ABSTRACT
People interested in alchemy and esotericism was the first to take up and spread the ideas disseminated by the original Tü bingen circle. Besides the Rosicrucian movement, the traditions of Freemasonry have been a significant factor in the institutionalisation of esotericism over the past three hundred years. The legal scholar and professor, Christoph Besold, the theology student, Johann Valentin Andreae, who took his master's degree in 1605, and the physician, theologian and jurist, Tobias Hess are considered responsible for the early Rosicrucian manifestoes. In 1782 at the international Wilhelmsbad Convention attempts were made to establish a new binding constitution, but unity could not be achieved owing to the gulf between lodges guided by Enlightenment values and Rosicrucian lodges interested in alchemy and esotericism. The influence of the Theosophical Society and other factors have transformed the Hermetic-esoteric discourse of the twentieth century, although much older traditions are still evident in the palimpsest of its rich and varied heritage.
