Occult & Idolatry
To obscure or conceal. An occultic spirit is one who makes claims to do what only God can do, and demands trust that only God deserves, thus obscuring one's view of God's complete provision and protection. It seeks control, destroys faith, and leads to fear.
Watch out for stubbornness, pride, and rebellion!
. . . the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be participants with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord's table and the table of demons. Are we trying to arouse the Lord's jealousy? Are we stronger than he?"
Be innocent of evil
'you shall have no other gods before me
Occultic spirits are, by definition, deceivers. Their job is to get you to trust in them instead of (or as a complement to) faith in Jesus. They set themselves up to be honored, compete with Jesus in order to separate us from Him, and ultimately destroy faith.
Occultic practices include consulting mediums and psychics (Lev. 19:31 Do not turn to mediums or seek out spiritualists, for you will be defiled by them), participating in seances and communicating with the dead, channeling, tarot, psychotherapy, automatic handwriting (see Carl Jung, or "Animus, Anima, and Philemon"), but also includes seemingly innocuous practices like putting one's faith in superstitions, 'lucky' tokens, medicine, governments, the military, talent, humans, churches, psychology, a career, philosophy, intelligence, religious practices, St. Christopher tokens, buried St. Joseph in your yard, angels or crosses hanging in your home, etc. FAITH GIVEN TO ANYTHING BUT JESUS IS OCCULTIC, because it's illegitimate and misplaced.
The occult is a promise of knowledge of secrets. "Dark arts", "black magic" refer to things which are shrouded in mystery but sure would be great to know, if only we had access. Occult promises access to secrets and access to power. Ouija boards and Magic 8-Balls are the same thing. I even get creeped out at those little folding paper games kids play. It's dangerous stuff.
The occult appears throughout the Bible. Numbers 22:6 (Sorcerer), I Samuel 28:3-8 (King Saul seeks a medium), II Kings 21:6, II Chr 33:6, Acts 8 (Simon the Sorcerer) Mark 5:5 Legion (cf Baal rituals in I Kings 18:26-28)
LoR clip: Elrond calls Aragorn a "ranger" as an insult. Heb 13:13