William G. Gray and the Sangreal:
The Bloody Magician’s Modern Tradition
Justin C. Wisner
justin.c.wisner@gmail.com
History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents, One-Year Masters Thesis
First reader, Wouter J Hanegraaff
Second reader, Justin Sausman
Student No.: 10234365
13 July,
As an occult writer and practitioner in the 20th century, Gray continually attempts
to legitimate his enchanted esoteric ideologies through the academic discourses of
biology, psychology, sociology, and anthropology, and to this end seeks the material
vector of esoteric thought and culture in blood, genes and cultural identity. It was, in
fact, not the biological or racial doctrines which allowed for lasting connections in the
network of esotericism, but Gray’s uniquely woven tapestry of anthropology,
psychology, esoteric discourses and traditionalism which produced the strongest
connections to nodes in the esoteric cultural actor network. As a well-connected man in
20th century British esoteric circles—and a participant in 20th century culture so deeply
influenced by the means, goals and cultural products of science—Gray demonstrates the
overarching flexibility of ANT’s applications for the academy more generally, in that so
long as scientific ideologies and doctrines are networked to (either through discourse or
method, in agreement or opposition), the social sciences can pull a vast amount of
pertinent analytical data from Latour’s (admittedly less historical) theory.
In sum, ANT provides us with a more useful view of Gray in light of his
idiosyncratic discourse and personally crafted esoteric order, as his ideology borrows
freely from available disciplines within the Anglo-Saxon world and does not abide by
classic in-group/out-group distinctions between academic and esoteric disciplines.
Through the lens of ANT the interdisciplinary selection of ideological components in
Gray’s system becomes easier to understand in the context of the invented authoritative
traditions of the past. Before examining Gray’s ideology, the historical trends of claimed
authority and invented tradition in Western esotericism will be further investigated.
Building authoritative traditions
Gray focuses explicitly on ‘tradition’ throughout his works. In large part, his
Sangreal Sacrament is an attempt to universalize and modernize various Western esoteric
discourses into a single updated Mystery. His evolutionary view of history and placing
of authoritative traditions in not just the past but also the present shows his desire to adapt
Western traditions to the modern context, despite his large qualms with the modern
world. To show how his legitimating strategy was successful enough to overcome the
repugnance of the structural, racial component of his tradition, it is first necessary to
understand how authority has been claimed by traditions in the past, and how the authors
of those traditions attempted to garner legitimacy in their own times. Thereafter, I will
show how Gray modernized and legitimated his unique mix of esoteric discourses,
traditionalism and academic sources—trumping the impediments of his racialist
ideologies—to produce lasting connections in the cultural network of esotericism while
participated in a ‘tradition of making traditions’ in the West.
In a period of social flux and great changes to the Western way of life, Gray
aimed at adaptation for the future. Evolution, psychoanalysis and the atomic bomb were
changing the world, and Gray proposed to adapt what he perceived to be the ‘true’
Western tradition for the future, while trying to retain the most important components
from the past. Akin to René Guenon and Julius Evola, but with his characteristic twist of
embracing the modern, Gray’s disillusionment with the modernity he inhabited hardened
his resolve to explore so-called ‘Inner Traditions’ in order to ensure their viability and
functionality for a better future, enriched with sacred meaning beyond the purely material
for the chosen members of the human race that ‘belonged’ with the Western esoteric
tradition. More akin to Hitler than Guénon, Gray’s sacred culture is transmitted via
belonging ‘with the blood,’ which meant the genes, and at times even focusing on
nationalistic belonging to a geopolitical identity.









