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ra sensory perception and parapsychology the term occult sciences was used in 16th century europe to refer to astrology alchemy and natural magic the term occultism emerged in 19th century france 1 among figures such as antoine court de gébelin 2 it came to be associated with various french esoteric groups connected to éliphas lévi and papus and in 1875 was introduced into the english language by the esotericist helena blavatsky throughout the 20th century the term occult was used idiosyncratically by a range of different authors by the 21st century the term occultism was commonly employed including by academic scholars in the field of western esotericism studies to refer to a range of esoteric currents that developed in the mid 19th century and their descendants occultism is thus often used to categorise such esoteric traditions as qabalah spiritualism theosophy anthroposophy wicca the hermetic order of the golden dawn new age 3 thelema and the left hand path and right hand path while rosicrucianism is not directly occult various christian rosicrucian societies have also engaged in esoteric study and are historically adjacent for example the societas rosicruciana in anglia and its members influenced the foundation of the hermetic order of the golden dawn 4 5 use of the term as a nominalized adjective the occult has developed especially since the late twentieth century in that same period occult and culture were combined to form the neologism occulture etymology edit the occult from the latin word occultus lit clandestine hidden or secret is knowledge of the hidden 6 in common usage occult refers to knowledge of the paranormal as opposed to knowledge of the measurable 7 which is usually referred to as science the terms esoteric and arcane can also be used to describe the occult 8 in addition to their meanings unrelated to the supernatural the term occult sciences was used in the 16th century to refer to astrology alchemy and natural magic the earliest known usage of the term occultism is in the french language as l occultism in this form it appears in aymon de lestrange s article that was published in dictionnaire des mots nouveaux dictionary of new words by jean baptiste richard de radonvilliers fr in 1842 however it was not related at this point to the notion of ésotérisme chrétien as has been claimed by hanegraaff 9 but to describe a political system of occulticity that was directed against priests and aristocrats 10 in 1853 the masonic author jean marie ragon had already used occultisme in his popular work maçonnerie occulte relating it to earlier practices that since the renaissance had been termed occult sciences or occult philosophy but also to the recent socialist teachings of charles fourier 11 the french esotericist éliphas lévi then used the term in his influential book on ritual magic dogme et rituel de la haute magie first published in 1856 12 lévi was familiar with that work and might have borrowed the term from there in any case lévi also claimed to be a representative of an older tradition of occult science or occult philosophy 13 it was from his usage of the term occultisme that it gained wider usage 14 according to faivre lévi was the principal exponent of esotericism in europe and the united states at that time 15 the term occultism emerged in 19th century france where it came to be associated with various esoteric groups connected to éliphas lévi and papus the earliest use of the term occultism in the english language appears to be in a few questions to hiraf an 1875 article by helena blavatsky a russian émigré living in the united states who founded the religion of theosophy the article was published in the american spiritualist magazine spiritual scientist 16 various twentieth century writers on the subject used the term occultism in different ways some writers such as the german philosopher theodor w adorno in his theses against occultism employed the term as a broad synonym for irrationality 17 in his 1950 book l occultisme robert amadou fr used the term as a synonym for esotericism 18 an approach that the later scholar of esotericism marco pasi suggested left the term superfluous 17 unlike amadou other writers saw occultism and esotericism as different albeit related phenomena in the 1970s the sociologist edward a tiryakian distinguished between occultism which he used in reference to practices techniques and procedures and esotericism which he defined as the religious or philosophical belief systems on which such practices are based 18 this division was initially adopted by the early academic scholar of esotericism antoine faivre although he later abandoned it 12 it has been rejected by most scholars who study esotericism 17 by the 21st century the term was commonly employed including by academic scholars of esotericism to refer to a range of esoteric currents that developed in the mid 19th century and their descendants occultism is thus often used to categorise such esoteric traditions as spiritualism theosophy anthroposophy the hermetic order of the golden dawn and the new age movement a different division was used by the traditionalist author rené guénon who used esotericism to describe what he believed was the traditionalist inner teaching at the heart of most religions while occultism was used pejoratively to describe new religions and movements that he disapproved of such as spiritualism theosophy and various secret societies 19 guénon s use of this terminology was adopted by later writers like serge hutin and luc benoist 20 as noted by hanegraaff guénon s use of these terms are rooted in his traditionalist beliefs and cannot be accepted as scholarly valid 20 the term occultism derives from the older term occult much as the term esotericism derives from the older term esoteric 13 however the historian of esotericism wouter hanegraaff stated that it was important to distinguish between the meanings of the term occult and occultism 21 occultism is not a homogenous movement and is widely diverse 15 over the course of its history the term occultism has been used in various different ways 22 however in contemporary uses occultism commonly refers to forms of esotericism that developed in the nineteenth century and their twentieth century derivations 20 in a descriptive sense it has been used to describe forms of esotericism which developed in nineteenth century france especially in the neo martinist environment 20 according to the historian of esotericism antoine faivre it is with the esotericist éliphas lévi that the occultist current properly so called first appears 15 other prominent french esotericists involved in developing occultism included papus stanislas de guaita joséphin péladan georges albert puyou de pouvourville and jean bricaud 13 occult sciences edit the idea of occult sciences developed in the sixteenth century 12 the term usually encompassed three practices astrology alchemy and natural magic although sometimes various forms of divination were also included rather than being subsumed under natural magic 12 these were grouped together because according to the dutch scholar of hermeticism wouter hanegraaff each one of them engaged in a systematic investigation of nature and natural processes in the context of theoretical frameworks that relied heavily on a belief in occult qualities virtues or forces 12 although there are areas of overlap between these different occult sciences they are separate and in some cases practitioners of one would reject the others as being illegitimate 12 during the age of enlightenment occultism increasingly came to be seen as intrinsically incompatible with the concept of science 12 from that point on use of occult science s implied a conscious polemic against mainstream science 12 nevertheless the philosopher and card game historian michael dummett whose analysis of the historical evidence suggested that fortune telling and occult interpretations using cards were unknown before the 18th century said that the term occult science was not misplaced because people who believe in the possibility of unveiling the future or of exercising supernormal powers do so because the efficacy of the methods they employ coheres with some systematic conception which they hold of the way the universe functions however flimsy its empirical basis 23 in his 1871 book primitive culture the anthropologist edward tylor used the term occult science as a synonym for magic 24 occult qualities edit occult qualities are properties that have no known rational explanation in the middle ages for example magnetism was considered an occult quality 25 26 aether is another such element 27 isaac newton s contemporaries severely criticized his theory that gravity was effected through action at a distance as occult 28 occultism edit the french esotericist éliphas lévi popularised the term occultism in the 1850s his reinterpretation of traditional esoteric ideas has led to him being called the origin of the occultist current properly so called 15 in the english speaking world notable figures in the development of occultism included helena blavatsky and other figures associated with her theosophical society senior figures in the hermetic order of the golden dawn like william wynn westcott and samuel liddell macgregor mathers as well as other individuals such as paschal beverly randolph emma hardinge britten arthur edward waite and in the early twentieth century aleister crowley dion fortune and israel regardie 13 by the end of the nineteenth century occultist ideas had also spread into other parts of europe such as the german empire austria hungary and the kingdom of italy 29 unlike older forms of esotericism occultism does not necessarily reject scientific progress or modernity 30 lévi had stressed the need to solve the conflict between science and religion something that he believed could be achieved by turning to what he thought was the ancient wisdom found in magic 31 the french scholar of western esotericism antoine faivre noted that rather than outright accepting the triumph of scientism occultists sought an alternative solution trying to integrate scientific progress or modernity with a global vision that will serve to make the vacuousness of materialism more apparent 15 the dutch scholar of hermeticism wouter hanegraaff remarked that occultism was essentially an attempt to adapt esotericism to the disenchanted world a post enlightenment society in which growing scientific discovery had eradicated the dimension of irreducible mystery previously present in doing so he noted occultism distanced itself from the traditional esotericism which accepted the premise of an enchanted world 32 according to the british historian of western esotericism nicholas goodrick clarke occultist groups typically seek proofs and demonstrations by recourse to scientific tests or terminology 33 in his work about lévi the german historian of religion julian strube has argued that the occultist wish for a synthesis of religion science and philosophy directly resulted from the context of contemporary socialism and progressive catholicism 34 similar to spiritualism but in declared opposition to it the emergence of occultism should thus be seen within the context of radical social reform which was often concerned with establishing new forms of scientific religion while at the same time propagating the revival of an ancient tradition of true religion 35 indeed the emergence of both modern esotericism and socialism in july monarchy france have been inherently intertwined 36 another feature of occultists is that unlike earlier esotericists they often openly distanced themselves from christianity in some cases like that of aleister crowley even adopting explicitly anti christian stances 31 this reflected how pervasive the influence of secularisation had been on all areas of european society 31 in rejecting christianity these occultists sometimes turned to pre christian belief systems and embraced forms of modern paganism while others drew on asian religions such as hinduism and buddhism in various cases certain occultists did both 31 another characteristic of these occultists was their emphasis on the spiritual realization of the individual an idea that would strongly influence the twentieth century new age and the human potential movement 31 this spiritual realization was encouraged both through traditional western occult sciences like alchemy and ceremonial magic but by the start of the twentieth century had also begun to include practices drawn from non western contexts such as yoga 31 although occultism is distinguished from earlier forms of esotericism many occultists have also been involved in older esoteric currents for instance occultists like françois charles barlet fr and rudolf steiner were also theosophers a adhering to the ideas of the early modern lutheran thinker jakob bohme and seeking to integrate ideas from bohmian theosophy and occultism 37 it has been noted however that this distancing from the theosophical society should be understood in the light of polemical identity formations among esotericists towards the end of the nineteenth century 38 etic uses of the term edit see also emic and etic in the 1990s the dutch scholar wouter hanegraaff put forward a new definition of occultism for scholarly uses in the mid 1990s a new definition of occultism was put forth by wouter hanegraaff 39 according to hanegraaff the term occultism can be used not only for the nineteenth century groups which openly self described using that term but can also be used in reference to the type of esotericism that they represent 20 seeking to define occultism so that the term would be suitable as an etic category for scholars hanegraaff devised the following definition a category in the study of religions which comprises all attempts by esotericists to come to terms with a disenchanted world or alternatively by people in general to make sense of esotericism from the perspective of a disenchanted secular world 40 hanegraaff noted that this etic usage of the term would be independent of emic usages of the term employed by occultists and other esotericists themselves 40 in this definition occultism encompasses many esoteric currents that have developed since the mid nineteenth century including spiritualism theosophy the hermetic order of the golden dawn and the new age 20 employing this etic understanding of occultism hanegraaff argued that its development could begin to be seen in the work of the swedish esotericist emanuel swedenborg and in the lmesmerist movement of the eighteenth century although added that occultism only emerged in fully developed form as spiritualism a movement that developed in the united states during the mid nineteenth century 32 marco pasi suggested that the use of hanegraaff s definition might cause confusion by presenting a group of nineteenth century esotericists who called themselves occ...