Egregore is an occult concept representing a "thoughtform" or "collective group mind", an autonomous psychic entity made up of, and influencing, the thoughts of a group of people. The symbiotic relationship between an egregore and its group has been compared to the more recent, non-occult concepts of the corporation and the meme.
History
Manuscrit trouvé à Saragosse, or The Manuscript Found in Saragossa written by Polish author Count Jan Potocki in the early 1800s features the term "Egregores," referring to "the most illustrious of fallen angels." However, it is important to take note of the novel's heavy orientalist and fantastical bent. The second author to adapt "egregore" in a modern language seems to be the French poetVictor Hugo, in La Légende des siècles, First Series, 1859, where he uses the word "égrégore" first as an adjective, then as a noun, while leaving the meaning obscure. The author seems to have needed a word rhyming with words ending in the sound "or". It would not be the only example of word creation by Victor Hugo. However, the word is the normal form that the Greek word ἑγρήγορος would take in French. This was the term used in the Book of Enoch for great angel-like spirits. Eliphas Lévi, in Le Grand Arcane identifies "egregors" with the tradition concerning the "Watchers", the fathers of the nephilim, describing them as "terrible beings" that "crush us without pity because they are unaware of our existence." The concept of the egregore as a group thoughtform was developed in works of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and the Rosicrucians and has been referenced by writers such as Valentin Tomberg, notably in his anonymously-penned book Meditations on the Tarot. It was also mentioned in the book El maravilloso universo de la magia, by Chilean author Enrique Barrios. A well known concept of the egregore is the GOTOS of the Fraternitas Saturni.
Contemporary usage
Gaetan Delaforge, in Gnosis magazine in 1987, defines an egregore as a kind of group mind that is created when people consciously come together for a common purpose. The concept was featured in Corporate Metabolism series of articles by Paco Xander Nathan, which were published in 2001. The notion of "egregor" also appears in Daniil Andreyev's Roza Mira, where it represents the shining cloud-like spirit associated with the Church. Egregore is also used in relation to the Montreal Surrealists, best known as Les Automatistes, in Ray Ellenwood's Egregore: a history of the Montréal automatist movement. Egregore is also the term for the spiritual personification of each nation in the UK LRP game Empire, run by Profound Decisions. Gary Lachman identifies Pepe the Frog as an egregore in his book Dark Star Rising.
