This term is used to refer to religious movements in the West which describe themselves as “Sufi” but are part of the landscape of Western esotericism more than of Islam. Such a use should be distinguished from the standard use of the term in Islamic studies, where it denotes a particular group of Sufi orders which arose in the Islamic world between the 18th and 19th centuries and which has no important connection with the West.

Persons and groups in the West describing themselves as “Sufi” may be placed into one of three categories: Islamic Sufism, non-Islamic neo-Sufi…