Esoterrorism When Deputy CIA director John McLaughlin wrote that "magic and espionage are kindred spirits," he was confirming something every government knows. Sorcery and surveillance both concern the power of secrets. The espionage and esoteric communities have always gone to unholy lengths to discover and defend knowledge “beyond the ken” of ordinary people. James Bond remains the most celebrated fictional spy, but the original British secret agent was Renaissance wizard John Dee, covert operative for Elizabeth I under the codename “007.” Dee spied for Elizabeth throughout her reign, gathering intel, natural and supernatural, across Europe. Top-secret missives would appear at Elizabeth’s court signed only with his “007” moniker. Renowned as an astrologer, alchemist, scholar, and strategist, Dee chose the magickal date of Elizabeth’s coronation, interrogated spirits for specifics about foreign conspirators, and supposedly summoned the tempest that wrecked the Spanish Armada. Esoterrorism isn’t just a relic of our superstitious ancestors. In the past century, conspiracy theorists claimed that MI5 created an “Occult Bureau” to track arcane efforts in other governments. Infamous necromancer Aleister Crowley did decades of undercover work for British Naval Intelligence, using his “secret society” connections to run “Black Magick Ops” around the world: spying on tsarist Russia, attempting to assassinate Mussolini, and manipulating the United States into both World Wars. Crowley wasn’t alone. In WWII’s so-called “Magickal Battle of Britain,” occultist Dion Fortune successfully orchestrated an army of Albion’s mages to thwart a direct invasion by Hitler. James-Bond-author and MI5 agent Ian Fleming used Crowley and astrologer Louis de Wohl to compel Rudolph Hess to defect, a major turning point in the British war effort. Recent news still hints at the connection between spies and spirits. Consider Daniel James, a British Army interpreter who (in his words) “did black magic for General Richards to protect him from the Taliban.” Or the latest exposure of “men who stare at goats” for the CIA, researching paranormal abilities as weapons in the war on terror. Esoteric espionage is as old as the idea of government. Again and again, governments seem to return to the thought: Treason is a dark business that calls for Dark Arts.