The Occult and the Myth of Secularization: Organized versus Disorganized Religion

Lewis Ungit, lewisungit.substack.com, 1/6/24

“Where there are no gods, ghosts reign….” Novalis, 1798 

We have a myth in Western society. It is that the world was once magic and religious and that now it has become (with a few hold outs) largely secular and atheistic. But some historians have pointed out that this narrative doesn’t exactly hold. Poll after poll shows that populations, even in supposedly secular societies, tend to hold views in direct contrast with scientific materialism. If those populations don’t explicitly affirm belief in an organized religion or theology (such as Christianity) the people nonetheless tend to believe in ghosts, spirits, the eternity of the soul, prayer, and etc. “Church attendance may be low in Europe, but unconventional supernaturalism is thriving,” Sociologist, Rodney Stark writes. Taking Iceland as an example, Stark writes,

“On the basis of its lack of church attendance, most sociologists of religion classify Iceland as among the most secularized nations. But to do so, they must ignore the fact that 34 percent of Icelanders believe in reincarnation and another 16 percent aren’t sure about it.” Moreover, a national survey found that 55 percent of Icelanders believe in the existence of huldufolk, or hidden people, such as elves, trolls, gnomes, and fairies.”” Consequently, planned highways are sometimes rerouted so as not to disturb various hills and large rocks wherein huldufolk may dwell, and Icelanders planning to build a new house often hire “elf spotters” to ensure that their site does not encroach on Auldufolk settlements.” In addition, half of Icelanders have visited a fortune teller,” and spiritualism is very widely practiced; it is popular even among intellectuals and academics.” [1]

Other supposedly secular countries like Japan and France have similar views that are inconsistent with the secularization narrative. And it is important to note that such views are not some recent New Age recovery of superstition either. The late 19th century, a time we often consider the pinnacle of rational modernity, was anything but secular. In 1897, the New York Times reported that spiritualists in the US and Europe exceeded 8 million followers. [2] 

Facts such as these fly in the face of our normal assumption that the world was once superstitious, then became enlightened by science, and now is more secular and unbelieving. As Stark notes, rather than being more secular, our religion has just become less organized and circumscribed by the Christian church. Belief in the mystical and esoteric remains as strong as it ever was. 

So where does this idea of secularization come from? Many, confronted with the fact that the general populace remains either Christian or occultist in their views and practices, might say that the elites are more secular. The educated, the university elites, and the scholars are the ones who have secularized. But once again, there is a problem. Modern polls and historical surveys show no such secularization of the elites. A university education makes one no more atheist than prior to the education. As University of Connecticut sociologist, Bradley Wright points out that while those with college educations have slightly lower self-reported rates of religiosity overall, for some groups college actually increased religiosity. He writes that, “The most educated evangelicals are also more certain in their belief in God, attend religious services more frequently, and pray more often outside of religious services.” [3]

But here is a shocking truth, not only is it a myth that the general population has secularized, not only is it incorrect to say that our elites have secularized, but it is also even wrong to say that the heroes of secularization were secularized. A survey of history shows that many of the most famous heroes of science, materialism, atheism, and secularism were themselves deeply interested in (and often practitioners of) the occult. Let’s review. 

René Descartes, the French philosopher and mathematician, is widely considered a founding figure in the emergence of modern philosophy and science. Yet few know that he was obsessed with the Kabbalah, Rosicrucianism, and magic. [4] He even went so far as to suggest that the older he got the less he could distinguish between magic and science. [5]

Isaac Newton is similarly considered a founder of modern science. Yet he too was obsessed with the magical and occult. Among Newton’s unpublished papers one can find an extensive collection of magical and Kabbalistic texts and his own translations of alchemical writings. [6] This must also be considered alongside the fact that Newton wrote more on the Bible and theology than he did on science. 

Francis Bacon, often credited with the formulation of the scientific method, similarly decried superstition while simultaneously acknowledging its power. He even spoke against completely banning it stating,

“Lastly, matters of superstition and magic (in the common acceptation of the word) must not be entirely omitted. For although such things lie buried deep beneath a mass of falsehood and fable, yet they should be looked into a little; for it may be that in some of them some natural operation lies at the bottom; as in fascination, strengthening of the imagination, sympathy of things at a distance, transmission of impressions from spirit to spirit no less than from body to body, and the like.” [7]

And so it could be said that Bacon sought not to disprove or even to diminish the magical arts but to establish a less heretical form of them. 

Denis Diderot, the French philosopher, was a prominent figure during the Age of Enlightenment and is often portrayed as an atheist due to his strong criticism of the church and clericalism. He was anything but. In fact, in his famous work, Encyclopédie,there is a chapter called, “the Science of Good and Evil Spirits (Science des Esprits Bien et Malfaisans)” that includes a section on “divination” and “black magic” (Magie Noire). Diderot places this chapter on the science of spirits next to other chapters on science such as geology and gives no indication that he believes it any less real than those other chapters. [8] 

Giordano Bruno is rarely mentioned as a secularizer anymore but he once was. He used to be a central figure in disenchantment narratives and stories of him bravely standing for his scientific theories above and against the church – even to the point of martyrdom – were told by every secular humanist. But thanks in large part to the work of Frances Yates and his text, of “Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition (1964)”, Bruno, a Dominican monk, is now thought of as a magician. As Josephson-Storm writes in his excellent, The Myth of Disenchantment, Bruno was “fascinated with magic and that his aim was not despiritualizing astronomy, but elaborating an infinite and richly animated cosmos full of spirits and demons.” [9]

Another well-known hero of secular science is Sigmund Freud. Freud, the Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, is often referred to as an atheist. His famous theory that God is a phantasy based on the infantile need for a dominant father figure would give this impression. But a careful reading of Freud indicates that while his belief in God may have not been there, the ideas of the mystics, spiritualists and occultists were not only not off limits but the very foundation of some of his most signature theories. For example, Freud wrote,

“That brilliant mystic du Prel—one of the few authors for whose neglect in earlier editions of this book I would like to express my regret—suggests that the gateway to metaphysics, so far as [ordinary] men are concerned, is not wakefulness, but dreams.” [10]

Freud shockingly here appears to be attributing to a mystic, du Prel, the discovery of the unconscious (expressing itself in dreams). And in that same volume, Freud acknowledged the importance of Eduard von Hartmann who famously used his knowledge of Vedic wisdom and the theosophy of Jakob Böhme in his own work. [5ab] Freud’s own statements reveal serious interest in mysticism, spiritualism, and even magic – and not just an interest in these things but that they helped him formulate his own ideas and theories!  [11]

It is hard to be emphatic enough about this point: the very people we think of as the disenchanters of the Western world were themselves obsessed with enchanting. They practiced, studied, and wrote on magic, the Zohar, alchemy, and spirits at length. Again quoting Josephson-Storm, “Many of the thinkers we associate with the disenchantment of nature—from Giordano Bruno to Francis Bacon—were themselves magicians.” [12]

We need to start retelling the story of what has happened since the supposed Enlightenment. The myth that we have gone from an enchanted world to a disenchanted world needs to be set aside. Instead we need to think in terms of organized versus disorganized religion. When you set aside an organized carefully crafted theology such as that defined by the Christian Church, you do not get secularism. You get a disorganized mix of superstitions, mysticism, and occult practices. It is important to realize that originally, the term “superstition” did not imply that the superstitious activities were not real. In fact, almost all the early Western thinkers using the term assumed that the occult, magic, and witchcraft were very much real. Instead, originally, Superstition was simply a contrast to “religion” and was intended to delineate those practices that were outside the moral and ethical guiding of the Christian church. Only much later did the term superstition start to be considered false, backward, or impotent occult practices.

And in many ways, the myth of secularization provides cover for the occult. By making the church seem backward and outdated, populations are encouraged to set aside the Church’s careful formulations, warnings, and prohibitions. They become free to listen to mystics, explore Eastern religions, experiment with witchcraft, adopt superstitions, and generally create their own mix of occultism. As Novalis once wrote, “Where there are no gods, ghosts reign….” [13]

References can be accessed at the link below:

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