Occult Day is celebrated on November 18th of each year. The staff at National Whatever Day were unable to locate the origin of Occult Day, though believe it was established in an attempt to enhance religious understanding and freedom.
Occultism is the study of occult or hidden wisdom. To the occultist it is the study of “truth”, a deeper truth that exists beneath the surface: “The truth is always hidden in plain sight”. It can involve such subjects as magic (alternatively spelled and defined as magick), alchemy, extra-sensory perception, astrology, spiritualism, lithomancy, and numerology. There is often a strong religious element to these studies and beliefs, and many occultists profess adherence to religions such as Gnosticism, Hermeticism, Luciferianism, Satanism, Thelema, and Neopaganism. While Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam are generally not considered occult, some of their modern interpretations can be, as the interpretation of Hinduism within Theosophy or the various occult interpretations of the Jewish Kabbalah. Orthodox members of such religions are likely to consider such interpretations false; for example, the Kabbalah Centre has been criticised by Jewish scholars.