I’m trying to find the best resources available and I think some of you might be looking as well...

Something like that, but sort of the opposite: escaping the cycle of rebirth. I think the best description would be: eternal existence as a fulfilled, happy consciousness. Honestly, I’ve been leaning towards the possibility of an actual infinite jest existence in which one eternally exists as consciousness in the state of finding something incomparably hilarious. The joy of laughter is the best joy, so why shouldn’t it be the substance of the aimed-for state of post-human existence. Spirit body, as they say, would be cool, but I’m not really sure of any specifications or limitations that would apply to it, so I’m really just parroting the name of a concept I’ve read.

Shit. Took me long enough to write. Anyhow, here it goes.

Although esotericism doesn't have a formal historical starting point as such, speaking in terms of overwhelming influence and foundational framework, you would do well to study Late Antiquity Platonism.

Western Esotericism has three major stages as I see it – Neoplatonism, Florentine Platonism and Mesmerism. I will deal with each of these in succesion and highlight their connection.

Part 1 – Olympus

Platonism is essentially a conglomation of the Mediterranean and Near Eastern mystery traditions, systematized, refined and expounded in a rational whole suitable for the Greek intellectual milleu – the later tradition, known from the time of 20th century academia as "Neoplatonism", was primarily concerned with an exposition of the Unwritten Doctrines of Plato.

In Neoplatonism, there are two primary currents – the meditative mysticism of Plotinus and Porphyry and the Theurgy of Iamblichus and Proclus. There are other Neoplatonists, but these are the most important.

Plotinus was the teacher of Porphyry and gave him the task of compiling his notes into a systematized treatise, which should be read as a defence of Platonism against other schools. Like the Middle Platonists, he borrowed some teachings from the Stoics and Peripatetics.

Iamblichus was the student of Porphyry. He disagreed with their meditative approach and favored a form of ritual magic based on the Hermetic Asclepius and the Chaldean Oracles, which came to be known as Theurgy. He considered Pythagoras a higher authority than Plato and, unlike Plotinus and Porphyry, argued for a complete concord between the teachings of Aristotle and Plato. He formulated an influental cirriculum that began with Aristotle, his Organon in particular, proceeded to twelve dialogues of Plato and culminated in a study of the Chaldean Oracles and Orphism.

Proclus, who came much later, in many ways harmonized the teachings of Iamblichus and Plotinus, but kept a distinct emphasis on Theurgy. Theurgy, as I said, was based on a set of revealed writings known as the Chaldean Oracles, but these only excists in fragments today, most of them stemming from the works of Proclus.

Anyhow, the reading list goes as follows

>Complete Works, Plato
>Isagoge, Porphyry
>Enneads, Plotinus
>Select Works of Porphyry, Thomas Taylor
>Theology of Arithmetic, Pseudo-Iamblichus
>On the Mysteries, Iamblichus
>On the Gods and the Universe, Sallustius
>Elements of Theology, Proclus
>Commentary on the Timaeus, Proclus
>Theology of Plato, Proclus

During the Medieval Age, only a handful of Roman works were avaliable to the Latin West. These were;

>Commentary on the Timaeus, Calcidius
>Commentary on the Dream of Scipio, Macrobius
>Marriage of Philology and Mercury, Martianus Capella

..along with an Arabic paraphrase of Enneads IV-VI going by the name of The Theology of Aristotle and a paraphrase of The Elements of Theology going by the name of Liber De Causis.

Of these, Macrobius is the most worthwhile, as he summarizes the cosmology of the Neoplatonists (some from sources no longer extant) and gives an exposition of Aristotelian physics and Ptolemaic astronomy – in essence, a snapshot of the classical worldview that would dominate until the Scientific Revolution of the Enlightenment. This is absolutely essential if you wish to understand classical esotericism.

Part 2.1 – Titans

The primary accomplishment of the Medieval Arabs, who inherited the labour of the Greeks, was to formulate a sophisticated theory of astral magic – unfortunately, Islamic esotericism is still in it's infantile stage; the Shams Al Marif by Ahmad Al Buni, for example, is virtually unknown among Westerners. Fortunately, we have the most important work avaliable on the theory of astral magic in translation, namely

>On the Stellar Rays, Al Kindi

Which should be read in conjuction with an earlier Neoplatonic work;

>On Prophecy, Dreams and Human Imagination, Synesius

Ioan Couliano speaks about the connection between these two works in his Eros and Magic in the Renaissance and Liana Saif highlights the monumental importance of Al Kindi on European occultism in her Arabic Influences on Early Modern Occult Philosophy.

During the Renaissance, Marsilio Ficino was given the task of translating the works of the Platonists into the Latin tongue by the Medici family. This is the birth of Florentine Platonism, and there are three important luminaries whose influence cannot be ignored – Ficino, who fused Neoplatonism with the astral magic of Al Kindi, Pico Mirandola, who introduced and Christianized the practice of Jewish Cabala, and Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, who made a thourough exposition of the principles of magic by stiching together various works of Renaissance occultists.

>Three Books on Life, Marsilio Ficino
>Syncretism in the West: Pico's 900 Theses, Stephen Farmer
>Three Books of Occult Philosophy, Agrippa

Part 2.1 – The Alchemy of Heresy

There are, however, other strains of thought present during this era. Unlike the Florentine Platonists and their obsession with astrological magic, Nicholas of Cusa was closer to the Neoplatonic and Patristic doctrine of Theosis – that is, deification of the human soul.

Whereas Iamblichus - who first introduced the Chaldean practice of Theurgy to the Platonic current - emphasized the role of "barbarous symbols" in ritual that was only comprehensible to the Gods, Cusanus followed the Christian Neoplatonism of Eriugena and implemented Pythegorean mathematics as occult symbols in the ascent of the soul. His most important work is

>On Learned Ignorance, Nicholas of Cusa

Jasper Hopkins has his entire ouvre availble for free at his website.

The first thinker to take Cusanus seriously was Giordano Bruno, whose doctrines are too complex to get into here – suffice to say, he essentially made a consoltation between the meditative mysticism of Plotinus and the ritual magic of Iamblichus and Proclus. Likewise, he fused Agrippa and Cusanus together. His essential works are

>Cause, Principle and Unity
>Ash Wedensday Supper
>Expulsion of the Triumphant Beast
>The Heroic Frenzies
>On the Composition of Images, Signs and Ideas

Frances Yates' interpretation of him is far too sloppy and general. Instead, I suggest Applied Imagination: Giordano Bruno and the Creation of Magical Images by Michael Storch, availiable for free online.

Now, a quick word on Protestant Illuminism. This was an important movement incredibly influental on Romanticism and the formation of modern occultism. The two best representatives are the alchemists Paracelsus and Jacob Boehme, whose best works are

>Archidoxes of Magic, Paracelsus
>The Key of Jacob Boehme, Adam McLean
>Signature of All Things, Boehme

Adam McLean is the foremost living authority on alchemy. You would do well to check out his website, Levity.

Part 3 – Astrological Sommanbulism

The foundation of modern occultism is found in the works of Franz Anton Mesmer. The Enlightenment had dealt a devestating blow to the doctrines of the oldtimers and it was Mesmer who revived the teachings of Al Kindi through secondhand sources like Paracelsus, with one fatal flaw – he disregarded the Neoplatonic framework completely, which is understandable, since his primary concern was medicine, but unfortunate, since an essential part was lost and sloppily reconstructed by later occultists. His writings can be found in

>Mesmerism: A Translation of the Original Medical and Scientific Writings of F. A. Mesmer, George Bloch

It was, however, Jules Dupotet Sennevoy who pioneered these doctrines and elevated them as THE key to all magical phenomena. An abridged translation of his magnum opus can be found in

>Magnetism and Magic, Jules Dupotet Sennevoy

The teachings of these two individuals came to their culmination in the writings of Eliphas Levi, who is credited with having kickstarted the occult revival of the 19th century. He was influental indeed, but not as original as many give him credit for. In his History of Magic, he praised Sennevoy as an adept of the magical arts and said of Mesmer that "nature had revealed all her secrets to him", so he wasn't particularly secretive about his sources. Rather than reading Levi, I suggest

>History of Magic, Joseph Ennemoser

Which is the clearest exposition of the Mesmeric intepretation of magic. Once you understand this, all facets of modern occultism will become lucidly clear. The Theosophical Enlightenment by Joscelyn Godwin is excellent as a historical source as well.

Part 4 – The Egyptian Solomon

Whereas these thinkers were primarily concerned with matters divine, there was also a tradition concerned with matters mundane – the Goetic, which takes it name from the Greek Goes, or Shamans, if you will.

It has it's beggining in

>The Greek Magical Papyri, Hans Dieter Betz

And should be supplemented with

>Techniques of Graeco-Egyptian Magic, Stephen Skinner
>The Argo of Magic, Jake Stratton-Kent

..although Dodds argues in his The Greeks and the Irrational that Plato defended a position similar to Shamanism. Either way, the Papyri was composed over several centuries and eventually many of it's techniques appeared in the

>Hygromanteia, Ioannis Marathakis

..which was a precursor, nay, the granddaddy of all subsequent Solomonic grimoires. How this came about is prone to much speculation, but the works of Skinner and Stratton-Kent gives a fine banquet for thought.

The Solomonic Grimoires are concerned with demonic conjuration, from the Latin con jurae – to swear together. The word demon is a Christian bastardization of the Greek daemon. The Greeks, and the Platonists in particular, considered daemons as intermediaries between us and the gods, being of good and bad disposition, each having their own distinct personality and prone to passions like humans; spirits, in other words.

The early Church Fathers however, like Justin Martyr, Origen, Clement of Alexandria and Augustine, considered them differently – they were solely responsible for all evil in the world; in fact, they were the old pagan gods themselfes. As such, the approach to these daemons differs between the Pagan Papyri and the Christian Grimoires. This context is important to keep in mind.

Another influental work is

>The Picatrix

Which is not a cthonic Grimoire like the Papyri and Hygromanteia, but rather deals with the powers of the planets, as does another important grimoire, the Arbatel, found in

>Fourth Book of Occult Philosophy, Pseudo-Agrippa

The Picatrix was an important source for Ficino, Mirandola and Agrippa. The Solomonic tradition has close ties to the Florentine school, as the first mention of many of the demons that would later appear in various grimoires is found in

>On the False Hierachy of Demons, Weyer

Who was a personal student of Agrippa.

The Solomonic tradition took a different expression in the works of John Dee, who felt he had exhausted his knowledge and sought for more in the daemonic realm. In structure, it mirrors the Lesser Key of Solomon and utilizes some material from the Archidoxes of Magic by Paracelsus and the Sworn Book of Honorius. It is a highly complex system. Dee, who had the biggest library in Europe at the time, kept Agrippa's Three Books of Occult Philosophy by the table. His system must be understood in the context of Florentine Platonism. The best material on Dee is

>A True and Faithful Relation, Meric Causabon
>Five Books of Mystery, Joseph Peterson
>Heptarchia Mystica, Robert Turner

In regards to Eastern mysticism, less is more – keep to sound scholary translations of firsthand sources. There is far too much bullshit to slough through. As an example, here's an excellent article by Sanskrit scholar Christopher Wallis and how the Western world completely butchered the notions of chakras.

tantrikstudies.squarespace.com/blog/2016/2/5/the-real-story-on-the-chakras

I left Hinduism and Buddhism behind, so I can only speak for the Chinese branch of mysticism.

Part 1 – From Deities to Trigrams

Daoism became formalized as a religion in the Han dynasty and started out as a soteriological ritual sect worshipping a pantheon of deities, going by the name of Heavenly Masters. They were primarily considered with ritual. For the formation of early Daoism, see

>Early Daoist Scriptures, Stephen Bokenkamp

For the tradition of religious ritual Daoism, see

>Taoist Ritual in Chinese Society and History, John Lagerwey

Eventually, a new school was founded based on the revelations recieved by Wei Huacun, a libation bearer for the Heavenly Masters. This was the Shangqing sect, who did away with the ritual and emphasized meditation on the microcosmic body gods, themselfes a reflection of the macrocosmic stellar deties residing in the constellations. This is the beginning of Neidan. See

>Taoist Meditation, Isabelle Robinet
>The Way of Highest Clarity, Jason Miller

A third sect soon formed which combined aspects from both, the Lingbao. A translation of their scriptures can be found in the aforementioned work by Bokenkamp.

Medieval Neidan did away with the body gods of Shangqing, and placed an emphasis on the Trigrams of the Yijing instead. The central work is

>Seal of the Unity of the Three, Fabrizio Pregadio

Another equally important work is

>Wuzhen Pain, Paul Crowe

Which has also been translated by Pregadio, albeit only the first verses. Paul Crowe's version has been gifted to the public domain and is fairly sound in quality, unlike the translations of Cleary. The Wuzhen Pian was composed by Zhang Boduan at the request of his teacher, with the purpose of disseminating these teachings in full.

Part 2 – The Virtue of Shen

There were various schools of Neidan and each had their own particular approach to these matters, including Zhang Boduan, but what remains essential is this – it was seen as a unification the three teachings of Daoism, Chan Buddhism and Confucianism.

Liu Yiming, whose wrote an excellent introduction to Neidan in

>Cultivating the Tao, Fabrizio Pregadio

Considered the Analects of Confucius as a veiled alchemical allegory. Confucianism had an important role to play in the formation of Neidan and has a close connection with the earliest mystical writings of China, being

>The Original Tao, Harold Roth

..through the works of Mencius. The Daxue and Zhongyong is the foundation of this meditative tradition, and can be found in

>Ta Hsueh and Chung Yung, Andrew Plaks

Wing Tsit-Chan has translated several works of the Neoconfucian movement, which focuses on a more worldly engaged spiritual cultivation, rather than the heavy asceticism of Daoism and Buddhism. It's a severely underappreciated tradition. His translations include

>Reflections on Things at Hand, Zhu Xi
>Neo Confucian Terms Explained, Chen Chun
>Instructions for Practical Living, Wang Yangming

The latter fused the teachings of Chan Buddhism with Confucianism and was quite influental on the Japanese samurai. However, the most important thing in relation to these teachings, be it Daoism or Confucianism, is to understand the framework, that is, classical Chinese cosmology. The best work in this regard is

>Huainanzi, Harold Roth et. al.

It has everything, from the Wuxing to the Heavenly Stems and Branches. Absolutely essential. Another great work is

>Reconstructing the Confucian Dao, Joseph Adler

Which, besides having a great introduction on Chinese metaphysics, translates the cosmological writings of Zhou Dunyi and his diagrams based on the Yijing, with Zhu Xi's commentaries.

I cannot thank you enough. Thank you so much.

Alchemy can only be understood as a metaphor for transformation in man. Anything else is madness. Read Jung.

(All of Jung’s collected works that deal with alchemy are in pic related and have been read multiple times)

So out of all these books (I'm amazed that you have Philo's collected works -- such a great book!) which would one or two would you consider most essential/informative OP?

I wrote a thesis on Philo actually. I would argue that his work can actually teach a lot about the platonic brand of alchemy. Being and Logos by John Sallis is best for understanding Platonism. Volume 3 of Thomas Cleary’s Taoist Classics is best for Taoism. Mysterium Coniuntionis for understanding Jungian alchemy. Yoga of Power by Evola for kundalini aspects of things.

alright thanks man