What I will do in this chapter is to, first, attempt to expunge the common view of the occult and siphon the fact from myth and misconception. Secondly, after we have established what the occult is not, then, in the next two chapters I will review the works of some of the more prominent occult authors of the twentieth century in an attempt to delineate what the occult is.
To the scientifically minded, I don't think there is any worse
term than "occult". Yet, to the scientifically minded,
I do not think there is any other term that has been so
misunderstood. To the popular mind of our culture the word
"occult" brings to mind images of bizarre rites and
rituals, devil worship and human sacrifice, and all of the other
strange atrocities that fill our collective imagination. For
example, let's consider this remark by Rudy Rucker in which he is
attempting to distinguish occultism from mysticism:
"Mysticism is not to be confused with occultism which has
to do with strange rites, secret formulas, and so on. Mysticism
has no direct relationship with astrology, devil worship,
fortunetelling, drug abuse, health food or ESP."1
There is a strange mix of fantasy and reality here in Rucker's description of the occult that I think is representative of common beliefs. Rucker is correct in separating occultism from mysticism and I have discussed this issue already. Yet to say occultism has to do with strange rites and secret formulas is really not saying very much. Science also deals with strange rites and secret formulas. A typical treatise on mathematical physics is just as obscure and unintelligible to the uninitiated as is a Cabalistic treatise on the Tree of Life. So which of these is the more secret formula? And as far as strange rites go, I really don't see much difference between the popular image of the witch standing over her bubbling cauldron reciting strange Latin phrases and a chemist stirring his bubbling reaction flask and also reciting strange Latin phrases. Different costumes and different motivations no doubt (and different sexes as well, which gives us some clues as to hidden assumptions in each respective worldview), but both activities can quite legitimately be considered "strange rites and secret formulas".
Rucker is correct in associating occultism with astrology and fortunetelling, but to include these occult disciplines in the same sentence with devil worship, health food, drug abuse and ESP makes me question his understanding of the former. These latter topics have little if anything to do with occultism, in a purely formal sense at least. Devil worship is a purely Christian phenomena and ESP is a term from parapsychology. Health food and drug abuse are more social fads than anything else, and as such give us a clue to the time period in which Rucker's quote was made. Probably the reason Rucker groups all of these topics together is because each attracts people who would be considered "weird" in terms of mainstream behavior. At least this is the only connection I can see amongst all of the disparate topics that he is associating under the heading "occultism". Nonetheless, his viewpoint, though quite typical of common attitudes, reflects a gross misrepresentation of what the occult is. Most references to the occult that one finds in scientific oriented literature are usually based on little more than hearsay and misconception.
There is indeed a vast literature and tradition of occultism stemming from the depths of antiquity and most scientists, as well as everyone else, are simply unfamiliar with this fact. Even the most superficial survey of the occult traditions will show the serious student that there is way more than one supposes in regards to what occultism really is. So it is unfair and even hypocritical for science oriented writers to comment on matters that they really know nothing about, especially in light of the fact that scientists are supposed to be the most objective of us all!
Attempting to understand what the occult is really about is no easy task. First off, as pointed out above, one must wade through a jungle of prejudice and misconception before one finds the real thing. And secondly, once one does find the real thing, it turns out to be vastly complex, and not a simple topic in the least, as we shall soon see.
In terms of further misconceptions of the occult, I think that it is an unfortunate accident in the evolution of the English language that the words "occult" and "cult" sound so much alike. On paper it is easy to see the difference, but when speaking it is easy to confuse the two. I think that one of the minor but important reasons for so many of the misconceptions of the occult lies in the ease of confusing these two words when we are talking. One hears on the news about the latest cult killings down in South America or what have you, and one automatically thinks "occult killings". The association of Devil worship with the occult is in part grounded in the confusing of these two words. Devil worshipping is a cult activity, not an occult subject. The only level an occultist might be interested in the Christian Satan is either in the comparative study of religions (which is indeed an occult topic2) or in understanding Satan as a powerful thoughtform on the astral and mental planes3. Otherwise, an occultist is hardly interested in worshipping such a onesided myth as Satan, let alone worshipping anything at all.
There are other, and more substantial reasons for the popular image of the occult in our culture and the associations of such occult topics as witchcraft, astrology or magic with Satan. The fact that we associate the occult with Satan in the first place suggests the actual origin of this association. These images of the occult arose historically through the systematic attempt of the Medieval Christian Church to eliminate competing belief systems. Thus, whatever ideas the Church felt did not fit in with its worldview, it branded as the work of Satan. Violators who clung to these Satanic ideas were recognized as heretics and mercifully slaughtered by the Holy Inquisition. Thus, the repression of occult ideas by the Church forced the occult to go underground. What this meant is that those who studied or practiced occult techniques, or those who simply believed things different from Church imposed dogma, had to form secret societies and/or complex and deceptive symbologies of the occult teachings (as was the case with Alchemy). That the Church is responsible for the forcing underground of the Medieval pagan and occult systems is a well- discussed fact and I will not dwell on the issue anymore here. The interested reader may find any number of good books on this topic 4. The point here is that the popular association of Satan and occultism is a historical vestige and has little to do with the reality of occultism.
At this point I would like to address the connection between occultism as I am defining it here and a currently popular trend known as the "New-Age" movement. Historically, the New-Age movement of today is highly reminiscent of the "spiritualism" of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. In these movements we have a mass popularization of some small subset of ideas that one will encounter in occult teachings. Usually these popularizations are gross decontextualizations of actual occult teachings and can potentially be psychologically dangerous for those involved. Movements such as these can generate lots of press and only further serve to muddle public images of occultism. Such popularizations can be very misleading to the serious student of occultism. When I speak of occultism, I am referring to a very definite kind of knowledge which will be defined below. I am intentionally using the term "occultism" to avoid any association with such popular fads as the New-Age movement.
The occult then is not Satan worship, it is not some
nebulously defined "strange rites and secret formulas",
and it is not some temporary fad. Well, if it's not these things,
then what is it? In a previous chapter, I presented a discussion
arguing that occultism is not mysticism, but very little detail
was given to what occultism actually is. So at this point, our
question is: What is occultism? If you were to ask occultists
this, they would most likely answer that the word occult itself
derives from Latin and means "that which is hidden".
Even in my version of Webster's dictionary this is what is found
under the word "occult":
"1 : not revealed ; SECRET 2: ABTRUSIVE, MYSTERIOUS 3: of
or relating to supernatural agencies, their effects or knowledge
of them."
For a first approximation, this is actually a fairly good definition, but only for a first approximation. Indeed the occult claims to be the study of hidden forces and of "supernatural agencies", but then, therefore, the study of the occult is actually the revealing of these hidden or supernatural processes. The occult is, very much like science, a collection of theories and techniques, that is, paradigms, regarding Humankind and Nature and the relationship between them. And like the word "science", the word "occult" can be used to designate the entire body of knowledge and techniques related to the understanding of the hidden sides of Nature. What follows now is a brief and highly incomplete survey of the various fields of knowledge that constitute occultism.
It is convenient to understand the occult in terms of the distinction between Eastern and Western occultism. In terms of content this is a fairly arbitrary distinction because there is so much overlap in the content of the various ideas (which incidentally points to common historical origins as well as to a kind of empirical validity in that different cultures in different time periods would identify and describe very similar "hidden realities"). As well, much innovative work has been done during this century to blend Eastern and Western approaches to occultism (as will be illustrated below) further blurring this distinction. At any rate, for explanatory purposes the distinction is quite useful.
Eastern occultism derives from sources in the Far East, primarily India, Tibet, and Asia. These teachings consist of the various branches of yoga such as Raja Yoga, Karma Yoga, Jnana Yoga, Hatha Yoga, Laya Yoga, Bhakti Yoga and Mantra Yoga5, as well as Tantra. Also, Taoism, Zen and certain sects of Buddhism could roughly be classified as occult teachings, as opposed to being thought of merely as religious systems. Each of these disciplines embodies a complete set of teachings and techniques that gives them an autonomy and independence from each other in the same fashion that the various branches of biology, such as embryology, anatomy and zoology are independent of each other yet mutually interrelated.
I would like to point out here that yoga is something much different than is popularly thought here in the West. When most people think about yoga, they tend to think of exercises, or sitting in strange postures, or perhaps meditation. Yoga is seen in the West as a recreational activity related to health and relaxation. But in the East, yoga is seen as a science of the mind. The exercises, meditations and postures of yoga are but one small facet of the vast set of teachings that makes up the branches of yoga listed above. The bulk of these teachings is related to understanding the mind, and the overall intent of yoga is to achieve enlightenment. The word "yoga" means "joining", and the joining to be achieved is that the individual is to join with the universal. Thus, yoga is ultimately a set of techniques aimed at experiencing the mystical state, or cosmic consciousness.
Western occultism, on the other hand, derives from ancient sources in the Middle East and Mediterranean, such as astrology from Chaldea, or ancient alchemy that derived from presumably Egyptian sources6, or the Cabala that stems from the ancient Hebrew mystical tradition. Later many of the teachings passed on by Mediterranean civilizations were modified by Western Europe during the Dark and Middle Ages. Thus, our occult inheritance today in the West consists of such disciplines as Astrology, Cabalism, Alchemy, Numerology, Tarot, Ritual Magic and Theosophical Occultism. Again, each of these disciplines is a complete set of teachings and techniques aimed at an understanding and mastery of Nature's "hidden" sides.
As is characteristic of the difference between Eastern and Western approaches, Eastern Occultism is focused more inwards and relates primarily to subjective experience, whereas Western Occultism is focused more towards the external world and concerned with such things as predicting the course of events in time and space or describing the evolution of growth and form. As well, again reflecting historical tendencies, Eastern occultism is much more experience oriented and stresses techniques aimed at experiencing "altered states of consciousness", or states of consciousness different from, but related to, our normal waking consciousness, as can be experienced through yogic practices. On the other hand, Western occultism is much more intellectual and focuses to a greater extent on the manipulation of systems of symbols for purposes of divination or the control over physical circumstances, and to a much lesser extent emphasizes the actual experiencing of nonphysical states of consciousness. Thus Westerners have Tarot decks and astrological birthcharts. However, these dichotomies are not as pronounced in occult thinking as in other intellectual disciplines such as traditional science and philosophy, and the Eastern and Western forms of occultism provide each other with a type of mutual complimentary, feeding and enhancing each other. This in turn gives the overall occult approach considerable leverage and validity in terms of describing human experiences.
As well as Eastern and Western forms of occultism, there are and have been various "secret societies" that embody occult teachings such as the Rosicrucian, Hermetists, the Free Masons and the Alchemists. It is not my purpose here to explain in detail each of these branches of the occult. It would take us too far afield from the theme of synthesizing scientific and occult concepts and frankly, I am simply not qualified to discuss these systems of thought in any great detail.
But it is important for the reader to understand and appreciate that all of this together constitutes what is rightfully considered "occult". And even these many fields and disciplines represent what one may call "traditional" or "classical" occultism. Further ahead when I discuss various occult authors we will see that many innovations have occurred in twentieth century occult thought leading to what one might consider "modern" occultism, and it is indeed these more modern formulations of occult teachings and principles which point to the potential for a synthesis of scientific and occult worldviews.
Having completed our brief survey and, without going into any of the details of the specific disciplines listed above, can we however delineate the underlying characteristics of the general occult worldview or paradigm and see how these fit in with the general world view of science?
It was hinted in van der Leeuw's quote that the occultists
claims that the physical world is not the only world there is to
study;
"The claim of occultism is that this physical world is
not the only world which can be investigated scientifically: it
teaches that there are worlds of subtler matter which can be
explored scientifically by those who have developed the faculties
of perception in those worlds... clairvoyance...clairaudience and
other similar faculties."7
I'm repeating this because it is so concise and I could not have put it better myself. Here in this quote too is the first step in understanding the general outlines of the occult worldview. Occultism, in all of its branches, teaches in some form or another that the physical world is not the only world, sphere, dimension, or whatever you shall call it, in which humans can be active. As van der Leeuw says, occultism teaches that there are subtler worlds than the physical world, worlds that are not physical, or we may say "nonphysical" (as we shall throughout the rest of this book), that human consciousness can interact with and understand in a "scientific fashion" (exactly what is meant by "scientific" in this context will be made clear further ahead). This issue of nonphysical worlds-or "planes" as they are called by occultists-is extremely important and we shall return to it time and again throughout many of my discussions. As well as the concepts of nonphysical realities, there are some other fundamental and underlying axioms of occult thought.
As well as "hidden", nonphysical worlds, occultism teaches that there is a hidden, or occult, anatomy to human beings, this anatomy being intimately related to these nonphysical worlds. In this connection, occultists will use such terms as "auras", "chakras", "kundalini", and they will speak of the nonphysical bodies that a human possesses; the "etheric" body, the "astral" body, "mental" body, "buddhic" body, etc.. The nonphysical bodies, according to occult teachings, are the reality behind our subjective behaviors of thinking and feeling, and as well are related to dreaming and other altered states of consciousness. Also, it is in the concept of the human nonphysical anatomy that occultists explain the basis of the so-called psychic abilities. All of these notions related to the human nonphysical anatomy will be clarified as we proceed, for these notions are crucial in providing a means by which we may understand the relationship between science and occultism.
One of the most important occult generalizations is known as the Hermetic Axiom and states that "As Above, So Below". What the Hermetic Axiom means is that similar or identical principles which operate in our physical experience operate as well on the other planes, and at other levels, scales, and scopes of existence. There are many examples of the application of the Hermetic Axiom in occult thought. One such example is the idea that Man is made in the image of God, Man being the microcosm and God being the macrocosm. I have already pointed out the similarity of this notion of the Hermetic Axiom to concepts found in fractal geometry, and this similarity is fundamental to a synthesis of science and occultism. We will return to this notion and provide more examples of its application repeatedly as we continue.
Another important occult notion is the law of karma-"that which you give is that which you shall receive". This is practically a restatement of Newton's First Law of Motion-for every action there is an opposite and equal reaction-except to an occultist this law is seen to hold on all planes of existence and not just the physical. Because the law of karma is seen to operate in the sphere of human behavior, it is sometimes called the "Moral Law" and it is even recognized in Christianity as the Golden Rule: "Do unto others as you would have them do to you". Later in the book I shall outline occult theories of human behavior and at that point we shall see that the notion of karma does have direct bearing on issues of human ethical behavior. But more importantly, to the occultists, the concept of karma is an operational principle, that is, the law of karma has the same kind of literal and definite reality as the law of gravity does to a scientist. These are not simply philosophical considerations or issues of religious faith in the occult context, but are necessary corollaries to occult processes operating in human behavior. What is fundamentally important to realize about the occult law of karma is that through this law occultists describe processes of human nonphysical behavior in a mechanistic fashion. Again, this claim will be supported with examples as we proceed. These major occult teachings are ubiquitous throughout all of the many branches of occult teachings. I am only mentioning them here in a cursory fashion to introduce them to the reader, and if their meanings are unclear to the unfamiliar reader, fear not, for we shall go much deeper into them as we proceed.
In the first sense of the word science, I refer to the body of accumulated knowledge, techniques and paradigms in mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, the social sciences, computer sciences and even the various fields of engineering. That is, this first sense of the word, "science" refers to the specific disciplines that are taught in the universities and applied in government and industry.
The second sense in which the word science is used is to refer to any rationally based activity that attempts to describe Nature and to test such descriptions by some form of experimentation. The second sense is very broad and general and obviously encompasses the first sense of the word. As well, I take Thomas Kuhn's description of the scientific paradigms to apply in this second, or more general sense of the word. Any activity grounded in a paradigm based upon some type of experimentation I consider to be science in this second, or general sense.
These two senses of the word "science" rest on the following distinction. Science itself is a form of human behavior, but how science is used is a sociocultural behavior pattern. What I am calling "sense one science" is the sociocultural behavioral pattern that is existent today in our culture. What I am calling "sense two science" is the general, and culturally independent human activity of investigating Nature by experimental means.
Thus, when the claim is made that occultism is a science, it does not mean that a science student in the universities is going to learn the fundamental principles of occultism along with the fundamental principles of physics. What is meant is that occultism is a science in that it consists of paradigms that are descriptions of Nature and that these descriptions have come about by some process of experimentation. So by these definitions, occultism is a science in the second, or general, sense of the word, but not in the first sense.
To make this claim will probably come as a shock to most readers unfamiliar with occult teachings, and also to most occultists unfamiliar with scientific methods and ideas. Most people who practice the occult do not think of what they do as science for many reasons. One, because there is a large element of dogmatism in the occult that makes it difficult at times to distinguish occult from religious activities. Yet, the rituals, spells, charms, chants, meditations and teachings of the occultist are performed, taught, and passed on because at some time in the past, whoever created the ritual did so from a theoretical and empirical basis. That is to say, most of the occult techniques in existence today have come about from the experimental efforts of some individual or group who had devised the technique and found it to work, for whatever specific purpose. This is especially true for the various branches of yoga, which are most definitely considered to be an experimental science by those who know them well 8, and the same can be said for such facets of witchcraft as herbology, which is the study of herbs and their medicinal value.
I would like to digress briefly to clarify the following point. When I talk about the evolution of occult techniques as being grounded in an "empirical and theoretical" basis, I do not mean to imply that say, the originators of yoga in ancient India, or the practitioners of astrology in ancient Chaldea created these techniques on a rational and empirical basis as we do today in science. As a matter of fact, they did not. These ancient cultures operated under fundamentally different world-views than we do today. Ancient occult practices that are still existent today most likely had their origins in what we would think of as a religious or metaphysical basis. However, I have made the statements in the above paragraph because it is convenient and very practical for us to interpret these ancient techniques in a modern light. As a matter of fact, we really have no other level from which to interpret them. And as well, these ancient cultures are long dead and it is highly unlikely that we could ever know the real origins of these techniques with the means at our disposal. However, most modern occult techniques and teachings have come about through scientific (in sense two) means, as we shall see ahead.
Now, a second reason that occultists tend not to think of their activities as scientific is because they associate "scientific" with sense one of the word as described above. The occultist does not practice physics, chemistry or any other established branch of science, and so therefore does not think of her activity as scientific. But most occultists learn the skills they practice through experimentation within a guiding paradigm much the way a scientist works out the details of a theory, and so the occultist operates in much the same fashion as Thomas Kuhn described the operation of the scientific enterprise. Yet this generalization that occultists do not consider themselves scientists only has a limited range of validity, for as van der Leeuw's quote makes clear, and as we shall see when we survey occult authors ahead, some occultists indeed considered themselves to be scientists, and considered their activities to be quite scientific.
On the other hand, the claim that occultism is a form of
science (in sense two of the word) is probably more of an outrage
to scientists (in sense one of the word) than it is to
occultists. As we have seen, scientists tend to know very little
about the occult, and what they do know in terms of their
misconceptions, we cannot blame them for not wanting to be
associated with it. Even parapsychologists, whom more shall be
said about, shun the occult as if it's a bad thing. Yet it is my
hope that a thorough survey of some of the more relevant occult
authors and concepts will show scientists that there fears are
misconstrued, and that the differences between science and
occultism are small compared to the similarities, at least in
terms of how each views Nature.
Notes: Chapter 4
1Rucker, (1982), page 226.
2The comparative study of religions is one of the main themes of Blavatsky's monumental occult work The Secret Doctrine.
Another example would be Leadbeater (1920).
3Ibid.
4Two good books discussing Christianity's impact on pagan beliefs are: Starhawk, (1982) and Seligmann, (1971), page 76.
5Wood, (1976).
6An excellent history of western occultism is Kurt Seligmann's book in footnote number four above.
7van der Leeuw, (1968), page 61.
8Taimini, (1967).
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