“Occult means 'hidden' — and before it meant magic, it meant anything that was not yet understood, including the force of gravity.”
Occultus is the past participle of Latin occulere (to cover over, to hide), from ob- (over) + a form of celare (to conceal). In medieval and early modern science, 'occult' was a technical term — not a supernatural one. An 'occult quality' was a property whose cause was hidden or unknown. Gravity was an occult quality. Magnetism was an occult quality. The word described the gap in knowledge, not the presence of magic.
The shift from scientific to supernatural happened gradually. As natural philosophy (science) began to explain previously occult qualities — Newton explained gravity, Gilbert explained magnetism — the word 'occult' migrated to the things that science could not explain: astrology, alchemy, divination, spirit communication. By the eighteenth century, the occult was the domain of the unexplained, and science had claimed the explained.
The nineteenth-century occult revival — Madame Blavatsky's Theosophy, the Golden Dawn, Éliphas Lévi's writings — gave 'occult' its modern meaning: a body of hidden knowledge about supernatural forces, accessible through study and practice. The Theosophical Society, founded in 1875, described itself as devoted to 'occult science.' The phrase was not contradictory at the time — occult meant hidden, and science meant knowledge. Hidden knowledge.
Modern English uses 'occult' as both adjective and noun. The adjective means hidden or mysterious — an 'occult fracture' in medicine is a fracture that does not show on X-ray. The noun means the supernatural — 'an interest in the occult.' The medical and supernatural uses coexist without confusion, connected by the original Latin meaning: something is there, but you cannot see it.
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Today
The occult section in a bookstore sits between self-help and religion. It contains tarot guides, astrology manuals, Wiccan handbooks, and reprints of Golden Dawn texts. The word has been partially domesticated — 'the occult' is a retail category, not a criminal charge. But it retains its edge. Parents worry about children's interest in 'the occult.' Churches warn against it. The word still hides something.
The Latin word for hidden became the English word for everything that science pushed out of its domain. Gravity was occult until Newton. Magnetism was occult until Gilbert. What remains occult is what remains unexplained — or what resists explanation. The hidden is smaller now, but it is still hidden.
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