Liber XXII · Occultism
Introduction
The hidden sciences, the occult philosophy of the Renaissance and the occult revival of the modern age.
'Occult' means hidden. In medieval and Renaissance learning the occult qualities of things were powers that could not be perceived directly, such as the pull of the magnet, and the occult sciences were astrology, alchemy and magic, which claimed to study and use them. In the nineteenth century the word took on a new life: Éliphas Lévi, Papus and the French occultists, the Theosophists and the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn built an 'occultism' that promised a hidden knowledge older than religion and science. This section covers the idea of the occult, occult philosophy, the occult revival in France, Britain and Germany, mesmerism, clairvoyance and psychical research, occult literature and art, the occult and science, and the place of the occult in modern culture.