I've been involved in occultist/metaphysical/pagan/new age spirituality the majority of my life and enjoy talking about it. So lay it on my comrades!
Do you like believe in all this stuff or what? Which kind? I've been into this magic shit my whole life but just because I'm a nerd that finds all those complex occult systems cool, don't know why.
I started reading Norse poetry and the rune magick system, moved into chaos magick, then did some of the grimories ars goetia was fun, and am currently practicing from a luciferian perspective in that I believe that my individual practice furthers my personal enlightenment and path towards deification.
So yes I believe in myself and what magick has done for me, no I dont beleive that most people who dabble are doing much but everyone's path begins with a single step.
Have you read Moonwalking With Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything by Joshua Foer? You may find it interesting from a nerdy pov. Much of religion/occult stuff is largely about creating archetypal memory palaces mapped to the body via ritual in order to create an underlying set of associations that feed our unconscious thoughts and behaviors.
On a very cool note, when you start getting into the how and why of VR's effects on the brain you find that religion and the occult are pretty much an ancient form of augmented reality tech.
why of VR’s effects on the brain you find that religion and the occult are pretty much an ancient form of augmented reality tech.
so superhot will make me smarter?
lol, if Superhot rewards you enough times for shooting yourself in the head it might make you suicidal.
This sounds very interesting, but as far as I understood from the Wikipedia synopsis the book is just about memory techniques without connection to occult? Is the whole memory palaces - unconscious connection your idea or is there somewhere I can read about it and the vr thing?
The majority of it is about memory palaces in a broad overview but he does touch on the connection to memory palaces and mythology back when mythos/religion was strictly a form oral storytelling. I can't find it now, but he did do about 20 minutes of an interview where he expanded more upon it. I usually recommend Moonwalking as it's an easy read intro to Memory Palaces and how they work. As for Occult and the unconscious, and VR , that's more me and my personal research over the years. But things like Correspondence tables, Chakras, Zodiac, Tree of Life and what not all fit the mold for what a brain would consider a Memory Palace from a functional pov.
Hmm I dont really recommend feats of power as it drains yourself for showing off. Gotta ask yourself what is your goal with the fireball.
To ignite something, get a lighter, to hurt someone a binding ritual is more effective, to get recognition as a magician slight of hand is better, or get good at a divination casting bones or runes is always a crowd pleaser
For me the occupy different aspects of my life, that my spirituality better prepares me to engage materially. Guess it's like working out but for mind and soul
I do secular tarot, meaning I believe tarot is just a bunch of cards that can be useful as a psychological tool, so i'm interested to see what your perspective on it is. Do you think I'm missing out on anything by not having any metaphysical/spiritual beliefs about the cards? If you yourself do, how do you justify them, and do you think they make tarot more effective for you?
I agree with your perspective as it as a psychological tool. That doing self reads is the best and when doing so for others I ask them not to tell me their query just to think on it while I describe the cards relative to each other, I use a Celtic cross spread. So that they are prompted to introspection on the matter.
Spiritually there is an egregore associated with tarot, especially the rider waite and thoth decks that influences it.
Also I use individual cards in rituals, like 10 of cups, empress, high priestess for a spell to increase the abundance of intuition, mental clarity, and stability in my life.
So for me the crystalline structure allows you to push energy with intent into it for storage and as a focus for a specific energy/intent.
Like I use a green stone if I'm wanting emotional stability, or a speckled gold stone for a monetary prosparity, a red stone if I'm wanting to generate some motivation. Maybe if I'm having trouble processing emotions I'll meditate holding a blue stone to try and find how to articulate them
Without a doubt, energy work was what started me on this path. A vandanite feels distinctly warm in my hand, a hematite has a subtle magnetic pulse, a chrysocolla has a little tingling from it.
Yea! I do feel that is is an easy money pit, I just have 1 small stone I correspond to each qabbalistic sephira as well as gifts from others.
When I left a coven we all exchanged a stone we felt would be right for the other.
Do you have a specific set of writings you like, or do you pick and choose based on what 'resonates' with you? Your post lists 4 pretty different sets of thinking, so I'm curious more what you lean towards.
I've read alot over the years and been involved with a few covens.
I always recommend Liber Null, the elder Futhark, awakening the energetic body, initiation into hermetics.
So I guess I have explored and picked what has resonated with me, eclectic path for sure! However a core tenet of my faith is that there are no gods and no masters over me.
Chaos magic is definitely pretty interesting. I started in Thelema and other Crowley stuff as an edgy teen, and moved onto Chaos magic. Funnily enough, that took me to Robert Anton Wilson, and lot of the Discordianism stuff has moved my perspective to be overall less magical. I'm definitely more of the mind that magic is just changing yourself, rather than changing anything in the world, though my history with mental illness may be flavoring that view, so I'm hardly dogmatic about it.
What you described is how I view high and low magick or left hand / right hand path.
High / right hand magick is about influencing the self and experiencing other means of conciousness, while low/left hand is about manipulating the world around you.
Crowley has some good texts liber 777 is good but I disagree with his penchant for drugs. If you cant trance or maintain a force of will sober why would you do a ritual inebriated.
I have entered a trance and done astral travel sober but i do find various intoxicants can really lower the barrier to entry. And I'm not going to preach the gospel of DMT but holy shit it has taken me places more profound then I thought possible. Even after years I remember the things I've learned while tripping.
Without a doubt! Super powerful tools for when you want to use them. Personally I wanted to develop some ability and confidence before using an Entheogen
Oh yeah, both he and Discordanism stuff has big drug themes, which I have some issues with. At the same point, while I've avoided drugs for personal reasons, both the occult books and beat generation books spoke to me a lot with their discussions of altered consciousnesses, and depictions of hallucinations, so even if I don't directly agree with it, those types of writing have still been very useful for me to find my own sort of stability.
Right! And when you see scrying to me that is quieting the self enough for the stream of conciousness to flow and with practice a stream of images, but discernment has always been important to me to validate my experiences and it's hard to do that on drugs.
What is an interesting example of low/left hand magic that you've done?
When I got fired for union organizing I cursed the business which subsequently shut down during covid about a month later.
Also had some good results from money magick, found a $100 bill on the ground a week after doing one.
Do you see practical revolutionary uses for this? Are you hoping to go down that road?
In regards to material changes not really, taking material action is how you make material changes but I do think it's useful for finding what ones own pinnacle is useful for an individuals contribution. The development of the lower dan Tian was useful to Chinese soldiers.
Also philosophically I find the permanent revolution to be applicable to the tipareth sephira, while neoliberalism the path between chesed and netzach while an anarchistic approach could be cached in geburah to hod.
A large part of the new age community is made up of parasites who're preying on vulnerable people who're looking for hope.
To give an example: "therapists" who promise that they will tell you about your previous lives trough their "visions" are either liars or insane (but most likely liars). Don't give them money.
If you really want to believe in unproven theories about kristals and indigo children, be my guest (why would that be more worthwile than an Abrahmic religion or scientology btw?), but I hope that you can find a more rational way of amusing yourself.
As long as there is capitalism it will corrupt any spiritual or religious practice
There was corruption in many religions long before capitalism. I don't have any sort of turboatheist-style problem with religion as a concept, but it definitely has some inherent, structural issues. Acknowledging them is probably the first step to guarding against them.
Great point, probably something to do with the power structures and ability to coerce people.
I’m an occultist. This means I do a lot of meditation and reading, including philosophy, mathematics, and the sciences. I work as a programmer.
I can assure you everyone in my order is familiar with reason, and its limitations and antinomies.
Have you heard of Cultist Simulator? The Developer released a beautyful tarot deck.
I am currently playing it, I like it but its got a hell of a learning curve.
It takes some time till you understand the language and terms used, the game doesn't really tell you anything and let's you experiment. But then it's really fun and unique.
Do you keep a book of shadows? If so does it help? For some reason I have a super strong aversion to writing spells down, not sure if its worth getting over the aversion or not.
I do, I've used it for automatic writing/drawing when working with entities and for complex rituals using astrological events and many parts but for most spells I intuit the structure with the tools i have available.
Use it for compiling correspondances, or for shadow work, or even just recording what thoughts come up during meditations. If it isnt working dont force it, magick finds the path of least resistance.
You could, I try not to give unsolicited advice without specifics but my mental health improved from meditation, and shadow work.
Generally tho material changes require material actions, spiritual changes require spiritual actions.
I dont do spells for other people, sorry!
Haha all good. I have been doing some meditation, which helps for the most part. Sometimes it puts me in a worse mood but that's mostly because I haven't fully worked through something. Thanks for the advice!
Idk what kind of meditation but for some stillness (trying to quiet your mind) can be harmful. Maybe try a more active meditation like visualizing something.
One that I like alot is when you are seated on the ground:
After grounding and meditating, I feel my focal point at my cauldron of warming, or just below my navel. I then send my awareness there and visualize a vast whirlpool growing upward from that focal point spreading far from me. I see my energy from past exertion, emotional outbursts, old spells I no longer need, as well as from my future exertion, emotional outbursts, and spells as objects floating in water being drawn towards me by the current of my energy centering whirlpool eventually drawn down into my focal point.
This sounds like just what I need. Thanks again, I really appreciate it!
I’ve always been interested in tarot. How does one start? Is it wrong to say i think it would be a fun hobby to get into?
Grab a writer raise or other deck that the art speaks to you and go card by card researching and making your own journal regarding correspondances. Then just start doing em for yourself and others, keep a journal with the readings you do and check back for accuracy. Also doing a daily single card draw is useful too, it's a great hobby but dont fall into the deck collection rabbit hole it's a money sink
I think the best way is to look through a deck of tarot cards. This site is decent. https://www.trustedtarot.com/card-meanings/ Just go through, look at the illustrations, and think about what message it feels like the images are conveying. After you have an idea in your head, compare it to the explanation they've got there. You can go with the meaning you've thought of, replace it with an interpretation you read somewhere, or combine a bunch. They're just cards without inherent meaning, so just do whatever feels right. If you feel like you're getting some value out of that, then maybe buy a deck.
There is contradictory experiences, I'm not able to immediately provide sources of conflicting information.
Ultimately I beleive this stuff is super intimate and personal, that a passage can be obtuse for one and enlightening for another.
I do think that there are shared threads especially with energy work, the Celtic 3 cauldrons, the indian chakras, the TCM meridian and Dan tians.
I recommended a book awakening the energetic body which is really good for exploring the shared threads, I also think the qaballah is a really good framework
Cannot speak for anyone but myself but I realized I'm a very religious person in that I get alot out of doing a spiritual ritual if you will. Its cathartic, fun, creative, and I notice tangible effects in my being. Aided me in processing trauma, developing emotional intelligence, helping to change the habits in my life, helped me in my workouts, and with overall confidence.
None of the various forms of christianity did it for me, family on various sides are in various sects of it so got to experience alot. I studied comparative religion in college so read a lot of holy texts and some elements resonated with me, Daoism in particular. A friend is Wicca so she lent me some books that were enjoyable but still it right, eventually found a group that practices a luciferian spirituality in that we share meditation techniques, ritual notes, etc. With the shared goal of being our best possible self in every moment and the shared pursuit of self enlightenment without subservience to a deity. To me astrology, tarot, are means of divination. There are lots more, but all share the same thing which is tapping into the subconcious by using material tools.
My guess for western people into this is that they have become disillusioned with many of the religious pathways for tapping into ones spiritual being and as such seek alternative ways to do so. Unfortunately, as another mentioned, these circles are filled with grifters who take advantage of that to profiteer.
Yea so a way I try to rationalize it is that yoga, chanting, and meditation are ways of using ones physical body to alter the present state of conciousness to cultivate ones mind, body, and spirit holistically regardless of any religious/spiritual practice.
How would you sell magic to an agnostic? Also, what do you thing of Alejandro Jodorowsky? You think his magical teachings are legit?
I havnt read any of his works, with anything gotta read then reflect on the words to see how they sit with you. I wouldn't sell it as I believe that we find the teacher and the paths we need when we need it
I dunno. Jodo is an oldschool dude and I find his stuff pretty straight-forward as far as surrealist art goes. It's mostly just in your face one-to-one metaphors. Like a good chunk of Holy Mountain is a sequence of sci-fi skits exploring how far various industries will go fucking up humanity for profit.
It's good silly fun.
Which tradition of astrology do you subscribe to/explore the most?
