What are the Occult Sciences?

Occult science, material science and the Ancient Mystery Teachings explained

Many seekers ask what the difference is between learning the occult sciences and the ancient mystery teachings. The simple answer is none at all. Both involve the systematic, scientific study of the hidden laws and principles of man and the universe. We say 'scientific', because there is nothing UNscientific about the occult sciences or the methods occult scientists employ to arrive at their conclusions as we shall show below.

Image: David Roberts—'Temple of Philae', 1838, watercolour

You may be surprised to learn that occult science employs the same methodology as material science, albeit in a different manner and using other instruments. Moreover, the occult scientist is concerned primarily with Truth and not with utility, fame or profit. Or we may put it another way by saying that occult science concerns itself with what things really ARE, rather than what they appear to be, thus drawing nearer to the greatest scientist of ALL—who is God. Another difference is that the occult scientist is not answerable to any earthly paymasters who may wish to use his or her discoveries for their own selfish (and often harmful) purposes. The occult scientist is first and foremost a servant of Truth and secondly a servant of mankind. There are some material scientists of whom one could say the same, but if you are honest you will admit that there are very few of them.

The occult sciences were first established in Atlantis, from whence they were carried to every part of the world. This knowledge has always been carefully preserved by a small circle of initiates who in turn taught it to those who could be trusted not to misuse it. This is the reason why we find the same teachings and the same wisdom among the Hierophants of Ancient Egypt, the Brahmins of India, the Mayan Sages and the Druids of Europe, to name just a few of the many custodians of the ancient mystery teachings. These Teachings and the occult scientific laws upon which they are based, never change, for if they did they would not be truths but speculations and opinions, such as we find in the material sciences.

You may object that modern science is much more rigorous in its methods nowadays and so knows more than occult science about the material world. This, too, is a fallacy, as you can read in an article in which the author reviews the much-hyped discovery of so-called 'gravitational waves.' made in 2016. As this article shows, modern science has become a faith-based system of speculative theories which have more in common with the dogmas of organised religion than the pure pursuit of truth. Moreover, science changes its theories and so-called 'laws' from one day to another, whereas the Laws of occult science have remained fixed and unchanged since the beginning of Time, as you can read in another article from the same website that exposes the flaws in the scientific theory of Gravity.

Nor is it true to say, as we are taught in schools and universities, that material science is close to answering all the great questions about life, the universe and man. John Anthony West, in his pioneering presentation of the work of the French Egyptologist and occultist, R. A. Schwaller de Lubicz—Serpent in the Sky—questioned the prevailing scientific myth that man has 'progressed' and that science is responsible for an 'evolution' in human affairs. West went on to challenge these assumptions with six statements that are as true today as when he wrote them more than 40 years ago. These assumptions are:

1. That man has 'progressed'. That there has been an 'evolution' in human affairs.
2. That civilisation implies progress, and that the height of civilisation is in direct proportion to the rate of progress.
3. That progress, hence civilisation, began with the Greeks, who invented speculative philosophy and rational science.
4. That science and science-based disciplines are the only valid instruments for arriving at 'objective truth'.
5. That without rational science and speculative philosophy there is no real civilisation.
6. That there is nothing the ancients knew that we do not know, or understand better.

These assumptions have been accepted by almost every scientist for the last two hundred years. They underpin every aspect of modern education and inform the opinion and thinking of the vast majority of people in every part of the world. Very few of you will have been taught otherwise at school or university. Yet, as Professor Sheldrake makes clear in his groundbreaking critique of the fallacies of material science, The Science Delusion, all these assumptions are false, or at best represent half-truths, and half-truths are far more misleading than outright falsehoods because they delude us into thinking we have grasped the whole picture, when in fact, we have only glimpsed a misleading part of it.

The reason that material science is currently failing to answer any of the questions we ask on our homepage is that it is built upon a series of false premises, such as the prevailing theory of the 'Big Bang' or the combination of particles of blind matter through blind chance. Science does not accept the role of an intelligent guiding power (whether we call it God, Divine Providence, Spirit or anything else). Instead, science continues to assert that particles of dead matter are able to form a 'thinking' mind, the very mind that you are using right now to read this article.

Such woolly-headed reasoning is so illogical that it does not even deserve to be called a theory, and it is astonishing that so many otherwise intelligent people accept it without a moment's thought. Until or unless material science discards its soulless, mechanistic worldview and accepts the existence of a guiding power in the Universe, it will suffer the same fate as dogmatic religion. Twenty-first-century science stands upon a precipice and all mankind with it. Whither will it turn? To the pure light of the Spirit as revealed by occult science or the darkness of matter?

This is not to say that occult science disagrees with material science about everything, or that occult scientists are Luddites who stand in the way of scientific progress. Material science has done and is doing much good to improve the lives of millions throughout the world, but it could do so much more good and less harm if it would divest itself of its materialistic and mechanistic outlook. So long as science limits its field of study to matter alone, its relation to occult science can never be more than that of the part to the whole. For occult science, as we have seen, studies the laws of spirit and matter, as well as the relationship between them.

Consequently, occult scientists possess a much more complete understanding of the purely material aspects of the Universe than ordinary scientists. In neglecting the spiritual, material science is depriving itself of ever arriving at a complete understanding of any physical phenomena or material condition. For these reasons, any particular fact, principle, property or law is either known to both occultists and scientists, or now only known to occultists, but of such a nature that it may be understood later on by material science, or is known only to occultists, because it is of such a nature that it cannot be discovered by the methods of material science. For all these reasons, occult science (based on facts that you can verify for yourself) provides answers to the great questions of Life neither material science nor organised religion can adequately answer.