What is an egregore?

One of the terms that you hear tossed around in esoteric circles, especially those circles manned by the lodge system, is the term "egregore."

But what is an egregore?

Quite simply, an egregore is a "group mind" of a group of people. Well, perhaps calling it a group mind is being too generous. In all honesty, an egregore is like a hotbed of neurosises that is transmitted from one member to another--well, at least, it is when the egregore has taken ill from taking in an excess of unsuitable members.

So why use such a dangerous tool? In part, because we have no choice in the matter. No esoteric system that wants to escape the one-on-one single master teaching a single student method can avoid the effect of egregores.

Egregores are a natural occurring phenomenon. Every human being has encountered an egregore, and is part of at least one egregore. The only way to escape the effect of egregores on humanity is to grow a single human being in a test tube and raise them with only the aid of machines on a planet far, far away from the rest of humanity. Only a human completely isolated from the rest of humanity would be able to escape the effects of egregores.

(At this point, a student might ask, "What about sociopaths and psychopaths?" No, even those types are affected by egregores, even if they themselves are not as deeply connected to them though the recesses of their own minds as the rest of humanity, as long as they live among other human beings.)

Egregores occur naturally; they do not need to be created. For instance, sport fans at a bar will create a low level egregore. As the moods of the fans gathered wax and wane, the emotions felt by each fan in the room affect the other people in the room. Given the right input, the fans can spill out of a bar and turn into a mob looting and pillaging.

It is the ease that an ordinary crowd can turn into a mob that makes Adepts avoid crowds when they can.

And egregores form from all types of human gatherings: families, Amway conventions, crowds of shoppers, protestors, churches--all generate an egregore. Many of these egregores are short-lived, breaking apart quickly when the gathering is over. We have all experienced the high from a conference, feeling like we could take on the world, only to have our confidence rapidly fall apart as soon as we got home.

Now, the quick esoteric student will point out that they are not in lodge that much, therefore if egregores exist (and we have not proven that they do), then they would only affect the student for the duration of the ceremonies and meetings which they attend. And that would be true if the egregores of the esoteric traditions were ordinary egregores. Unfortunately, the egregores of the esoteric traditions, due to the rituals of their systems, are bigger, stronger, and longer lasting than most egregores that spontaneously arise in society. Only the egregores that influence the natives of nations, the steadfast members of religion, and of ethnic cultures can rival the egregores of the esoteric traditions.

And that is because they all share something in common--the use of ritual.  

(Some students will say that no amount of evidence will prove that the egregores exist--after all, it is not like you can weigh an egregore on a scale. The student might also argue that the occult theory of egregores can be replaced by social theories or psychology models instead. And they are right. No one can prove that the egregores exist. And other models of reality provide models that can account for the same behavior that the occultists credit the egregores for. But egregores are how the members of the esoteric traditions are taught to think about the behavior of groups of human beings, and therefore it is what I chose to use here in this series of posts--a gold star for such a student, who will probably leave the esoteric traditions in a blaze of intense pride that they are smarter than the assembled Adepts and Masters of the esoteric traditions...while the esoteric traditions breathe a deep sigh of relief that another know-it-all decided that the halls of knowledge were beneath their notice.)

Structure of esoteric egregores.