About S.E.E.K.

Long before doctrine defined religion, sacred stories and rituals embodied an ancient esoteric understanding of the stars and cosmos, the rhythms of nature, and the cycles of life and spirit. Rooted in entheogenic practices and communion with the divine, this original spiritual path persists beneath the myths and symbols of modern faiths, pointing back to a time of direct, sacred experience.

Before proceeding further, how do we define Esoteric and Entheogenic?

What context is necessary to understand these definitions?

 'Esoteric' comes from the Greek word esoterikos, meaning "inner". 'Esoteric' is that wisdom reserved “for the inner circle”, while 'Exoteric' is a term that can be understood as “for the masses” or “for the laymen”. Similarly, 'Occult’ means "hidden knowledge", while ‘Orthodox’ equates to "a traditional understanding". 'Entheogenic' refers to "the ritual practices of ingesting a chemical substance, typically of plant origin, to produce a nonordinary, or altered, state of consciousness for religious or spiritual purposes". The term 'Entheogen' was coined by a group of scholars in 1979, in an article from The Journal of Psychedelic Drugs ("Entheogens", Vol. 11, No. 1-2, 1979). The word, Entheogen, derives from the Greek words entheos (“filled with the divine”), and genesthai (“to become”), together meaning “that which generates the divine within”. The authors introduced this term as a more precise and spiritually-oriented alternative to existing words like 'psychedelic,' 'hallucinogen,' or 'psychotomimetic,' each of which carried problematic connotations.

The Society for Esoteric and Entheogenic Knowledge, the first organization of its kind, serves as a bridge between these two great currents, preserving the profound initiatory wisdom encoded in ancient texts and esoteric traditions, while illuminating the entheogenic dimensions of religious history.

Esoteric systems, such as Alchemy, Hermeticism, Kabbalah, Rosicrucianism, and Freemasonry, have passed down and transmitted profound comparative-religious spiritual truths through symbolic language and initiation rites (Eliade, The Forge and the Crucible, 1956). The Philosophers’ Stone of Alchemy, the Emerald Tablet of Hermes, the Sephirotic Tree of the Kabbalah, the Rose Cross of the Rosicrucians, and the Acacia of Masonic lore all reflect encoded teachings on spiritual transformation, inner ascent, and divine illumination. 

In the shadows lurking alongside esoteric religion, we find the entheogenic genesis: The Soma of Vedic Hinduism, the Haoma of Zoroastrianism, the Kykeon of the Eleusinian Mysteries, the Iboga of the Bwiti in Gabon, the Ayahuasca of the Shipibo-Conibo rituals in Peru, the Peyote of the Huichol ceremonies of the Sierra Madre, and the Teonanácatl (Psilocybin mushrooms) of the shamanic traditions of the Mazatec in Oaxaca, all point toward a deep reverence for altered states of consciousness as gateways to divine realms (Ott, Pharmacotheon, 1993). Medieval alchemical and occult traditions secretly explored entheogens such as Mandrake, Henbane, Belladonna, and Datura, believing them to unlock hidden wisdom and facilitate mystical transformation (Schultes, Hallucinogenic Plants: A Golden Guide, 1976). William James, in The Varieties of Religious Experience (1902), recounts his exposures with altered states through the inhalation of Nitrous Oxide, which illustrated to him, firstly, the value of religion, and, secondly, emphasized mysticism and revelation, as opposed to theology and doctrine, as religion’s foundation.

Since the dawn of human consciousness, seekers have pursued the hidden mysteries, those veiled truths woven into the fabric of existence, waiting to be unveiled by the initiate’s discerning mind. Across time and territory, the esoteric traditions have served as luminous beacons, guiding the adept through the labyrinth of reality toward the realization of divine truth and perennialism. Entheogenic sacraments, those sacred plants and substances revered as conduits to the numinous, have facilitated direct communion with the ineffable, dissolving the veil between self and cosmos, often fostering pantheism. Yet, despite their shared pursuit of transcendence, these two great streams of knowledge, esoteric wisdom and entheogenic practice, have long remained fragmented, their intersections obscured by time, dogma, and secrecy. Today, we stand at the threshold of a new renaissance, one that seeks not merely to recover these traditions but to unify them into a coherent, living practice for the modern seeker.

Why have these practices remained largely obstructed from the spotlight of time?

Across the ages, secret societies, mystery schools, and occult traditions have sought hidden wisdom, whether in the form of the Philosopher’s Stone, the Elixir of Life, or the Logos made manifest. Yet, these esoteric traditions were often forced underground due to the political, theological, and social pressures imposed by centralized religious and governmental authorities. Offering direct spiritual experience through ritual, symbolism, meditation, and visionary ascent, traditions like the Eleusinian and Orphic Mysteries, Mithraism, and Gnostic sects threatened state-backed religious institutions, leading to suppression. Founded in 1119 to protect Christian pilgrims, the Knights Templar amassed vast wealth through banking and land, earning both reliance and envy. In 1307, King Philip IV of France, deep in debt, conspired with Pope Clement V to dismantle the order, arresting its members on dubious charges of heresy. The Templars were dissolved in 1312, and Grand Master Jacques de Molay was burned in 1314, allegedly cursing his persecutors. Though they fell, legends of their hidden knowledge and lasting influence endure. As Church and State united, whether under Catholic dominance, Islamic caliphates, or other theocratic regimes, Alchemy, Kabbalah, and Hermeticism were deemed heretical or blasphemous, forcing practitioners like John Dee and Isaac Newton to encode their knowledge in symbolism. While some Sufi orders gained acceptance, others, like the Bektashi, were forced into secrecy for promoting mystical experience over religious legalism. Freemasonry, emerging from medieval stonemason guilds, evolved into a philosophical and mystical order preserving ancient wisdom beyond religious and governmental control. The Rosicrucians, blending Christian mysticism, Alchemy, and Kabbalah, operated in secrecy due to persecution by both Protestant and Catholic authorities. Esoteric societies like the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and the O.T.O. continue to preserve ritual magic and occult philosophy, often facing public skepticism and governmental scrutiny. Esoteric traditions have been suppressed throughout history because they offer direct, personal access to spiritual truth, bypassing the control of institutional power.

Mystical entheogenic practices also often conflict with organized religious hierarchies. In early recorded religion, the Persian Haoma ritual mirrored the Vedic Soma, a sacred drink believed to grant divine insight. If an individual could commune directly with the divine through Soma or Haoma, it could diminish the priesthood’s authority as intermediaries. As Zoroastrianism and later Brahmanic Hinduism became more structured and hierarchical, religious leaders may have deliberately obscured or replaced entheogenic sacraments with non-psychoactive substitutes to consolidate their control over spiritual experience (Flattery & Schwartz, Haoma and Harmaline, 1989). The potential for misuse of powerful entheogens may have also led to deliberate obfuscation of their identity. If Soma/Haoma was known to produce direct mystical visions, religious elites may have feared that its secular or irresponsible use could lead to chaos, false revelations, or unregulated spiritual authority. After the rise of Christianity, the Roman state, influenced by emerging Christian orthodoxy, began to suppress the Eleusinian Mysteries and their entheogenic rites, ultimately leading to their decline in the 4th century CE. This suppression can be attributed to a convergence of political, theological, and social factors that sought to consolidate power, eliminate competing religious traditions, and reshape the spiritual landscape of the late Roman Empire. Similar to the Huichol and their Peyote rituals, the Mazatec peoples of Mexico with their Psilocybin mushroom ceremonies faced significant cultural repression from the Spanish Conquistadors, who viewed their practices as superstitious. The missionaries aimed to replace indigenous religions with Catholicism, often resulting in violent suppression of native rituals. In the modern era, entheogenic mysticism has faced similar suppression. The U.S. government sought to repress Native American spiritual practices throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries, culminating in the 1918 banning of Peyote. However, the church successfully advocated for its legal use in the 1978 American Indian Religious Freedom Act. The 1960s psychedelic movement, like ancient visionary traditions, was actively censored by state and religious authorities, as figures such as Terence McKenna and Aldous Huxley explored in their writings. Today, organizations like the Church of Ambrosia encounter legal opposition and public scrutiny. The reason for this suppression in entheogenic ritual throughout history is evident: control over spiritual experience equates to authoritative power. If the divine could be directly experienced through ritualized ingestion of an entheogen, it would undermine the institutional priesthood, which serves as the mediator between God(s) and mortals. The suppression of entheogenic traditions, through Christianization, colonialism, and drug laws, has often served as a strategy of control, replacing direct mystical experience with centralized authority.

In the contemporary era, the declining trust in orthodox religious institutions, the waning adherence to religious literalism, the growing fascination with esoteric wisdom, and the resurgence of psychedelic research collectively underscore the imperative to reintegrate these fragmented traditions into a cohesive understanding of spirituality and human consciousness. The world is moving beyond the materialist paradigm, called Maya in Hinduism, as seekers yearn for authenticity in spirituality.

While exoteric religion emphasizes external doctrine, esoteric and entheogenic traditions safeguard the inner mysteries, veiling sacred truths, whether through symbolism, allegory, or visionary sacraments, from the uninitiated.

Why is this important?

Have you ever felt lost trying to understand religion? Do you have a hard time accepting religious literalism at face value? Perhaps you have had periods of atheism or agnosticism due to a fundamental distrust of the religious organizations at present? Do you feel as though there are deeper meanings to religion that are purposefully or intentionally obscured from the masses?

You are not alone.

Further, we see global conflicts, human suffering, and blatant intolerance have become the norms of religious fanaticism. Seemingly, every major Western religion, in orthodoxy, claims to have the sole truth, the exclusive truth, and that every other faith is simply, fundamentally, wholly incorrect, ignorant, and invalid. Beyond this, institutional control has driven a wedge between those with an orthodox understanding and those with an occult understanding, often with the former attempting to invalidate the latter. However, if we look at the esoteric schools of the Western Abrahamic religions—the Kabbalists of Judaism, the Gnostics of Christianity, and the Sufis of Mystical Islam—all agree that unity can be achieved in religious ideology. Despite their differences in religious framework, these three mystical traditions all teach that unity is the ultimate truth which can be revealed through direct experience, symbols, allegories, metaphors, gnosis, love, and spiritual transformation.

To the wise, are not all varieties of religious practice, like people, more similar at their core than are different on their surface? Whether conceived as God (monotheism), gods (polytheism), the Dao (Taoism), Brahman (Hinduism), Nirvana (Buddhism), or the Ain Soph (Kabbalah), religious traditions aim to understand and connect with something beyond the material world. All religious systems encode wisdom through scriptures, myths, allegories, parables, and symbols. Every religion incorporates rituals and ceremonies to facilitate transformation. Whether through oblation, sacrifice, alchemy, gnosis, or entheogenic sacraments, all traditions seek spiritual purification, enlightenment, or divine union. Religions provide moral teachings, often linked to divine law or cosmic order (Dharma, Tao, Ma'at, Decalogue, Logos). Many traditions employ altered states, through fasting, chanting, meditation, ecstatic dance, or entheogens, to access higher wisdom or divine presence. Nearly all religious traditions have initiation rites, which often involve symbolic death and rebirth as a metaphor for spiritual transformation. Religions recognize certain spaces as sacred and liminal, where the mundane and divine intersect. Religious traditions create communities and spiritual hierarchies. Mantras, prayer, and divine names are universally used to invoke spiritual power and transformation. We should, then, seek to discern the underlying commonalities among all religious traditions, recognizing them as expressions of a shared spiritual pursuit, while critically examining doctrinal divergences as products of historical and cultural dogmatism.

Can we establish that multiple religions can be true at the same time?

Many academic scholars would agree. Manly P. Hall, founder of the Philosophical Research Society, writes of esoteric global traditions and their shared unified principles in his The Secret Teachings of All Ages (1928). Aldous Huxley weaves a tapestry of religious unification in The Perennial Philosophy (1945), as does Joseph Campbell in The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949). Friedrich Heiler moves forward similarly in his essay, The History of Religions as a Preparation for the Co-operation of Religions (1958). Huston Smith eloquently unites global traditions in The Religions of Man (1958), wherein he quotes Ramakrishna:  'As one can ascend to the top of a house by means of a ladder or a bamboo or a staircase or a rope, so diverse are the ways and means to approach God.' John Hick notably commented on the validity of shared religious practice in his doctrines of religious pluralism found in his book God and the Universe of Faiths (1973). Other authors such as Mircea Eliade, Hazrat Inayat Khan of the International Sufi Order and his son Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan, Carl Jung, Max Müller, Albert Pike, René Guénon, H.P. Blavatsky, E.A. Gordon, Alan Watts, as well as Huston Smith, Carl A. P. Ruck, R. Gordon Wasson, Richard Evans Schultes, Terence McKenna, among a great number more, each also synthesize aspects of various esoteric, or various entheogenic, world religious traditions into a cohesive and wonderful message of validity and value found in all.

To understand religion, we must understand its transmission throughout the history of humanity. At S.E.E.K. we urge all to “Seek the Source” of religious ideas to uncover the origin of future iterations. The first expressions of religiosity likely arose from a confluence of animism, ancestor veneration, ritual burial, and the observation of natural cycles, all of which predate organized theology and written scripture. Entheogenic experiences likely played a key role in the origins of religion. Not as a side effect, but possibly as the central spark, giving rise to myths, cosmologies, gods, and sacred rituals as humans sought to understand the ineffable.

Shamanism, ancient or modern, reflects the primordial matrix, the spiritual blueprint, of religious experience. Before temples were built and doctrines defined, the shaman walked between worlds; healer, mystic, and mediator of the unseen. Through vision, trance, and sacred plants, shamans accessed the divine not by belief, but by direct experience (Eliade, Shamanism, 1951). In shamanic rites lie the seeds of all religion: initiation, symbolic death, mythic ascent, and the sacred unity of nature and spirit. Though later veiled by orthodoxy, this primal wisdom endures as the hidden root of all spiritual tradition, where symbol, soul, and cosmos converge.

Consider the game of Telephone we played as children. One child whispers a word or phrase into the ear of another, who passes along what they hear to the next. Down the line it goes, until 10/20/30 people later, the original word or phrase has been contorted into something with a similar phonetic structure perhaps, but vastly different meaning. This game of Telephone serves as a powerful metaphor for how religious traditions evolve over time, often shifting in meaning, interpretation, and emphasis as they are passed down through generations. This analogy illustrates how oral transmission, translation, cultural adaptation, and institutional control all play a role in shaping religious teachings throughout various cultures over the centuries. Just as players in Telephone try to piece together the original phrase, seekers of esoteric wisdom look beyond dogma, institutionalized religion, and surface-level interpretation to uncover the deeper, universal truths hidden in all spiritual traditions. Whether through scholarship, mystical practice, or comparative study, understanding religion is ultimately about discerning the signal from the noise, and tracing the echoes of ancient wisdom through the distortions of history.

In linguistics, just as Latin gave rise to the Romance languages—Italian, French, Spanish, and others—religious traditions evolve from common ancestral roots, adapting to the needs and sensibilities of different peoples and historical moments. The theological ideas of Judaism, for instance, were influenced by interactions with the Babylonians, the Phoenicians, and the Egyptians, which, in turn, then provided the grammatical and lexical foundation for Christianity, much as Latin provided the structure for its linguistic descendants after being formed from Proto-Italic roots and enriched by Etruscan, Greek, and Celtic influences. Just as languages diverge yet retain shared etymological roots, religious traditions evolve while preserving core doctrinal and philosophical elements (Armstrong, The History of God, 1993).

Consider how classical music influenced jazz, which in turn shaped rock and roll, which later gave rise to sampling in hip-hop. Each genre borrows from and reinterprets elements of its predecessors while developing unique stylistic and thematic innovations. In a similar vein, Hinduism provided foundational theological and metaphysical concepts, such as karma and dharma, that later found expression in Buddhism and Jainism, each reconfiguring the original themes into distinct spiritual frameworks (Flood, An Introduction to Hinduism, 1996). Just as musical movements respond to cultural shifts, religious traditions evolve in response to historical contexts, societal transformations, and philosophical advancements. 

Religious thought, much like scientific paradigms, does not emerge in a vacuum but builds upon previous models. Newtonian mechanics provided a foundation for classical physics, which was later expanded by Einstein’s theory of relativity, without rendering Newton’s insights obsolete. Similarly, Zoroastrian dualism influenced Jewish apocalypticism, which in turn shaped Christian eschatology, a word simply meaning the branch of theology dealing with death, judgment, and the soul's final destiny (Boyce, Zoroastrians: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices, 2001). Each stage in this intellectual evolution reinterprets and sometimes challenges its predecessors, yet retains essential elements in new frameworks.

Religion can be understood as a grand game of Hide and Seek, wherein the highest spiritual truths preserved in orthodox, exoteric religion are concealed beneath layers of metaphor, allegory, and symbolism, awaiting discovery by those who possess the keys of esoteric, occult wisdom. In this game, the divine is hidden by exoteric institutions to be sought by those in esoteric circles. 

The rules of this game have been written by those who may wish the truth never to be explicitly found. The orthodox institutions, guardians of exoteric doctrine, have cloaked the deeper mysteries beneath layers of literalism, historical rigidity, and dogma. This is done both to preserve truth, but also to obscure it. They build vast cathedrals of authority, where the uninitiated are taught to revere only what is placed in plain sight, never questioning what lies beyond the gilded altar. But the esoteric initiate plays a different role in this game. The true seeker understands that the most sacred revelations have been deliberately veiled, their meanings encoded in allegory, their wisdom sealed beneath the weight of time and institution. For this seeker, every myth is a cipher, every ritual a concealed formula, every sacred text a palimpsest, a word meaning a tablet or parchment which has been rewritten or superimposed retaining traces of its past, hiding layers of meaning beneath its surface. 

In this game of religious Hide and Seek,

 'S.E.E.K. and Ye Shall Find'.

The game, then, is not a passive search for what is openly given, but an active pursuit of what may have been intentionally withheld from the public. The initiate does not merely explore, the initiate unmasks. And with every veil lifted, every hidden truth brought to light, the structures that seek to obscure them tremble. To the uninitiated, the game is over once the first divine revelation is found; the exoteric finder believes they have uncovered all that there is to know. But to the adept, the game has only begun, for every revelation is but a veil over a deeper mystery, and the true seeker understands that what is hidden is not meant to be concealed forever, but to be revealed only by those with minds trained to see. Thus, the difference between the orthodox and the occult is not merely one of doctrine, but of perception; the former satisfied with what is handed down, the latter compelled to unearth, decipher, and unveil. To the many, the game ends when the obvious is found. To the few, it begins when they realize that what they seek has been seeking them in return. The orthodox accept what is given, while the occultist pursues what is withheld, knowing that illumination is not granted, but earned.

Let us consider an example: a famous soda brand with a red label.

What are they known for? Yes, they are dominant in the beverage space, but why? Are they known for giving out their recipe? Do they print exactly how to make the drink on every label on every bottle, for everyone to understand? Or, do they conceal the recipe under lock and key, making the formula extremely private and exclusive? Why is this the case? Would it benefit them more or less to give out the recipe to every person? If the company did give the recipe out, would the company stay in business if everyone knew how to make the drink at home? Perhaps for a time, but after a few generations, the company may become obsolete...

...Consider the prior in the context of orthodox religious institutions. Does it benefit the Church to allow its membership to become fully enlightened? Or do they gain power from veiling the truth?

When we interpret global religious systems as symbolic frameworks encoding sacred cosmology, esoteric allegory, perennial wisdom, and pantheistic insight, interwoven with reflections on morality and mortality, we transcend the artificial boundaries inscribed upon both maps and historical narratives. From this elevated perspective, we recognize the unity of humanity and the indivisibility of the earth as a manifestation of the divine. Though cultures, traditions, and languages diverge, the quest for self-knowledge, social harmony, natural attunement, and cosmic understanding has long preoccupied the human spirit.

To understand religious perspective, let us move forward with a thought exercise: The story of the trickster God, Edshu, from West Africa, as retold in Joseph Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949):

"The Prank of the Multi-Coloured Hat:

The day came when the trickster God, Edshu, walked along a path situated between two fields. Upon seeing the prospective fields that lay ahead, each containing a farmer hard at work.

'A game was needed!' The God thought.

Edshu decided to play each farmer against each other. The God donned a hat of many colours; one side was coloured red, another side coloured white, green before and black behind.

The trickster God made his way through the path, that snaked between both of the fields.

One farmer would see the God’s hat to be red, whereas the other farmer would see his hat to be white. 

Once the farmers were done for the day, they made their way back to their village. As the two were returning, one said to the other; 'Did you see that odd fella? You know the one with the white hat?'

The other replied, 'Don’t you mean the guy with the red hat?'

To which the other snapped, 'No! it was definitely white.'

'I saw it with my own eyes, it was most unequivocally red.' Yet the other would insist.

'You must be blind from the sun.'

'You must be drunk', the other shot back."

Who is correct? Are both correct?

Perhaps both in part, but, perhaps neither in full.

Everything is relative based on our perspective in time and in space.

To the uninitiated, religious doctrine appears as a codified system of laws, rituals, and historical narratives, but to the adept, it is a veiled roadmap leading toward higher knowledge. This dynamic reflects the dialectic between the outer mysteries, or exoteric religion, and the inner mysteries, or esoteric gnosis, which is a theme recurrent in traditions as diverse as Kabbalah, Hermeticism, Gnostic Christianity, Sufism, and Tantra.

At the heart of this concealment lies the intentional use of sacred texts and symbols as cryptic repositories of higher wisdom. Religious scriptures encode profound metaphysical insights within parables, myths, and ritual prescriptions, ensuring that only those who approach them with the correct interpretive framework, often provided through esoteric study, can unlock their deeper meanings. This is why the same text may inspire mere piety in the layperson while unveiling cosmic truths to the mystic or initiate. In the Christian tradition, for example, Christ speaks in parables, declaring in Matthew 13:11: “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.” Similarly, the Zohar, the seminal text of Kabbalah, warns against interpreting the Torah at a literal level, insisting that it is written in the “language of branches”, a symbolic code requiring esoteric wisdom to decipher.

What do we mean by this?

To understand this concept, let us examine a few more aspects of the Old and New testaments comprising the core of Judaism and Christianity.

The Tetramorph from Ezekiel’s vision is said to contain the imagery of a lion, bull, man, and eagle. If we look up the animal symbolism of the four evangelists—Matthew, Mark, Luke, John—we find the same four emblems. If we look up the four beasts of revelation, we find the same four animals yet again. Should we take these at face value? What is the official explanation for why these symbols repeat throughout the Old and New Testament? Are these to be taken literally? An Orthodox institution may say these four symbols represent the primary attributes of Christ: humanity, kingship, sacrifice, divinity. Or, perhaps, the four aspects of the Church: universal, sacrificial, royal, and spiritual. A more progressive leader may admit they could represent the four elements: earth, water, fire, air. Or, the four directions of the Earth: north, south, east, and west...signifying the universality of God’s reign. But is that all? Why are these specific animals symbolically depicted? Is there a deeper layer that is being concealed? To the initiate of the mysteries, to the seeker, we can look at the fixed signs of the Zodiac: Scorpio, Aquarius, Leo, and Taurus. We find that these astronomical signs are symbolized by an eagle, a man, a lion, and a bull. These animal symbols have been tied to celestial constellations since the times of the Babylonians in Mesopotamia, as well as the ancient Egyptians, who called them decans.

Have we been told the full truth?

In Genesis, the Tree of Life is a physical entity in Eden, barred to humanity after the Fall. Orthodox traditions often see it as a lost reality, inaccessible until divine restoration. In Alchemy, this transformation is mirrored in the quest for the Philosopher’s Stone, a substance believed to transmute base metals into gold and grant immortality (Jung, Psychology and Alchemy, 1944). Yet, for initiates, this was always spiritual alchemy, or the transmutation of the soul from a base material state (lead) to divine illumination (gold). The Rosicrucians and Hermeticists understood this process as achieving inner Christification, mirroring the Great Work (Waite, The Hermetic Museum, 1893). The eating of the Fruit from the Tree of Knowledge in Genesis can be esoterically linked to the Eucharist and transubstantiation, particularly through the themes of sacred consumption, transformation, and divine knowledge. While mainstream Christian doctrine does not typically draw this parallel, certain esoteric and mystical traditions suggest deeper symbolic connections. With early texts in Hinduism and Zoroastrianism, The Rig Veda and the Zend Avesta, surrounding a psychedelic eucharist in Soma and Haoma, and the Dionysian Cults and Eleusinian Mysteries of pre-Christian Greece containing entheogenic potions referred to as Trimma and Kykeon, could the Western traditional concepts of the fruit in Genesis, as well as Christ's Eucharist of transubstantiation, both also allude to potential entheogenic origin (Ruck et al., Sacred Mushroom and the Goddess, 2006)? Certain Gnostic sects, such as the Borborites, were accused by early Church fathers of using psychoactive sacraments in their Eucharistic rites (Epiphanius, Panarion, 4th century CE). The act of ingesting a divine substance to become one with God is a recurring theme across mystery religions, shamanic traditions, and early esoteric sects.

"Some months ago I read the Garden of Eden tale once more, after not having thought of it since childhood. I read it as one who now knew the entheogens. Right away it came over me that the Tree of Knowledge was the tree that has been revered by many tribes of Early Man in Eurasia precisely because there grows under it the mushroom, splendid to look upon, that supplies the entheogenic food to which Early Man attributed miraculous powers. He who composed the tale for us in Genesis was clearly steeped in the lore of this entheogen: he refrained from identifying the `fruit': he was writing for the initiates who would recognize what he was speaking about. I was an initiate. Strangers and also the unworthy would remain in the dark.”

(Wasson et al., Persephone's Quest: Entheogens and the Origins of Religion, 1992).

One of the most profound esoteric vs. exoteric divisions in Christianity lies in the interpretation of Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection. To the orthodox community, these events are taken as literal history. The physical death and bodily resurrection of Jesus as the Son of God, secures salvation for the faithful. To the esoteric initiate, however, the Passion of Christ is a symbolic blueprint for spiritual transformation, representing an alchemical death and rebirth within the soul of every seeker. In the orthodox interpretation, Jesus’ crucifixion is understood as a vicarious atonement. The act is a sacrifice to absolve humanity’s sins. His suffering and death are seen as substitutionary, fulfilling Old Testament prophecies (Isaiah 53) and establishing a covenant of redemption. The resurrection, in this framework, is a miraculous event, proving Christ’s divine nature and promising eternal life to those who believe in Him. For mystical and esoteric traditions, the crucifixion is not merely an external event, but a spiritual process of death and rebirth. Christ’s Passion mirrors the path of initiation found in ancient mystery schools, where the initiate must symbolically “die” to their lower nature in order to be spiritually reborn. In this view, the crucifixion represents the dissolution of the false self, while the resurrection signifies the awakening of divine consciousness within, aligning with the Neoplatonic concept of ascent, the Gnostic idea of inner awakening, and the Alchemy of spiritual transmutation. If this esoteric understanding were widely recognized, Christianity may shift from a religion of external worship to a mystical path of self-transcendence. Rather than relying on vicarious redemption, the enlightened would embark on their own inner crucifixion and resurrection, mirroring Christ’s path within their own consciousness. Before Christianity, the ancient Egyptians also used the cross in the form of the Ankh as a religious symbol, and their central figure Osiris, the god of the afterlife, is also betrayed, is killed, and is resurrected. Both figures, Christ and Osiris, transcend mere mortality, offering initiates the promise of spiritual rebirth, a concept central to both the Egyptian mysteries and Christian esotericism (Jung, Symbols of Transformation, 1912). By concealing this deeper understanding, religious authorities ensured that Christianity remained a faith-based system rather than a mystical initiation. If widely known, this esoteric truth could redefine Christ’s sacrifice, not as an external transaction, but as a spiritual path available to all, leading to theosis, or divine union.

Aside from inner transformation, is there also a cosmic, celestial allusion, mirroring concepts of the macrocosm and the microcosm?

"Saviors unnumbered have died for the sins of man and by the hands of man, and through their deaths have interceded in heaven for the souls of their executioners. The martyrdom of the God-Man and the redemption of the world through His blood has been an essential tenet of many great religions. Nearly all these stories can be traced to sun worship, for the glorious orb of day is the Savior who dies annually for every creature within his universe, but year after year rises again victorious from the tomb of winter. Without doubt the doctrine of the crucifixion is based upon the secret traditions of the Ancient Wisdom; it is a constant reminder that the divine nature of man is perpetually crucified upon the animal organism. Certain of the pagan Mysteries included in the ceremony of initiation the crucifixion of the candidate upon a cross, or the laying of his body upon a cruciform altar."

(Hall, The Secret Teachings of All Ages, 1928). 

AS ABOVE (celestial), SO BELOW (terrestrial)

Is it also mere coincidence that there are twelve zodiac signs, as well as twelve Tribes of Israel in Judaism, twelve Apostles in Christianity, and twelve Imams in Islam? Why do we have twelve months in our calendar year? The Babylonians (c. 2000 BCE) standardized a twelve-month year based on the twelve lunar cycles and the twelve zodiac signs. Their system heavily influenced later calendars, including the Hebrew, Persian, and Greek systems. Could these celestial cycles for time-keeping have been encoded in early allegory and myth through personification? These potential connections will be covered at a time beyond the present. The astronomical, numerological, and theological significance of twelve suggests that it was a naturally arising, meaningful number across cultures rather than mere coincidence. Scholars like Mircea Eliade (The Sacred and the Profane, 1957) and Carl Jung (Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, 1933) argue that such numerical patterns reflect deep-seated mythological and psychological structures common to humanity.

The metaphors and symbols that veil esoteric truth serve a dual function: they preserve sacred knowledge from the profane, while simultaneously acting as a lure for the seeker. In this sense, exoteric religion does not simply obscure truth arbitrarily; it provides the breadcrumbs that lead toward inner realization if followed. The Alchemical Great Work, the Gnostic ascent through the celestial spheres, and the initiatory path of the Eleusinian Mysteries all describe a process wherein the aspirant moves from a superficial engagement with religious forms toward a direct experience of the divine. These traditions teach that divinity does not merely reside in external doctrines but must be sought within, through contemplation, discipline, and mystical insight. Thus, we can see that true enlightenment is an internal process, often described through alchemy, transmutation, purification, and inner death/rebirth. In Hinduism, this is the process of Kundalini awakening, where the serpent energy ascends through the chakras and the lotus blossoms within the breast of the adherent. In Christian Mysticism, it is seen in theosis, the transformative union with the divine and the unfolding of the spiritual rose upon the material cross. In Kabbalah, the journey up the Tree of Life represents an ascent toward divine consciousness, mirroring the Zohar’s vision of the righteous merging with the Divine Light.

Thus, orthodox religion, when viewed esoterically, is not a mere control mechanism, but an intricate puzzle. It acts as a scaffolding that preserves and transmits transcendent wisdom through veiled means. To those who remain within its exoteric confines, it offers moral guidance and societal cohesion. But to those who embark upon the path of esoteric inquiry, it reveals itself as a map to liberation, a labyrinth whose walls dissolve when one learns to see beyond the illusion of form. The game of Hide and Seek is not arbitrary; it is a sacred mechanism by which the eternal wisdom of the ancients remains hidden in plain sight, awaiting only those with eyes to see and ears to hear.

To understand the purpose of our Society for Esoteric and Entheogenic Knowledge, we must first acknowledge a fundamental truth: humanity’s most profound spiritual traditions, though scattered across history and geography, are not isolated phenomena, but pieces of a singular, vast and intricate tapestry.

The esoteric traditions, whether found in Hermeticism, Kabbalah, Rosicrucianism, Neoplatonism, Gnosticism, Freemasonic philosophy, or the Alchemy of both East and West, have long preserved the hidden knowledge of spiritual ascent, theurgy, and divine realization. Yet, beneath their cryptic symbols and allegories, they whisper of a secret key; one that is not merely intellectual, but experiential. That key is found in the visionary sacrament, the entheogenic catalyst, the sacred substances that, for millennia, have granted mystics, shamans, and seekers an unmediated encounter with the Divine. From the Soma of the Rig Veda to the Kykeon of Eleusis, from the sacred fungi of Mesoamerican curanderos to the mystical Haoma of Persian tradition, these sacraments have facilitated a direct gnosis, unveiling to the initiate the very foundations of being (Wasson, Hofmann & Ruck, The Road to Eleusis, 1978). And yet, these traditions, too, have suffered fragmentation, their wisdom severed from the broader initiatory systems that once framed and safeguarded them.

S.E.E.K. stands at the crossroads of these two ancient streams of wisdom, esoteric knowledge and entheogenic practice, not merely as an academic study, nor as a revival of one tradition over another, but as a restoration of a unified roadmap: a guiding system that integrates the philosophical, symbolic, and mystical frameworks of esotericism with the direct, transformative experience of the entheogenic sacrament.

As mainstream religious institutions seek to control spiritual discourse, esoteric and entheogenic traditions remain on the fringes, ensuring that alternative paths to enlightenment endure.

This is why S.E.E.K. exists, and this is why S.E.E.K. persists.

Welcome to the Society for Esoteric and Entheogenic Knowledge, or S.E.E.K.. We are a sanctuary for the study, coalescence and integration of the two sacred paths of the esoteric and the entheogenic. Our mission is to illuminate the hidden correspondences between mystical traditions and visionary states, to rekindle the discourse surrounding ancient synthesis of philosophy and direct experience, and to provide seekers with the educational tools to embark upon their own initiatory journey. Through scholarly research, literary publications, immersive video courses, curated discussions, and an engaged community of mystics, scholars, and practitioners, S.E.E.K. endeavors to weave together the wisdom of the ancients with the revelations of the present. We invite you to join us on this path of discovery, a path that leads beyond doctrine and into the heart of the Great Mystery itself.

To us at S.E.E.K., it appears that within the entheogenic/psychedelic fields, there is a profound lack of understanding regarding the esoteric dimensions of religion and the ways in which wisdom traditions have transmitted sacred knowledge throughout history. Too often, entheogenic sacraments are reduced to mere recreational experiences, devoid of the ritual context and spiritual education that traditionally guided their use. This failure stems, in part, from the inability, or unwillingness, of those in positions of influence within the psychedelic movement to articulate these deeper connections. Conversely, within esoteric circles, including initiates of secret societies and mystical traditions, there remains a significant ignorance of entheogenic spirituality. When acknowledged at all, it is frequently dismissed due to societal stigma or legal misconceptions. More broadly, a vast portion of humanity remains unaware of either the esoteric or entheogenic undercurrents that have shaped religious thought and practice across cultures.

This needs to change. Knowledge is power.

How does one undertake this journey, and bridge the abstract with the tangible, the intellectual with the ecstatic, the ancient with the modern?

S.E.E.K. provides a pathway, offering both the knowledge and the experience, the map and the compass. The Society for Esoteric and Entheogenic Knowledge (S.E.E.K.) illuminates the intersection of mysticism, esoteric philosophy, and entheogenic traditions through video lectures, in-depth courses, and scholarly publications. By republishing lost wisdom and producing original works that analyze and synthesize ancient and modern initiatic esoteric traditions with entheogenic insight, S.E.E.K. bridges the gap between esoteric subjects like Alchemy, Hermeticism, Kabbalah, Gnosticism, Rosicrucianism, and entheogenic shamanic global traditions honoring sacred intoxication, the ‘Divine Madness’ (theia mania) of Platonic philosophy. A curated bookstore will offer seekers access to rare and contemporary texts, ensuring that both historic revelations and modern interpretations remain within reach.

Through education, preservation, and dissemination, S.E.E.K. aims to serve as a global sanctuary for hidden wisdom and spiritual awakening.

We are not the first to walk the path of the esoteric, or the entheogenic, in their singularity. However, we believe, we are the first to walk the tightrope between the two, unifying them as we progress in step. Many seekers have wandered the desert in search of the Sacred Fire, climbed the cosmic axis to commune with the Eternal, or descended into the underworld to retrieve the keys of hidden knowledge. And yet, despite the vast expanse of time and tradition that separates them, their experiences converge upon the same timeless truth, one that transcends dogma, borders, and paradigms.

This is the truth that S.E.E.K. endeavors to illuminate:

Interwoven within the Esoteric texts and rituals of both past and present, and within the Entheogenic experiences across the ages, lies a unifying thread, a map to the Divine. To those who feel the call, who sense that the mysteries of existence are neither mere allegories nor distant abstractions, but tangible, living realities awaiting rediscovery, we extend our welcome.

S.E.E.K. is more than an organization; it is an invitation to embark upon the Great Work of self-transformation and cosmic realization.

Join us, and together, let us recover the ancient pathways, rekindle the sacred fire, and reclaim the wisdom that has long been hidden in plain sight.

This is the Society for Esoteric and Entheogenic Knowledge.

Welcome to the Great Work.

"S.E.E.K. and Ye Shall Find"