Introduction

The last two chapters have described important changes to our western society that have impacted on religions. This chapter follows on from these findings and uses esotericism, which refers to secret religions and/or religions attempting to discover the secrets of the universe, as a case study to illustrate how changes at a larger scale in society can also impact on the most hidden religious groups. This chapter argues that the impact of modernity and postmodernity has been so great that it has now become hard to claim there is much secrecy left in esotericism. However, one unintended consequences of the growth in transparency of esotericism has also been a re-enchantment of parts of today's world. Indeed, esoteric groups are at the core of the mysterious and the magical and have been the repository of some enchanted parts of our world during the many intrusions of the rationalisation process. Before moving to a discussion of Weber's notion of enchantment and disenchantment, I am first illustrating this term with a recent movie directed by Guillermo del Toro.

The movie, Pan's Labyrinth (2006), is based shortly after the Spanish civil war of the 1930s in which the dictator Franco (1892–1975) took power. A little girl is brought to a village which is controlled by the Franquists in order to meet her stepfather who comes from a line of proud military men. In this setting, the little girl, Ofelia, is exposed to the reality of a cold and rational world. Her stepfather is a calculating man who is the epitome of a cruel technocrat. She is also in the middle of a fight between the value of two modern and rational movements (Fascism, as represented by the military, and Communism, as represented by the guerrillas from the Spanish Maquis) which have brought with them a non-magical understanding of the world.