Occult

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Occultism
)

The occult, in the broadest sense, is a category of

extra-sensory perception and parapsychology
. Literally, the term simply means "hidden", and is used in this sense in astronomy, for example when a star is "occulted" by the moon, i.e. passes from view as the moon moves in front of it. In the sense of parapsychology, the same Latin root indicates that the phenomenon is "hidden" from the physical, bodily senses.

The term occult sciences was used in

Papus, and in 1875 was introduced into the English language by the esotericist Helena Blavatsky
.

Throughout the 20th century, the term was used idiosyncratically by a range of different authors, but by the 21st century 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 Qabalah, Spiritualism, Theosophy, Anthroposophy, Wicca, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, New Age,[3] and the Left-hand path and right-hand path.

Use of the term as a nominalized adjective has developed especially since the late twentieth century. In that same period, occult and culture were combined to form the neologism occulture.

Etymology

The occult (from the

esoteric and arcane can also be used to describe the occult,[6] 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'occultisme. In this form it appears in A. de Lestrange's article that was published in Jean-Baptiste Richard de Randonvilliers' Dictionnaire des mots nouveaux ("Dictionary of new words") in 1842. However, it was not related, at this point, to the notion of Ésotérisme chrétien, as has been claimed by Hanegraaff,[7] but to describe a political "system of occulticity" that was directed against priests and aristocrats.[8]

In 1853, the

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.[14]

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.[15] In his 1950 book L'occultisme, Robert Amadou used the term as a synonym for esotericism,[16] an approach that the later scholar of esotericism Marco Pasi suggested left the term superfluous.[15] Unlike Amadou, other writers saw occultism and esotericism as different, albeit related, phenomena. In the 1970s, the sociologist Edward 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.[16] This division was initially adopted by the early academic scholar of esotericism, Antoine Faivre, although he later abandoned it;[10] it has been rejected by most scholars who study esotericism.[15]

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 New Age.

A different division was used by the

secret societies.[17] Guénon's use of this terminology was adopted by later writers like Serge Hutin and Luc Benoist.[18] As noted by Hanegraaff, Guénon's use of these terms are rooted in his Traditionalist beliefs and "cannot be accepted as scholarly valid".[18]

The term occultism derives from the older term occult, much as the term esotericism derives from the older term esoteric.[11] However, the historian of esotericism Wouter Hanegraaff stated that it was important to distinguish between the meanings of the term occult and occultism.[19] Occultism is not a homogenous movement and is widely diverse.[13]

Over the course of its history, the term occultism has been used in various different ways.

Georges-Albert Puyou de Pouvourville, and Jean Bricaud.[11]

Occult sciences

The idea of occult sciences developed in the sixteenth century.[10] 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.[10] 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."[10] 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.[10]

During the Age of Enlightenment, occultism increasingly came to be seen as intrinsically incompatible with the concept of science.[10] From that point on, use of "occult science(s)" implied a conscious polemic against mainstream science.[10] 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."[21]

In his 1871 book Primitive Culture, the anthropologist

Edward Tylor used the term "occult science" as a synonym for magic.[22]

Occult qualities

Occult qualities are properties that have no known rational explanation; in the Middle Ages, for example, magnetism was considered an occult quality.[23][24] Aether is another such element.[25] Newton's contemporaries severely criticized his theory that gravity was effected through "action at a distance", as occult.[26]

Occultism

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".[13]

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

Arthur Edward Waite, and – in the early twentieth century – Aleister Crowley, Dion Fortune, and Israel Regardie.[11] 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.[27]

Unlike older forms of esotericism, occultism does not necessarily reject "scientific progress or modernity".[28] 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.[29] 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".[13] 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.[30] 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".[31]

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.[32] 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".[33] Indeed, the emergence of both modern esotericism and socialism in July Monarchy France have been inherently intertwined.[34]

Another feature of occultists is that – unlike earlier esotericists – they often openly distanced themselves from Christianity, in some cases (like that of Crowley) even adopting explicitly

Modern Paganism, while others instead took influence from the religions of Asia, such as Hinduism and Buddhism. In various cases, certain occultists did both.[29] Another characteristic of these occultists was the emphasis that they placed on "the spiritual realization of the individual", an idea that would strongly influence the twentieth-century New Age and Human Potential Movement.[29] 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.[29]

Although occultism is distinguished from earlier forms of esotericism, many occultists have also been involved in older esoteric currents. For instance, occultists like

Jakob Bohme, and seeking to integrate ideas from Bohmian theosophy and occultism.[35] It has been noted, however, that this distancing from the Theosophical Society should be understood in the light of polemical identity formations amongst esotericists towards the end of the nineteenth century.[36]

Etic uses of the term

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.[37] 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".[18]

Seeking to define occultism so that the term would be suitable "as an

emic usages of the term employed by occultists and other esotericists themselves.[38]

In this definition, occultism covers many esoteric currents that have developed from the mid-nineteenth century onward, including Spiritualism, Theosophy, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and the New Age.

Mesmerist 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.[30]

Marco Pasi suggested that the use of Hanegraaff's definition might cause confusion by presenting a group of nineteenth-century esotericists who called themselves "occultists" as just one part of a broader category of esotericists whom scholars would call "occultists".[39]

Following these discussions, Julian Strube argued that Lévi and other contemporary authors who would now be regarded as esotericists developed their ideas not against the background of an esoteric tradition in the first place. Rather, Lévi's notion of occultism emerged in the context of highly influential radical socialist movements and widespread progressive, so-called neo-Catholic ideas.[40] This further complicates Hanegraaff's characteristics of occultism, since, throughout the nineteenth century, they apply to these reformist movements rather than to a supposed group of esotericists.[41]

Modern usage

The term occult has also been used as a substantivized adjective as "the occult", a term that has been particularly widely used among journalists and sociologists.[18] This term was popularised by the publication of Colin Wilson's 1971 book The Occult.[18] This term has been used as an "intellectual waste-basket" into which a wide array of beliefs and practices have been placed because they do not fit readily into the categories of religion or science.[18] According to Hanegraaff, "the occult" is a category into which gets placed a range of beliefs from "spirits or fairies to parapsychological experiments, from UFO-abductions to Oriental mysticism, from vampire legends to channelling, and so on".[18]

Occulture

The neologism occulture used within the industrial music scene of the late twentieth century was probably coined by one of its central figures, the musician and occultist Genesis P-Orridge.[42] The scholar of religion Christopher Partridge used the term in an academic sense, stating that occulture was "the new spiritual environment in the West; the reservoir feeding new spiritual springs; the soil in which new spiritualities are growing".[43]

Occultism and technology

Recently scholars have offered perspectives on the occult as intertwined with media and technology. Examples include the work of film and media theorist Jeffrey Sconce and religious studies scholar John Durham Peters, both of whom suggest that occult movements historically utilize media and apparatuses as tools to reveal hidden aspects of reality or laws of nature.[44][45] Erik Davis in his book Techgnosis gives an overview of occultism both ancient and modern from the perspective of cybernetics and information technologies.[46] Philosopher Eugene Thacker discusses Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa's Three Books of Occult Philosophy in his book In The Dust Of This Planet, where he shows how the horror genre utilizes occult themes to reveal hidden realities.[47]

See also

References

Notes

  1. ^ This theosophy, which is a Christian esoteric tradition adhered to by theosophers, is a distinct movement from Theosophy, the occultist religion adhered to by Theosophists, despite the shared name.

Citations

  1. ^ Pasi 2006.
  2. ^ Welburn & Heinzen 1986, p. 107.
  3. . Retrieved 2023-02-28.
  4. ^ Crabb 1927.
  5. ^ Underhill 2017, p. [page needed].
  6. ^ Wright 1895, p. [page needed].
  7. ^ Hanegraaff 2006, p. 887; Pasi 2006, p. 1364.
  8. ^ Strube 2016b, p. 445-450.
  9. ^ Strube 2016b, p. 13-14.
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h Hanegraaff 2006, p. 887.
  11. ^ a b c d Pasi 2006, p. 1365.
  12. ^ Hanegraaff 2006, p. 887; Pasi 2006, pp. 1364–1365.
  13. ^ a b c d e Faivre 1994, p. 88.
  14. ^ Hanegraaff 2006, p. 887; Pasi 2006, p. 1365.
  15. ^ a b c Pasi 2006, p. 1367.
  16. ^ a b Hanegraaff 2006, p. 887; Pasi 2006, p. 1367.
  17. ^ Hanegraaff 2006, pp. 887–888.
  18. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Hanegraaff 2006, p. 888.
  19. ^ Hanegraaff 2006, p. 884.
  20. ^ Pasi 2006, p. 1364.
  21. ^ Dummett 1980, p. 93.
  22. ^ Hanegraaff 2006, p. 716.
  23. ^ Osler & Farber 2002, p. 185.
  24. ^ Henry 1986.
  25. ^ Gibbons 2018, p. 8.
  26. ^ Buchdahl 1989, p. 232.
  27. ^ Pasi 2006, pp. 1365–1366.
  28. ^ Faivre 1994, p. 88; Goodrick-Clarke 2008, p. 196.
  29. ^ a b c d e f Pasi 2006, p. 1366.
  30. ^ a b Hanegraaff 1996, p. 423.
  31. ^ Goodrick-Clarke 2008, p. 196.
  32. ^ Strube 2016a.
  33. ^ Strube 2016b.
  34. ^ Strube2017b.
  35. ^ Faivre 1994, p. 89.
  36. ^ Strube 2017a.
  37. ^ Pasi 2006, pp. 1367–1368.
  38. ^ a b Hanegraaff 1996, p. 422.
  39. ^ Pasi 2006, p. 1368.
  40. ^ Strube 2016a, pp. 373–379.
  41. ^ Strube 2017b, pp. 218–221.
  42. ^ Partridge 2014, p. 124.
  43. ^ Partridge 2004, p. 4.
  44. ^ Sconce 2000, pp. 21ff.
  45. ^ Peters 2012, pp. 188ff.
  46. ^ Davis 2015.
  47. ^ Thacker 2011, pp. 49–97.

Works cited

Further reading

External links