Occultism:

The English substantive Occultism is derived from the French word Occultisme which again is derived from the Latin word Occultus meaning ”that which is hidden”. Eliphas Levi was probably the first to have used the French Occultisme and H. P. Blavatsky the English Occultism; she writes in Isis Unveiled (1877):

“The term is used by the French kabalists (See Eliphas Levi’s works). Occultism embraces the whole range of psychological, physiological, cosmical, physical, and spiritual phe¬nomena. From the word occult, hidden or secret; applying therefore to the study of the Kabala, astrology, alchemy, and all arcane sciences.”[1]

The adjective Occult, however, dates much earlier, for example Henry Cornelius Agrippa’s used it for his “Three Books of Occult Philosophy” published 1531 and the occult sciences such as Astrology and Alchemy evidently date back to Early Egyptian and Sumerian periods.

However, it is to be remembered that the substantive Occultism is a collective term which encompass a whole range of (scientific) fields or specialized sciences such as Alchemy, Magic, Astrology, Geomancy, Numerology, etc. As Antoine Faivre very truly writes:

“The term Occultism is properly used to refer to a large number of practices, ranging from astrology and alchemy to occult medicine and magic, that are based in one way or another on the homo-analogical principle, or doctrine of correspondences. According to this principle, things that are similar exert an influence on one another by virtue of the correspondences that unite all visible things to one another and to invisible realities as well.”[2]

Tim Rudbøg, 2002

[1] Blavatsky H.P., Isis Unveiled volume 1, U.S.A., The Theosophical University Press, 1988 (1877 edition), Before the Veil xxxvii.

[2] The Encyclopedia of Religion, edited by Mircea Eliade, Article on Occultism by Antoine Faivre, London, Macmillan And Free Press, 1987.