he occult (from the Latin word occultus "clandestine, hidden, secret") is "knowledge of the hidden".

[1] In common English usage, occult refers to "knowledge of the paranormal", as opposed to "knowledge of the measura le",[!]["] usuall# referred to as science. $he term is sometimes taken to mean knowledge that "is meant onl# for certain people" or that "must e kept hidden", ut for most practising occultists it is simpl# the stud# of a deeper spiritual realit# that e%tends e#ond pure reason and the ph#sical sciences.[&] $he terms esoteric and arcane ha'e 'er# similar meanings, and in most conte%ts the three terms are interchangea le.[(][)] It also descri es a num er of magical organi*ations or orders, the teachings and practices taught # them, and to a large od# of current and historical literature and spiritual philosoph# related to this su +ect.

,ccultism is the stud# of occult practices, including ( ut not limited to) magic, alchem#, e%tra-sensor# perception, astrolog#, spiritualism, and di'ination. Interpretation of occultism and its concepts can e found in the elief structures of philosophies and religions such as .nosticism, /ermeticism, $heosoph#, 0icca, $helema, 1atanism, and neopaganism.[2] 3 road definition is offered # 4icholas .oodrick-5larke6 ,557L$I18 has its asis in a religious wa# of thinking, the roots of which stretch ack into anti9uit# and which ma# e descri ed as the 0estern esoteric tradition. Its principal ingredients ha'e een identified as .nosticism, the /ermetic treatises on alchem# and magic, 4eo-:latonism, and the ;a alah, all originating in the eastern 8editerranean area during the first few centuries 3<.[=] >rom the 1(th to 12th centur#, these ideas that are alternati'el# descri ed as 0estern esotericism, which had a re'i'al from a out 122? onwards, due to a renewed desire for m#ster#, an interest in the 8iddle 3ges and a romantic "reaction to the rationalist Enlightenment".[@] 3lchem# was common among important se'enteenth-centur# scientists, such as Isaac 4ewton,[1?] and .ottfried Lei ni*.[11] 4ewton was e'en accused of introducing occult agencies into natural science when he postulated gra'it# as a force capa le of acting o'er 'ast distances.[1!] "A# the eighteenth centur# these unorthodo% religious and philosophical concerns were well-defined as BoccultB, inasmuch as the# la# on the outermost fringe of accepted forms of knowledge and discourse".[@] $he# were, howe'er, preser'ed # anti9uarians and m#stics. Aased on his research into the modern .erman occult re'i'al (1=@?C1@1?), .oodrick-5larke puts forward a thesis on the dri'ing force ehind occultism. Aehind its man# 'aried forms apparentl# lies a uniform function, "a strong

desire to reconcile the findings of modern natural science with a religious 'iew that could restore man to a position of centralit# and dignit# in the uni'erse".[1"] 1ince that time man# authors ha'e emphasi*ed a s#ncretic approach # drawing parallels etween different disciplines.[1&