The occult : an introduction PDF
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THE OCCULT AN INTRODUCTION GARETH KNIGHT THE OCCULT an Introduction Gareth Knight The Occult: an Introduction Kahn & Averill, London This completely revised edition, published in 1990 by Kahn & Avcrill 9 Harrington Road, London SW7 3ES First edition published in 1975 Second edition published in 1990. Copyright © 1975 and 1990 by Gareth Knight Copyright original artwork © 1990 by Rebecca Wilby All rights reserved British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Knight, Gareth The occult:an introduction. - 2nd ed. 1. Paranormal phenomena I. Title 133 ISBN 1-871082-09-9 Typeset in Galliard 10/12 point by Mathematical Composition Setters Ltd, I\y Street, Salisbury Printed in Great Britain by Halstan & Co Ltd., Amersham, Bucks CONTENTS Part One The Golden Thread of Occult Tradition 1 Fact or Fiction? 2 Functions, Elements & Archetypes 3 Old Gods and Starr}' Symbols 4 Hermes and the Pagan Mysteries 5 Freud, Jung and the Scientific Method 6 Natural and Celestial Magic 7 Group Minds and Mass Media 8 Visions of the Millenium 9 The Rise of Technolog)' 10 The Past One Hundred and Fifty Years Part Two An Occult Glossary with recommended reading Part Three First Steps on the Occult Way PART ONE The Golden Thread of Occult Tradition 1 FACT OR FICTION? An overview of the occult It is not easy to make a rational approach to the occult. This is because it is neither an easy nor an entirely rational subject, and it also covers a large and diverse held. Its sheer size makes a short study of it as difficult as a short study of ■■science’ or of‘religion’. In tact it is basically a study of both, of ‘science’ and ‘religion’, though not science and religion in their ordinary sense. Occultism is very largely the study of rejected science and religion. Now why should we study a subject that has been rejected in the course of time by the accepted establishment of learning? There are in tact good reasons for this, and not all concerned with the academic pursuit of useless or outworn knowledge. The question is whether the subject-matter of occultism has been rejected for the right reasons! The ‘world view’ of an}' civilisation changes as it progresses in time and at any particular stage certain beliefs may seem to be disproved, or to be of little practical import and so not merit further investiga tion. For instance, what science has rejected as a false world view of the heavens astronomically, may yet be an important line of study of the inner structure of the soul of man, projected forth from his own psyche in speculation about the unknown. Similarlv, what may have been rejected as heretical or impious by religious authority may in fact be an important area, not of religion but of science. For instance was Renaissance magic a psychological therapy before its time, rather than a superstitious throwback to ancient times?
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