Terms such as “the occult”, “occultism”, “occult sciences”, “occult properties” and “occult philosophy” share a good deal of semantic commonality, and all have their etymological root in the Latin adjective “occultus”, meaning “hidden” or “secret”. Broadly speaking, what distinguishes occultism as a branch of human activity is an orientation towards hidden aspects of reality, those that are held to be commonly inaccessible to ordinary senses; an activity that simultaneously shares a certain similarity with both science and religion but cannot be reduced to either of them. The texts gathered in the present volume focus on occultism as a form of theory and practice that assumed its distinctive form in mid-century France and became widely popular through writings of Alphonse Louis Constant, better known as Éliphas Lévi (1810–75), and that subsequently found its most influential organizational paradigm – in the English-speaking world – in the shape of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn towards the end of that same century. Thematic concerns of this cultural phenomenon are to a large degree similar to what is currently and commonly referred to as Western esotericism, with prominent place given to disciplines such as magic, alchemy, astrology, tarot and their subdivisions and correlates.

Yugoslavia, founded in 1918, existed as a political unit for a relatively short span of time. In 1991 Slovenia and Croatia ceded from the federation, followed by Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1992. The process of the dissolution continued by the split between Serbia and Montenegro in 2006, and finally by the proclamation of the independence of Kosovo in 2008. A complex web of influences and relationships with its neighbouring countries marked the cultural life of people in this region, before, during and after the Yugoslav era. Centuries of domination by various occupying forces, aside from their obvious negative effects, also brought the aspects of social and cultural life characteristic of the respective zones of influence, be it Ottoman Turkey or the Austro-Hungarian Empire, to mention two of the most pertinent cases. Occultism, as a major current within the larger category of esotericism, is a cultural phenomenon that is characterized by diversity and openness to various influences (what Antoine Faivre described as a “practice of concordance”). In the case of occultism in former Yugoslavia, a diverse amalgam was produced by the intersection of various European and global streams of influence that created a superstructure over the already present foundation consisting of the traditional forms of folk-magic, which are currently gaining popularity within certain trends of contemporary neopaganism, Balkan witchcraft and attempts at the revival of the old Slavic religion.