|''ἐγρήγορος,'' egrēgoros|wakeful}}) is a concept in Western esotericism of a non-physical entity or thoughtform that arises from the collective thoughts and emotions of a distinct group of individuals.<ref name="Tremblay-2005" /><ref name="Delaforge-1987">{{Cite web |last=Delaforge |first=Gaetan |author-link=Gaetan Delaforge |date=Winter 1987–1988 |title=The Templar Tradition Yesterday and Today |url=https://www.masonicworld.com/education/files/artjun02/TEMPTRAD.htm |access-date=2023-06-22 |website=Gnosis}}</ref>
==Overview== In magical and other occult traditions, it is typically seen as having an independent existence, but in other kinds of esotericism, it is merely the collective mind of a religious community, either esoteric or exoteric. In the latter sense, as a collective mind, the term '''collective entity''', preferred by René Guénon, is synonymous with egregore.<ref name="Tremblay-2005" /> See the usage overview below.
In the apocryphal ''Book of Enoch'', the term referred to angelic beings known as watchers.<ref name="Charles-1913" /><ref name="enoksbok.se" /> Some other literary and religious works, such as ''The Manuscript Found in Saragossa'', have also made references to these angelic beings.<ref name="Potocki-1965" />
== Variant descriptions == === As independent angelic being === {{Main article|Watcher (angel)}} Egregores are quite independent entities in the ''Book of Enoch'', and there was then no notion that they arose from a collective. In literature, especially older literature, "egregores" have often been straightforward references to these Enochian entities. This is the case in Jan Potocki's novel ''The Manuscript Found in Saragossa'', which calls egregores "the most illustrious of fallen angels".<ref name="Potocki-1965">{{Cite book |last=Potocki |first=Jan |title=Manoscritto trovato a Saragozza |publisher=Adelphi |year=1965 |isbn=9788845900389 |edition=10 |location=Milan |language=Italian |translator-last=Devoto |translator-first=Anna}}</ref> The French author Victor Hugo, in ''La Légende des siècles'' (1859) ("The Legend of the Ages"), also uses the word ''égrégore,'' first as an adjective, then as a noun, while leaving the meaning obscure.<ref name="Stavish-2018">{{Cite book |last=Stavish |first=Mark |title=Egregores: The Occult Entities That Watch Over Human Destiny |publisher=Inner Traditions |year=2018 |isbn=9781620555774 |edition=ebook |pages=Introduction, chapters 1, 3, and 4 |language=en}}</ref>
=== As spiritual elite === The Traditionalist School philosopher Julius Evola, in his ''Revolt Against the Modern World'', referred to an elite of spiritually aware people, who keep Tradition alive,<ref name="Stavish-2018" /><ref name="Evola-1995" /> as "those who are awake, whom in Greek are called the εγρῄγοροι",<ref name="Evola-1995">{{Cite book |last=Evola |first=Julius |title=Revolt Against the Modern World: Politics, Religion and Social Order of the Kali Yuga |publisher=Inner Traditions International |year=1995 |isbn=0-89281-506-X |edition=1 |location=Rochester, Vermont 05767 |pages=364 |language=en |translator-last=Stucco |translator-first=Guido}}</ref> apparently alluding to the Watchers,<ref name="Stavish-2018" /> and the most literal sense of their name, which is "wakeful" or "awake".
=== As group mind === In esotericism, "egregore" has been used to denote a "group mind"<ref name="Delaforge-1987" /> or "collective consciousness" of a religious community. René Guénon said, "the collective, in its psychic as well as its corporeal aspects, is nothing but a simple extension of the individual, and thus has absolutely nothing transcendent with respect to it, as opposed to spiritual influences, which are of a wholly different order".<ref name="Tremblay-2005" /> This usage was followed by ''Gnosis'' magazine<ref name="Delaforge-1987" /> and by Olavo de Carvalho,<ref name="de Carvalho-2021">{{Cite book |last =de Carvalho |first =Olavo |title =O saber e o enigma: Introdução ao estudo dos esoterismos |publisher =Vide Editorial |year =2021 |isbn =978-65-87138-73-2 |editor-last =Robson |editor-first =Ronald |edition =1 |location =Campinas, SP |pages =114–118 |language =pt-BR |trans-title =Knowledge and enigma: An introduction to the study of esotericisms. }}</ref> and, according to Guénon, began with Éliphas Lévi.<ref name="Tremblay-2005" />[[File:Music of Gounod - Annie Besant Thought Form - Project Gutenberg eText 16269.jpg|thumb|180px|right|Thought form of Charles Gounod's music, according to Annie Besant and C.W. Leadbeater in ''Thought Forms'' (1901)]] The concept of a tulpa is similar.<ref name="Stavish-2018" />
== In esotericism == The ''Book of Enoch'', 1:5, refers to "ἐγρήγοροι",<ref name="enoksbok.se">{{Cite web |title=Enoch - Book of Enoch Greek Interlinear |url=http://enoksbok.se/cgi-bin/interlinear_greek.cgi |access-date=2023-06-22 |website=enoksbok.se}}</ref> which is usually translated as "watchers".<ref name="Charles-1913">{{Cite book |title=The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament |editor-first=R. H. |editor-last=Charles |place=Oxford |publisher=The Clarendon Press |year=1913 |chapter=The Book of Enoch, Section I |chapter-url=https://www.ccel.org/c/charles/otpseudepig/enoch/ENOCH_1.HTM |access-date=2023-06-22 |via=ccel.org}}</ref> As René Guénon says, these are "entities of a rather enigmatic character that, whatever they may be, seem to belong to the 'intermediary world'; this is all that they have in common with the collective entities to which the same name has been applied" in esoteric literature.<ref name="Tremblay-2005">{{Cite web |last=Tremblay |first=Jean-Marie |date=2005-02-02 |title=René Guénon, INITIATION ET RÉALISATION SPIRITUELLE |url=https://classiques.uqac.ca/classiques/guenon_rene/initiation_realisation_spirituelle/initiation_realisation_spirituelle.html |access-date=2023-06-22 |website=texte |at=Chapter 6, "Influence spirituelle et égrégores"}}</ref>
=== In the work of René Guénon === While Guénon notes that he had "never used the word 'egregore' to designate" what he preferred to call a "collective entity", he notes<ref name="Tremblay-2005" /> that he had described these same entities in his ''Perspectives on Initiation'' (1946), in the following passage:<blockquote>Each collectivity can thus be regarded as possessing a subtle force made up in a way of the contributions of all its members past and present, and which is consequently all the more considerable and able to produce greater effects as the collectivity is older and is composed of a greater number of members. It is evident, moreover, that this 'quantitative' consideration essentially indicates that it is a question of the individual domain, beyond which this force could not in any way intervene.<ref>{{Cite web |last =Tremblay |first =Jean-Marie |date =2005-02-02 |title =René Guénon (1946), Aperçus sur l'initiation |url =https://classiques.uqac.ca/classiques/guenon_rene/Apercus_sur_initiation/Apercus_sur_initiation.html |access-date =2023-06-22 |website =texte |at =Chapter 24, "La prière et l'incantation"}}</ref><ref name="Tremblay-2005" /></blockquote>Guénon believed that prayer is not directly addressed to spiritual entities (such as gods or angels), but rather it, "consciously or not, addresses itself most immediately to the collective entity, and it is only by the intermediary of this latter that it also addresses the spiritual influence that works through it".<ref name="Tremblay-2005" />
=== Origin and development of the concept in esotericism === According to Guénon, the term was first used to designate these collective entities by Éliphas Lévi, "who, to justify this meaning, gave it an improbable Latin etymology, deriving it from ''grex'', 'flock,' whereas the word is purely Greek and has never signified anything but 'watcher.{{'"}}<ref name="Tremblay-2005" /> But according to Mark Stavish's 2018 book ''Egregores'', Lévi's ''Le Grand Arcane'' ("The Great Secret", 1868) "clearly identifies the word ''egregore'' with the Kabbalistic lore of those beings who were said to be the fathers of the Nephilim",<ref name="Stavish-2018" /> i.e., the Watchers.<ref name="Stavish-2018" /> Lévi described them as "terrible beings" that "crush us without pity because they are unaware of our existence."<ref>{{cite book |first=Éliphas |last=Lévi |author-link=Éliphas Lévi |title=Le grand arcane, ou l'occultisme dévoilé |trans-title=The Great Secret, or Occultism Unveiled |year=1868 |lang=fr |page=127–130, 133, 136}}</ref>
Following the usage of "egregore" as a "collective entity", a 1987 article by Gaetan Delaforge in ''Gnosis'' magazine defines an egregore as "a kind of group mind which is created when people consciously come together for a common purpose".<ref name="Delaforge-1987" />
== In contemporary occult and magical thought == === In ''Meditations on the Tarot'' === The ''Meditations on the Tarot'' describe the Antichrist as "an ''egregore'', an artificial being who owes his existence to collective generation ''from below''". Elsewhere, the book calls egregores "demons engendered by the collective will and imagination of nations".<ref name="Anonymous-2002">{{Cite book |last=Anonymous |title=Meditations on the Tarot |publisher=Penguin |year=2002 |isbn=978-1-101-65785-0 |location=New York, New York |language=en |orig-date=1985}}</ref> The book cites, but does not completely agree with, the usage of Robert Ambelain in his ''La Kabbale pratique''. Ambelain defined the egregore as "a ''force'' generated by a powerful spiritual current and then nourished at regular intervals, according to a rhythm in harmony with the universal life of the cosmos, or to a union of entities united by a common characteristic nature". The author of the ''Meditations on the Tarot'' calls this passage from Ambelain "a definition which leaves nothing more to be desired", but disagrees with Ambelain's description of Catholicism, Freemasonry, and Protestantism as egregores.<ref name="Anonymous-2002" />
=== In the work of Gary Lachman === Gary Lachman follows the usage of the ''Meditations on the Tarot'' in his book ''Dark Star Rising'', which also suggests that Pepe the Frog may be an egregore in this sense—or a tulpa, which Lachman sees as a similar phenomenon.<ref name="Lachman-2018">{{Cite book |last=Lachman |first=Gary |title=Dark Star Rising: Magick and Power in the Age of Trump |publisher=Penguin Publishing Group |year=2018 |isbn=9780525503804 |location=New York |language=en}}</ref> In the usage of Lachman and of the ''Meditations on the Tarot'', "there are no 'good' egregores, only 'negative' ones".<ref name="Lachman-2018" /> Lachman cited Joscelyn Godwin's ''The Golden Thread'', which itself cited the ''Meditations on the Tarot'',<ref name="Godwin-2007">{{Cite book |last=Godwin |first=Joscelyn |title=The Golden Thread |publisher=Quest Books |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-8356-0860-2 |edition=1 |location=Wheaton, IL |language=en}}</ref> as a source for the idea that, while a religious (or other) group who creates an egregore can "rely" on it as "an efficacious magical ally", "the egregore's help comes at a price",<ref name="Lachman-2018" /> since, as Godwin put it, its creators must thenceforth meet the egregore's "unlimited appetite for their future devotion".<ref name="Godwin-2007" /><ref name="Lachman-2018" />
=== In the works of Peter Carroll === {{chaos magic}} ''Liber Null & Psychonaut'', by the British chaos magician Peter J. Carroll, uses the word ''egregore'' for the first time at the end of the following passage:<blockquote>Religion takes the view that consciousness preceded organic life. Supposedly there were gods, angelic forces, titans, and demons setting the scene before material life developed. Science takes the opposite view and considers that much organic evolution occurred before the phenomenon of consciousness appeared. Magic, which has given more attention to the quality of consciousness itself, takes an alternative view and concludes that organic and psychic forms evolve synchronously. As organic development occurs, a psychic field is generated which feeds back into the organic forms. Thus each species of living being has its own type of psychic form or magical essence. These egregores may occasionally be felt as a presence or even glimpsed in the form of the species they watch over.<ref name="Carroll-1987">{{Cite book |last=Carroll |first=Peter James |title=Liber Null & Psychonaut |publisher=Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC |year=1987 |isbn=978-0-87728-639-4 |edition=ebook |location=San Francisco, CA |language=en}}</ref></blockquote>The book goes on to say that "those who have perceived the human egregore usually describe it as God", and that "magicians consider that all life on this world contributes to, and depends on, a vast composite egregore which has variously been known as the Great Mother, the Anima Mundi, the Great Archon, the Devil, Pan, and Baphomet."<ref name="Carroll-1987" />
=== In the work of Frater Tenebris === Following this usage, though giving no citations, the glossary in Frater Tenebris's 2022 book ''The Philosophy of Dark Paganism''<ref name="Tenebris-2022">{{Cite book |last=Tenebris |first=Frater |title=The Philosophy of Dark Paganism: Wisdom & Magick to Cultivate the Self |publisher=Llewellyn Worldwide, LTD. |year=2022 |isbn=9780738772653 |edition=ebook |location=Woodbury, MN 55125 |language=en}}</ref> defines "egregore" as "an occult term for an independently functioning spiritual entity created by one or more magick practitioners. Many egregores begin as thought-forms but then become capable of operating independently of the practitioners."<ref name="Tenebris-2022" /> It defines "thought-form" as "an esoteric entity created by magick", and "magick" as "a spiritual practice and process to influence the probability of events."<ref name="Tenebris-2022" />
The book mentions egregores in the context of "archetypism", a view that understands "the different gods and goddesses" as "either psychological structures, similar to Carl Jung's archetypes, or different currents of arcane energy found in the Cosmos that are anthropomorphized."<ref name="Tenebris-2022" /> Noting that "some archetypists consider the gods to be thought-forms created from worship and prayer by generations of believers", it says that "over time these thought-forms may become egregores that exhibit some autonomy apart from their worshipers", and that "one might imagine these gods along the line of Neil Gaiman's deities in the novel ''American Gods''."<ref name="Tenebris-2022" />
== See also == * {{annotated link|Akashic records}} * China brain — Thought experiment theorising whether consciousness could be collectively developed by humans simulating neural activity * {{annotated link|Collective unconscious}} * {{annotated link|Faith healing}} * {{annotated link|Gestalt psychology}} * {{annotated link|Jungian archetypes}} * Observant Freemasonry — A style of Free-Masonry often using concepts such as "Masonic egregore" * {{annotated link|Memetics}} * {{annotated link|Panpsychism}} * {{annotated link|Pathetic fallacy}} * {{annotated link|Synchronicity}} * {{annotated link|Vitalism}}
== References == {{reflist}}
== Further reading == {{refbegin}} *{{cite book |first=Abdelkader |last=Benchamma |author-link=Abdelkader Benchamma |editor1-first=Stéphane |editor1-last=Ibars |title=Abdelkder Benchamma: Egregore |year=2022 |place=France |publisher=Actes Sud Editions |isbn=978-2330144999}} *{{cite web |last=Butler |first=Walter Ernest |date=1970 |url=https://www.servantsofthelight.org/knowledge/butler-egregore.html |title=The Egregore of a School |work=Servantsofthelight.org |publisher=The Servants of the Light |access-date=November 22, 2011}} *{{cite web |last=Constable |first=Simon |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/simonconstable/2018/05/21/did-witchcraft-win-trump-the-election/ |title=What Magic Got Trump Elected? |website=Forbes |date=May 21, 2018 |access-date=2022-03-04}} * {{cite book |last=Greer |first=J. M. |author-link=John Michael Greer |year=2017 |title=Circles of Power: An Introduction to Hermetic Magic |publisher=Aeon Books Limited |isbn=978-1904658856}} *{{cite book |last=Greer |first=J. M. |year=2021 |title=Inside a Magical Lodge: Traditional Lodge Methods for Modern Mages |publisher=Aeon Books Limited |isbn=978-1913504755}} {{refend}}
== External links == * {{Wiktionary inline|egregore}}
{{Chaos magic series}}
Category:Fraternitas Saturni Category:Language and mysticism