GNOSIS: A JOURNAL OF THE WESTERN INNER TRADITIONS was a quarterly magazine that was published in print form between 1985 and 1999.

It was founded by Jay Kinney, its editor in chief and publisher, and was issued under the auspices of the nonprofit Lumen Foundation. Its offices were in San Francisco. Richard Smoley served as editor from 1990 to the magazine’s closing in 1999.

GNOSIS was designed as a wide-ranging, broad-minded forum for the exploration of the Western mystical, occult, and esoteric traditions (including but not limited to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.) It was nonsectarian and published articles and authors from a wide variety of perspective.

Individual issues were devoted to specific themes, such as:

Fifty-one issues in all were published. The last, on the Grail, appeared in the spring of 1999.

In 1999, inspired by GNOSIS’s many and varied themes, Richard Smoley and Jay Kinney released Hidden Wisdom: A Guide to the Western Inner Traditions, published by Penguin Arkana. A revised second edition was published by Quest Books in 2006.

In 2004, Jay Kinney edited The Inner West: An Introduction to the Hidden Wisdom of the West, published by Tarcher/Penguin. It consisted largely of articles that first appeared in GNOSIS.

In 2009, Jay Kinney’s book The Masonic Myth: Unlocking the Truth About the Symbols, the Secret Rites, and the History of Freemasonry was published by Harper One.

Richard Smoley is presently editor of QUEST: JOURNAL OF THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY IN AMERICA and is the author of a number of books, including Inner Christianity: A Guide to the Esoteric Tradition; Forbidden Faith: The Secret History of Gnosticism; An Introduction to the Occult; and Supernatural: Writings on an Unknown History. His most recent book is Seven Games of Life and How to Play, published by G&D Media in 2023. He invites readers to join his Substack.

Although the magazine’s circulation never exceeded more than 16,000, it had a pervasive influence on the discussion and reception of the Western esoteric traditions. It helped inspire a new impulse in scholarly investigation of these traditions, an influence that has long survived the magazine itself.

In 2019, the Lumen Foundation, no longer active as a not-for-profit entity, was dissolved, and all rights to GNOSIS were transferred to the Theosophical Society in America. Application for permission for use of materials should be addressed to gnosis@theosophical.org.