Shakespeare's plays are full of profound wisdom and can be studied from the point of view of Cabala, Neoplatonism, Hermeticism, esoteric Christianity, Druidism, Rosicrucianism and Freemasonry, all of which are contained in synthesis in the plays.

Besides being entertaining, Shakespeare's plays are Mystery plays on a par with the Mysteries of classical Greece and Rome, illustrating from many points of view life's passions, sorrows and joys, and the power of love to change and transmute situations. In a variety of ways they show the hero's path of attainment and the villain's path of disintegration.

The comedies and romances in particular demonstrate the path of initiation in its various guises and situations. The tragedies show the step-by-step breakdown of individuals and society when love and virtue is largely absent, and vices (such as selfishness, jealousy, anger, greed, arrogance, cruelty and tyranny) rule.

The histories are a mix of the ordinary and the tragic, with a touch of comedy and occasionally showing the hero's path of initiation. They provide in-depth studies of rulership, good and bad, and its profound effect on society, with the history of the chosen periods modified and allegorised so as to make the plays pertinent not only to Shakespeare’s own time period but also to any time period. In this way they continue to be relevant as a teaching to every modern audience, as indeed are all the Shakespeare plays—comedies, histories and tragedies.

A knowledge of the Great Archetypes (e.g. Tree of Life, Wheel of Life, Chakra System) as well as of alchemical and religious symbolism, spiritual hierarchies and psychological states of mind and emotion is demonstrated in the Shakespeare plays, which can teach us profound things and show us the more hidden, metaphysical laws of life.

The Shakespeare plays provide us with a model by means of which we may study and come to recognise and know the higher laws of life, particularly the laws of emotion: for the theatre provides us with a laboratory of human emotion and thought that can be felt as well as seen. Thereby we might be better able to comprehend the ultimate law of the universe – the law of divine love.

© Peter Dawkins