Newton was not just a physicist who dabbled with occult. He turned occult into physics.
Before Newton scientists and natural philosophers like Descartes believed that movements were caused by physical contact.
Newton started traditionally and proposed the existence of ether that transmits forces. When he became interested in alchemy, he replaced ether with occult forces that repel and attract each other. Newton received criticism for his theory that gravity was worked through "action at a distance", because that is occult quality. His theory was not seen as physical theory at first, because 'physical theories' at the time were physical in the intuitive common sense meaning. Action at a distance, across a vacuum, was occultism.
Keynes called Newton the last magician. He was able to make similar leap as Einstein did.