Defining Occultism
August 23, 2022
(I recommend skipping first two minutes of this video.)
FROM Thuletide:
Occultism” in the West doesn’t refer to any old spooky mysticism, it specifically refers to the Kabbalistic-Hermetic practices that became popular during the 1800s. These practices were distinct from the Hermeticism of Classical Antiquity due to the infusion of Kabbalah (i.e. Jewish mysticism) during the Renaissance. The invention of the printing press in the 1400s led to the spread of Lurianic Kabbalah among European intelligentsia.
Classical Hermeticism is Greco-Egyptian mysticism based on texts ascribed to a god-man named Hermes Trismegistus, a fusion of the Egyptian god Thoth, regarded as a messenger of the gods and the source of all esoteric knowledge, and the Greek god Hermes, who played a similar role. They claimed that Trismegistus was originally a human who attained enlightenment and ascended to the world of the divine.
Hermeticism can be crudely described as “whitepilled Gnosticism.” It’s based on similar Platonism-influenced concepts but differs in its approach to material reality. Gnostics believe that the material universe is produced by a malevolent lesser deity known as the Demiurge (identified as Yahweh of the Old Testament) and conclude that material reality is evil and should be transcended. They regard Christ as a messenger of the true (good) supreme deity, who was sent to enlighten humanity. Hermeticists believe that material reality is fundamentally good because it is an emanation of the supreme deity.
Gnosticism was also influential on 1800s Occultism, so probably worth mentioning that Gnostic morality works on illusion vs enlightenment, rather than sin and repentance, and that some Gnostic groups (e.g. the Carpocratians) believed that the human body should be defiled with sin, due to its material (i.e. evil) nature.
Modern (post-Renaissance) Hermetic principles include:
– The first “man” was androgynous and immortal.
– Human souls are minor deities trapped in the physical world as punishment from god.
– There is a single true theology that was originally handed down from god to man at the beginning of time that has declined and been diluted through the ages, but is still present in all religions.
– Alchemy / transmutation, which includes;
– – Dissolving and breaking down components and remolding them into something new, or purifying substances, or impossibly transforming them from one natural state into another (e.g. lead into gold);
– – Creating all healing elixir of life (that will lead to immortality);
– – The idea that the prima materia (basal matter of the universe) represents hermaphroditism or a hermaphroditic monster;
– – The ultimate aim of “purifying” humanity, transmuting man from an imperfect, ephemeral, and corruptible state into a perfect, eternal, and incorruptible state.
When you see people talking about “Occultism,” Freemasonry, Rosicrucianism, Martinism, Theosophy, Thelema, and so on, what they’re talking about is this Kabbalistic-Hermeticism.
Also, the Occult movement was intrinsically linked to the early Socialist ‘Utopian’ movements (that Marx described as the “patriarchs of Socialism”) via people like Eliphas Levi. You could say that Occultism was to Socialism what the Frankfurt School is to “wokeness.”
