This thesis looks at the life and works of Daphne du Maurier in the context of the inter-related ideas of religion, psychology and politics. Throughout, I use a methodology based on the concept of the palimpsest. But I also use theory provided by Jung, Plato and Nietzsche – all of which were known to du Maurier to a greater or lesser degree. Other theory is used occasionally, but only as it suggests itself in the context under consideration. The ideas of ‘Resurrection, Renaissance and Rebirth' give the thesis a structure and a theme. The interaction of Christianity and Paganism is also examined. Section One, ‘Introduction – Resurrecting Texts/Lives', introduces the idea of the palimpsest. In reality, this is a twice-written document frequently containing a Christian text which is written over a Pagan one, with the Pagan text resurrecting itself over time. In theory, the palimpsest is a textual space where disparate texts collide and collude in an involuted manner. Section Two, ‘Life and Text – Renaissance Inspired Men', looks at two men who drew their inspiration from the Renaissance as either age or idea - the socialist Victor Gollancz and the conservative Frank Buchman - and to what degree du Maurier interacted with both the people and their conceptual framework. Section Three, ‘Life into Text – Renaissance Men', concerns itself with du Maurier's biographies of two Renaissance brothers, Anthony and Francis Bacon, and how their lives have been read, gnostically, by herself and others, notably The Francis Bacon Society and Nietzsche. Section Four, ‘Spectralised Lives in Text - Rebirthing', examines how the foregoing discussion plays itself out in two of du Maurier's novels, Jamaica Inn (1936) and The Flight of the Falcon (1965). The chapter on Jamaica Inn looks at Celtic Revivalism and how the Celtic gods spectralise the characters of the novel leading to a rebirthing experience for the protagonist Mary Yellan – implicit in this is the concept of the Renaissance-as-idea. The chapter on The Flight of the Falcon shows how the Renaissance-as-age daimonises characters of the twentieth-century. The palimpsest as either a document or a theoretical perspective weaves itself in and out of all my chapters. Section Five, ‘Concluding Remarks', leads to two related conclusions, firstly that du Maurier has been spectralised by the Renaissance, and secondly that du Maurier's life and works, taken together, can be read as an involuted palimpsest.

This dissertation looks at an attempt in Buddhist history to theorize the role and status of the body as the prime focus of soteriological discourse. It studies a text titled Explanation of the Hidden Vajra Body (Rdo rje lus kyi sbas bshad), composed by Yang dgon pa Rgyal mtshan dpal (1213-1258). This work, drawing on a wide range of canonical tantric Buddhist scriptures and Indic and Tibetan commentaries, lays out in detail a Buddhist theory of embodiment that brings together the worldly realities of the body with their enlightened transformation. This dissertation analyzes the ways Yang dgon pa theorizes the body as the essential ground of the salvific path, and endeavors to provide a thematic guide to his rich and complex discussion of what the body is and does, from a tantric perspective. The thesis parses a key term, dngos po'i gnas lugs, that Yang dgon pa uses as an organizing principle in Explanation of the Hidden. If taken literally, the term means something like "the nature of things" or "the nature of material substance," but Yang dgon pa deployed the term specifically to refer to the nature of the human psychophysical organism, in its ordinary state. By way of this term, Yang dgon pa argues that the body itself makes enlightenment possible. In the course of this thesis, I consider the prior history of this category as it was gradually developed by a series of Bka' brgyud writers until it reached Yang dgon pa. Then, in light of this category, I explore Yang dgon pa's own vision of embodiment. This vision, I argue, reflects an attempt to refocus soteriological attention on the power of the body, over and above the mind, as the salient basis for non-dual knowing. Finally, I reflect upon the lasting contributions of Yang dgon pa's conception of the body to the ongoing exploration of such topics in the history of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist soteriology, as well as upon why some of the more radical elements of his thinking seem to have been eliminated in subsequent generations of his lineage.

CONK is a collection that explores the absurdist irony located at the intersection between horror and humor. The events are predicated upon the characters' fundamental misunderstandings of the world around them, their doom arising from their inability to differentiate between the indecipherable and the incorrect ("Bird Kill"). Some are more reflexive, revolving around the difficulty of telling a story at all ("What a Story''), or exploring the dissolution of self that results from the act of artmaking (the eponymous "CONK"), or even indulging in the joy of said dissolution ("Celebration"). Other times, the pieces mix esoteric language and pop culture referents with the goal of defamiliarizing them ("Will That Be All?"). The resulting destabilization, this breakdown of heuristic methodology, creates situations that resist understanding and renders uncanny previously mundane images. / Master of Fine Arts / CONK is a collection of short fiction.

Les représentations des divinités féminines hindoues mises au jour au Bengale, stèles et statues de pierre ou de métal, ont été analysées à partir d'un corpus d'un peu plus de trois cents œuvres que nous avons collectées dans les musées indiens, bangladais et occidentaux, mais aussi dans les catalogues, études et publications diverses. L'étude iconographique sera faite par une mise en perspective des images, de l'épigraphie, de la littérature et des concepts théologiques exprimés dans les textes sacrés. La première partie de cette recherche est une étude chronologique consacrée (1) à l'étude des plaques de terre cuite produites au Bengale entre le IIIᵉ siècle av. notre ère et le IIᵉ après qui représentent divers personnages féminins portant déjà pour certains les caractéristiques iconographiques de la divinité telles qu'on les trouvera sur les images ultérieures, et (2) à l'apparition et au développement de la parèdre de Śiva dans son rôle d'épouse : à partir du IXᵉ siècle et jusqu'au XIIᵉ siècle, c'est en effet la Déesse, śakti du dieu, qui est omniprésente. Les déesses viṣṇuites n'occupent qu'une infime partie du corpus. Dans la deuxième partie, ce sont les formes redoutables de la Déesse śivaïte, Durgā siṃhavāhinī, Mahiṣāsuramardinī et Cāmuṇḍā/Kālī qui sont analysées. Les déesses serpents gardent leur spécificité malgré leur intégration dans le panthéon śivaïte. L'étude stylistique des images permet d'identifier le développement des différentes écoles de la région avec, à partir des XIᵉ et XIIᵉ siècles, une différence notable entre les stèles à la décoration foisonnante du nord-ouest du Bengale et celles dépouillées et empreintes de spiritualité de la région de Dhaka devenue le centre du pouvoir sous les Sena. Cette étude iconographique permet de constater que de la bhakti apparue à l'époque des Épopées, aux cultes tantriques ésotériques les plus transgressifs, le Bengale médiéval a beaucoup développé les cultes śākta en l'honneur de la Déesse Suprême rattachée au panthéon śivaïte : les courants orthodoxes, kaula et Trika non dualistes, et peut-être Nātha ont pu être identifiés. Mais quelle que soit la voie choisie, le but de l'adepte reste le même, la libération, mokṣa, et la fusion avec la Déesse Suprême. / The production in Bengal of stone stelae and stone and metal statues representing Hindu Goddesses, dated from prehistory up to the twelfth century was assembled in a collection of more than three hundred pieces from the museums in India, Bangladesh and Western countries, from catalogues and from other scholar research publications. The purpose of this doctoral dissertation is the analysis of the collection.The first part of this research is a chronological approach. Between the third century B.C. and the second century A.D., there was an important production of terracotta plaques with feminine figurines but it is difficult to say whether they were modeled for decoration or for cult purposes. Later, other than some beautiful terracotta statues representing Mahiṣāsuramardinī and snake goddesses dated around the fifth century, there is a paucity of images until the eighth century. The pieces dating from the ninth up to the twelfth century in the collection are quite all images of the Goddess, Śiva's śakti and wife, and the stelae are quite all narratives and dedicated to orthodox cults.The second part of the research is a more detailed analysis of the fearsome forms of the Goddess: Durgā siṃhavāhinī, Mahiṣāsuramardinī, Cāmuṇḍā; the snake goddesses, although being incorporated within the Śaiva pantheon, keep a specific role.Stylistic elements facilitate the identification of several schools of sculpture, with, by the eleventh and twelfth centuries, a substantial difference between the abundance of decorative elements on the stelae from North-West of Bengal and the bare style of those conceived in the area of Dhaka.From a religious point of view, an evolution from the narrative to the esoteric tantric images shows different types of beliefs and śākta cults: orthodox, non dualist kaula and Trika, and may be Nātha, being understood that whichever way is chosen, the goal remains the same: mokṣa and merge within the Supreme Goddess.

Submitted by Filipe dos Santos (fsantos@pucsp.br) on 2016-08-31T18:06:11Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Fabio Mendia.pdf: 6392530 bytes, checksum: 6077624ba89a84a25312bf15c0c71cd1 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-31T18:06:12Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Fabio Mendia.pdf: 6392530 bytes, checksum: 6077624ba89a84a25312bf15c0c71cd1 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-04-27 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / The purpose of the present research is to develop a hermeneutical process to better understand Fernando Pessoa’s Rosicrucian hued esoteric thought, within the cultural horizon of each reader, through Pessoa’s notes and the sense of the esoteric experience expressed in his poems. Its main objectives are to contribute to the understanding of Pessoa’s work and to the expansion of Western Esotericism field of research in Brazilian academy. The process adds to the rational analysis of the text the emotional experience of the poems, and is based upon Gadamer’s phenomenological hermeneutic, the imaginary, contemplative practices of several esoteric, mystical and traditional religious currents, and utilizes an adaptation of Alfonso López Quintás “Lúdico Ambital” method. The work is presented in six chapters, starting with a discussion on Western Esotericism’s definition and a brief history of its sources and main currents up to nowadays. It follows with an introduction on phenomenological hermeneutics and a discussion on religious expression, the imaginary, the “imaginal world”, and the ways religious experiences can be expressed. It includes a brief presentation of Fernando Pessoa’s life and thought, particularly his notes on esotericism, and selects 31 poems to illustrate the study. It develops and applies a hermeneutical method to interpret these poems, followed by an appendix in which the method is exemplified through fictional characters. The work is completed by an addendum containing a more complete version of the poems for reference, as well as images to better explain some esoteric concepts / O presente trabalho se propõe a estabelecer um processo hermenêutico para melhor compreender o pensamento esotérico de matiz rosacruciano de Fernando Pessoa, dentro do horizonte cultural de cada leitor, através das anotações do poeta e do sentido da vivência esotérica expressa por ele em suas poesias. Pretende com isso, de um lado, contribuir no esclarecimento deste pensamento para um melhor entendimento de sua obra, e, do outro, auxiliar a abrir mais o campo de estudo do Esoterismo Ocidental na academia brasileira. Este processo, que agrega à análise racional dos textos a vivência emocional dos poemas, se baseia na Hermenêutica Fenomenológica de Gadamer, na teoria do imaginário, na prática contemplativa de várias correntes religiosas, místicas e esotéricas tradicionais, acrescido de uma adaptação do método Lúdico-Ambital de Alfonso López Quintás de interação com os textos. O trabalho em seis capítulos se inicia com a discussão do que é o Esoterismo Ocidental e faz um breve histórico de suas fontes e principais correntes até os dias de hoje. Segue discutindo o sentido da Hermenêutica Fenomenológica; da linguagem religiosa; do imaginário e do “mundo imaginal”; e o modo como as experiências religiosas podem ser expressas. Apresenta a vida e o pensamento de Pessoa, em particular suas anotações sobre o Esoterismo, e seleciona trinta e um poemas para ilustrar o estudo. Desenvolve e aplica um processo hermenêutico para a compreensão desses poemas e, por fim, inclui um apêndice onde o método é ilustrado através do uso de personagens fictícios. O trabalho é completado por um Anexo para consultas, contendo os poemas selecionados numa versão mais completa, e algumas figuras que ilustram conceitos esotéricos

« Ici, c’est l’école de la chefferie. Les enseignants sont nommés avec le consentement de la tribu et de la chefferie. Ici, il y a le grand chef, le petit-chef et le pasteur et après l’administration […]. L’école, elle appartient au gavaman (gouverneur). C’est comme ça depuis. Tout ça c’est du domaine du Ledran (espace public). Cependant tout cela est posé sur nos terres ». L’intervention du dignitaire de la tribu de Padawa sur l’île de Maré en Nouvelle-Calédonie, le lundi 3 mars 1983 posait les éléments déclencheurs de réflexion sur l’agencement spatial de l’école en tribu kanak. L’expression utilisée par ce dignitaire clanique, « cela est posé sur nos terres », même si elle nous rend perplexe quant à la situation spatiale de l’école, elle nous offre cependant l’opportunité d’une approche socio anthropologique et un angle d’étude des rapports politiques progressifs liés à l’histoire d’insertion et d’intégration des groupes et des objets dans l’espace autochtone. La préposition « sur » implique la position de ce qui est en surface, de ce qui relève des autorités passagères, opposé à l’interne, « sous », qu’est l’espace foncier coutumier, espace d’enracinement. La dichotomie « sur » et « sous » comme concepts spatiaux renvoie aux formules d’accueilli et d’accueillant, entendues comme représentation d’ordre d’arrivée dans l’espace socialisé, la tribu. Cet ordre d’occupation devient un argument fort de la revendication de légitimité entre autochtones eux-mêmes puis entre autochtones et les autres groupes de population. Les microespaces vitaux sont gérés en fonction de l’ordre d’intégration et de localisation des groupes ou des objets du collectif. Cette distinction d’occupation spatiale peut alors élucider la localisation paradoxale de l’école à l’exemple de celle de la tribu de Padawa, qui seule, ressemblant à un poste de garde-frontières aux confins de la tribu. Rien n’est moins simple dans le milieu kanak où l’espace et sa gestion ne sont nullement des objets éphémères voire même évanescents. Orientée selon la méthode dite qualitative à travers la discursivité sociale, notre réflexion sur la place de l’école en milieu kanak, non seulement scruterait la raison intentionnelle autochtone à vouloir positionner paradoxalement l’infrastructure mais aussi selon la confrontation de deux espaces, -Esotérique et Exotérique-, comment Savoir autochtone, Savoir de l’école, Prestige et Pouvoir insulaire seraient mis en compétition selon des pratiques claires-obscures de stratégies d’anthropologisation politique des espaces, relevant d’aspects combinatoires. Le souci de recherche d’équilibre dynamique, suite à l’intégration de l’espace scolaire, conduirait par reformulation et réarrangement permanent à l’émergence au sens barycentrique d’un espace construit et attendu implicitement par les Accords, espace moderne que nous aimerions nommer, Espace Public Pays, nouvel espace dialogique où viennent se confronter divers discours et textes culturels complexes. En outre, notre analyse permettrait de reconsidérer ces espaces complexes identitaires indigènes au moment où, dans le contexte expéditif « déséquilibrant », l’autochtone risquerait son extradition dans un monde de formatage asphyxiant, dans lequel tout serait prétexte à ravaler ce reste identitaire, comme forme de déshumanisation en le dépossédant de la faculté à… et de … penser le monde, comme activité humaine noble. Ne serait-ce pas là notre défi ? / "Here is the school of leadership. Teachers are appointed with the consent of the tribe and chiefdom. Here, there is a great leader, the small head and the pastor and after administration [...]. The school, it belongs to gavaman (Governor). This has been going. It's all in the domain of Ledran (public space). But all this rests on our land. " The response of the dignitary of the tribe of Padawa on Maré Island in New Caledonia, Monday, March 3, 1983 raised the triggers for reflection on the spatial arrangement of the school Kanak tribe. The expression used by the dignitary clannish, "it sits on our land," even if it makes us confused about the spatial location of the school, however it gives us the opportunity of a social anthropological approach and an angle review reports progressive policy related to the history of inclusion and integration of groups and Aboriginal objects in space. The preposition "on" position involves what is on the surface of what is under the authority transient, as opposed to internally; "under" customary land is space, space for rooting. The dichotomy between "on" and "below" refers to spatial concepts such as greeting and welcoming, understood as a representation of order of arrival in the socialized space, the tribe. This order of occupation becomes a strong argument for the claim to legitimacy among Aboriginal people themselves and between indigenous and others. The vital microespaces are managed according to the order of integration and localization of objects or groups of the collective. This distinction occupying space can then elucidate the paradoxical location of the school to the example of one of the tribe of Padawa, which alone, like a border guard post on the borders of the tribe. Nothing is less straightforward in the Kanak community where space and its management are not ephemera even evanescent. Based on the qualitative method through social discursively, our thoughts on the place of the school in kanak tribes not only probes into the indigenous intention to paradoxically posit the infrastructure but also, because it opposes two different kinds of space - esoteric and exoteric, into the way indigenous knowledge, scholar knowledge and island knowledge may come into competition in not so clear strategies of the political anthropologization of space, generated by a combination of perspectives. The sake of research of dynamic equilibrium, following the integration of school space by rewording and rearrangement lead to the emergence Standing under barycentric space built and implicitly expected by the Agreements, modern space that we would like appoint, Public Space of the country, where new space is dialogic discourse to confront various cultural texts and complex. In addition, our analysis would reconsider these complex spaces indigenous identity when, in the context of parole "unbalancing" the native risk his extradition in a suffocating world of formatting, in which everything is a pretext to swallow what is identity, as form of dehumanization by dispossessing the ability to think ... ... and the world as noble human activity. Would not that our challenge?

Cette thèse, intitulée Le pohète initié : Illumination et esthétique ésotérique dans l’œuvre de Gellu Naum, analyse trois œuvres importantes de Gellu Naum, le roman Zenobia, les proses La voie du serpent et Medium, ainsi que le rapport entre la poésie picturale de Gellu Naum et la peinture narrative de Victor Brauner. Les œuvres de Gellu Naum que nous analysons possèdent des points communs synthétisés dans la figure de l’illumination, qui signale l’existence d’un régime de connaissance refondé. L’illumination se base sur des théories ésotériques et surréalistes et s’ouvre également sur une nouvelle interprétation du sacré, dénouée de tout caractère religieux. L’illumination institue et entretient un climat mystique à travers les écrits de Gellu Naum et les productions plastiques de Victor Brauner et consolide en même temps leurs doctrines esthétiques. Pour Gellu Naum, l’illumination est le but suprême de l’existence. Elle a affaire avec la capacité de voir avec les yeux du dedans. Dans ce registre ésotérique, la possibilité d’arriver de l’autre côté, c’est-à-dire dans la part invisible de la réalité, stratifiée jusqu’à son niveau archaïque, est réelle et révélatrice. Selon Gellu Naum, l’artiste doit mettre son œil à l’état sauvage pour décrire l’état transcendantal dans lequel résident ses héros; ceci en essayant de contrecarrer un grave bouleversement historique, puisque le totalitarisme roumain a éclipsé à tout jamais l’espace de l’existence. L’écriture de Naum porte les traces noires de cette incidence néfaste. Pour Victor Brauner, l’illumination a une fonction initiatrice. Elle cristallise l’art du peintre et l’éclaire tout au long de sa quête identitaire. L’illumination entretient et provoque une catharsis aux connotations inattendues dans la production artistique, s’articulant avec une consécration de l’ésotérisme. Partant d’une perspective interdisciplinaire, la thèse se divise en trois parties, Le roman Zenobia et la question de la pensée illuminée, L’état transcendantal et ses variables ou De la logique occulte de l’écriture et Les expressions de la poésie picturale et de la peinture narrative à travers les œuvres de Gellu Naum et de Victor Brauner, chacune d’entre elles analysant la figure de l’illumination et établissant aussi les invariantes esthétiques des deux Surréalistes. Dans leur quête de nouvelles formes de représentations artistiques, Gellu Naum et Victor Brauner ont recours à un surréalisme essentiellement cognitif. Les deux font appel à la rationalité, à la lucidité accrue, ce que les Surréalistes rejetaient parfois avec véhémence. / This thesis, entitled The Initiated pohet : Illumination and Esoteric Aesthetics in Gellu Naum’s work, analyzes three important literary productions by Gellu Naum, the novel Zenobia, his writings The Serpent’s Way and Medium, as well as the relationship between Gellu Naum’s pictorial poetry and Victor Bruner’s narrative painting. Gellu Naum’s works analyzed in this study have many similarities synthetized in the trope of illumination. The notion of illumination is based on esoteric and Surrealist theories, opening an interpretation of the sacred devoid of religious substance. Illumination develops a mystical climate throughout Gellu Naum’s writings and Victor Brauner’s art productions and consolidates their aesthetic doctrines. For Naum Gellu, illumination is the ultimate goal of existence. It has to do with the ability to see with the eyes within, revealing a blinding and terrifying alternative to the factual world. Within this esoteric tone, the possibility of reaching the other side – the invisible, advancing deep to the archaic level – is real and revealing. According to Gellu Naum, the artist must reach the wild state in order to describe the transcendental state infusing his heroes. This perspective counteracts a severe historical turmoil, since Romanian totalitarianism severely abbreviated life conditions. Naum’s writings bear the dark traces of this negative impact. For Victor Brauner, illumination has an initiation function. It crystallizes the painter's art throughout his quest for identity. Illumination causes and maintains catharsis, with unexpected connotations in the art production. It articulates a form of esotericism that only rarely infuses the Surrealist movement in the West. Advancing an interdisciplinary approach, my thesis is divided into three parts: The novel Zenobia and the Notion of "Illumination Thinking" The Transcendental State and Its Variables or The Occult Logic of Writing and Expressions of Pictorial Poetry and of Narrative Painting in the Works of Gellu Naum and Victor Brauner. These chapters analyze the figure of illumination and establish the aesthetic invariants grounding the works of the two Surrealists. In their quest for new forms of artistic representations, Gellu Naum and Victor Brauner employ a mainly cognitive form of Surrealism. Both appeal to rationality, to cruel lucidity, which often Surrealists strongly rejected.

Le chiisme est contrairement au sunnisme, s’appuie sur une théorie ésotérique qui met en avant la question de l’imamat en islam, alors que le sunnisme s’appuie essentiellement sur les textes et la tradition prophétique. Selon des critères historiques, le chiisme comprend d’autres branches qui ont finalement imposé deux grandes écoles chiites ; la duodécimaine (chiisme de l’Iran actuel), et l’ismaélisme. Ce dernier présente une pensée fondée non seulement sur l’imamat, mais aussi sur la charia sunnite avec une interprétation ésotérique. Cela a contribué à mettre en place une pensée qui dépasse les limites de la religion en tant que telle. L’ismaélisme se présente alors, dès son apparition intellectuelle « physique », avec les Épîtres des Frères de la Pureté, vers le début du Xème siècle, comme un courant de pensée philosophique ésotérique « bāṭinīya ». Ce courant tente de comprendre l’existence dans sa relation avec la religion. De ce point de vue, plusieurs questions, auxquelles nous avons tenté d’y répondre tout au long de ce travail de recherche, se posent : quelle est la place des événements historiques dans l’interprétation ésotérique ? Quelle est la place de l’Homme par rapport à tout ce qui l’entoure comme phénomènes matériels et spirituels ? En effet, selon cette pensée, rien n’échappe à un système cyclique construit divinement. Ainsi, partant de l’histoire ismaélienne et de sa signification, d’après cette pensée elle-même, l’Homme prend la place principale et devient le but de tout développement matériel et spirituel. La première partie de ce travail donne un panorama historique afin de situer l’Ismaélisme au sein des différentes branches et écoles, et par rapport aux autres religions. Ensuite, la deuxième partie, tend à comprendre cette pensée en essayant de suivre ce qui a été préconisé par les émissaires ismaéliens tout en développant une réflexion personnelle sur l’influence de cette méthode sur les individus. Enfin, la dernière partie montre le dynamisme de cette pensée qui n’est ni figée ni immobilière du point de vue exotérique. En effet, l’existence d’un imam vivant permet de guider les adeptes selon le changement du monde tout en continuant à interpréter la foi. En somme, l’histoire a une interprétation qui dépasse les faits historiques eux-mêmes pour une compréhension d’un système céleste construit d’une manière très rigide et ponctuelle. Ce système complexe est le miroir du corps humain. Partant de cette idée, toute science pourrait être abordée et interprétée selon ce système. / Shiism, unlike Sunnism, is based on an esoteric philosophy placing primary importance on the role of Imamat in Islam, while Sunnism is based primarily on texts and prophetic tradition. Shiism also includes other branches - according to historical criteria - that eventually prompted two major Shiite schools; Twelver (Shi'ism of Iran today), and Ismailism. The latter is a school of thought based not only on the Imamat, but also on the Sunni Sharia with an esoteric interpretation. This helped put in place thought beyond the limits of religion as such. Ismailism appears from its intellectual “physical”, appearance, by the Epistles of the Brethren of Purity, around the beginning of the tenth century, as a stream of esoteric philosophical thought "bāṭinīya". This thought attempts to understand existence in its relationship with religion. From this perspective, several questions arise: what is the place of historical events in the esoteric interpretation? What is the place of mankind in relation to everything that surrounds it as material and spiritual phenomena? According to this thinking, nothing escapes a cyclical system that has been divinely built. Thus, starting from Ismaili history and its meaning, according to this thinking, mankind takes the “main stage” and becomes the purpose of all material and spiritual development. The first part of this work provides a historical overview to locate Ismailism within different branches and schools, and in relation to other religions. Then the second part, attempts to understand Ismaili thought, following what was recommended by the Ismaili emissaries while developing a personal reflection on the influence of this framework on individuals. Finally, the last part demonstrates the dynamism of this thought that is neither frozen nor inflexible, from an exoteric point of view. Indeed, the existence of a living Imam helps guide followers, according to changes in the world while continuing to interpret the faith. To conclude, history provides an interpretation that goes beyond the historical facts alone, for an understanding of a celestial system constructed in a very rigid manner and at a very particular point in time. This complex system is a mirror of the human body. Starting from this idea, science can be addressed and interpreted according to this system.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-04T18:35:13Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Marcelo Leandro de Campos.pdf: 1504216 bytes, checksum: 8672406ea0a9bc1b66c43757181b3bc6 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-12-02 / This study aims to analyze the work of the Colombian esoteric Samael Aun Weor based on the concept of "secularization of esotericism" proposed by the historian Wouter Hanegraaff. Contributing to the interdisciplinary debate that articulates the field of Cultural History, History of Religions and the recent History of Western Esotericism, it is intended to analyze the reversing relations and mutual influences that guide the construction of the modern Western culture, its rationality paradigms and empirical science; and on the other hand, the establishment of an esoteric tradition that seeks to harmonize these paradigms with a design strongly "enchanted" of the universe, and the mutual process of appropriation/ reinterpretation involved.This debate also dialogues to a more specific discussion in the field of Science of Religions, which seeks to understand the changes occurring in Western religious field opposite the new secularized society. Specifically, this paper seeks to contribute to the debate by offering a perspective of these processes from its Latin American component in order to identify how these dynamics are reproduced on the continent and its specificities. With this purpose, taking the work of Samael Aun Weor as a case study, it was conducted a long-term historical context by inserting the author in a more general constitution process of modern Western esotericism, and specifically, in the constitution process of an esoteric spiritualities field in Colombia, birth cradle of the Gnostic Movement. From a historical-comparative analysis of his work evolution, its institutionalization and practices - which takes into account conceptual and methodological contributions of Italian History of Religions School, historiography on Western esotericism and theoretical proposition Bourdieu from the concept of "field" - the work highlights the doctrinal transition that the Colombian esoteric Aun Weor operates in his work, moving from Rosicrucianism towards the conceptions of a psychological esotericism, proposed by the Russian esoteric Gurdjieff. Such a transition is analyzed by the dominant imagery in the esoteric milieu of his time, a perspective that offers an important analytical material for understanding the structural dynamics that guide the institutionalization of Gnosticism in Latin America and the specifics that guide their reversing relations with the social universe in which they are inserted. / O presente trabalho tem o prop?sito de analisar a obra do esoterista colombiano Samael Aun Weor ? luz do conceito de seculariza??o do esoterismo do historiador Wouter Hanegraaff, que integra um importante debate, no campo da Hist?ria Cultural, que analisa as rela??es reversivas e as influ?ncias m?tuas que pautam, de um lado, a constru??o da moderna cultura ocidental e seus paradigmas de racionalidade e ci?ncia emp?rica, e do outro a constitui??o de uma tradi??o esot?rica que busca harmonizar estes paradigmas com uma concep??o fortemente encantada do universo, e dos m?tuos processos de apropria??o/reinterpreta??o envolvidos. Esse debate tamb?m dialoga com uma discuss?o mais espec?fica ao campo da Ci?ncia das Religi?es, que busca compreender as transforma??es que ocorrem no campo religioso ocidental frente ? nova sociedade secularizada. Nesse sentido, nosso trabalho busca contribuir com o debate oferecendo uma perspectiva destes processos a partir da periferia do ocidente , a Am?rica Latina, buscando identificar em que medida essas din?micas s?o reproduzidas no Novo Continente, e o que elas possuem de espec?fico. Com esse prop?sito, tomando-se a obra de Samael Aun Weor como estudo de caso, conduziu-se uma contextualiza??o hist?rica de longa dura??o, inserindo o autor no processo mais geral de constitui??o do moderno esoterismo ocidental, e de maneira mais espec?fica no processo de constitui??o de um campo de espiritualidades esot?ricas na Col?mbia. A partir de uma an?lise hist?rico-comparativa da evolu??o de sua obra, de sua institucionaliza??o e de suas pr?ticas, que leva em conta contribui??es conceituais e metodol?gicas da Escola Italiana de Hist?ria das Religi?es, nosso trabalho destaca a transi??o doutrin?ria que o autor opera em sua obra, deslocando-se do Rosacrucianismo em dire??o ?s concep??es de um Esoterismo Psicol?gico do esoterista russo Gurdjieff. Essa transi??o ? analisada ? luz do imagin?rio dominante no milieu esot?rico de sua ?poca, perspectiva que oferece um importante material anal?tico para a compreens?o das din?micas estruturais que norteiam a institucionaliza??o do gnosticismo na Am?rica Latina e das especificidades que definem suas rela??es reversivas com o universo social em que est?o inseridas.

This paper has two objectives. First: the humanistic idea of knowledge, philosophically formulated by Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925), should be presented in relation to history of ideas. In the meeting with different kinds of cultural and social needs in Central Europe during the decades of the turn of the 20th century, Steiner developed his idea of knowledge into a singular Thought Style (Ge. Denkstil). A Thought Style can be described as a selective and aimed cognitive preparedness. The idea of knowledge and the Thought Style are here described as anthroposophical humanism. The second objective is to show how the Thought Style, in a historical way, was established in Sweden, and how it, until the mid 1980s, changed and was adapted to Swedish culture, i.e. how the style in various ways became Swedish. Organisations and movements that were influenced by the anthroposophical humanism were The Anthroposophical Society, the biodynamic movement, the movement for anthroposophic medicine, the medical pedagogical movement with special pedagogical institutions and social therapeutic homes for treatment, the Waldorf movement, the Christian Society, anthroposophic architecture and art practice etc. Since they co-operated with a common background, they formed a Thought Collective (Ge. Denkkollektiv). The anthroposophical humanism has its roots relating to history of ideas far back in the Central European Middle Ages. During the new humanism era, the idea of knowledge had a renaissance in German culture life. Rudolf Steiner remodelled the idea at the end of the 19th century and developed it into the singular Thought Style. When Steiner was a theosophical teacher he gave it an esoteric design. After the First World War, when Steiner was working as a social reformer, he gave it a humanistic design. Within The Anthroposophical Society, the double image of the anthroposophical movement, internationally and in Sweden, led to severe opposition and conflicts. Right until the mid 1980s, reorganisations were common in order to handle the two directions of the Thought Style when it came to differences in traditions, ideology and sociology. In Sweden, the anthroposophical movement has undergone four stages of development: the reception period 1890-1935, the conversion period 1935-55, the expansion period 1955-1985 and the integration period as from 1985. As from 1913, when The Anthroposophical Society was established, until 1985, the development of ideas in the anthroposophical Thought Style and the Thought Collective can be described as a wandering from Christian esotericism to an anthroposophical humanistic idea of knowledge, with a cultural education in the ideological focus of the Thought Style. The traditional development of ideas can also be described as an anthroposophical process of secularisation. There are mainly four things that have contributed to the expansion of the anthroposophical movement in Sweden during the phase of expansion: the post-war period economic expansion, the development of the educational system, the renaissance of esotericism in the late 1960s, as well as the need for an alternative to the post-war abundance consumerism and waste of resources. The Swedish development indicates similarities with the international development within those areas where different activities have been adapted to Swedish legislation, traditions and views, mainly through care and education.