Under an esoteric moon

Century, #17.99

JUNGIAN therapy achieves its remarkable commercial success by realising that human beings have an insatiable spiritual appetite that is not satisfied by organised religion. Jung's is probably the most acceptable of the eclectic cosmologies which stir together Rosicrucianism, the esoteric lore of the Templars, freemasonry, gnosticism, alchemy, sufism, astrology, numerology, spiritualism, occultism, mythology, and the ''wisdom of the East''. Mark Hedsel and David Ovason have their own spin on this eclectic blend of esoterica, but to my mind what they have to say is gobbledygook bordering on gibberish.

Mark Hedsel, who died last year, claimed to have been a ''zelator'' or warlock of the type popularised by John Fowles in The Magus. The book is largely a record of the ''wisdom'' imported by ''perfect masters'' and their ilk at seminars. Here is an example of the intellectual content: ''Our moon is a sort of counterweight to another sphere which remains invisible to ordinary vision. This counterweighted sphere is what is called in esoteric circles 'the Eighth Sphere'. . . The operation of this Eighth Sphere is complex. Its denizens - those shadowy beings for whom it is home - wish to people their Sphere with humanity . . . ''

And so it goes on for 500 pages. All the expected names appear: Blake, Steiner, Ouspensky, Gurdjieff, Madame Blavatsky, Aleister Crowley. Need one add that the authors believe in reincarnation and that one

of their circle thinks he is

a reincarnation of

William Blake?

They were all big names in previous lives; it is passing curious that none of them ever cleaned latrines in Ancient Egypt or slaved in Sicilian sulphur mines. But then the whole project of Jung's individuation or Hedsel's ''initiation'' is simply a process whereby bored people, of limited intelligence but unlimited money, try to transcend the depressing facts about life in the vale of tears. The world of the esoteric is a world for people without economic problems; that is why there are not many Maguses in the Gorbals or zelators on the Falls Road.

One would dearly like to know the economic basis for these zelators and their disciples, but this book provides no useful information on the external world. That's another thing about the esotericists: their schools are never held in Brixton or the slums of Sao Paolo. Instead, Hedsel's life seems to have been a sustained swan around the desirable areas of the world: rural France, Tuscany, Prague, Manhattan, Mexico, Monument Valley, the Caribbean islands.

The serious reader is likely to find this book unintentionally hilarious, dispiriting, and even slightly alarming by turns, as when Ovason seriously invites us to prefer the ''scholarship'' of Crowley to that of Eliphas Levi, which is a bit like asking us to compare the respective contributions to Kantian thought of Bruce Forsyth and Freddie Starr. But the thousands of New Age readers, who like to believe Napoleon was abducted by aliens and Kennedy assassinated by Martians, will doubtless find it hugely instructive.