A branch that draws on esoteric and occult traditions—Hermeticism, Kabbalah, alchemy, Thelema—to imagine posthuman futures. Esoteric posthumanism argues that the "human" of humanism is a recent, limited construct, and that older traditions knew we were more than this—connected to stars, spirits, and hidden dimensions. It explores practices of transformation—ritual, magic, meditation—that might help us become something other than the limited humans of modernity. Esoteric posthumanism is posthumanism with a mystical twist, for those who suspect that the future of humanity might involve the gods as much as the genes.
Example: "She found mainstream posthumanism too clinical—all cyborgs and algorithms, no soul. Esoteric posthumanism spoke to her differently: the alchemists had sought transformation, the mystics had sought union, the magicians had sought power beyond the human. These weren't relics; they were resources. The posthuman future might look less like a lab and more like a temple."
by Dumu The Void February 19, 2026
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