The word ‘occult’ is used freely in many a context. It is a tag that is given to the numerous magical organizations that operate by different teachings and practices. In medical terminology, it is used to refer to an un-viewable complication that later gets manifested as some other disease.  But the most popularly used meaning of occult in the context of religion, philosophy and spirituality is the knowledge of the unknown.

Although the synonym is suggestive of occultism as knowledge that is necessarily kept hidden or that is categorized only for certain people, spiritual occultists are of the opinion that it is but a in-depth probing study transcending borders of reason and physical parameters . Occult is often interchanged with other terms as esoteric and arcane as the meaning is different only on a thin line.

Spiritual occultists are often misunderstood, by followers of other religious practices, as an entity that is achieved by means of supernatural doings, and since this goes against the path of God, they are often thought of in a malevolent line. The term occult is derivative of the Latin word occultus, which means hidden, clandestine, and secret. The exotic sounding nature of the word also lends a thread of uneasiness to people, thereby leading to their basis for mistrust.

Spiritual occultists, practice occultism to understand the Truth, the truth that is not seen superficially by anybody, but the inner, hidden truth that needs a deeper probing to understand. To facilitate this understanding of the meaning, spiritual occultists, practice different areas of paranormal ideas, like magic, ESP (extra sensory perception), numerology, spiritualism etc.  These paranormal ideas don’t exist by themselves but are supported by religious beliefs and this leads to the development of separate categorises of religion based on the same. Essentially, a spiritual occultist has to understand (and follow) such religious outcroppings, in order to achieve his purpose of understanding the hidden meaning. Some of the religions practiced by spiritual occultists are Thelema, Neopaganism, Gnosticism, Luciferianism and Hemeticism.

The religions of Islam, Christianity, Buddhism etc are not occult based, but some of their interpretations as a result of understanding of the religion, like Kabbalah, Theosophy are viewed as occult in nature. As for any progress, there is also opposition by traditional scholars, as they are of the opinion that these modern interventions are untrue.

Spiritual occultists could in an way be compared to a medical practitioner, as occultism is essentially the internal study of the nature of things, while science is the study of the outer characteristics of things.  While science and mathematics, are incapable of suggesting an inner understanding between entity A and entity B, whether or not there are attached to it many external relationships. So, these two grounds are useful only in understanding an entity externally, while Occultism paves the way for the internal or inner understanding of an entity, as these results by way of direct perceptual awareness, which is termed as Mysticism.  Mysticism is essential the pursuit of the common religious faith that is of being together with the divine truth, by way of direct experience, insight and intuition.