Historically considered, the occult points back to distant epochs and
to foreign civilizations; to ages when the facts of nature were but
weakly grasped, when belief was largely dominated by the authority
of tradition, when even the ablest minds fostered or assented to
superstition, when the social conditions of life were inimical
to independent thought, and the mass of men were cut off from
intellectual growth of even the most elementary kind. Pseudo-science
flourished in the absence of true knowledge; and imaginative
speculation and unfounded belief held the office intended for
inductive reason. Ignorance inevitably led to error, and false views
to false practices. In the sympathetic environment thus developed,
the occultist flourished and displayed the impressive insignia of
exclusive wisdom. His attitude was that of one seeking to solve an
enigma, to find the key to a secret arcanum; his search was for some
mystic charm, some talismanic formula, some magical procedure, which
should dispel the mist that hides the face of nature and expose her
secrets to his ecstatic gaze. By one all-encompassing, masterful
effort the correct solution was to be discovered or revealed; and
at once and for all, ignorance was to give place to true knowledge,
science and nature were to be as an open book, doubt and despair
to be replaced by the serenity of perfect wisdom. As our ordinary
senses and faculties proved insufficient to accomplish such ends,
supernatural powers were appealed to, a transcendental sphere of
spiritual activity was cultivated, capable of perceiving, through
the hidden symbolism of apparent phenomena, the underlying relations
of cosmic structure and final purposes. Long periods of training and
devotion, seclusion from the world, contemplation of inner mysteries,
were to lead the initiate through the various stages of adeptship
up to the final plane of communion with the infinite and the
comprehension of truth in all things. This form of occultism reaches
its fullest and purest expression in Oriental wisdom-religions. These
vie in interest to the historian with the mythology and philosophy
of Greece and Rome; and we of the Occident feel free to profit by
their ethical and philosophical content, and to cherish the impulses
which gave them life. But when such views are forcibly transplanted
to our age and clime, when they are decked in garments so unlike
their original vestments, particularly when they are associated with
dubious practices and come into violent conflict with the truth
that has accumulated since they first had birth,--their aspect is
profoundly altered, and they come within the circle of the modern
occult.