This volume of conference proceedings investigates the various ways and patterns with which esoteric writings and groups establish their own tradition. This involves concepts of origin and memory, ways of legitimising esoteric tradition as well as techniques and practices of knowledge transmission in esotericism.

Andreas B. Kilcher, PhD. (1996) in German Litreature, University of Basel, is Professor of Literature and Cultural Studies at ETH Zurich since 2008. From 2004-2008 he has been Professor of Modern German Literature at the University of Tübingen. His research interests cover the history of German-Jewish literature and culture, literary and science; studies in esotericism. He recently published Die Enzyklopädik der Esoterik: Allwissenheitsmythen und universalwissenschaftliche Modelle in der Esoterik der Neuzeit with Wilhelm Fink Verlag, 2010.