The modern word egregore is surprisingly young. Its widespread use within Western esotericism can largely be traced to the French occult revival of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, where it came to describe a collective force emerging through shared thought, ritual, and participation.

Never before have so many people spent so much of their day watching lives they will never live. Political campaigns unfold in real time. Celebrity relationships become daily conversation.

Almost everyone has experienced the feeling. You finish a book that seems to explain your entire life. A podcast suddenly makes everything click. A therapist offers a new perspective.

Society is taught to think about change through the lens of addition. If something is not working, the solution is assumed to be something new. A new habit. A new strategy. A new expert. A new system.