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What Is Occultism?

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Occultism is a belief in the efficacy of various practices based on hidden knowledge about the universe and its mysterious forces. These practices include astrology, alchemy, divination, and magic.

Those who believe in such practices maintain that they can use occult knowledge to effect healing or to predict the future. Occultists may also believe in beings, such as angels, deities, or spirits, whom they can contact by gaining appropriate knowledge.

Occult practices were common in all traditional civilizations. Western occultism derived its roots from ancient Babylonian and Egyptian lore recorded and transmitted through Neoplatonism and the Hermetic books. Occultism existed in the European Middle Ages.
Between 13th and 15th centuries occultism came in for a lot of attack from church which regarded it as being connected with the worship of Satan. During the Renaissance thousands of women were tortured and killed for alleged involvement in occult practices.
Despite both religious persecution and advances in modern science, occultism maintained its intellectual presence in Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries.

In the 20th century, the counterculture movement of the 1960s led to the rebirth of occultism with renewed interest in astrology, divination, and magic. The New Age movement of the 1980s and 1990s is regarded as another manifestation of occultism.

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