Occult - online puzzles

The term occult (from the Latin word occultus "clandestine, hidden, secret ") is " knowledge of the hidden". In common English usage, occult refers to " knowledge of the paranormal ", as opposed to " knowledge of the measurable", usually referred to as science. The term is sometimes taken to mean knowledge that "is meant only for certain people " or that "must be kept hidden", but for most practicing occultists it is simply the study of a deeper spiritual reality that extends beyond pure reason and the physical sciences. The terms esoteric and arcane can also be used to describe the occult, in addition to their meanings unrelated to the supernatural.

The term occult sciences was used in the sixteenth century to refer to astrology, alchemy, and natural magic. The term occultism emerged in nineteenth-century France, where it came to be associated with various French esoteric groups connected to Éliphas Lévi and Papus, and in 1875 was introduced into the English language by the esotericist Helena Blavatsky. Throughout the twentieth century, the term was used idiosyncratically by a range of different authors, but by the twenty-first century was commonly employed—including by academic scholars of esotericism—to refer to a range of esoteric currents that developed in the mid-nineteenth century and their descendants. "Occultism" is thus often used to categorise such esoteric traditions as Spiritualism, Theosophy, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and New Age.

Particularly since the late twentieth century, various authors have used the occult as a substantivized adjective. In this usage, "the occult" is a category into which varied beliefs and practices are placed if they are considered to fit into neither religion nor science.