Ocultismo

Ocultismo es una palabra que deriva del significado oculto Latino "escondido", "secreto", o no percibido fácilmente, y se refiere al estudio de una realidad psíquica y espiritual más profunda que se extiende más allá del mundo de los sentidos y pensamiento. El escribir cuando la palabra no había adquirido las connotaciones mezcladas de hoy, H.P. Blavatsky define el verdadero ocultismo como "altruismo", la Gran Renunciación de uno, que es encajado en el principio que la Divinidad esta oculta--trascendente con todo inmanente--dentro de cada ser vivo.

Descripción General

"El Sendero del Guerrero Espiritual" por Riginald Machell.

En el lenguaje común, la palabra ocultismo esta asociada con los poderes psíquicos y fenómeno, tanto como con practicas esotéricas tales como magia, astrología, quiromancia, etc. Sin embargo, la literatura Teosófica usa este término en una forma diferente. Más frecuentemente, se refiere al sendero del desarrollo espiritual basado en la Filosofía Esotérica. Este sendero, de acuerdo con T. Subba Row, es uno de los dos disponibles para la humanidad en su jornada evolutiva:

Esta filosofía reconoce dos senderos, ambos tienen el mismo fin, una inmortalidad glorificada. Uno es el sendero The one is the steady natural path of progress through moral effort, and practise of the virtues. . . . It is the normal method followed by the vast mass of humanity. . . . The other road is the precipitous path of occultism, through a series of initiations. Only a few specially organised and peculiar natures are fit for this path.[2]

General description

"Path of the Spiritual Warrior" by Reginald Machell.

In the common parlance, the word occultism is associated with psychic powers and phenomena, as well as with esoteric practices such as magic, astrology, palmistry, etc. However, the Theosophical literature uses this term in a different way. Most frequently, it refers to a path of spiritual development based on the Esoteric Philosophy. This path, according to T. Subba Row, is one of the two available to humanity in its evolutionary journey:

This philosophy recognises two paths, both having the same end, a glorified immortality.
The one is the steady natural path of progress through moral effort, and practise of the virtues. . . . It is the normal method followed by the vast mass of humanity. . . . The other road is the precipitous path of occultism, through a series of initiations. Only a few specially organised and peculiar natures are fit for this path.

The path of occultism can be seen as an "accelerated" road that the disciple or chela traverses, guided and assisted by a Master of Wisdom:

Occult progress, growth along this path, is effected by the adept directing through the chela various occult forces, which enable him to obtain prematurely, so to speak, a knowledge of his spiritual nature: and to obtain powers to which he is not morally entitled by degree of his progress. Under these circumstances it may happen that the chela loses his moral balance, and falls into the dugpa path.

In spite of the intrinsic dangers in this path, it is a necessity in nature because those who succeed become part of the Brotherhood of Adepts that guides the evolution of humanity.

The occult path involves a physical, psychological, and spiritual discipline, as well as the learning of the occult side of nature. The treading of this path ultimately leads to transcending the personal identity and realizing the essential unity of humanity, and, indeed, of all existence:

True Occultism is the destruction of the false idea of Self, and therefore true spiritual perfection and knowledge are nothing else but the complete identification of our finite “selves” with the Great All. It follows, therefore, that no spiritual progress at all is possible except by and through the bulk of Humanity. It is only when the whole of Humanity has attained happiness that the individual can hope to become permanently happy—for the individual is an inseparable part of the Whole.

Annie Besant went on to say:

What is occultism? The word is used and misused in the most extraordinary ways. H.P. Blavatsky once defined it as the study of mind in nature, meaning by the word mind, in that connection, the study of the Universal Mind, the Divine Mind, the study of the workings of God in the Universe, the study therefore of all the energies which, coming forth from the spiritual centre, work themselves out in the worlds around us. It is the study of the life side of the Universe, the side from which everything proceeds and from which everything is moulded, the looking through the illusory form to the reality which animates it; it is the study which underlies all phenomena; it is the ceasing to be wholly blinded by these appearances in which we so continually move and by which we are so continually deluded; it is the piercing through the veil of maya and perceiving the reality, the one Self, the one Life, the one Force, that which is in everything and all things in it. So that, really, occultism, in the true sense of the word, may be said to be identical with that vision which, as you know, is spoken of in the Bhagavad-Gita, where Shri Krishna declares that "He who sees Me," that is, who sees the One Self, "in everything and everything in Me, verily he seeth".

The occult path also stimulates the development of latent powers that can be used for good or bad purposes. Therefore, Mme. Blavatsky sometimes used the term "occultism" in a neutral way, adding the adjectives "white" and "black" to qualify the altruistic and selfish application of the occult knowledge, respectively:

Occultism is colorless, and only when used by man for the one side or the other is it good or bad. Bad Occultism, or that which is used for selfish ends, is not false, for it is the same as that which is for good ends. Nature is two-sided, negative and positive, good and bad, light and dark, hot and cold, spirit and matter. . . . Occultism is the general, all-inclusive term, the differentiating terms are White and Black; the same forces are used by both, and similar laws, for there are no special laws in this universe for any special set of workers in Nature’s secrets.<ref>Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Collected Writings vol. IX (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 19