Occult means ‘hidden’. And so occultists pursue the understanding of that which we cannot see. The strands of thinking that split and intertwine are head-spinning in number and complexity, but they are all united in this central study. Tarot, astrology, alchemy, witchcraft, ritual magic, kabbalah, and so on — these are only some of the disciplines handling the mysteries within the tradition of Western esotericism. While these all have doppelgangers walking well worn paths across the world’s cultures, what we are concerned with here is its contingent in the West, i.e. European and/or Abrahamic in origin. [1]

The occult rises from its context both in collaboration and contention with its major spiritual and historical forces. In any single tradition of the occult, you will find influences from one or more of the following (this list is far from exhaustive): pagan religions, idealized Egyptian rites, Judaism, Catholicism, Norse religious practice, classical Greek philosophy, current continental philosophy, Arabic culture, the Inquisition, guild ritual, fairy tales, theoretical physics, advanced pharmacology. The practices of the occult are, nevertheless, maligned by many of the institutions it borrows from. Religious, political, and scientific bodies have long struggled against this strange behavior of occult practice. Their leading minds spill considerable ink denouncing it.

But despite these forces that seek its destruction, we cannot rid our society of occultism. We have tried to silence its followers — imprison them, torture them, burn them, shame them, debate them, laugh at them. It continues. It has always continued. By repressing it, it flourishes. By smothering whatever tendrils rise to the surface, we only perpetuate it.

The occult proves difficult to defeat, and perhaps that is because it cannot be defeated. To go a step further, perhaps it survives because it is attacked.

What We Do Not See

If the occult is the pursuit of what is hidden, we find its practice is often hidden as well. Grimoires are routinely written in cyphers and with intentional blind alleys built into them to repel dabblers. Its organizations shroud their behavior behind closed doors. Witches gather in secret under moonlight. Sorcerers hideaway their spellmaking in secluded studies. The temple is not open to the public; the texts are not handed out for public view.

This secrecy prevents detection while also seducing the curious into bonds of omerta before the keys are handed over, and even these keys lead only to the garden’s gate. Occult organizations do not thrive on mass appeal nor mass enrollment because the legacy itself is an education in sub rosa maneuvers and the careful management of shared secrets.

Thus, outright repression only ensures that the culture inside occultism is maintained. Today, where sacred texts are shared in PDF form and rituals are uploaded on YouTube and tarot decks are sold at Barnes & Noble, the threat to the occult is greatest as the deep appeal is weakest — but even here we see that these open forms will never allow entry to what is actually sought in the occult. These are surface phenomena connected to the occult, certainly, but what it creates is only a new layer. These are new blind alleys to trap the curious diletante while the committed seekers find other ways around.

The Place for Those Hidden From View

Any study of occult history in the West will bring a cast of characters that look much different from the acceptable culture. Leaders in the field have uninterrupted representation of women, immigrants, people of color. That is not to say it is immune to racism and sexism (occultists helped lay the groundwork of Nazism, after all) but that a spiritual tradition hidden from view ends up absorbing those seekers who are not allowed in the legitimate institutions.

As long as the institutions in power create walls, which they must to define their own existence, they will wall people out, which they must to define the group they derive loyalty from. And so, the occult exists as a permanent shadow, made up of counter-institutions pursuing the secret forces. In any time, there are forces allowed and forces forbidden. The occult promises access to that which is forbidden, and will — to differing degrees — be a refuge for those locked out of the acceptable forms of power.

As Silvia Federici describes in Caliban and the Witch, the burning of witches functioned for female spiritual power what the enclosures functioned for social property. Modern capitalism required many such projects of enclosure to create the grounds of private property — apparently the rule of market forces is so “natural” it requires endless tending and state intervention to even get off the ground. This is but one example of how the occult works as an umbrella term for the spiritual realms of those disqualified from the official institutions.

Circling Back

These are insights. There is no firm link between them. Like the many strands of occult practice and philosophy, no observations are systematically helpful across the board. But these insights are important insofar as any ongoing interest in the occult is important, because one is served in their practice by understanding the hidden dimensions of what they do — the occult of the occult, if you will.

What starts to emerge from these insights is a general gestalt: that if a thing is hidden it will draw a certain seeker and serve a certain purpose. By providing an undercurrent of creative energy, it continually revitalizes the visible spectrum of spiritual life.

Notes

[1] We do not need to pretend here that the concept of the “West” is not deeply fraught. We only need to use it to designate that particular nexus of certain forces that are typically identified as the “West,” sparing ourselves the indignity of buying into the whiggish conception of Western Civilization.