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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 ...
The occult is a category of supernatural beliefs and practices, encompassing such phenomena as those involving mysticism, spirituality, and magic in terms of any otherworldly agency. It can also refer to other non-religious supernatural ideas like extra-sensory perception and parapsychology.
The occult is "knowledge of the hidden". In common English usage, occult refers to "knowledge of the paranormal ", as opposed to "knowledge of the measurable ", usually referred to as science .
Hermeticism's emphasis on personal spiritual transformation and the pursuit of esoteric knowledge has continued to resonate with various occult groups, influencing modern spiritual movements such as Thelema, founded by Aleister Crowley, and contemporary practices of alchemy, astrology, and magic. [66]
Learning and adhering to its metaphysical knowledge was a requirement inside the occult Pythagorean religions. Tetragrammaton: Judaism, Kodesh, Kabbalah: Considered to be the unspeakable name of God, written as YHWH. The four letter name has many pronunciations and can be seen over 7,000 times throughout the Hebrew Bible.
Hanegraaff proposed an additional definition that "Western esotericism" is a category that represents "the academy's dustbin of rejected knowledge." [ 39 ] In this respect, it contains all of the theories and world views rejected by the mainstream intellectual community because they do not accord with "normative conceptions of religion ...
Chinese manuscripts of occult knowledge also circulated - which already constituted since the 3rd and 4th centuries B.C. a separate field of knowledge and popularized a "culture of secrecy" in which, although the texts occasionally prescribed a convention of secrecy, did not necessarily occur; claiming it to be secret promoted the valuation of ...
Madame Blavatsky makes liberal use of the term adept in her works [5] to refer to their additional function as caretaker of ancient occult knowledge. She also mentions their great compassionate desire to help humanity and also documents other powers of the adept such as being able to take active control of elemental spirits as well as the physical and astral conditions of non-adepts.