What is Occultism?
The word occult comes from the Latin word "occultus," which means "hidden." The origin of the word thus suggests that occult practices simply involve rites or beliefs that are not known to many people. The Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance are a non-profit group dedicated to reinforcing understanding of all religions, and debunking common misconceptions about them as well. The OCRT defines occultism as: "A set of mostly unrelated divination and/or spiritual practices or activities which appear to tap into forces that have not been explained by science, and which are not conventional practices seen in traditional religions."* This definition, in no way places any value judgement on occult practices.
There are generally believed to be three divisions of occultism: divination, Magick, and spiritual or religious pursuits. Divination is the various methods of foretelling the future, such as Tarot, or palm reading, or Astrology. Magick is a set of rituals or practices performed by someone with intent to change his or her surroundings to achieve certain goals. Finally spiritual or religious pursuits are mostly small, minority religions such as Wicca, Santerķa, and Satanism.
| The driving force behind much of magic is the search for power. Although we often think of magicians in this sense as evil sorcerers, this power can be in the form of esoteric knowledge, or simply control over something. Essentially the goal of the magician is to understand everything and dominate it as well. "To succeed he must make himself master of everything in it – evil as well as good, cruelty as well as mercy, pain as well as pleasure… the complete man" (Cavendish 3). | |
The goal of spiritual pursuits is the achievement of perfection through the performance of rituals and by behaving according to a specific doctrine, which is also the role of most traditional religions as well.