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You guys mentioning Crowley and shit in the Buddhism thread got me thinking. I've been wanting to just talk about or discuss various occult topics.

I dunno where to start so I'll just ramble a bit

I've been reading Austin Osman Spare's "Book of Pleasure" and am going to read some more of his stuff soon. It's so dense and he writes in such a stream-of-consciousness sort of way that it sometimes takes multiple reads to understand his points, but it's pretty awesome. I've also gotten most of the way through Crowley's book on Yoga. There are some crossing themes between the two books. I don't know if I'd consider Carlos Castaneda "occult," but if you're able to just read his books as fiction with a lot of allegory and "life lessons," there's some pretty amazing stuff to be learned. In fact, a lot of his ideas can be roughly (sometimes quite specifically) translated into things we know about perception through modern neuroscience.

I know a few of you are into Crowley and if I'm not mistaken you're also members of the OTO. So um, yeah. If you want to recommend books, authors, other webpages, share ideas..... do it!

I consider this lady "occult":

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTZgfF61MK0[/youtube]

(Well, at least I consider that stuffed bear behind her to be some type of god or something.)

I once spent a whole month reading up on various different ways to contact the devil to sell my soul for incredible guitar skillZ

I mean it's all a load of shit but it was interesting

and a man can dream

The most I ever got into the occult was reading all of Anton LaVey's books. Don't know if you would consider it true occult or not. Started reading into sigils recently as well.

I always want to believe.

*tips fedora*

Antarctica fascinates me; one of last places on earth's surface that's still shrouded in mystery, conspiracy, folklore and the unknown.
What I do know is it's the closest thing we've got to another world, here at home...sans underwater.

I've been a serious student and practitioner for over twenty years.

I was focused mostly on the Crowley/Spare/TOPY/Golden Dawn side of things, these days I'm out in my own left field that works for me that had its starting ground in an equal mix of all four of those approaches.

I still find some of Crowley's work to be incredibly useful, as well as Spare - and the basic practices of TOPY still function just fine, divorced from l33t speaks.

I'm an initiate of O.T.O. but living in an isolated community, there's no point in chasing that dragon as relocation was not something I was down with from the moment I moved out here - it was home, and well, I wasn't leaving my mountain.

The occasional Gnostic Mass I could catch while travelling was enough when I needed such things, and I still am in regular correspondence with a bunch of the original online occultists (was a T93 moderator in the Stone Age etc).

I'm a spiritual and religious omnivore. It's all just a bunch of different ways of dealing with existential uncertainty. Some shit works for some folks, some for others. And in the end it's all arbitrary.
That said:

I started reading about Crowley via Ozzy Osbourne and after reading some Buddhist works. There's some really interesting stuff in thelema that resonates a lot with me. And Crowley being Crowley there's a lot if other stuff in there as well...

Greenfuz wrote:I once spent a whole month reading up on various different ways to contact the devil to sell my soul for incredible guitar skillZ

I mean it's all a load of shit but it was interesting

and a man can dream

You've seen this flick, eh, Greenfuz?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKLVBZCQBRM[/youtube]

ShaunNecro wrote:The most I ever got into the occult was reading all of Anton LaVey's books. Don't know if you would consider it true occult or not. Started reading into sigils recently as well.

I always want to believe.

I'm quite big on LaVey. I do think a lot of his ideas are really, really, solid, at their very core, but are in dire need of a modern-day face lift. The CoS has only a few members who actually do anything, and well.....I could rant. Some of Spare's ideas kind of drift into similar territory.

I don't know how other people will or do interpret this, but in my experience and honest opinion, there's nothing supernatural going on. If there was, it would be another quantifiable field of study. All the best fields of the occult, in my current interpretation, act as sorts of psychological heuristics. The same processes can be found in all shapes and forms, but the outward appearance or symbol of the process can vary.

For instance, if you learn about mindfulness meditation, you will find parallels in Buddhism (obviously) but also in some of Crowley's works, Spare's works, and so on. Some occultists got their ideas more obviously from Buddhism than others. Spare breaks it down into simpler and more encompassing ideas.

I also love to learn about cognitive neuroscience and evolutionary psychology. A lot of key concepts in the better branches of the occult point to things that we're learning about or finding evidence for in modern brain science. Especially in the field of perception. Don't get me started on free will....

I think the O-Cult is more my speed.

I like King Diamond and sometimes refer to my lap steel as "the ouija board"

gunslinger_burrito wrote:I'm quite big on LaVey. I do think a lot of his ideas are really, really, solid, at their very core, but are in dire need of a modern-day face lift. The CoS has only a few members who actually do anything, and well.....I could rant.

The schism of "Satan isn't real" killed off practicing occultists, Satanism sort of drifted into a netherworld of rebellious atheism with Aquino et all doing the Setian thing as a spinoff from CoS.

I don't know how other people will or do interpret this, but in my experience and honest opinion, there's nothing supernatural going on. If there was, it would be another quantifiable field of study. All the best fields of the occult, in my current interpretation, act as sorts of psychological heuristics. The same processes can be found in all shapes and forms, but the outward appearance or symbol of the process can vary.

Have to go by what your personal experiences dictate makes sense. I tend to both agree and disagree simultaneously, in that most supernaturally-attributed events are far from supernatural.

But I've experienced things well outside contemporary science, including multiple persons witnessing an event.

And no, since I know somebody will jump in to troll eventually, no interest in conjuring things for their amusement or the alleged $1m USD "reward" for doing so from the militant non-theists.

But woo-woo flowers and beads and benevolent spirits in happy harmony, nope - there are many, many darker things afoot out there.

For instance, if you learn about mindfulness meditation, you will find parallels in Buddhism (obviously) but also in some of Crowley's works, Spare's works, and so on. Some occultists got their ideas more obviously from Buddhism than others. Spare breaks it down into simpler and more encompassing ideas.

Yea, Spare goes straight for the toolset very fast; Crowley only incorporates Buddhism and yoga IMO because at the time, the whole Eastern philosophy thing was seriously in vogue - turn of the 20th century hipster material to be honest. The practices can be helpful, but not essential to the basic practices that he begs, borrows, steals, and creates from the Golden Dawn toolset.

Well... I am a thelemite, yes. I found the so called Western Mystery Tradition in mid nineties, through Golden Dawn and Aleister Crowley literary corpus and the influenced books, then I concentrated intensively on the classical hermetic and cabbalistic texts and enochiana. Later I read and studied a lot of the so called chaos magick, and fell in love with the A.O.Spare. Also read a lot of "dark current" stuff a lot of which is IMHO for wanna be tough guys :rolleyes: BUT there are some pearls in there too - and "to each his own", as the Romans said. I also have been introduced to some modern witchcraft and reconstruted shamanistic practices and I have incorporated some traditional Finnish pagan practices like ancestor worship and such (in the Finnish folklore the dead folk is a big thing) in my life. But the Crowley approach to the Golden Dawn teachings and techniques has always been the thing for me, together with a healthy dose of automatism and improvising on the spot (if situation allows).

Spare can be hard but give it a little time. Gavin Semple has written a great book on Spare (called Zos Kia - an introcutory essay on the art and sorcery of A.O.S.) but it's rather expensive. Frater U.'.D.'. has taken a lot of time to elaborate and practice his sigl magic and can be a useful source, but You'll find just about the same in the books by Phil HIne, Peter Carroll, Ray Sherwin etc. The literary work of Kenneth Grant presents a novel interpretation of A.O.S. - there's a bit of his own input in there, and his own work is heavily indebted to both Crowley and Spare (and a lot of other thigns) - that is at least interesting if nothing else BUT it isn't any easier to read than Spare. Try however his books Zos Speaks! Encounters with Austin Osman Spare and Images and Oracles of Austin Osman Spare.

http://hermetic.com/ is an excellent internet source if I am to name just one. Continue from there. Go reserve an appointment and ask a librarian, get in touch with people from different traditions and approaches (as You are doing already).

Feel free to PM or email if You want to enter into a more specific conrrespondence.

rfurtkamp wrote:The schism of "Satan isn't real" killed off practicing occultists, Satanism sort of drifted into a netherworld of rebellious atheism with Aquino et all doing the Setian thing as a spinoff from CoS.

I know, I know... the Setians I know are far more deeply interested in actually studying the occult, magic, and philosophy than the few COS guys I know... they just seem to me pretty contended with themselves and LaVey, which is fine, I guess, if that's their way. I generally find I just have better conversations with the TOS and ex-TOS members. Then again: there isn't to many COS poeple in Finland, way more TOS guys around. So that might be a reason to that, AND a good ex-TOS friend applauds LaVey himself.