Occult

==Etymology==
The occult (from the [[Latin]] word ''occultus''; {{lit}} 'clandestine', 'hidden', 'secret') is "knowledge of the hidden".{{sfn|Crabb|1927}} In common usage, ''occult'' refers to "knowledge of the [[paranormal]]", as opposed to "knowledge of the [[measurable]]",{{sfn|Underhill|2017|p={{pn|date=December 2022}}}} usually referred to as science. The terms ''[[esotericism|esoteric]]'' and ''[[wikt:arcane|arcane]]'' can also be used to describe the occult,{{sfn|Wright|1895|p={{pn|date=December 2022}}}}  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,{{sfnm|1a1=Hanegraaff|1y=2006|1p=887|2a1=Pasi|2y=2006|2p=1364}} but to describe a political "system of occulticity" that was directed against priests and aristocrats.{{sfn|Strube|2016b|p=445-450}}

In 1853, the [[Freemasonry|Freemasonic]] 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]].{{sfn|Strube|2016b|p=13-14}} 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.{{sfn|Hanegraaff|2006|p=887}}  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.{{sfn|Pasi|2006|p=1365}} It was from his usage of the term ''occultisme'' that it gained wider usage;{{sfnm|1a1=Hanegraaff|1y=2006|1p=887|2a1=Pasi|2y=2006|2pp=1364–1365}} according to Faivre, Lévi was "the principal exponent of esotericism in Europe and the United States" at that time.{{sfn|Faivre|1994|p=88}} The term ''occultism'' emerged in 19th-century France, where it came to be associated with various French 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''.{{sfnm|1a1=Hanegraaff|1y=2006|1p=887|2a1=Pasi|2y=2006|2p=1365}}

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]].{{sfn|Pasi|2006|p=1367}} In his 1950 book ''L'occultisme'', [[Robert Amadou]] used the term as a synonym for esotericism,{{sfnm|1a1=Hanegraaff|1y=2006|1p=887|2a1=Pasi|2y=2006|2p=1367}} an approach that the later scholar of esotericism Marco Pasi suggested left the term superfluous.{{sfn|Pasi|2006|p=1367}} 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.{{sfnm|1a1=Hanegraaff|1y=2006|1p=887|2a1=Pasi|2y=2006|2p=1367}} This division was initially adopted by the early academic scholar of esotericism, Antoine Faivre, although he later abandoned it;{{sfn|Hanegraaff|2006|p=887}} it has been rejected by most scholars who study esotericism.{{sfn|Pasi|2006|p=1367}}

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 [[Traditionalist School (perennialism)|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]].{{sfn|Hanegraaff|2006|pp=887–888}} Guénon's use of this terminology was adopted by later writers like [[Serge Hutin]] and [[Luc Benoist]].{{sfn|Hanegraaff|2006|p=888}} As noted by Hanegraaff, Guénon's use of these terms are rooted in his Traditionalist beliefs and "cannot be accepted as scholarly valid".{{sfn|Hanegraaff|2006|p=888}}

The term ''occultism'' derives from the older term ''occult'', much as the term ''esotericism'' derives from the older term ''esoteric''.{{sfn|Pasi|2006|p=1365}} However, the historian of esotericism [[Wouter Hanegraaff]] stated that it was important to distinguish between the meanings of the term ''occult'' and ''occultism''.{{sfn|Hanegraaff|2006|p=884}} Occultism is not a homogenous movement and is widely diverse.{{sfn|Faivre|1994|p=88}}

Over the course of its history, the term ''occultism'' has been used in various different ways.{{sfn|Pasi|2006|p=1364}} However, in contemporary uses, occultism commonly refers to forms of [[Western esotericism|esotericism]] that developed in the nineteenth century and their twentieth-century derivations.{{sfn|Hanegraaff|2006|p=888}} In a descriptive sense, it has been used to describe forms of esotericism which developed in nineteenth-century France, especially in the [[Martinism|Neo-Martinist]] environment.{{sfn|Hanegraaff|2006|p=888}} According to the historian of esotericism [[Antoine Faivre]], it is with the esotericist [[Éliphas Lévi]] that "the occultist current properly so-called" first appears.{{sfn|Faivre|1994|p=88}} Other prominent French esotericists involved in developing occultism included [[Papus]], [[Stanislas de Guaita]], [[Joséphin Péladan]], [[Georges-Albert Puyou de Pouvourville]], and [[Jean Bricaud]].{{sfn|Pasi|2006|p=1365}}
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