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From Lat. occultus, “secret, hidden,” the term “occult” has reference to phenomena, processes, and practices in nature, the spiritual world, or the extraterrestrial sphere that point to hidden forces that escape both normal sensory observation and the knowledge that rests on it. From the end of the 19th century, the term “occultism” came into use primarily for practical or theoretical dealings with transcendental phenomena of this kind. Today it is usually related to the occult worldview that is b…

In distinction from Indian or pseudo-Indian theosophical societies (see 4) of the Blavatsky type, theosophy in the traditional sense represents the concern in all religions to penetrate the deepest mysteries of the deity. In the early church and the Middle Ages “theosophy” was another term for theology. It came to be restricted to special kinds of Christianity only in the 18th century and now applies analogously to non-Christian phenomena. 1. Features As distinct from metaphysics and philosophy, theosophy relies generally on revelation. If this is not found in the …

T. Vaughan first introduced the term “anthroposophy” at the beginning of the 18th century in the title of a book. Rudolf Steiner (1861–1925) adopted it to advance his Adyar theosophy. 1. Development Steiner was born on February 27, 1861, in Kraljevec, which was then in Austria, near the Hungarian-Croatian border. Early in life he had spiritist and occult experiences. He was also attracted by the solemnity of Roman Catholic worship and by the exact sciences. As a student of nature and literature at Vienna, he developed his ment…

In contrast to astronomy, which operates mechanistically, astrology rests on the conviction that the character and destiny (Fate and [Good] Fortune) of people can be decisively affected by the position of the stars at the moment of their birth. Only heavenly bodies that may be seen with the naked eye are relevant: the sun, the moon, the planets, and the “houses” to which these belong in the zodiac. Fixed stars outside the zodiac may figure in the calculations in a supplementary capacity. The demonstrable physical influence of heavenly bodies (esp. the sun) on terrestrial processes,…

In antiquity the word “esoteric” was used for knowledge that was imparted only to an inner circle of fully initiated students, while “exoteric” denoted that which in principle was accessible to everybody. In a broader sense the esoteric soon became anything that is entrusted only to a select group on the basis of certain qualities. In contrast to secret societies, whose very existence is meant to be secret, such a circle is a nonsecret order or group that guards a secret. We find such circles in all cultures in the cultic field, as well as philosophical and, increasingly, political fields. Whe…

Since the ninth and tenth centuries the Gk.-Arab. word alchēmeia has denoted the attempt to change base metals into silver and gold. This effort has been more than a mere curiosity in the history of science and technology, however, for in alchemy the smelting, alloying, and tinting of metals have been linked with the belief that one can help what is thought of as living nature achieve its quickest possible development and fulfillment. It was probably in Alexandria in the second century b.c. that popul…

Contrasting with animism, spiritism (or spiritualism) believes that all things have spirits, or souls, that the dead and other spiritual beings have fellowship with each other, and that humans can make contact with the souls of the dead and with spiritual beings. Spiritists believe that the spirits of the dead can cause noises or make things disappear, give answers to questions about the hereafter, explore the other world, and offer information as to the future. 1. We can distinguish the various kinds of spiritism according to the media by which these messages are tran…