Misplaced Pages

#929070

111-484: The term occult sciences was used in 16th-century Europe to refer to astrology , alchemy , and natural magic . The term occultism emerged in 19th-century France , among figures such as Antoine Court de Gébelin . It came to be associated with various French esoteric groups connected to Éliphas Lévi and Papus , and in 1875 was introduced into the English language by the esotericist Helena Blavatsky . Throughout

222-622: A "realist" perspective on wars and diplomacy have emphasized the Peace of Westphalia (1648) as a dividing line. It ended the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648), where religion and ideology had been powerful motivating forces for warfare. Westphalia, in the realist view, ushered in a new international system of sovereign states of roughly equal strength, dedicated not to ideology or religion but to enhance status, and territorial gains. The Catholic Church, for example, no longer devoted its energies to

333-888: A universal monarchy in Western Europe. The Habsburgs expanded their control within and outside the Holy Roman Empire as a result of the dynastic policy pursued by Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor . Maximilian I married Mary of Burgundy , thus bringing the Burgundian Netherlands into the Habsburg inheritance. Their son, Philip the Handsome , married Joanna the Mad of Spain (daughter of Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella of Castile ). Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (son of Philip and Joanna) inherited

444-692: A Russian émigré living in the United States who founded the religion of Theosophy . The article was published in the American Spiritualist magazine, Spiritual Scientist . Various twentieth-century writers on the subject used the term occultism in different ways. Some writers, such as the German philosopher Theodor W. Adorno in his "Theses Against Occultism", employed the term as a broad synonym for irrationality . In his 1950 book L'occultisme , Robert Amadou  [ fr ] used

555-570: A clinic in the rue Rodin which was quite successful. Encausse visited Russia three times, in 1901, 1905, and 1906, serving Tsar Nicholas II and Tsarina Alexandra both as physician and occult consultant. It has been incorrectly claimed that in October 1905, he conjured up the spirit of Alexander III (father of Tsar Nicholas), who prophesied that the Tsar would meet his downfall at the hands of revolutionaries. Encausse's followers allege that he informed

666-578: A courageous elite, and regarded their purpose as one of leading the world toward progress and out of a long period of doubtful tradition, full of irrationality, superstition, and tyranny, which they believed began during a historical period they called the Dark Ages . This movement also provided a framework for the American and French Revolutions , the Latin American independence movement, and

777-459: A disenchanted world or, alternatively, by people in general to make sense of esotericism from the perspective of a disenchanted secular world". Hanegraaff noted that this etic usage of the term would be independent of emic usages of the term employed by occultists and other esotericists themselves. In this definition, occultism covers many esoteric currents that have developed from the mid-nineteenth century onward, including Spiritualism, Theosophy,

888-744: A formidable new opposition to the dominance of the Catholic Church , especially in Northern Europe. The early modern period also witnessed the circumnavigation of the Earth and the establishment of regular European contact with the Americas and South and East Asia. The ensuing rise of global systems of international economic, cultural and intellectual exchange played an important role in the development of capitalism and represents an identifiable early phase of globalization . Regardless of

999-513: A number of times against the influence of Rasputin . Encausse's early readings in tarot and the lore of the Kabbalah in translation was inspired by the occult writings of Éliphas Lévi , whose translation of the Nuctemeron of Apollonius of Tyana " printed as a supplement to Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie (1855), provided Encausse with his pen name . "Papus" is the name of a Genius of

1110-566: A political "system of occulticity" that was directed against priests and aristocrats. In 1853, the Freemasonic author Jean-Marie Ragon had already used occultisme in his popular work Maçonnerie occulte , relating it to earlier practices that, since the Renaissance , had been termed "occult sciences" or "occult philosophy", but also to the recent socialist teachings of Charles Fourier . The French esotericist Éliphas Lévi then used

1221-541: A regular Freemason . Despite this, he organized what was announced as an "International Masonic Conference" in Paris on 24 June 1908, and at this conference he first met Theodor Reuss , and the two men apparently exchanged patents: Reuss elevated Encausse as X° of Ordo Templi Orientis as well as giving him license to establish a "Supreme Grand Council General of the Unified Rites of Ancient and Primitive Masonry for

SECTION 10

#1732801549930

1332-459: A series of blunders that ruined their efforts to find allies. King Louis XIV of France, by contrast, developed the most sophisticated diplomatic service, with permanent ambassadors and lesser ministers in major and minor capitals, all preparing steady streams of information and advice to Paris. Diplomacy became a career that proved highly attractive to rich senior aristocrats who enjoyed very high society at royal courts, especially because they carried

1443-509: A substantivized adjective as "the occult", a term that has been particularly widely used among journalists and sociologists . This term was popularised by the publication of Colin Wilson 's 1971 book The Occult . This term has been used as an "intellectual waste-basket" into which a wide array of beliefs and practices have been placed because they do not fit readily into the categories of religion or science. According to Hanegraaff, "the occult"

1554-493: A substitute for the term Renaissance , and vice versa. However, "Renaissance" is properly used in relation to a diverse series of cultural developments; which occurred over several hundred years in many different parts of Europe—especially central and northern Italy—and span the transition from late Medieval civilization and the opening of the early modern period. The term "early modern" is most often applied to Europe, and its overseas empire. However, it has also been employed in

1665-422: A universal Christendom ), language, or feudal allegiance (belonging to the manor or extended household of a particular magnate or lord ). The beginning of the early modern period is not clear-cut, but is generally accepted to be in the late 15th century or early 16th century. Significant dates in this transitional phase from medieval to early modern Europe can be noted: The end date of the early modern period

1776-461: Is "knowledge of the hidden". In common usage, occult refers to "knowledge of the paranormal ", as opposed to "knowledge of the measurable ", usually referred to as science. The terms esoteric and arcane can also be used to describe the occult, in addition to their meanings unrelated to the supernatural. The term occult sciences was used in the 16th century to refer to astrology , alchemy , and natural magic . The earliest known usage of

1887-457: Is a category into which gets placed a range of beliefs from "spirits or fairies to parapsychological experiments, from UFO-abductions to Oriental mysticism, from vampire legends to channelling, and so on". The neologism occulture used within the industrial music scene of the late twentieth century was probably coined by one of its central figures, the musician and occultist Genesis P-Orridge . The scholar of religion Christopher Partridge used

1998-512: Is the period associated with the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603) and was a golden age in English cultural history. It was the height of the English Renaissance , and saw the flowering of English literature and poetry . This was also the time during which Elizabethan theatre grew. William Shakespeare , among others, composed highly innovative and powerful plays. It was an age of expansion and exploration abroad. At home

2109-698: Is the period of European history between the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the Industrial Revolution , roughly the mid 15th century to the late 18th century. Historians variously mark the beginning of the early modern period with the invention of moveable type printing in the 1450s, the Fall of Constantinople and end of the Hundred Years' War in 1453, the end of the Wars of

2220-737: Is variously associated with the Industrial Revolution , which began in Britain in about 1750, or the beginning of the French Revolution in 1789, which drastically transformed the state of European politics and ushered in the Napoleonic era and modern Europe. The role of nobles in the Feudal System had yielded to the notion of the Divine Right of Kings during the Middle Ages (in fact, this consolidation of power from

2331-664: The Anabaptists . Subsequent Protestant churches generally trace their roots back to these initial four schools of the Reformation. It also led to the Catholic or Counter Reformation within the Roman Catholic Church through a variety of new spiritual movements, reforms of religious communities, the founding of seminaries, the clarification of Catholic theology as well as structural changes in the institution of

SECTION 20

#1732801549930

2442-920: The Battle of Lepanto against the Turks. Pope Sixtus V sided with the Catholics during the French wars of religion . Worldwide religious missions, such as the Jesuit China mission , were established by Pope Gregory XIII . Gregory XIII is also responsible for the establishment of the Gregorian calendar . Following the Peace of Westphalia and the birth of nation-states , Papal claims to universal authority came effectively to an end. Papus Gérard Anaclet Vincent Encausse (13 July 1865 – 25 October 1916), whose esoteric pseudonyms were Papus and Tau Vincent ,

2553-737: The Bibliothèque Nationale studying the Kabbalah , occult tarot , magic and alchemy , and the writings of Eliphas Lévi . He joined the French Theosophical Society shortly after it was founded by Madame Blavatsky in 1884–1885, but he resigned soon after joining because he disliked the Society's emphasis on Eastern occultism . In 1888, he co-founded his own group, the Kabbalistic Order of

2664-762: The German Empire , Austria-Hungary , and the Kingdom of Italy . Unlike older forms of esotericism, occultism does not necessarily reject "scientific progress or modernity". Lévi had stressed the need to solve the conflict between science and religion, something that he believed could be achieved by turning to what he thought was the ancient wisdom found in magic. The French scholar of Western esotericism Antoine Faivre noted that rather than outright accepting "the triumph of scientism", occultists sought "an alternative solution", trying to integrate "scientific progress or modernity" with "a global vision that will serve to make

2775-788: The Habsburg Netherlands in 1506, Habsburg Spain and its territories in 1516, and Habsburg Austria in 1519. The main opponents of the Habsburg Empire were the Ottoman Empire and the Kingdom of France . The Habsburgs clashed with France in a series of Italian wars. The Battle of Pavia (1525) initiated the Habsburg primacy in Italy and the replacement of France as the main European power. Nevertheless, religious wars forced Charles V to abdicate in 1556 and divide

2886-579: The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn , New Age , and the left-hand path and right-hand path . Use of the term as a nominalized adjective ('the occult') has developed especially since the late twentieth century. In that same period, occult and culture were combined to form the neologism occulture . The occult (from the Latin word occultus ; lit. 'clandestine', 'hidden', 'secret')

2997-641: The Holy Roman Empire was also known as the Holy Roman Empire of the German nation . The Habsburg House of Austria held the position of Holy Roman Emperors since the mid-1400s and for the entire Early modern period. Despite the lack of a centralized political structure in a period in which national monarchies were emerging, the Habsburg Emperors of the Early modern period came close to form

3108-493: The Hundred Years' War , and the Valois Dynasty's attempts at re-establishing control over the scattered political centres of the country were hindered by the Wars of Religion ). Much of the reigns of Henry IV , Louis XIII and the early years of Louis XIV were focused on administrative centralisation. Despite, however, the notion of " absolute monarchy " (typified by the king's right to issue lettres de cachet ) and

3219-562: The Indies by crossing the Atlantic. He landed on a continent uncharted by Europeans and seen as a new world , the Americas. To prevent conflict between Portugal and Castile (the crown under which Columbus made the voyage), the Treaty of Tordesillas was signed dividing the world into two regions of exploration, where each had exclusive rights to claim newly discovered lands. The structure of

3330-467: The Industrial Revolution in late 18th century England. Some of the more notable trends and events of the early modern period included the Reformation and the religious conflicts it provoked (including the French Wars of Religion and the Thirty Years' War ), the rise of capitalism and modern nation states , widespread witch hunts and European colonization of the Americas . The modern period

3441-489: The Middle Ages , for example, magnetism was considered an occult quality. Aether is another such element. Newton 's contemporaries severely criticized his theory that gravity was effected through "action at a distance", as occult. In the English-speaking world, notable figures in the development of occultism included Helena Blavatsky and other figures associated with her Theosophical Society, senior figures in

Occult - Misplaced Pages Continue

3552-734: The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was the largest country with a large population and was very powerful. It was the largest semi-democratically governed polity of its time. It had low taxes but managed to field thousands of Winged Hussars who composed of nobility who followed Sarmatism . The Polish military routinely beat other respectable opponents such as the Ottomans, the Swedes and the Russians. The papacy continued to exercise significant diplomatic influence during

3663-503: The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth Constitution of May 3 , and also led to the rise of liberalism and the birth of socialism and communism . It is matched by the high baroque and classical eras in music, and the neo-classical period in the arts, and receives contemporary application in the unity of science movement which includes logical positivism . The expression "early modern" is sometimes used as

3774-784: The Protestant Reformation was established and successfully defended against the Catholic powers of Spain and France. The Jacobean era was the reign James I of England (1603–1625). Overseas exploration and establishment of trading factories sped up, with the first permanent settlements in North America at Jamestown, Virginia in 1607, in Newfoundland in 1610, and at Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts in 1620. One king now ruled England and Scotland;

3885-493: The Protestant ethic , economic development , governance , and "dark" outcomes have been identified by scholars. Margaret C. Jacob argues that there has been a dramatic shift in the historiography of the Reformation. Until the 1960s, historians focused their attention largely on the great leaders and also the theologians of the 16th century, especially Luther, Calvin, and Zwingli. Their ideas were studied in depth. However,

3996-716: The Radical Reformation , which gave rise to the Anabaptist , Moravian and other Pietistic movements. The Roman Catholic Church responded with a Counter-Reformation initiated by the Council of Trent . Much work in battling Protestantism was done by the well-organised new order of the Jesuits . In general, Northern Europe, with the exception of most of Ireland, came under the influence of Protestantism. Southern Europe remained Roman Catholic, while Central Europe

4107-470: The Thirty Years' War , 1618–1648, which had an extremely negative impact on the civilian population of Germany and surrounding areas, with massive loss of life and disruption of the economy and society. The Reformation led to a series of religious wars that culminated in the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648), which devastated much of Germany , killing between 25% and 40% of its entire population. Roman Catholic House of Habsburg and its allies fought against

4218-516: The "traditional esotericism" which accepted the premise of an "enchanted" world. According to the British historian of Western esotericism Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke , occultist groups typically seek "proofs and demonstrations by recourse to scientific tests or terminology". In his work about Lévi, the German historian of religion Julian Strube has argued that the occultist wish for a "synthesis" of religion, science, and philosophy directly resulted from

4329-456: The 18th century in European philosophy, and is often thought of as part of a period which includes the Age of Reason. The term also more specifically refers to a historical intellectual movement, The Enlightenment . This movement advocated rationality as a means to establish an authoritative system of aesthetics , ethics, and logic . The intellectual leaders of this movement regarded themselves as

4440-481: The 20th century, the term 'occult' was used idiosyncratically by a range of different authors. By the 21st century the term 'occultism' was commonly employed –including by academic scholars in the field of Western esotericism studies – to refer to a range of esoteric currents that developed in the mid-19th century and their descendants. Occultism is thus often used to categorise such esoteric traditions as Qabalah , Spiritualism , Theosophy , Anthroposophy , Wicca ,

4551-476: The Americas, Asia ( Spanish Philippines ), Europe and some territories in Africa and Oceania. The Ancien Régime (French for "old regime") was the political and social system of the Kingdom of France from about 1450 until the French Revolution that started in 1789. The Ancien Régime was ruled by the late Valois and Bourbon dynasties. Much of the medieval political centralization of France had been lost in

Occult - Misplaced Pages Continue

4662-591: The Church of England alternated, for decades, between sympathies for ancient Catholic tradition and more Reformed principles, gradually developing, within the context of robustly Protestant doctrine, a tradition considered a middle way ( via media ) between the Roman Catholic and Protestant traditions. The following outcomes of the Protestant Reformation regarding human capital formation,

4773-546: The Church to a synod of three of his former bishops, one of whom was Encausse. In March 1895, Encausse joined the Ahathoor Temple of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn in Paris. In October 1901 Encausse collaborated with Jean Carrère in producing a series of articles in the Écho de Paris under the pseudonym Niet ("no" in Russian). In the articles Sergei Witte and Pyotr Rachkovsky were attacked, and it

4884-763: The Church. The largest Protestant groups were the Lutherans and Calvinists . Lutheran churches were founded mostly in Germany, the Baltics and Scandinavia, while the Reformed ones were founded in Switzerland, Hungary, France, the Netherlands and Scotland. The initial movement within Germany diversified, and other reform impulses arose independently of Luther. The availability of the printing press provided

4995-428: The Early modern period. The Popes were frequently assembling Holy Leagues to assert Catholic supremacy in Europe. During the Renaissance, Julius II and Paul III were largely involved in the Italian Wars and worked to preserve their primacy among the Italian princes. During the Counter-Reformation, the Papacy supported Catholic powers and factions all over Europe. Pope Pius V assembled the Catholic coalition that won

5106-405: The First Hour in the Nuctemeron , and is translated in the text as "physician." Although Encausse claimed as his "spiritual master" the mysterious magician and healer known as "le Maitre Philippe" (Philippe Nizier), his first actual teacher in the intellectual aspects of occultism was the marquis Joseph Alexandre Saint-Yves d'Alveydre (1842 - 1910). Saint-Yves had inherited the papers of one of

5217-496: The Grand Orient of France and its Dependencies at Paris." For his part, Encausse assisted Reuss in the formation of Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica as a child of l'Église Gnostique de France, thus forming the E.G.C. within the tradition of French neo-gnosticism. When John Yarker died in 1913, Encausse was elected as his successor to the office of Grand Hierophant (international head) of the Antient and Primitive Rite of Memphis and Mizraim. When World War I broke out, Encausse joined

5328-605: The Habsburg dynasty. For the first time since the days of Martin Luther, political and national convictions again outweighed religious convictions in Europe. Two main tenets of the Peace of Westphalia , which ended the Thirty Years' War, were: The treaty also effectively ended the Papacy's pan-European political power. Pope Innocent X declared the treaty "null, void, invalid, iniquitous, unjust, damnable, reprobate, inane, empty of meaning and effect for all times" in his bull Zelo Domus Dei . European sovereigns, Roman Catholic and Protestant alike, ignored his verdict. Scholars taking

5439-426: The Habsburg empire, was identified as a more powerful nation than France and England globally. Furthermore, despite attacks from other European states, Spain retained its position of dominance with apparent ease. Spain controlled the Netherlands until the Dutch revolt , and important states in southern Italy. The Spanish claims to Naples and Sicily dated back to the 15th century, but had been marred by rival claims until

5550-461: The Habsburg possessions between Spain and Austria. The next Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I completed the Council of Trent and maintained Germany at peace until the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648). The Habsburgs controlled the elective monarchies of Hungary and Bohemia as well, and eventually turned these states into hereditary domains. In 1492 the Catholic Monarchs of Castile and Aragon funded Christopher Columbus 's plan to sail west to reach

5661-453: The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn like William Wynn Westcott and Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers , as well as other individuals such as Paschal Beverly Randolph , Emma Hardinge Britten , Arthur Edward Waite , and – in the early twentieth century – Aleister Crowley , Dion Fortune , and Israel Regardie . By the end of the nineteenth century, occultist ideas had also spread into other parts of Europe, such as

SECTION 50

#1732801549930

5772-401: The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and the New Age. Employing this etic understanding of "occultism", Hanegraaff argued that its development could begin to be seen in the work of the Swedish esotericist Emanuel Swedenborg and in the Mesmerist movement of the eighteenth century, although added that occultism only emerged in "fully-developed form" as Spiritualism, a movement that developed in

5883-439: The Protestant princes of Germany, supported at various times by Denmark, Sweden and France. The Habsburgs, who ruled Spain, Austria, the Crown of Bohemia , Hungary , Slovene Lands , the Spanish Netherlands and much of Germany and Italy, were staunch defenders of the Roman Catholic Church. Some historians believe that the era of the Reformation came to a close when Roman Catholic France allied itself with Protestant states against

5994-508: The Rose-Croix . That same year, he and his friend Lucien Chamuel founded the Librarie du Merveilleux and its monthly revue L'Initiation , which remained in publication until 1914. Encausse was also a member of the Hermetic Brotherhood of Light and the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn temple in Paris, as well as Memphis-Misraim and probably other esoteric or paramasonic organizations, as well as being an author of several occult books. Outside of his paramasonic and Martinist activities he

6105-410: The Roses in 1485, the beginning of the High Renaissance in Italy in the 1490s, the end of the Reconquista and subsequent voyages of Christopher Columbus to the Americas in 1492, or the start of the Protestant Reformation in 1517. The precise dates of its end point also vary and are usually linked with either the start of the French Revolution in 1789 or with the more vaguely defined beginning of

6216-402: The Spanish Empire was established under the Spanish Habsburgs (1516–1700) and under the Spanish Bourbon monarchs, the empire was brought under greater crown control and increased its revenues from the Indies. The crown's authority in The Indies was enlarged by the papal grant of powers of patronage , giving it power in the religious sphere. Under Philip II of Spain , Spain, rather than

6327-493: The Tsar that he would be able to magically avert Alexander's prophesy so long as Encausse was alive. Nicholas kept his hold on the throne of Russia until 141 days after Papus' death. Although Encausse seems to have served the Tsar and Tsarina in what was essentially the capacity of a mediumistic spiritual advisor, he was later curiously concerned about their heavy reliance on occultism to assist them in deciding questions of government. During their later correspondence, he warned them

6438-492: The United States during the mid-nineteenth century. Marco Pasi suggested that the use of Hanegraaff's definition might cause confusion by presenting a group of nineteenth-century esotericists who called themselves "occultists" as just one part of a broader category of esotericists whom scholars would call "occultists". Following these discussions, Julian Strube argued that Lévi and other contemporary authors who would now be regarded as esotericists developed their ideas not against

6549-466: The background of an esoteric tradition in the first place. Rather, Lévi's notion of occultism emerged in the context of highly influential radical socialist movements and widespread progressive, so-called neo-Catholic ideas. This further complicates Hanegraaff's characteristics of occultism, since, throughout the nineteenth century, they apply to these reformist movements rather than to a supposed group of esotericists. The term occult has also been used as

6660-425: The cities of the Low Countries , and later in France, Germany and England. The early modern period also saw the rise and dominance of the economic theory of mercantilism . As such, the early modern period is often associated with the decline and eventual disappearance (at least in Western Europe) of feudalism and serfdom . The Protestant Reformation greatly altered the religious balance of Christendom , creating

6771-438: The concept of science. From that point on, use of "occult science(s)" implied a conscious polemic against mainstream science. Nevertheless, the philosopher and card game historian Michael Dummett , whose analysis of the historical evidence suggested that fortune-telling and occult interpretations using cards were unknown before the 18th century, said that the term occult science was not misplaced because "people who believe in

SECTION 60

#1732801549930

6882-399: The context of contemporary socialism and progressive Catholicism . Similar to spiritualism, but in declared opposition to it, the emergence of occultism should thus be seen within the context of radical social reform, which was often concerned with establishing new forms of "scientific religion" while at the same time propagating the revival of an ancient tradition of "true religion". Indeed,

6993-402: The context of theoretical frameworks that relied heavily on a belief in occult qualities, virtues or forces." Although there are areas of overlap between these different occult sciences, they are separate and in some cases practitioners of one would reject the others as being illegitimate. During the Age of Enlightenment , occultism increasingly came to be seen as intrinsically incompatible with

7104-417: The control of human relations in general and to the relations between states and peoples in particular. The fact was almost completely opposite. It was a period of marked unintelligence, immorality and frivolity in the conduct of international relations, marked by wars undertaken for dimly conceived purposes, waged with the utmost brutality and conducted by reckless betrayals of allies." The worst came during

7215-424: The diminution of the absolute authority of the Roman Catholic Church as well as the lessening of the influence of all faiths upon national governments. Many historians have identified the early modern period as the epoch in which individuals began to think of themselves as belonging to a national polity—a notable break from medieval modes of self-identification, which had been largely based upon religion (belonging to

7326-438: The early modern Lutheran thinker Jakob Bohme , and seeking to integrate ideas from Bohmian theosophy and occultism. It has been noted, however, that this distancing from the Theosophical Society should be understood in the light of polemical identity formations among esotericists towards the end of the nineteenth century. In the mid-1990s, a new definition of "occultism" was put forth by Wouter Hanegraaff. According to Hanegraaff,

7437-494: The efforts by the kings to create a centralized state, Ancien Régime France remained a country of systemic irregularities: administrative (including taxation), legal, judicial, and ecclesiastic divisions and prerogatives frequently overlapped, while the French nobility struggled to maintain their own rights in the matters of local government and justice, and powerful internal conflicts (like the Fronde ) protested against this centralization. The need for centralization in this period

7548-648: The emergence of both modern esotericism and socialism in July Monarchy France have been inherently intertwined. Another feature of occultists is that – unlike earlier esotericists – they often openly distanced themselves from Christianity, in some cases (like that of Crowley) even adopting explicitly anti-Christian stances. This reflected how pervasive the influence of secularisation had been on all areas of European society. In rejecting Christianity, these occultists sometimes turned towards pre-Christian belief systems and embraced forms of Modern Paganism , while others instead took influence from

7659-402: The gospel. The Protestant position, however, would come to incorporate doctrinal changes such as sola scriptura and sola fide . The Reformation ended in division and the establishment of new church movements. The four most important traditions to emerge directly from the Reformation were Lutheranism , the Reformed (also called Calvinist or Presbyterian ) tradition, Anglicanism , and

7770-400: The great founders of French occultism, Antoine Fabre d'Olivet (1762 - 1825), and it was probably Saint-Yves who introduced Papus to the marquis Stanislas de Guaita (1861 - 1897). In 1888, Encausse and de Guaita joined with Joséphin Péladan and Oswald Wirth to found the Rosicrucian Kabbalistic Order of the Rose-Cross . In 1891, Encausse claimed to have come into the possession of

7881-688: The history of the Ottoman Empire . In the historiography of Japan, the Edo period from 1590 to 1868 is also sometimes referred to as the "early modern" period. The 17th century saw very little peace in Europe – major wars were fought in 95 years (every year except 1610, 1669 to 1671, and 1680 to 1682.) The wars were unusually ugly. Europe in the late 17th century, 1648 to 1700, was an age of great intellectual, scientific, artistic and cultural achievement. Historian Frederick Nussbaum says it was: "prolific in genius, in common sense, and in organizing ability. It could properly have been expected that intelligence, comprehension and high purpose would be applied to

7992-549: The land-owning nobles to the titular monarchs was one of the most prominent themes of the Middle Ages). Among the most notable political changes included the abolition of serfdom and the crystallization of kingdoms into nation-states. Perhaps even more significantly, with the advent of the Reformation , the notion of Christendom as a unified political entity was destroyed. Many kings and rulers used this radical shift in

8103-884: The latter was fully absorbed by the Acts of Union 1707 . The tumultuous Caroline era was the reign of King Charles I (1625–1645), followed by his beheading by Oliver Cromwell 's regime in 1649 . The Caroline era was dominated by the growing religious, political, and social conflict between the King and his supporters, termed the Royalist party, and the Puritan opposition that evolved in response to particular aspects of Charles' rule. The colonization of North America continued apace, with new colonies in Maryland (1634), Connecticut (1635), and Rhode Island (1636). In early modern Europe,

8214-687: The means for the rapid dissemination of religious materials in the vernacular. The core motivation behind the Reformation was theological , though many other factors played a part, including the rise of nationalism , the Western Schism that eroded faith in the Papacy , the perceived corruption of the Roman Curia , the impact of humanism , and the new learning of the Renaissance that questioned much traditional thought. There were also reformation movements throughout continental Europe known as

8325-648: The mid-16th century and the rule of Philip II. There would be no Italian revolts against Spanish rule until 1647. The death of the Ottoman emperor Suleiman the Magnificent in 1566 and the naval victory over the Ottoman Empire at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571 cemented the status of Spain as a superpower in Europe and the world. The Spanish Empire comprised territories and colonies of the Spanish Monarch in

8436-612: The mid-19th century and their descendants. Occultism is thus often used to categorise such esoteric traditions as Spiritualism, Theosophy, Anthroposophy, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and New Age. A different division was used by the Traditionalist author René Guénon , who used esotericism to describe what he believed was the Traditionalist, inner teaching at the heart of most religions, while occultism

8547-745: The nineteenth century and their twentieth-century derivations. In a descriptive sense, it has been used to describe forms of esotericism which developed in nineteenth-century France, especially in the Neo-Martinist environment. According to the historian of esotericism Antoine Faivre , it is with the esotericist Éliphas Lévi that "the occultist current properly so-called" first appears. Other prominent French esotericists involved in developing occultism included Papus , Stanislas de Guaita , Joséphin Péladan , Georges-Albert Puyou de Pouvourville , and Jean Bricaud . The idea of occult sciences developed in

8658-515: The older term occult , much as the term esotericism derives from the older term esoteric . However, the historian of esotericism Wouter Hanegraaff stated that it was important to distinguish between the meanings of the term occult and occultism . Occultism is not a homogenous movement and is widely diverse. Over the course of its history, the term occultism has been used in various different ways. However, in contemporary uses, occultism commonly refers to forms of esotericism that developed in

8769-532: The order in 1887. The Martinist Order was to become a primary focus for Encausse, and continues today as one of his most enduring legacies. In 1893, Encausse was consecrated a bishop of l' Église Gnostique de France by Jules Doinel , who had founded this Church as an attempt to revive the Cathar religion in 1890. In 1895, Doinel abdicated as Primate of the French Gnostic Church, leaving control of

8880-453: The original papers of Martinez Paschalis, or de Pasqually (c. 1700-1774), and therewith founded an Order of Martinists called l'Ordre des Supérieurs Inconnus. He claimed to have been given authority in the Rite of Saint-Martin by his friend Henri Vicomte de Laage, who claimed that his maternal grandfather had been initiated into the order by Saint-Martin himself, and who had attempted to revive

8991-402: The perspective of cybernetics and information technologies. Philosopher Eugene Thacker discusses Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa 's Three Books of Occult Philosophy in his book In The Dust Of This Planet , where he shows how the horror genre utilizes occult themes to reveal hidden realities. Early modern Europe Early modern Europe , also referred to as the post-medieval period ,

9102-467: The possibility of unveiling the future or of exercising supernormal powers do so because the efficacy of the methods they employ coheres with some systematic conception which they hold of the way the universe functions...however flimsy its empirical basis." In his 1871 book Primitive Culture , the anthropologist Edward Tylor used the term "occult science" as a synonym for magic . Occult qualities are properties that have no known rational explanation; in

9213-632: The practice of indulgences to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg , Germany, commonly used to post notices to the University community. It was very widely publicized across Europe and caught fire. Luther began by criticizing the sale of indulgences , insisting that the Pope had no authority over purgatory and that the Catholic doctrine of the merits of the saints had no foundation in

9324-536: The precise dates used to define its beginning and end points, the early modern period is generally agreed to have comprised the Renaissance , the Reformation , the Scientific Revolution , and the Enlightenment . As such, historians have attributed a number of fundamental changes to the period, notably the increasingly rapid progress of science and technology, the secularization of politics, and

9435-468: The religions of Asia, such as Hinduism and Buddhism . In various cases, certain occultists did both. Another characteristic of these occultists was the emphasis that they placed on "the spiritual realization of the individual", an idea that would strongly influence the twentieth-century New Age and Human Potential Movement . This spiritual realization was encouraged both through traditional Western 'occult sciences' like alchemy and ceremonial magic , but by

9546-433: The religious or philosophical belief systems on which such practices are based. This division was initially adopted by the early academic scholar of esotericism, Antoine Faivre, although he later abandoned it; it has been rejected by most scholars who study esotericism. By the 21st century the term was commonly employed – including by academic scholars of esotericism – to refer to a range of esoteric currents that developed in

9657-419: The rise of the new social history in the 1960s look at history from the bottom up, not from the top down. Historians began to concentrate on the values, beliefs and behavior of the people at large. She finds, "in contemporary scholarship, the Reformation was then seen as a vast cultural upheaval, a social and popular movement and textured and rich because of its diversity." "The Age of Enlightenment" refers to

9768-703: The search for what became known as a 'balance of power.' Diplomacy before 1700 was not well developed, and chances to avoid wars were too often squandered. In England, for example, King Charles II paid little attention to diplomacy, which proved disastrous. During the Dutch war of 1665–67, England had no diplomats stationed in Denmark or Sweden. When King Charles realized he needed them as allies, he sent special missions that were uninformed about local political, military, and diplomatic situations, and were ignorant of personalities and political factionalism. Ignorance produced

9879-453: The sixteenth century. The term usually encompassed three practices – astrology, alchemy, and natural magic – although sometimes various forms of divination were also included rather than being subsumed under natural magic. These were grouped together because, according to the Dutch scholar of hermeticism Wouter Hanegraaff , "each one of them engaged in a systematic investigation of nature and natural processes, in

9990-409: The start of the twentieth century had also begun to include practices drawn from non-Western contexts, such as yoga . Although occultism is distinguished from earlier forms of esotericism, many occultists have also been involved in older esoteric currents. For instance, occultists like François-Charles Barlet  [ fr ] and Rudolf Steiner were also theosophers , adhering to the ideas of

10101-596: The status of the most powerful nation in Europe. Increasingly, other nations copied the French model; French became the language of diplomacy, replacing Latin. By 1700, the British and the Dutch, with small land armies, large navies, and large treasuries, used astute diplomacy to build alliances, subsidizing as needed land powers to fight on their side, or as in the case of the Hessians, hiring regiments of soldiers from mercenary princes in small countries. The balance of power

10212-403: The tax on salt ( gabelle ) and by contributions of men and service from the nobility. The key to this centralization was the replacing of personal patronage systems organized around the king and other nobles by institutional systems around the state. The creation of intendants —representatives of royal power in the provinces—did much to undermine local control by regional nobles. The same

10323-460: The term occultism can be used not only for the nineteenth-century groups which openly self-described using that term but can also be used in reference to "the type of esotericism that they represent". Seeking to define occultism so that the term would be suitable "as an etic category" for scholars, Hanegraaff devised the following definition: "a category in the study of religions, which comprises "all attempts by esotericists to come to terms with

10434-472: The term occultism is in the French language, as l'occultisme . In this form it appears in A. de Lestrange's article that was published in Dictionnaire des mots nouveaux ("Dictionary of new words") by Jean-Baptiste Richard de Radonvilliers  [ fr ] in 1842. However, it was not related, at this point, to the notion of Ésotérisme chrétien , as has been claimed by Hanegraaff, but to describe

10545-425: The term as a synonym for esotericism, an approach that the later scholar of esotericism Marco Pasi suggested left the term superfluous. Unlike Amadou, other writers saw occultism and esotericism as different, albeit related, phenomena. In the 1970s, the sociologist Edward A. Tiryakian distinguished between occultism, which he used in reference to practices, techniques, and procedures, and esotericism, which he defined as

10656-720: The term in an academic sense, stating that occulture was "the new spiritual environment in the West; the reservoir feeding new spiritual springs; the soil in which new spiritualities are growing". Recently scholars have offered perspectives on the occult as intertwined with media and technology. Examples include the work of film and media theorist Jeffrey Sconce and religious studies scholar John Durham Peters , both of whom suggest that occult movements historically utilize media and apparatuses as tools to reveal hidden aspects of reality or laws of nature. Erik Davis in his book Techgnosis gives an overview of occultism both ancient and modern from

10767-411: The term in his influential book on ritual magic , Dogme et rituel de la haute magie , first published in 1856. Lévi was familiar with that work and might have borrowed the term from there. In any case, Lévi also claimed to be a representative of an older tradition of occult science or occult philosophy. It was from his usage of the term occultisme that it gained wider usage; according to Faivre, Lévi

10878-620: The understanding of the world to further consolidate their sovereignty over their territories. For instance, many of the Germanic states (as well as English Reformation ) converted to Protestantism in an attempt to slip out of the grasp of the Pope. The intellectual developments of the period included the creation of the economic theory of mercantilism and the publication of enduringly influential works of political and social philosophy, such as Machiavelli 's The Prince (1513) and Thomas More 's Utopia (1515). The Protestant Reformation

10989-400: The vacuousness of materialism more apparent". The Dutch scholar of hermeticism Wouter Hanegraaff remarked that occultism was "essentially an attempt to adapt esotericism" to the " disenchanted world ", a post-Enlightenment society in which growing scientific discovery had eradicated the "dimension of irreducible mystery" previously present. In doing so, he noted, occultism distanced itself from

11100-471: The very difficult task of reclaiming dioceses lost to Protestantism, but to build large-scale missions in overseas colonial possessions that could convert the natives by the thousands Using devoted members of society such as the Jesuits. According to Hamish Scott , the realist model assumes that "foreign policies were guided entirely by "Realpolitik," by the resulting struggle for resources and, eventually, by

11211-403: Was "the principal exponent of esotericism in Europe and the United States" at that time. The term occultism emerged in 19th-century France, where it came to be associated with various French esoteric groups connected to Éliphas Lévi and Papus , The earliest use of the term occultism in the English language appears to be in "A Few Questions to 'Hiraf'", an 1875 article by Helena Blavatsky ,

11322-410: Was a French physician , hypnotist , and popularizer of occultism , who founded the modern Martinist Order . Gerard Encausse was born in A Coruña , Galicia, Spain on 13 July 1865 of a Spanish mother and a French father, Louis Encausse, a chemist . His family moved to Paris when he was four years old, and he received his education there. As a young man, Encausse spent a great deal of time at

11433-538: Was a reform-oriented schism from the Roman Catholic Church initiated by Martin Luther and continued by John Calvin , Huldrych Zwingli , and other early Protestant Reformers . It is typically dated from 1517, lasting until the end of the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) with the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. It was launched on 31 October 1517 by Martin Luther , who posted his 95 Theses criticizing

11544-545: Was a site of a fierce conflict, culminating in the Thirty Years' War , which left it devastated. The Reformation reshaped the Church of England decisively after 1547. The separation of the Church of England (or Anglican Church) from Rome under Henry VIII , beginning in 1529 and completed in 1537, brought England alongside this broad Reformation movement; however, religious changes in the English national church proceeded more conservatively than elsewhere in Europe. Reformers in

11655-465: Was also a spiritual student of the French spiritualist healer, Anthelme Nizier Philippe , "Maître Philippe de Lyon". Despite his heavy involvement in occultism and occultist groups, Encausse managed to find time to pursue more conventional academic studies at the University of Paris . He received his Doctor of Medicine degree in 1894 upon submitting a dissertation on Philosophical Anatomy. He opened

11766-435: Was characterized by profound changes in many realms of human endeavor. Among the most important include the development of science as a formalized practice, increasingly rapid technological progress , and the establishment of secularized civic politics, law courts and the nation state . Capitalist economies began to develop in a nascent form, first in the northern Italian republics such as Genoa and Venice as well as in

11877-466: Was directly linked to the question of royal finances and the ability to wage war. The internal conflicts and dynastic crises of the 16th and 17th centuries (the wars between Catholics and Protestants and the Habsburg 's internal family conflict) and the territorial expansion of France in the 17th century demanded great sums which needed to be raised through taxes, such as the land tax ( taille ) and

11988-555: Was suggested that there was a sinister financial syndicate trying to disrupt the Franco-Russian alliance. Encausse and Carrère predicted that this syndicate was a Jewish conspiracy , and the anti-Semitic nature of these articles, compounded by Encausse's known connection to the Tsar of Russia, may have contributed to the allegation that Papus was the author who forged The Protocols of the Elders of Zion . Encausse never became

12099-416: Was true of the greater reliance shown by the royal court on the "noblesse de robe" as judges and royal counselors. The creation of regional parlements had initially the same goal of facilitating the introduction of royal power into newly assimilated territories, but as the parlements gained in self-assurance, they began to be sources of disunity. This period refers to England 1558–1603. The Elizabethan Era

12210-424: Was used pejoratively to describe new religions and movements that he disapproved of, such as Spiritualism, Theosophy, and various secret societies . Guénon's use of this terminology was adopted by later writers like Serge Hutin and Luc Benoist . As noted by Hanegraaff, Guénon's use of these terms are rooted in his Traditionalist beliefs and "cannot be accepted as scholarly valid". The term occultism derives from

12321-417: Was very delicately calculated, so that winning a battle here was worth the slice of territory there, with no regard to the wishes of the inhabitants. Important peacemaking conferences at Utrecht (1713), Vienna (1738), Aix-la-Chapelle (1748) and Paris (1763) had a cheerful, cynical, game-like atmosphere in which professional diplomats cashed in victories like casino chips in exchange for territory. Since 1512,

#929070