Occult Science – The History Explained

Occult Science - The History Explained - Scientific Occultism

The word occult is derived from the Latin verb occultare, meaning “to cover up”. It was first used in English around 1350 to refer to a secret or hidden thing. The term occultism derives from this usage and refers to an esoteric philosophy that seeks to uncover secrets of nature and human consciousness through spiritual practices such as meditation and ritual. Occultists believe that there are forces beyond our ordinary experience that can be accessed by means of rituals, ceremonies, and other methods. In modern times, the term occult has come to mean any activity considered mysterious, magical, or supernatural.

Etymology

According to Faivre, Lévi was “the principal exponent of esotericism in Europe and the United States” at that time. In common usage, occult refers to “knowledge of the paranormal “, as opposed to “knowledge of the measurable usually referred to as science.

The term occult sciences were used in the 16th century to refer to astrology alchemy natural magic, which today are considered pseudosciences The earliest known usage of the term occultism is in the French language, as l’occultisme. de Lestrange’s article that was published in Jean-Baptiste Richard de Randonvilliers’Dictionnaire des mots nouveaux in 1842.

Riruals of High Magic

In 1853, the Freemasonic 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 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.

The term occultism emerged in 19th-century France, where it came to be associated with various French esoteric groups connected to Éliphas Lévi Papus The earliest use of the term occultism in the English language appears to be in “A Few Questions to ‘Hiraf'”, an 1875 article published in the American Spiritualist magazine, Spiritual Scientist. Occultism is thus often used to categorize such esoteric traditions as Spiritualism Theosophy Anthroposophy Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn New Age A different division was used by the Traditionalist 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 Guénon’s use of this terminology was adopted by later writers like Serge Hutin Luc Benoist As noted by Hanegraaff, Guénon’s use of these terms are rooted in his Traditionalist beliefs and “cannot be accepted as scholarly valid”.

In a descriptive sense, it has been used to describe forms of esotericism which developed in nineteenth-century France, especially in the Neo-Martinist According to the historian of esotericism Antoine Faivre, it is with the esotericist Éliphas Lévi that “the occultist current properly so-called” first appears.

According to the writer of the same name, occultism is “a complex system of thought and practice” that includes “magic rituals, magical thinking, ceremonial rites, and initiatory ordeals.”

Faivre described occultism as “an intellectual movement that began in the second half of the eighteenth century and reached its peak around 1850, when it became a dominant force in European culture.”

He argued that occultism was a distinctively modern phenomenon, and that it differed significantly from previous esoteric movements, such as Hermeticism and Rosicrucianism.

In common usage, occult refers to “knowledge of the paranormal “, as opposed to “knowledge of the measurable usually referred to as science. The term occult sciences was used in the 16th century to refer to astrology alchemy natural magic, which today are considered pseudosciences The earliest known usage of the term occultism is in the French language, as l’occultisme. de Lestrange’s article that was published in Jean-Baptiste Richard de Randonvilliers’Dictionnaire des mots nouveaux in 1842. In 1853, the Freemasonic 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 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.

The term occultism emerged in 19th-century France, where it came to be associated with various French esoteric groups connected to Éliphas Lévi Papus The earliest use of the term occultism in the English language appears to be in “A Few Questions to ‘Hiraf'”, an 1875 article published in the American Spiritualist magazine, Spiritual Scientist. Occultism is thus often used to categorise such esoteric traditions as Spiritualism Theosophy Anthroposophy Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn New Age A different division was used by the Traditionalist 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 Guénon’s use of this terminology was adopted by later writers like Serge Hutin Luc Benoist As noted by Hanegraaff, Guénon’s use of these terms are rooted in his Traditionalist beliefs and “cannot be accepted as scholarly valid”.

In a descriptive sense, it has been used to describe forms of esotericism which developed in nineteenth-century France, especially in the Neo-Martinist According to the historian of esotericism Antoine Faivre, it is with the esotericist Éliphas Lévi that “the occultist current properly so-called” first appears.

According to the scholar of esotericism Michael Moynihan, the term occultisme was coined by the French writer Jules Barbey d’Aurevilly in his novel Le Château d’Otrante and was inspired by the works of the occultist Éliphas Lévi.

In the novel, the protagonist travels through a series of castles, each representing one of the seven planets, and encounters a number of characters involved in the occult arts.

The term occultisme was also used by the French author Pierre Louÿs in his novel Les Soirs du Miroir.

In the novel, the protagonist visits a castle called La Tour de Babel, which represents Saturn, and meets seen as synonymous with witchcraft. This view was held particularly strongly by the Christian fundamentalists of the Third Reich, who saw the occult as a threat to their values.

Witchcraft

The word witch derives from the Old English wicce, meaning woman, wife, or female servant. It comes from the Proto-Germanic *wikuzko-, meaning “woman”. Witchcraft can be traced back to ancient times, when women were viewed as being capable of working supernatural powers. They were accused of using sorcery and spells to harm people. These accusations were made against women during the Middle Ages, when they were viewed as having a dangerous influence over men. Women were viewed as witches because they could not be controlled by men. During the Middle Ages, many women were burned alive for practicing witchcraft. Witches were sometimes burned at the stake, hung, drowned, or buried alive. Some were several characters engaged in occult activities.

Although the term occultisme was originally used to refer to a specific school of thought, it became more generally applied to all kinds of esoteric activity.

Occultis science

In common usage, occult refers to “knowledge of the paranormal “, as opposed to “knowledge of the measurable usually referred to as science. The term occult sciences was used in the 16th century to refer to astrology alchemy natural magic, which today are considered pseudosciences The earliest known usage of the term occultism is in the French language, as l’occultisme. de Lestrange’s article that was published in Jean-Baptiste Richard de Randonvilliers’Dictionnaire des mots nouveaux in 1842. In 1853, the Freemasonic 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 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.

The term occultism emerged in 19th-century France, where it came to be associated with various French esoteric groups connected to Éliphas Lévi Papus The earliest use of the term occultism in the English language appears to be in “A Few Questions to ‘Hiraf'”, an 1875 article published in the American Spiritualist magazine, Spiritual Scientist. Occultism is thus often used to categorise such esoteric traditions as Spiritualism Theosophy Anthroposophy Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn New Age A different division was used by the Traditionalist 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 Guénon’s use of this terminology was adopted by later writers like Serge Hutin Luc Benoist As noted by Hanegraaff, Guénon’s use of these terms are rooted in his Traditionalist beliefs and “cannot be accepted as scholarly valid”.

Modern Occultism

In a descriptive sense, it has been used to describe forms of esotericism that developed in nineteenth-century France, especially in the Neo-Martinist According to the historian of esotericism Antoine Faivre, it is with the esotericist Éliphas Lévi that “the occultist current properly so-called” first appears.

According to the historian of esotericism Marc Edmund Jones, occultism is “a loose umbrella term for all those groups, schools, and individuals who were inspired by the ideas of Éliphas Lévi and his followers.”

Jones further states that occultism is “an umbrella term for a number of disparate movements and trends that all shared some common features: they were anti-clerical, anti-Christian, anti-rationalistic, anti-intellectualist, anti-materialistic, anti-scientific, anti-modern, and anti-democratic.”

The historian of esotericism Michael Moynihan notes that occultism is “not a single school of thought, but rather a group of loosely affiliated thinkers and practitioners whose primary.

Occult Sciences

In 1853, the Freemasonic Jean-Marie Ragon had already used occultism 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 The French esotericist Éliphas Lévi then used the term in his influential book on ritual magic Dogme et rituel. It sometimes feels as though we’ve ended up in the worst timeline of a badly-scripted.

The Islamic world has been at a crossroads for some time now. The Muslim community is split between two major factions: those who follow the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad and his companions, and those who follow the teachings of the so-called ‘modernists’. The latter group is represented by many different groups, including the Wahhabi movement in Saudi Arabia, the Salafis in Egypt, the Deobandis in India, the Jamaat-i-Islami in Pakistan, etc. This article will focus on one aspect of this issue – that of Islam and African spirituality. It will also examine the relationship between Islam and mysticism in general, as well as the role played by the Qur’anic verses in relation to these matters.

In recent years, there have been numerous books written about the spiritual dimension of Islam, particularly with regard to Sufism. However, very few authors have addressed the subject from an African perspective. In fact, most of them are based in Europe or North America. There is no doubt that the West has had a great influence on the development of Islamic thought over the centuries.

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