Esotericism, That's for White Folks, Right?

Summary

Newcomers to the study of Western esotericism may be forgiven for thinking that esotericism is indeed just “for white folks.” The vast majority of scholarship in the field of Western esotericism has consistently overlooked black esoteric figures, movements, and currents, despite the fact that African Americans have been among the most innovative and influential practitioners in the history of esoteric thought. Consider, for instance, the following case.

Bronzeville (Chicago), 1951. Dissatisfied with the “Black Church,” yet determined to improve the spiritual and material lives of their fellow African Americans in one of North America's most segregated cities, two men, Sonny Blount (1914-1993) and Alton Abraham (1927-1999), deeply immerse themselves in esoteric thought. “IT IS BECAUSE THE NEGRO HAS NOT SOUGHT THE WISDOM THAT WILL FREE HIM THAT HE IS STILL IN CHAINS,” reads one of the notes that their newfound secret society, Thmei Research, distributed. Reading everything from Emanuel Swedenborg to Mary Baker Eddy, and from Rudolf Steiner to George Gurdjieff, Blount and Abraham would, as Paul Youngquist put it, “cobble together an intellectual countertradition for the South Side, a forgotten legacy of wisdom to invigorate a people caged without a key.”

To be sure, the two men were certainly not alone in their pursuit of transformative and liberating esoteric knowledge to conjure new religious and racial identities that would transcend the destructive and violent forces of white supremacy. Around the same time, we find African American visionaries, mystics and religious leaders in Chicago, New York, Detroit and Philadelphia who turn to New Thought, Theosophy, Rosicrucianism, voodoo and conjure in their quest for alternative sources of spiritual wisdom. So much so, in fact, that we may speak of the existence of a “black esoteric milieu,” a coherent but differentiated sphere of esoteric texts, ideas, practices, people and movements that provided the impetus for the development of a range of unique and distinctively African American forms of esotericism. Indeed, none of those who operated in the black esoteric milieu simply repackaged or mimicked already existing esoteric ideas, texts and practices. On the contrary, they consciously and deliberately adopted, adapted, synthesised and created a range of esoteric ideas that they blended with Islam, Christianity, Judaism and black political thought to fashion unique, inventive and innovate esoteric “religio-racial” narratives and identities.