ABSTRACT
The place of esotericism in public discourse also changed as the old social order of the estates dissolved and institutions were criticised. Chiefly interested in natural science, Emanuel Swedenborg gave no early indication that he would become one of the most controversial and influential mystics of the Enlightenment era. To quote Immanuel Kant's famous dictum, the Enlightenment represented man's liberation from self-imposed tutelage. However, Mesmer had a significant influence on the history of modern esotericism. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's works particularly show the combination of the sacralisation of nature, pantheism and animism, which arose in response to the opportunities and dangers of the European Enlightenment. Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling elaborated a philosophy of nature, which not only prevailed among the Romantics but which is still evident today. The philosophy of nature anticipated Romantic and modern ecological discourses with its theological elevation and sacralisation of nature.
