Isaac Newton's occult studies
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Isaac Newton (1643 – 1727), the noted British scientist and mathematician, wrote many works that would now be classified as occult studies.
These occult works explored chronology, alchemy, and Biblical interpretation (especially of the Apocalypse).
Newton's scientific work may have been of lesser personal importance to him, as he placed emphasis on rediscovering the occult wisdom of the ancients. In this sense, some have commented that the common reference a "Newtonian Worldview" as being purely mechanistic is somewhat inaccurate. After purchasing and studying Newton's alchemical works in 1942, economist John Maynard Keynes, for example, opined that "Newton was not the first of the age of reason, he was the last of the magicians."
However, it should be noted that in the pre-Modern Era of Newton's lifetime, the educated embraced a world view different from that of later centuries. Distinctions taken for granted today – such as between science, superstition, and pseudoscience – were still being formulated, and a devoutly Christian Biblical perspective permeated Western culture.
