Occultism
Occultism refers to the study and pursuit of hidden knowledge, often aimed at achieving spiritual insight or personal power. Originating from the Latin word "occultus," meaning concealed or hidden, the concept has strong ties to esoteric, mystical, and supernatural practices. While often associated with tools for contacting spirits, such as tarot cards and Ouija boards, occultism encompasses a broader range of activities, including alchemy, divination, and witchcraft. Historically, Western occultism is rooted in pre-Christian pagan traditions, which were largely suppressed during the rise of Christianity. Despite this, interest in occult practices persisted, leading to a resurgence in the 19th century, particularly during the Victorian era.
Today, contemporary occultism serves as a spiritual alternative for many, with practitioners exploring various paths, including revived ancient pagan religions like Wicca. The nature of occult knowledge is typically categorized into three forms: those that require strict initiation, those linked to Abrahamic faiths, and those that emphasize personal exploration of unseen dimensions. Numerous organizations and secret societies, such as the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and the Freemasons, continue to engage in occult studies, reflecting the diverse and evolving landscape of this intriguing field.
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Occultism
In the Western tradition, occultism is the study or pursuit of hidden knowledge and information, particularly for the purported purpose of gaining spiritual insight or acquiring personal power. The term is derived from the Latin word occultus, which is usually translated into English as "concealed," "hidden," or "secret." Its close association with esoteric, mystical, and supernatural practices dates to the early seventeenth century. The terms occult and cult are sometimes confused, as sects dedicated to occult practices are often referred to as cults. However, the two words are etymologically unrelated.
Through popular culture, occultism has come to be linked with items that can allegedly be used to facilitate contact with spirits or acquire otherwise unobtainable knowledge. Prominent examples include astrological charts, crystal balls, Ouija boards, and tarot cards. Other aspects of occultism focus on practices such as alchemy, contact with ghosts or spirits, divination, magic, and witchcraft. The common depiction of occultism as being preoccupied with channeling malevolent supernatural beings such as demons or communing with the Christian devil are largely exaggerated.
Brief History
Western notions of occultism are largely rooted in the pagan faith traditions practiced in Europe prior to the widespread adoption of Christianity. While the characteristics of these pagan religions display significant regional variations, they can generally be characterized by their polytheism, or belief in many gods, and their sanctioning of practices such as augury, divination, and magic.
By the end of the Middle Ages, Christianity had effectively overtaken the European spiritual landscape. Church officials viewed traditional pagan religions with derision and deemed them profane and immoral for their belief in what they considered superstitious practices and false gods. As such, their dwindling numbers of practitioners were actively persecuted. Some historians believe that occultism's apparent links with the Christian devil are rooted in early conceptions of paganism as unholy, a notion expressed in Christian cosmology through the figure of Satan.
Despite the hegemony and cultural authority of Christianity, these pre-Christian spiritual traditions never fully died out in Europe. Ancient pseudoscientific practices such as alchemy and astrology, along with pagan-inspired ritual magic and witchcraft, continued to be pursued by a small subset of people, including some educated individuals, church officials, and members of the nobility. However, these pursuits, particularly magic and witchcraft, were widely considered blasphemous. Practitioners often faced severe punishments, including death, if caught. Witch hunts were a fairly common phenomenon in early modern Europe, and the Salem witch trials (1692–1693) in colonial Massachusetts serve as the most infamous example of the occult paranoia that ebbed and flowed in the Western world from the end of the Middle Ages to the Victorian era.
However, occultism experienced a strong resurgence in the nineteenth century, gaining traction in mainstream society and the popular culture of the day. The Victorian era (1837–1901) is considered by some to be the "golden age" of Western occultism. Notorious figures such as Helena Blavatsky and Aleister Crowley were products of this period and played key roles in transitioning occultism from its pagan roots to its modern expressions.
Topic Today
Contemporary occult practices largely function as spiritual alternatives to major religions, and areas of inquiry for individuals and groups with supernatural interests. Liberated from active persecution, occult practitioners engage in a wide range of activities and pursuits that display such variation that it is difficult to define their unifying aspects. Some occultists have also revived ancient European pagan religions or developed new ones based on paganist traditions. Wicca is a well-known example of the latter. A 2001 City University of New York survey named Wicca as the fastest-growing religion in the United States at the time, with the number of American Wiccans swelling from 8,000 in 1990 to 134,000 in 2001. Throughout the twenty-first century, those numbers continued to grow. Estimates by 2021 were between 800,000 and 1 million Wiccans in the United S. Notably, at the same time as the number of people practicing occultism has risen, other religions have declined in numbers, including Christianity.
It is most accurate to view contemporary occultism as being built on a base belief in the spiritual and supernatural, from which believers may pursue any number of distinct paths. Some of these paths are rooted in ancient traditions, while others have developed in the relatively recent past. Key examples include formal, organized belief systems such as Gnosticism, Hermeticism, Kabbalah, Satanism, Thelema, and Wicca, as well as long-established crafts, practices, and esoteric studies such as alchemy, astrology, divination, mediumship, numerology, and shamanism.
The nature of occult knowledge is generally described as taking one of three forms. The first form is rooted in the notion that hidden sacred spiritual and supernatural knowledge must be kept from the wider population due to its immense power and the dangers it purportedly poses to those who are not properly prepared to receive it. This is largely expressed through hierarchical systems in which masters of occult wisdom slowly and gradually introduce it to initiates, who engage in extensive studies and training to gain deeper levels of mastery. The second form links occult practices with the Abrahamic faith traditions, embracing the idea that God created a complex and arcane system of clues to ensure that only a worthy chosen few would ever be able to glimpse or comprehend the higher truths that govern physical and spiritual existence. Finally, some occultist paths recognize a belief in abilities, energy forces, knowledge systems, and unseen dimensions that can only be seen or experienced by those who actively seek them out through the application of specific practices or techniques. There is also a great deal of overlap among these three conceptions of occult knowledge, with no universal agreement on exactly where the borders between them exist or whether they exist at all.
Numerous organizations dedicated to occult studies and practices exist throughout the world, with prominent examples including the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, the Order of the Rose Cross (Rosicrucians), the Ordo Templi Orientis (OTO), the Society of the Inner Light, the Theosophical Society, and the Temple of Let. Some secular secret societies, most notably the Freemasons, are also believed by some to guard ancient occult knowledge and wisdom in their uppermost echelons.
The rise of social media in the twenty-first century has also influenced the rise in occultism, particularly on the platform TikTok. Videos with the hashtag #WitchTok have garnered billions of views, and while some criticssuch as believers of other religions, skeptics, and occult purists
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