Occult

Asymmetrical or Occult Balance
It is particularly difficult to describe . . . . Asymmetry, in all uses of it, has a way of inviting the spectator to participate in off-beat rhythms, elastic tempos, and tensions, to feel the internal life of the design . . . . It involves a balance of various qualities as much as balance of weights. Examples may include a large area of pale blue versus a small area of intense red, a solid form or shape versus a hollow shape, an area of great attractiveness versus an area of lesser appeal, advancing forms versus receding forms, and so forth. The word occult denotes secretiveness, mystery; and indeed there is something that keeps wanting to escape us in fine examples of this kind of balance. Some of these are to be found in ancient Chinese and Japanese paintings, in the art of Japanese flower arranging, and in the art of the Japanese garden. [Harlan, Calvin. Vision & Invention, An Introduction to Art Fundamentals. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1986.]

R  E  F  E  R  E  N  C  E  S 

2 Occult adj [L occultus, fr. pp. of occulere to cover up, fr. ob- in the way + -culere [akin to celare to conceal] -more at OB-, Hell] [1567] 1: not revealed: Secret 2: not easily apprehended or understood: Abtruse, Mysterious 3: hidden from view: Concealed 4: of or relating to the occult 5: not manifest or detectable by clinical methods alone [__ carcinoma]; also: not present in macroscopic amounts [__ blood in a stool]

Occultation n [15c] 1: th state of being hidden from view or lost to notice 2: the interruption of the light from a celestial body or of signals from a spacecraft by the intervention of a celestial body; esp: an eclilpse of a star or planet by the moon