I was raised in an extremely conservative religion, that was basically a cult. I recently got excommunicated, and right now I consider myself agnostic, or skeptical. I want to be an atheist fully, but there are a few things in the way of that currently.
One thing I get stuck on is the idea of the occult. In my birth religion, the forces behind the occult were a result of God. So in my mind, the existence of any supernatural presence would be proof of creation by that God. They also taught that trying contact these entities could result in meeting ones that impersonate family members, and that doing so is extremely dangerous and shouldn't be done. I took all of this very seriously at the time, but dismissed it after leaving the religion.
Tonight, I was looking through tik tok, and happened to come across a woman who is witch and practices the occult. She was talking about how ouiji boards can be dangerous when used incorrectly even deadly, and then went on to give very similar warnings that my religion gave despite not being a member, even down to explanation that some entities will impersonate family members.
This really got me thinking, and kind of took me off guard. All of my life I thought this was some isolated understanding that only my religion had and that wasn't know by anyone else. But seeing someone who's actually versed in the practices say the same thing makes me wonder how true it is. I'd really like to see if there is any scientific explanations to things like this. I try to be a rational person about things and I'd really love to see a logical takedown of it, because it would be a big relief in the grand scheme of things to not believe in God.
Thank you for taking time to read this :)
Edit: If you're just going to be sarcastic and rude and not help point me in the right direction to find scientific literature or arguments on the topic, please don't comment
As a newbie and very interested in starting my journey in the occult I am looking for books that have almost all the knowledge that there is in the occult.
I already have bought 3 books:
- Three Books of Occult Philosophy
- The Golden Dawn
- The Magus
I am not interested in the Newage stuff because i believe most things are shit.
Even if I am a beginner I have some understanding of the basics concepts and I also have read some books from Manly P. Hall, the Kabilion, Corpus Hermeticum etc.
My goal is to have a few books as possible and study them for 3 years to get and really good fundament of the occult knowledge.
So what book would you say is a must for any occultist?
Hi! I'm new to occultism and still trying to figure/differentiate terms circulating spirituality, and recently I've come across closed practices and traditions. This interested me because I am of Chinese descent and haven't heard of Chinese occultism and traditions that often outside of my father, who talks a bit but ultimately does not know enough about it to tell me more. I want to feel closer to the spirituality I feel like I can connect with, but it's very difficult to find anything on the internet. I did some shallow research and it seems that most of the information has been lost through many different means.
tl;dr: Are there any traditions and practices for people of Chinese descent? And if they are as "backed up" as other beliefs?
Title.
NoFap is NOT bad. It's AWESOME! The Bible itself says that prostitution and fornication are bad, and now some scientists are proving just the harms of pornography and masturbation for our bodies.
But the bad practices I'm talking about is the other self development habits like ''attracting everybody'', ''being superior'', ''feeling powerful'', ''how to became rich/invencible'' or ''have sex a lot'', and other things that are VERY controversional to you if you're a Christian.
Seriously, do you want to attract people by messing with their psychological or subconscious? Are you a psycho? Don't you want to attract someone by being a good and lovely person? What is your objective by wanting to be superior, powerful? You want to enslave someone? How being rich will help you to search for God?
Some of those people (who post about self development) state they are christian, but I watched one guy who quoted satanic scriptures and books. Most people didn't even realized and thought the guy was someone evolved spiritually and close to God.
I myself meditated with some special musics on youtube and when my eyes were closed I saw the devil. A huge red face that looked like a Dog with horns.
NEVER trust those people! God is the only one you should trust!
I’m looking for a story that has the Nazis as the main antagonist where they are searching or dealing with occult items, historical objects of power, or supernatural events. Stories like Indiana Jones where Hitler and the Nazis are obsessed with finding the Grail or the Ark are fun adventures that provide an alternate reality WWII history. Even a story that dives deeper into alternate realities during and after WWII would be good, like The Man in the High Castle. Also stories like Hellboy that combines the very easy to root against Nazis with Lovecraftian monsters or Old Ones would be great as well.
I make toys and I've been trying to come up with a story to create a "why" for the stuff I make. The toy series in question is focused on my visual take on cryptids, but I think their is potential to expand the scope beyond just the cryptids.
Looking for someone to help me set up foundations that can be later expanded upon and ideally added to without issue.
The occultism/Houdini angle is from a different idea I had years ago that might be a convenient lead-in to my story. I can pass along the very vague idea to potential writers. I'm very willing to try something else as well if you've got a fun idea to help me create an umbrella idea for my endeavors.
I'd prefer to pay a flat rate, but if a per word rate is required I could do $.08 if we're aiming at a 5000 word short story.
I just came across this sub and have gone through some of the side bar content. There are very many different schools of thought to occultism than I thought.
I am curious from more experienced posters/practitioners, from both an academic or practical standpoint, what is your favourite ressource that is informative and easy to understand?
I've never seen "demonology for dummies" or anything like that at the library.
Hi all. I’m trying to learn a bit about the stuff referenced in the title. I’m of primarily Scotch/English heritage and am curious about what was practiced prior to the spread of Christianity in the isles. I figured my heritage would be a decent starting point, but the wiki doesn’t seem to be working. So I’m hoping for some general knowledge books related to my background. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
My mail : unumdeum@free.fr
Feel free to write. Insulting people will be added to my spam-list for my irritating musical projects.
Hi!
I'm looking for an advice about Call of Cthulhu 7e.
I hope you guys can help me. So, I really love Call of Cthulhu 7e mechanics and some parts of the setting, like 1920-1930 times, atmosphere, you know, the world itself, but recently I've got kinda tired of Lovecraft Mythos. So basically I want to run a campaign with CoC mechanics, CoC World but without Cthulhu Mythology. I wish I could implement some other monsters instead like warewolves, vampires, demons and stuff. I don't like the idea of players being hopeless, weak and scared all the time so I'm using Pulp Cthulhu but I'd like to ask if some of you know if there is anything which would help me to get rid off Lovecraft Mythos and implement "normal" monsters instead. Anything would be helpful, really. Could be monster statblocks or adventures or any kind of advice.
Thank you in advance!
We finally get to meet the person behind this incident, Sumirenko Usami. Ironically, even she herself doesn't know what consequences her actions brought, she just wanted to see the mystical paradise, and it resulted in quite a huge catastrophe.
I think that her theme is alongside Kasen's one the highlight of ULiL. Or maybe it's just because they both come from ZUN and are 'originals'. Either way.
I'd describe this theme as grand, somewhat majestic, melancholic and to some sense tragic. This theme has more slow tempo. There're some parts where the percussions create a more faster-feeling pace, but not in all of them.
The instruments used are also quite various. Besides the drum and other percussions, I seem to be able to hear an E-organ, E-guitar, E-bass, Piano, Trumbone?, romantique tp and many more. Looking this now, the cast is quite electronic. Fits to Sumirenko considering where she comes from.
Due to the previously mentioned rather slow tempo, with the ZUN-typical minor harmony provides a lot of melancholic emotions, somewhat tragic even. A person's simple dream to see a world has lead to quite some problems, which could even result in that person's death. Good thing that an angry shrine maiden is going to....help her out.
On other hand it also has a more unrealistic...futuristic atmosphere? The present world itself would be a sci-fi for those from gensokyo after all.
I like this one also quite a lot. The mix of tragedy and grand futuristic emotions it provides feels really new and beautiful.
Upcoming theme: Each ending
This is kind of a big and perhaps inflammatory topic, but I've just discovered something that really bothers me.
Recently I've begun reading and rather enjoying Lon Milo Duquette's 'Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot' (to digress - it hits my personal philosophy right on the head, like what gets me interested in paganism in the first place) and so far it's seemed like a lovely starting point for me. I'm also interested in Crowley as well although not necessarily as a role model or anything, moreso as the influential person he was and how instrumental he was in shaping modern occultism in the west. But.. I've just learned that the organization he and Lon Milo were both involved in was a fraternal organization..... aka secret boys only club. And I - a female aligned person - am so, SO disappointed to learn that.
Up till this moment I've been absolutely ravenously devouring books on witchcraft and occultism, and reading Duquette is the closest I've felt to feeling like I could practice this agnostically and it could be good for me. But now I feel like.. idk, I feel like I'm not invited to the party.
After learning this, I can't help but feel that when it's Occultism it's Serious Stuff, it's Big Kid Stuff, it's Aleister Crowley, people are scared of it, no one laughs, they speak in hushed whispers. But Occultism is Boys Only. When girls do it, it's just wannabe witchcraft, and they get labelled loony karens selling fake magic stones on etsy.
It's the same thing as male-dominated art fields being labelled "fine art" and female-dominated art fields being labelled "arts & crafts" or just "hobby."
Do you guys have any thoughts on this? Have you encountered sexism in occultism/witchcraft?
What in Your Opinion are the Benefits and Weaknesses of Modern Occultism and Witchcraft? By "modern" I mean contemporary practices, which can include modern-day practices related to those that may have origins in antiquity as well as those that emerged in the 20th century or are newly emerging.
How has the contemporary magic scene overall affected society and culture in general? How do you feel about the commercialization of magic and Craft? Have systems been watered down, and is that OK?
I would like to hear what you have to tell about it,if you have friends or are yourself a magician. I really like the topic and am curious to know how common this can be there. I like goetia, hermetic and enochian magic
By literally true, I mean the belief of supernatural events or existences of gods or spirits in the observable physical plane, that are beyond or challenge the known science or history consensus.
Or do you believe that occultism, to be not "literally" true, that it does not challenge the science or historicity but nevertheless the experience of occultism is profound and super useful to self-development or to bring change to the world?
I’m a Pentecostal Christian and I was kinda wondering how Christianity and Occultism are compatible? I don’t know a lot of Occultism honestly, but does the Bible not prohibit magic/necromancy? Do you focus on God and choose to manipulate energies around you? Do you believe in other deities that occultists believe in? What do you think of demons? Are they evil? Thx in advance
is there a way to keep the chunk where the dimensional storage loader?
I am writing a scientific paper for school on the topic occultism, witchcraft and superstition around Africa. I watched a documentary over the so called "witch doctors" and their malicious doings, and I became interested in the topic. Since I am not able to find a lot of literature about it in my area, I wanted to ask reddit about it. Do you know any organizations that combat malicious superstition (and the abuse of such to believers) or any (scientific) literature over the topic (in English)? Or have you made experiences yourself? I would appreciate any and all help on the topic!
Please recommend me important and good books on Magick and occultism
I wanted to add some flavor to an Investigator, he's got a paranomal bent and he's been trying to get rid of his Haunted condition ever since he picked up that damn watch next to a corpse on the train tracks. Occultism is a fundamental area of study for him. (As part of the rare background, Haunted.)
I figured there was a possibility of adding a little spellcraft in with the investigator, specifically necromancy in his efforts to resolve this condition... but I realized that having a massive bonus in Occultism does not a spellcaster make. And I'm not necessarily willing to multi-class into something else.
My actual question... Is there a way with or without feats to access spells for non-casting classes?
I recently read this post, asking about the historicity of a Europe wide genocide of pagans- something I have heard repeated multiple times from neopagans I know. Some have gone so far to say that celebrating St. Patrick’s Day is celebrating a man who committed genocide against “their people”.
My question is when and how did this tradition arise of neopagans identifying themselves literally with the pagan people whose traditions they seek to emulate?
As far as I know, other new religious traditions, like 19th century occultism, or new-agism, don’t have these same kind of associations with an imagined blood-kinship.
Is there a relationship between this strain of neopaganism and Nazi tropes of a pure, aryan, pre-Christian Europe? Or does it have deeper roots?
And what is the relationship between this identitarian neopaganism and more academic reconstruction? When did the two diverge? Were they ever a unified movement?
