Occultism 101

(This is an older article. I've decided to publish it as is and work on something better. Feel free to enjoy it as is.)

Occultism

Hmmm. That's a very mysterous word. So, what do you say kiddos? Poke it with a stick? Well, I've already tried and that particular act of wizardry accomplished exactly dick and shit.

How about we makes some shit up? Occultism: the ..uh.. hmm... Tarot cards and magick and shiiit!

Fail.

Allright. As much as I loathe to do this, I've had to turn to book-with-words for a hint on what this word could possibly mean. After failing to find much of use as the definition for "occultism" (it's an -ism anyway, so fuck it), I looked up the next most logical choice -- "occult."

And folks, there it is, for all to see (sort of):

1. to hide, to shut off from view

Holy shit, man, a verb. Let's nomenalize that bitch:

1. that which is hidden, or shut off from view

So, the occult is really about hidden shit. It's like an easter egg hunt or somethin'. So, it's really about... finding shit?


You'll get the standard (and incomplete) definition about the occult relating to "that which is hidden, or unseen" just about everywhere you go. It's like people want to keep a mysterious air of mystery surrounding the occult when it's really about a mystery. If you didn't follow that -- it's a double dipped mystery -- and it's completely unnecessary. First you have to sort through the bullshit surrounding the occult before you can get to the good stuff.

Wanna get to the good stuff? Ok, so I'll level with you. There is a sort of mystery about the occult that you have to sort out during initiation. You have to realize that the occult is at least a thing, that it encompasses some kind of authentic experience you have yet to experience. In short, you have to sort out that there's something yet to learn.

Anyway, occultism deals with hidden shit, more specifically finding shit. Some shit that's been shut off from view. Now, the question nobody seems to be asking is "What's hidden? And from who? And who in hell is doing all this hiding?" Answering these questions is where we begin to hit some bedrock.

Are you ready for this? "Hell yeah, motherfucker!" I imagine you replying. Good, I like to imagine an audience with the right attitude.

I'm sure you already have some idea of what the occult deals with. (Yet, some people will have their Kether wedged up their Malhut and... never mind.) The first category is the unknown This simply means that someone, somewhere doesn't know something. They don't know about it, therefore it's invisible to them, ergo they are unaware of it and for all practical purposes might as well not exist in their universe.

It's like Waldo. You've either found Waldo or haven't found Waldo. If you've found Waldo then you can easily point to his location and if you haven't found Waldo it's as if there is no Waldo at all. Most people aren't even looking. But yeah. I'm just talking about the difference between the known (to some) and unknown (to some others.) That's fairly basic and easy to understand, no?

Sort of. :) The mystery deepens. I've answered the question of how things are hidden -- that they're unknown. But, I haven't answered who hides it and who it's hidden from. This one is kinda twisty so watch yourself.

The most important kind of unknown is that which is unknown to the occultist, himself. Sure, the fact that most people don't know what an occultist knows can be a lot of fun, but the real fun is learning something you didn't know before. Y'know, expanding your universe or "consciousness" as they say. There you have it. If you're in the occult, the hidden stuff is hidden from you by the very fact you don't know it. So, to be an adept occultist, one of the very first things you have to do is realize you're one ignorant motherfucker and own that shit like it's a gold medal.

Honestly, if you can admit you're an ignorant motherfucker to the degree which is required of an occultist, then you deserve a gold medal.

There is stuff hidden simply because it's unknown, simply because it hasn't occurred to you yet (as if you haven't hit your head on the toilet in the right way) or you simply haven't run across it yet. This is the easy stuff. This is the stuff that is hidden, but not really. To know this stuff all you need is to study a bit, maybe have a habit of reading, and some good observation skills. This stuff is the easy stuff because all you have to do is discover it.

Another kind of hidden stuff is hidden in your blind spots. This is really a long discussion but it's really like what you can and can't see in the driver's seat of a car. You have two big blind spots at an angle behind you because you can only see what's ahead directly and what's behind you indirectly through the rear-view and side mirrors. It's like that, you have blind spots due to the structure of YOU -- as a human being, with your personality, knowing what you know already.

These blind spots are like the blind spot in your eye. Until you examine it, you don't know it's there. Go ahead, you can give it a go here.

Yet another kind of hidden stuff is the stuff that's hidden from you by you. Yes, from you, by you. This is all the stuff in our own personal Jungian shadows. I'm not going to detail this stuff too much but I will say that this is where all the dark and scary shit in the occult is. It's a Pandora's box of total mindfuck containing all the things we really don't want to know about ourselves and the world.

Finally, the last kind of stuff hidden in the occult is what most people would identify as "occultish", though most of them wouldn't have a clue what it all means. It's the occult knowledge compiled by occultists who have traveled this path before. Really, when you get down to it, this kind of stuff can be broken down into two categories: crap and not crap.

Crap isn't really stuff from an occultist, but someone who takes advantage of the absolute ignornace  of absolute noobs (occultists develop a kind of 'shrewd ignorance').

The stuff that isn't crap is nothing more than someone passing on what they found useful. It's like a useful page of weblinks. The main advantage in this stuff is that it saves you time in the long run. It helps you discover what you're looking for rather than stumbling around at random and maybe finding what you need. Well, actually, that's pretty much inescapable because you never know what you're going to need to know, but taking the time to understand the works of occultists significantly increases your chances.

That's occultism in a nutshell. Stay frosty.