Item Details

Esoteric Themes in David Icke’s Conspiracy Theories

Issue: Vol 30 No. 3 (2017)

Journal: Journal for the Academic Study of Religion

Subject Areas: Religious Studies Buddhist Studies Islamic Studies Biblical Studies

DOI: 10.1558/jasr.35289

Abstract:

What do the lizard illuminati and esotericism have in common? At first

glance, perhaps, very little. The former belongs in the world of David Icke

and a myriad of other conspiracy theorists, whilst the other is a fluid term

normally used to designate a distinct way of thinking in a context confined

to early fifteenth-century Europe until the twentieth century. However, on

closer inspection and by using Antoine Faivre’s six-point typology of

esotericism (with the addition of a seventh criterion, gnosis), this article

places Icke’s seemingly strange and random discourse within an esoteric

framework. Despite the warning from Antoine Faivre twenty-five years ago

that New Religious Movements (NRMs) do not sit well within his typology, I

locate Icke’s conspiracy theories within the context of Esotericism because

when Faivre wrote Access to Western Esotericism (1994) both NRMs and

the New Age were not yet ‘seated at the table’ of the academic study of

religion. Twenty-five years on they are firmly within the purview of religious

studies scholarship. It is useful to view Icke as an esotericist rather than

merely a conspiracy theorist as his beliefs so clearly reflect an individual

influenced by New Age discourses. Through the application of Faivre’s

methodology, Icke’s theories are re-contextualised and examined within an

esoteric context, enabling them to take on a religious meaning rather than

just a conspiracist one. Drawing on Joseph Dan’s approach to esotericism

as a way of viewing the world, rather than a term prescribed and inscribed

by history, I seek to bring both Faivre and his indicia into conversation with

the study of NRMs. Using Faivre’s six-point typology and his definition of

gnosis this article places Icke’s conspiracy-based discourses within an

esoteric framework.

Author: Tara Blue Moon Smith

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