This page groups historical figures by how solidly their existence is documented, from people confirmed by independent contemporary sources to ones known only from later religious writing. Wikipedia defines historicity as "the historical actuality of persons and events, meaning the quality of being part of history instead of being a historical myth, legend, or fiction." Browsing this way lets a visitor tell a firmly historical founder apart from a figure whose existence scholars still debate.
Facts
Structure
StructureDocumented individuals whose work bore on the traditions the atlas covers, each given a lifespan, a field and a tradition. Much of the literature ascribed to figures in this field is pseudepigraphic, credited to a prestigious ancient name rather than written by one, so an attributed author here is not always the writer. 1 Origins
Whose Classification This IsMost of the figures gathered here are studied under the heading "Western esotericism", which is itself a modern academic construction rather than a description the currents involved used of themselves. 1 Learn More
Real people who shaped the traditions
This category holds actual historical persons whose work bore on the traditions in the atlas: philosophers, astrologers, alchemists, mystics, theologians, scholars and occultists. Unlike the gods and legendary characters, these are people who can be dated and, in most cases, documented, and the entries give a lifespan, a field and the tradition each worked in or influenced.
The range runs from ancient philosophers and astronomers through medieval alchemists and Kabbalists to the founders of modern occultism, and includes figures central to the esoteric currents the atlas traces even where mainstream history treats them as marginal.
Person, Persona and Attribution
Two problems recur in this material and the atlas addresses both. First, influential esoteric writing is often pseudonymous or misattributed, credited to a prestigious ancient name; the entries separate the real author, where known, from the legendary one. Second, some figures accreted so much legend that the person is hard to see behind the persona, and the entries distinguish the documented life from the later tradition.
Some individuals are dual-modelled (a historical figure here and, in their own tradition, a founder or saint elsewhere in the atlas), and the pages are kept complementary rather than duplicated.
Composite figure: more than one person or tradition behind the name
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Connections
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Sources
1. Esotericism and the Academy: Rejected Knowledge in Western Culture
Wouter J. Hanegraaff, Cambridge University Press, 2012On the historiography of rejected knowledge
Divinity Atlas Directory Prose, First Edition Category Descriptions
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