occultismn.
/ˈɒk(ʌ)ltɪz(ə)m/, U.S. /əˈkəlˌtɪz(ə)m/ The doctrine, principles, or practice of occult science. See occult adj. 1b.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the supernatural > the occult > [noun] > occult doctrine or lore
philosophyc1395
gramaryec1470
cabbalisma1592
metaphysicsa1593
cabalie1652
telesiurgics1662
Cabbala1665
mysticism1825
occultism1876
1876 C. Sotheran P. B. Shelley as Philosopher & Reformer 16 A great traveler, and most learned modern writer on Occultism, who claims..to have been received into the ancient branch of the Rosie Cross in the far East, Madame P. de Blavatsky.
1881 A. P. Sinnett Occult World (1883) 3 It is chiefly in the East that occultism is still kept up—in India and in adjacent countries.
1886 St. James's Gaz. 25 Sept. 6/1 Occultism was, indeed, a necessary concomitant of polytheism.
1932 Internat. Jrnl. Ethics 42 495 Modern scientific civilization opposes the ways of occultism.
1958 Spectator 1 Aug. 160/1 He [sc. Freud] was always attracted by telepathy (so much so that he alarmed his English followers, who feared that it would give their enemies an excuse to sneer at analysis as occultism).
1984 C. Wilson Lord of Underworld Introd. 9 The surge of interest in ‘occultism’—in the paranormal and Eastern religious disciplines.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2004; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1876