i flew here on a bus

If this stuff works and is powerful — if it's really that easy to control your life, or directly experience God, or whatnot — why doesn't everybody do magic?

It's not actually that easy.

It’d be really stereotypical and a bit elitist for me to say that occultism weeds out all but the most worthy, but… it kinda does. Studying the occult is a commitment. Firstly, it’s a huge field, bigger than you might think. It’s enough of a project to dig through all of the available subsets of occultism before you land on one that really suits you. A lot of people just stick with whatever it was they encountered first, be it Wicca or Hermeticism or some form of folk magic, because it’s easier. It’s not like you’re presented with a bunch of different occult tracks, and pick a major. I’ve tried to make it easier for newbies by laying out all the systems I know of and providing a bit of basic information on each, so that they know there’s more out there than just WitchTok. But almost everything I know still falls under the banner of Western Esotericism, with nothing outside it.

Then once you’ve found a system or subfield that you like, you have to actually study it. That takes years. I put the date of my “initiation” (as it were) at about thirteen, when I discovered Wicca. That was when I learned that witches were real, and that if I put the work in, I could be one. That was ten years ago! I’ve been studying this for a decade! When that sank in, I realized just how much I’ve managed to learn and to accomplish in that time, and I feel a little more justified in speaking with authority on occult subjects. Some of the occult podcasters, youtubers, and writers that I follow haven’t been in it that long! And yet, I still feel like I know basically nothing. Hell, I haven’t even gotten through The Doctrine and Ritual of High Magic yet. Half of the books on my suggested reading list are sitting on my shelf or in my pdf folder, unread or partially-read.

The well-informed student of occultism is one of the most universally learned of human beings. He must be acquainted with all of the important systems of world philosophy and religion, both Eastern and Western, and he must have a thorough understanding of ancient sciences and arts. There is no place for the superficial thinker in this field; and should he wander in by accident, or would be wise for him to depart in haste. — Manly P. Hall, Healing: The Divine Art

Occultism is almost more reading than it is anything else (to the point where a lot of occultists call The Ninth Gate one of the most accurate occult films purely because it involves a lot of pouring over an old book). It’s like deliberately choosing to do college-level coursework all the time. You have to have the time to read all those books, and you also have to have the money to buy them. Many occult texts are public domain and freely available online, but anything too weird and obscure is going to be hundreds of dollars on Amazon, assuming you can find it at all.

And the material itself is dense, man. The Three Books of Occult Philosophy is the definitive text on Renaissance planetary magic and “natural magic,” but it's literally a textbook from hundreds of years ago, and about as dry as you’d expect. Mystical texts like the Corpus Hermeticum are genuinely difficult to understand, and to a beginner who has had no mystical experiences to compare them against, they might be completely opaque. Grimoires are just plain weird. This, I realize, is the advantage of books like The Kybalion, which take higher and more complex ideas and distill them down into a format that’s digestible for beginners. But then you run into another problem — a lot of the simplified “beginner books” are just trash. At best, you lose the nuance, and a beginner who doesn’t know any better might mistake vapid truisms for profundity. At worst, you get outright misinformation. Learning to vett all this material takes years in and of itself, and I speak from experience there.

Assuming you understand all this material, then you’re going to need to apply it. There’s nothing technically wrong with being an armchair magician, but most occultists are going to want to actually practice what they learn. That’s the whole point, isn’t it? Doing magic, taking command of your own life, becoming a supreme magus or witch-lord or demigod?

An initiatory system will do this part for you by teaching you their liturgy and allowing you to participate in their rituals, according to a regular schedule that they set. If you’re not initiated anywhere, you have the freedom of practicing rituals however and whenever you like. But… good luck with that. Developing a practice from scratch is really really hard, and holding yourself to it is just as hard. A lot of systems, especially ceremonial magic, require very specific sets of materials and procedures that (at most) can take months of preparation. Ceremonial magic often requires the magician to fast and spiritually cleanse themself before attempting a ritual, and then it requires use of specific times and astrological events. Folk magic will often require very specific tools and sets of conditions, too. I took one look at that and went “well, fuck that.” I don’t have the patience for any of that crap. And, to my credit, I’ve had some pretty awesome and successful experiences without it. But I can’t help wondering if my tendency to cut corners comes less from a desire to build an idiosyncratic practice, and more from my own lack of discipline. It’s probably both.

Once you have your practice figured out, you have to… y’know… practice. You’re probably not going to cast a successful spell on your first try. You’re probably not going to astral project without months of meditation exercises. You’re probably not going to see or talk to a spirit the first time you call one up, unless you have that particular gift. Even the simplest of divination methods require practice. The magical equivalents of get-rich-quick schemes are almost all untrustworthy, if not dangerous, so don’t think it’ll come easy.

And then you have the experience itself. If you are successful, you’ll be pushing up against grand eldritch forces beyond mortal comprehension. I’m not exaggerating. Mystical experiences can be earth-shattering and mind-breaking, especially if you’re new to them, and you may be feeling like your whole life is a lie. Don’t get me wrong, mystical experiences are amazing and leave you feeling like there’s fireworks going off in your brain and like you have the whole world at your fingertips. But to get there, you have to experience spiritual death and katabasis. Most people go out of their way to avoid working on themselves, but occultism will make you work on yourself. If you’ve made it this far, this is the point of no return. This is what separates the Initiates from the uninitiated. When things get dark and personal, will you get scared and turn back?

Before your mind jumps to horror movies, what I’m describing here is more psychological than physical, more metaphorical than literal. You won’t end up with demons “attached” to you. You won’t come out of a ritual one day to find that your family is dead and your house has burned down. Bad stuff happening in real life is sometimes a catalyst for the kind of spiritual “death” that I’m describing, but not the only possible cause or a result of it. Even the risk of madness, while present, is probably overstated. The real risk is that you will be psychologically incapable of working through all of your baggage. That requires developing an uncomfortable amount of self-awareness. Actually, pretty much all of occultism requires gaining awareness of things that you would normally try to ignore, and whether Insight brings you enlightenment or madness depends on how you react to it.

When all is said and done, what you’re left with is your own self, and your desires. What are you going to do with them? Being genuinely powerful, and taking responsibility for your own life, is scary. I sit here knowing that I could cast spells that will bring me a romantic partner, or ensure that I get into the graduate school that I want, or make Silksong come out this year. But I don’t cast them, because I’m not completely sure that’s what I want, and I assume I might regret the results. Overcoming the self-doubt and imposter syndrome is almost harder than Shadow work, because it pushes against the more natural and “logical” feeling that I am not special and that I don’t deserve any kind of special power. Until I get over that, I can’t do any magic. The only thing left to do is to claim my birthright as a child of the gods and dare to seize power. And after hearing all the cautionary tales, after having been humbled, after tempering my hubris… I can’t do it.

And 7 hermetic lots!

1st principle :

Principle of mentalism.

All is mind” unveiling the realization that the universe is a creation of universal mind.

Reality is not matter/physically FIRST … reality is consciousness/mind.

The matter “material world” is a result, not the origin.

The “tao” that can be told is not the ETERNAL TAO”.

Any name that can be called is not eternal name.

Anything you can explain with words ≠ the ultimate truth.

Lot of spirit and principle of mentalism = lot of spirit represents your will, conscious mind, where u start creation from inside before it becomes a reality. Principle of mentalism is about everything comes with mind first, spirit is your will / conscious.

2nd principle :

Principle of correspondence. “as above so below, as within so without”.

The idea that my perceptions / inner world is the real reality and my inner world is capable of reshaping the external material world THEN it means there is NO external thing to seek or to dwell, but to dwell inside.

Your awareness, perception is the bridge between above and below.

Lot of fortune and principle of correspondence = lot of fortune is the physical / material reality, your body health. Principle of correspondence is about “the above” and the fortune is “the below”.

3rd principle :

The principle of vibration.

Everything in existence is in a state of constant movement and vibration. Nothing is COMPLETELY static.

Vibration doesn’t mean physically.. it means changed, transformation, dynamics, spiritually, internally.

Lot of eros and principle of vibration = eros is about attraction, desires. Vibration is about everything is vibration.

Lot of eros represents what vibration you need and seek. Desires need vibrations.

4th principle :

Principle of polarity.

“Everything is dual; everything has poles; everything has its pair of opposites; like and unlike are the same; opposites are identical in nature, but different in degree; extremes meet; all truths are but half-truths; all paradoxes may be reconciled.”

These duals are not separated things but points on the same line.

This principle is not about embodying the idea of opposing factors that aren’t fully connected, the idea is these oppositions need each other to function.

There is no power without being weak.

There is no light without darkness.

Lot of nemesis and principle of polarity = nemesis is about correspondences, shadow, enemy.

Lot of nemesis teaches you that every light has a shadow. Principle of polarity is about everything is dual.

5th principle :

Principle of rhythm.

“Everything flows, out and in; everything has its tides; all things rise and fall; the pendulum-swing manifests in everything; the measure of the swing to the right is the measure of the swing to the left; rhythm compensates.”

Nothing is static ..

Any increase, offset by a decrease.

Any happiness, offset by sadness.

Mastery will not translate into being able to change the seasons.

You don’t control the wave, you learn how to ride the wave.

Lot of necessity and principle of rhythm = lot of necessity is about necessary things/challenges to happen. Principle of rhythm is about you can’t stop the rhythm but can learn how to balance yourself.

6th principle :

Principle of cause and effect.

“Every cause has it effect, every effect has it cause.”

Literally, EVERYTHING.

Yes, there are circumstances, suffering, challenges.

But you’re the captain of your soul and your life.

Circumstances and challenges are like rocks, currents, waves .. and you’re THE CAPTAIN WHO DIRECT THE SHIP.

Lot of victory and principle of cause and effect = every cause and effect has a victory at the end.

7th principle :

Principle of gender.

“Gender is in everything; everything has its Masculine and Feminine Principles; Gender manifests on all planes, In Hermeticism, the reference to the term Gender is neither ideological nor limited to the physical realm.”

An atom has a positive proton and a negative electron, and without both of them? There is no atom.

The overlapping area is the Womb of Creation, with the union of the two energies “masculine and feminine” everything is BORN.

A house, book, businesses etc all began as an IDEA ..

idea = feminine

Action = masculine.

All of them complete each other.

Lot of courage and principle of gender = courage represents courages, initiative, creating. Principle of gender is about creation, born, the dual creation.

Lot of courage is about THIS DUAL CREATION this energy that starts to process.

Principle of gender = how the creation begin. Born, creation.