Talk:Occult

Isn't it that occult carries a much darker emotional backdrop than magic or esoteric does ? From a rational view point there may be incorrectly perceived opposition to Christianity since Christianity has adopted some heathen rituals which follow an occult logic. But at its heart an occult act implies a physical or mental sacrifice to me. The object sacrified(crop, animal) or my submission to higher powers is a symbolic sacrifice which constitues the occult act substitutional psychologically. // sorry if my english style is not the best - i'm no native speaker. 02.09.2004

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I don't see any reason why we shouldn't merge Esoteric knowledge and Occult (and probably esotericism). If these articles need to be differentiated more strongly then we need to write text that does this.

Only issue I imagine occuring is one of interpretation: the 'Occult' often implies (incorrectly, of course) an opposition to Christianity &/or other non-Occult oriented fields of interest..in my opinion, other than this (if it's in the least important) there'd be no issue.

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There does seem to be quite a bit of overlap in the articles.

I usually think of "esoteric" as something that is still somehow within the confines of a more exoteric tradition or religion - like Sufism to Islam, or maybe Gnosticism to Christianity (although perhaps not all Gnostics would fit in this category).

To me, the "occult" involves those traditions or practices that fall outside of a religious category - like Magick, Hermeticism, Alchemy. - RL Barrett 22:23 May 6, 2003 (UTC)

Occult Belgium

quote: Between World War I and World War II the centre of occult and mystical activity in Western Europe was shifted from France to Belgium. Belgium became the main centre for many esoteric brotherhoods and secret societies of which many branches still exist today.

Being a Belgian myself, I must say I never heard about this myself. I certainly never learned about this in the national history lessons. Could the author please be more specific on this. (This same sentence can also be found in Belgium.) Fortinbras 10:20, 6 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Objection!

If one takes a religious standpoint (either main-line Protestant, Catholic, Orthodox, main-line Judaic, probably even conservatively Islamic) this is an article vastly biased against main line religion, and addresses the religious-occult connection very vaguely and without giving anti-occultist views much of a hearing, even tacitly dismissing them as silly.

If one takes a purely secular approach, this article is nonsence as it essentially assumes the existence of "the occult," instead of treating it as a persistenly recurring set of sociological conditions.

Finally, there are bizzare historical aberrations here - "predates western civilization"? Technically Babylon is an ancestor of Wester Civilization. "Appeared in the 19th century"? Not really. Folk beliefs in spirits hit upper crust society during a time of 19th century Romanticism.

This is a non-serious, essentially silly article.

Agreed, the entire article is very biased, and more suportive of Ocult practice then an article on Wiki should be (suportive of a topic i mean). Not to mention the fact that it paints christians as great big old goobers who all belive that oujie boards will damn us to hell.

Structure cause's implyed/Unintentinal NPO

    These include the role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons, heavy metal 
    music, and sometimes even Catholicism. However, as there is nothing 
    secret nor hidden, the term 'occult' would not denote role-playing 
    games, "Harry Potter" books or heavy metal music.

the last sentence includes "Harry Potter" as things deemed occultish, while the prior does not, then it leaves out Catholicism implying unintentionaly(hopefully) that Catholicism is infact an Occult.

I would like to let the authour know that he should change this or within 24 hours i will.