Egregore

Egregore (also spelled egregor; from French égrégore, from Ancient Greek egrḗgoros 'wakeful') is an occult concept representing a distinct non-physical entity that arises from a collective group of people. Historically, the concept referred to angelic beings, or watchers, and the specific rituals and practices associated with them, namely within Enochian traditions.^[1]

More contemporarily, the concept has referred to a psychic manifestation, or thoughtform, occurring when any group shares a common motivation—being made up of, and influencing, the thoughts of the group. It can be created either intentionally or unintentionally.^[2] The symbiotic relationship between an egregore and its group has been compared to the more recent, non-occult concepts of the corporation (as a juridical person or legal entity) and the meme.

History

Manuscrit trouvé à Saragosse, or The Manuscript Found in Saragossa written by Polish author Count Jan Potocki (1761–1815) in the early 1800s features the term "Egregores," referring to "the most illustrious of fallen angels."^[3] However, it is important to take note of the novel's heavy orientalist and fantastical bent.

The second author to adapt "egregore" in a modern language seems to be the French poet Victor Hugo, in La Légende des siècles ("The Legend of the Ages"), First Series, 1859, where he uses the word "égrégore" first as an adjective, then as a noun, while leaving the meaning obscure.^[4] The author seems to have needed a word rhyming with words ending in the sound "or". It would not be the only example of word creation by Victor Hugo. However, the word is the normal form that the Greek word ἑγρήγορος (Watcher) would take in French. This was the term used in the Book of Enoch for great angel-like spirits.

Eliphas Lévi, in Le Grand Arcane ("The Great Mystery", 1868) identifies "egregors" with the tradition concerning the "Watchers", the fathers of the nephilim, describing them as "terrible beings" that "crush us without pity because they are unaware of our existence."^[5]

The concept of the egregore as a group thoughtform was developed in works of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and the Rosicrucians^[6] and has been referenced by writers such as Valentin Tomberg, notably in his anonymously-penned book Meditations on the Tarot.^[7] It was also mentioned in the book El maravilloso universo de la magia, by Chilean author Enrique Barrios.

A well known concept of the egregore is the GOTOS of the Fraternitas Saturni.^[8]

Contemporary usage

Gaetan Delaforge, in Gnosis magazine in 1987, defines an egregore as a kind of group mind that is created when people consciously come together for a common purpose.^[9]

The concept was featured in Corporate Metabolism series of articles by Paco Xander Nathan, which were published in 2001.

The notion of "egregor" also appears in Daniil Andreyev's Roza Mira, where it represents the shining cloud-like spirit associated with the Church.

David Barreto refers to egregore as a group of spirits with a particular common intention. According to his book, The Supernatural Science: Theory and Magic, besides attributing the term to the energies emanated from groups of spirits, entities of different backgrounds that dedicate themselves to a specific cause, may as well form an egregore.^[10]

Egregore is also used in relation to the Montreal Surrealists, best known as Les Automatistes, in Ray Ellenwood's Egregore: a history of the Montréal automatist movement.^[11]

Egregore is also the term for the spiritual personification of each nation in the UK LRP game Empire, run by Profound Decisions.^[12]

Gary Lachman identifies Pepe the Frog as an egregore in his book Dark Star Rising.^[13]

The Theosophical Viewpoint

The concept was discussed in early Theosophical literature and is well-known in esoteric thought, but it is not a mainstream idea. In discussing egregores Helena Petrovna Blavatsky wrote “every thought so evolved with energy from the brain, creates nolens volens [willingly or unwillingly] a shape.” Continuing, she states that such a shape is absolutely “unconscious unless it is the creation of an adept, who has a pre-conceived object in giving it [the thought form] consciousness, or rather the appearance of consciousness derived from the adept’s will and consciousness."^[14]

Theosophists first brought the idea of a thought-form to the public mind with Annie Besant and C. W. Leadbeater’s book Thought Forms in the early twentieth century.^[15]

See also

• Akashic records
• Chaos magic
• Collective unconscious
• Faith healing
• Gestalt psychology
• Memetics
• Panpsychism
• Pathetic fallacy
• Servitor (chaos magic)
• Tulpa
• Vitalism

Notes

References

• Bernstein, L. S. (1998). "Egregor". The Rosicrucian Archive. Confraternity of the Rose Cross. Archived from the original on January 8, 2012. Retrieved November 22, 2011.
• Butler, Walter Ernest (1970). "The Egregore of a School". Servantsofthelight.org. The Servants of the Light. Retrieved November 22, 2011.
• Flowers, S. Edred (1995). Fire & Ice: Magical Teachings of Germany's Greatest Secret Occult Order. Llewellyn's Teutonic Magick Series (2nd ed.). Llewellyn Publications. ISBN 0-87542-776-6.
• Nathan, Paco Xander (2001). "Chasing Egregors". The Scarlet Letter. Scarlet Woman Lodge, Ordo Templi Orientis.

External links

• The dictionary definition of egregore at Wiktionary