Interesting reading I got me lately, The Epic of Gilgamesh. Usually, this book is not very well known outside the scholar community, but it has certain occult - or esoteric if you will, implications that are worth knowing by us the regular citizens of the world.
I am not into the esoterica, but as a simple mortal I question many of the "traditional" teachings and beliefs we've grown up with. One of these is the notion of us being the one and only civilisation on earth. The classic questions about who we are, where we are going, etc, are intended to create more and more mysteries and enigmas when trying to respond to them and if you ask yourself, "Where does my notion of existence come from?" you necessarily need to hark back to what the past is telling you, starting obviously with the accepted traditional history line we re all taught since we're little kids.
But what about unsatisfactorily explained (and well known) evidence such as the pyramids? not only the ones in Egypt, but also the ones in Central America and Mexico. And why this primitive tribe lost in the jungle in Africa (Dogons) know that Sirius is a star and has company and it is a dual star (Sirius "A" and Sirius "B"), something that was recently proved by advanced telescopes pointed at Sirius from satellites outside the atmosphere. OK, it is arguable whether or not they were visited by aliens who taught them that or not but the point is.... why have they always known that while we haven't? interesting info about Dogons here:
http://www.geocities.com/jilaens/dogons.html?200625
The Epic of Gilgamesh is interesting in terms of describing the quest of Gilgamesh for eternal life "like the gods"; Enlil, the father of all the gods decrees kingship only for Gilgamesh but the implications are more profound for humankind, doomed to "unending death". Apart from the different versions that exist (Acadian, Standard, etc) the bottom line, as I perceive it, is that Gilgamesh incarnates the quest for eternal life we all have deep inside, something like a hidden wish that comes from deep inside our souls, assuming you believe we have a soul.
And what does this have to do with the occult or esoteric? Well, in my perception it has to do with the legacy of a hidden knowledge that has been passed from generation through generation by certain "selected few" who have access to this knowledge. Free Masonry or Rosacrucians claim to be some of those "selected few", and they may very well be. But the way see it is why hide that legacy? why keep the rest of us mortals in "spiritual darkness" if we all have a Gilgamesh in the bottom of our hearts. Why not try to wake up the Gilgamesh we all have and guide it through his quest, ultimately our own quest, for eternal life? Perhaps my approach is somewhat "Christian", in the sense that Christ was wide open when saying He was the Truth, nothing to hide there. I agree that many would say we are not all prepared to receive that wisdom and that a certain degree of either spiritual or intellectual awareness of this knowledge is mandatory prior to receive it; can't argue with that. But what I do argue is the fact that this obsession to hide this heritage and this knowledge in secret societies, even inside the Catholic church as the rumour has it, has deviated the original purpose of helping mankind find a better way to live, a better way to construct society, construct civilisation. This opens a new argument; the notions of good and evil. Some might say intrinsic evil in man deviates any original "good purpose", but then again, this is a matter for further development and I may elaborate about it some other time. For this post purposes, I feel that all we have been taught, all we have believed in and all traditional and "official" history we have learnt deserves a second glance and we would all do good in questioning it and not accepting it "as is" as though it were an undisputable fact. Have you ever wondered what would happen if scientists can prove the Sphinx was built ca. 10,500 B.C.? Now that would shake the very foundations of all history of mankind. For now, let us say that it is worth asking ourselves, "Is it everything as we believe it has been?" Some of us might find the answer, someday, sometime, somewhere, whether in this world or another...