occult

occult, a term that was originally used in Latin to designate the hidden or unseen properties of things and that, since the 16th century, has also been used to characterize religious traditions that include belief in unseen forces or that otherwise behave in a secretive or mysterious manner. Moreover, in the phrase the occult, the term designates a range of religious traditions, typically of a culturally alternative or marginalized nature, that modern scholars more commonly categorize under the label esotericism.

Occult qualities

The word occult derives from the Latin adjective occultus, meaning “hidden” or “concealed.” In medieval Europe, thinkers influenced by Aristotelian thought drew a distinction between the directly observable qualities of objects, such as their color or shape, and their qualitates occultae (“occult qualities”), hidden properties not directly observable by the human eye. Examples of such hidden, or occult, properties included magnetic attraction, the lunar influence on the tides, and the curative value of minerals, plants, and animals.

Although hard science no longer employs the term occult to describe such forces as magnetism or gravity, the word continues to be used in other contexts to designate putative unseen forces. It is, for instance, sometimes employed by anthropologists commenting on beliefs regarding hidden forces in ethnographic contexts. The term is also used by practitioners of various religions, especially European-derived esoteric traditions, such as Wicca, to characterize an unseen power that the practitioners believe can be manipulated through ritual actions to generate change in the material universe.

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Occult sciences and the occult

The term occultus gained additional meanings during the Renaissance. The early 16th century saw the appearance of the term occult sciences to characterize alchemy, astrology, and magia naturalis (“natural magic”), three traditions that all relied on a belief in “occult properties” present in the cosmos. About the same time, the German writer Cornelius Agrippa introduced the idea of a philisophia occulta (“occult philosophy”), by which he meant a perennial wisdom tradition that he thought had been inherited from the ancient past. These developments meant that ever since the 16th century certain beliefs and practices—namely, those that are now categorized under the broad label esotericism—could themselves be labeled occult.

By the late 19th century the term was also being used as a noun in the phrase the occult. This phrase is often employed in a vague and imprecise manner to encompass various religious traditions (such as Spiritualism, Wicca, and Satanism) deemed to use unseen forces, exist outside the cultural mainstream, or act in a secretive and mysterious manner. Although this use of the noun is rarely employed in modern scholarship on esotericism, it has been much promoted in popular literature, most notably the 1971 bestseller The Occult by British writer Colin Wilson.

Occultism and occulture

The noun occultism first appeared in France, during the mid-19th century, where it was publicized by the ceremonial magician Éliphas Lévi as part of his project to use older esoteric ideas to bridge the gap between science and religion. It was subsequently promoted in the English language by the Russian esotericist Helena Blavatsky, the main figure behind Theosophy. Although the term occultism has since been used in different ways, it is now commonly employed to describe attempts to integrate esoteric traditions with the secularized and globalized modern world.

A later development was occulture, a portmanteau of occult and culture that was circulating in British esoteric subcultures by the late 20th century. In the early 21st century occulture was repurposed for academic usage by the sociologist Christopher Partridge, who employed it to describe a broad non-Christian cultural milieu that is influenced by, and in turn influences, popular culture.

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