The Modern Occultist

What's an Archetypal 'Modern Occultist'? 

Have you ever wondered what occultists look like these days? 

In reality, if you're writing a book, it would be cool to make your modern occultist someone different to the pale skinned moody satanic goth. Honestly, enthusiasts of the esoteric are a diverse bunch, many of them come across as regular people.

Isn't it all weird and dark? 

Agreed ceremonial rituals and things like divination with presences might seem odd, but the less grand stuff like sigil magick; which, for instance, the comic book legend, Grant Morrison practices as a Chaos Practitioner is most common. Chaos Magick is a late twentieth century movement based on the occult works of the artist Austin Osman Spare. Another common type of magick is found in Wicca and Eclectic or folk magick. In this blog, I'll share a worldview of someone called Baz, a bit of mystical bloke inspired by Hermeticism and Chaos Magick theory. 

Pre-determinism is a physical thing: context. 

Our world, according to Baz, is full of pre-determining and competing factors that are diverse and unseen, some of which, we are still unaware. Ten thousand years ago, after developing agriculture, we acquired more free time, and then we invented stuff like writing, as well as mathematics and new technologies. These outcomes manifested because of determining factors, which we often, colloquially call 'fate' today. 

Baz is always using his comparison of how we commonly modify our dogs behaviour with food rewards; this is his way of showing how dogs (like other animals) are slaves to their bio-programming. We know how their barking at the door indicates a visitor, we are aware our food causes them to beg. Their actions are predictable. When we learn the biological drives of a creature, we recognise their robot-like perogatives. Even though, we are susceptible to the same rules ourselves. 

That being said, our evolutionary history hit the jackpot; our mind awakened and challenged its own instinctive urges and reactions. We stopped to think and formed disciplined arts. Baz is under the belief that tell tale signs can be seen across time and civilisation of our self awakening. Some cultures call it the divine spark, what ancient Greeks called Synderesis, Quakers call it our inner light, our word 'soul,' originated from Old Saxon 'Sēola'. 

As mentioned above, our sharpened sentience emerged and ancient religious, philosophical and esoteric writings have wrote about it; even science says humans started cooking meat, gaining extra nutrients that served to improve the human cerebral cortex. Our high levels of the foxp2 gene has helped to enable us to communicate complex ideas. Trying my best to avoid sounding like Graham Hancock here, but, it seems that eastern dharmic traditions value thought and experience with the divine. These are perennial themes. 

"Romans 8:16 implies the Holy Spirit bears witness with our spirit, which is shows there is a spiritual essence within us that is connected to God." 

Baz is a biologist and is quick to remind me that as humans, our bodies are driven by the same essential biomechanical determinants as what we see with animals. This is also part of his occult view: Oxytocin brings us love and desire, with help from Vasopressin, Dopamine, Seratonin, Norepinephrine, Testosterone and Estrogen. Ghrelin is responsible for letting you think you are hungry, it isn't your mind, but the flesh. That inner voice warding off another portion of chips; that's leptin. 

Our anger, shame and self worth, these aspects about who we believe we are; our politics, spiritual convictions, culture or our taste in music, can all be influenced by these pre-determining forces. Fate, is very much the chaos that provides the natural order. It is a blessing that we can choose to discipline ourselves and think. 

Maybe, it could be argued, humanity just turned mentally diagnosable and somewhat increasingly egocentric. Baz doesn't see eye to eye with me on this one! I found support in the words of Arthur Shopenhauer, who thought our suffering is greater than the suffering of animals—did we lose the plot? Well, this German philosopher made an interesting point by saying that all of nature, including our own, is an expression of an unquenchable will. I think he was talking about physical motivators like determining factors that drive desire. 

True, even strict Buddhists might agree with Shopenhauer in principle; possibly mentioning the parable of the thirsty man drinking from the sea, it sort of fits. The colour and fragrance of Buddhas flower, might not be harmed by the bee that gathers nectar, but in our own lust to gain profit, we humans destroy eco-systems, just to produce and sell paper. Human being clearly aren't all wise. 

"Tathagatagarbha Sutra. Good sons, this Dharmakaya of the Tathagata is eternal, permanent, pure, and joyful. It is the self-nature of all beings, the Tathagata embryo. All beings possess this Tathagata embryo, but it is covered by the five skandhas. When this Tathagata embryo is liberated and uncovered, it can comprehend the ultimate reality." 

Wait a second, don't think this is a religious blog or any kind of bleeding heart appeal. Not going there. I'm only sharing hermetic views of a chaos guy called Baz, in relation to predestiny and magick. 

Baz believes human will and indeterminism have something in common; people are inherently irrational but strive to be rational. Human behaviour is not always predictable. Our collective choices and actions influence the course of lives and the world. Timeless pursuits for power and progress are dogs fighting for the bone; it's egocentric and a biology thing more so than anything spiritual. Baz thinks that developments in creativity, commerce, politics and religion, as well as critical thinking have contributed to liberate us from our mental poverty, but it has caused problems. 

Sigil Magick: An Example of Magick. 

These things are intent and symbol manipulation. Below is an example of your intent for a sigil. 

THIS IS AN EXAMPLE OF INTENT

What we do is cancel out vowels:

THIS IS AN EXEMPLE OF INTENT

Leaving this:

THS S N XMPL NTNT

Then we reduce it down by chopping off duplicate letters: 

T H S N X M P L 

Now draw a circle and get creative with your letters. This could mean translating them into other symbolic equivalents: Akkadian, Braille, Cuneiform, Dutch, Enochian, whatever, you're in charge. Make your basic sigil:

After this, we might want to simplify again, because the intent has to become symbolic:

Now you have your sigil, you have to charge it. This can be done in more than one way. Engage with the sigils you make in an altered mental state, it does something. People might choose an empty thoughtless meditative state, others might use intoxicants, or reach musical euphoria, everyone has their own way—again, you're in charge, it's your will. Then, when the time is right, destroy the sigil to release it or try something else.

In Wicca—according to the complete book of witchcraft—sigils seem to be formed in a similar way to Chaos Magick sigils. It's the same letter alteration, manipulating a new form from a statement of intent. Shaping a unique, abstract symbol. In all traditions, the sigil is always charged, be that with energy through a chant, ritual, blood, or meditation, before it's final release to the world. 

Sigil magick is subjective at the end of the day, and quite unverifiable by science; Baz said, 'we don't test the fisherman who reckons he can catch big fish, but we know the fish are present.' No magician can magic their enemies cheek into a vagina, it's not like fiction. Some practitioners believe their efforts influence the crazy undercurrent of the quantum world; there are scientists and philosophers who suspect quantum mechanics and consciousness are somehow connected. However, belief in Mana or Gnostic concepts, such as The Fullness or Abraxas and then we have Goetia and demonic work. Diversity. 

In Thelemic and Hermetic traditions, sigil creation may likely involve Kabbalistic sephirot, Egyptian or Gnostic ideas. A sigil can mix letters and numbers, including seperate symbols altogether, resulting with a complicated design. 

"The Corpus Hermeticum. What dost thou, father, mean by this? The mind is parted from soul and soul from spirit? Whereas thou said'st the soul was the mind's vesture, and the soul's the spirit." 

A few times, Baz, has insisted to me that no level headed sigilist should waste time trying to defeat the will of a country who have a vested interested in the lottery jackpot. Even with an extraordinary display of will power, faith and magick, winning is very unlikely to happen. Dreams of wealth and prestige are a physical motivation, influencing a win undermines the game. That being said, people have successfully used sigils to attract money in different ways. 

"Katha Upanishad. The Self, smaller than small, greater than great, is hidden in the heart of every creature. A man who is free from desires and free from grief, with mind and senses tranquil, beholds the Self through the grace of the Creator."

Sigils in Chaos Magick might draw from any magical and philosophical or religious system, including Thelemic and Hermetic or Satanic, Celtic, Christian, Lovecraftian or even the power of Loony Tunes. It's said, nothing is true but rather permitted, if you even permit that. Liber Null will tell you, the Chaos Magician is intuitive and experimental; the subjective experience of the practitioner is an alternative any set of rules. 

How does will interact will the world? 

However, starting with skepticism, is it fair to say reports of successful sigil magick could have happened naturally anyway? For example, an unlikable person commits a crime, and as a result, a chaos dude magics out some justice, which the law manifests! Looks good, but, on yer bike—let's call this magical interloping. 

The placebo effect is similar, especially, say, if a person sets off a sigil to ease their own depression. The practitioner's belief in the power of the sigil or ritual, can, in fact, lead to changes in behavior, and then, in turn, his environment. This is not magical-interloping, but rather a form of placebo. Placebo's mind over matter, has an inspired belief providing physical and mental outcomes—by definition, a form of magick. But, come on, really? Yes. 

Quantum mechanics is indetermined, existing in the fundamental level. Particles can exist in multiple states simultaneously, there is an inherent randomness in particles and we are still unsure how any of this might affect our world. However, it is smaller than the everyday natural physics we see daily, but increasing evidence suggests our minds may interact with it somehow. This could be pseudo-science, but a respectable line of research could make a great discovery. Speculative, but scientific claims about such things do exist. 

We can't ignore Chaos Theory of John Nash, which suggests that complex systems, like the weather, ecosystems, and even human behavior, can come across as random and unpredictable over time. It's a kind of semi randomness that'll emerge from multiple interplays between components within a system.

The observation effect, in physics, shows that to measure or observe fundamental particles causes them to alter their bevaviour into that of waves. The double-slit experiment has shown this repeatedly. The key question: what is the role of the observer in shaping micro-reality? 

A lot of us have a philosophy or a religion, some kind of theurgy and some of us agnostics and atheists enjoy esoteric practices; it's another spiritual path and shouldn't be judged or seen as a threat.

The Contrarian Spirit: Rebels, Intellectuals & Mavericks

What is a contrarian? 

Contrarian characters exist across most forms of recorded media, from folklore to Hollywood. I love them. We might see them as trickster-like characters like with the Joker, and his anarchist ramblings, to Marvels Loki, as well as with the court jesters of medieval Europe; it's that maverick characteristic. For better or worse, they test the status quo; often debasing established norms. The have to take a stand against someone or something, oppositional, adversarial even, always striving. 

Comedians and Jokers... 

The Fool isn't that much of a contrarian archetype, but still can be. It's that oddball who pops up in Shakespeare's plays, those humour wielding jesters, who'll hit near the mark of the most powerful people within the king's court, even the king himself! The Jester eventually became a valued advisor to the Monarch!

 Renegades, Rebels and Noncomformists! 

My favourite contrarian is to be found in the rebel; a soul driven by a strong will to overthrow what they see as some kind of oppressor or evil. The Rebel Alliance vs the Galactic Empire, but then, there are real people like Erin Brockovich in the world who will take on powerful corporations: even I challenged my own local authority and for something my family needed and we got it, the directors written admission of guilt and apology was the cherry on top. The fight was very consuming, making victory itself feel glorious; indeed, contrarians are quite relatable from my position. 

In reality, the rebel contrarian is also personified by the female emergency worker who exposes the oppressive toxic masculinity or chauvinism in the workplace. Campaigners, protesters and grass roots political petitioners, those who utilise power are rebel contrarians. 

Iconoclasts, Thinkers, Whistleblowers and Skeptics... 

Intellectual contrarians might also be rebellious, but they are key at spreading the narrative, directing and educating; instead of simply opposing the status quo, they seek to expose faults, or illustrate the corruption of its religions and it's failing systems. In the pursuit of knowledge for the sake of improvement, almost like the Wizard, mystic or Sorceress, these intellectuals hone their discipline through rigorous deep thinking and/or academic illumination. I find them fascinating. 

Look at the anti-religious arguments of Christopher Hitchens, he was a brutal polemicist, but fair, and he inspired thought; people enjoyed having their minds opened by him. Jordan Peterson is a similar type of contrarian who would not conform to over the top political correctness or left wing Marxism, as he called it. The world has witnessed the sheer grit and determination of Greta Thunburg, despite harsh press she has not budged from her climate activism. The spirit of these people is that of champions of their causes. They stand in contast to their opposition. 

Contrarian for the sake of being the contrarian...

Some contrarian people are motivated by a desire to define themselves; they might challenge conventional ideas but only for the sake of their club, purpose, brand or simply to be a unique sheep. 

After contributing my thoughts in a pseudo-religious esoteric facebook group, I was told: 'if you want to keep any street cred, you should take down that post,' simply because it contained science, which was not welcome in that discordianism group. I felt no need to explain how science enabled their silly esoteric Facebook group, so I simply left; curious how science could possibly be considered offensive.

Rule abiders of contrarian clubs... 

Like my Facebook discordian  many oof these strange people present as non-conformist, such as the raving lunatic party, Church of Satan types, parody religions, or flat earth enthusiasts for that matter; who uphold their own club law and may expect people will follow suit. The pseudo-science of the flat earth theory is pushed by its community. 

Contrarians are motivated to oppose something significant. They might independently gather resources, practice critical thinking, as well as keep up-to-date on the latest research to meet challenges. 

The contrarian spirit is defined by that defiant front, which inexorably strives for change or subverting what's wrong with the conventional; defined by the individual struggles they take, they can be harbingers. 

Who is your favourite Contrarian character? 

 

To Become a Trollop: Name Calling To Inspire Betterment

The Trollop: Helly Sourham!

The term 'trollop' is a derogatory name, but seriously, loads of generations have used this word as a humorous expression, admittedly, it is of disapproval, pointing at bad conduct. The opposite of Joan of Arc. Definitely, the word does conjure up a negative vibe, I concede. However, it also serves to encapsulate my semi fictionalised cartoon character, who, in fact, actually meets the criteria of the word!

The word 'trollop' originated from the word 'troll,' a fourteenth-century French term used to describe a slovenly woman, wandering off in the quest for game. Helly Sourham, did precisely that, cheating on Steven, her husband of twelve years. Throughout the ages 'trollop' evolved and now it generally means a messy tart. 

Instead of discussing this woman's offensive character, my persistent woke friend, Emmaline, is ceaselessly reiterating her idea that the use of an unkind name like 'trollop' is unnecessary; it kindles unwanted attitudes, she said. Emmaline is quite well-spoken, a tad posh, and delivers her point with class. Using kind words is inclusive. She reckons promoting positivity renders a much more pleasant society. I told her that even the word 'slattern' was interchangeable with 'trollop,' then she scowled at me. It also describes someone who is untidy or slovenly in appearance or habits. 

Jezebel

We could, you and I, dear reader, entertain Emmaline's well-meaning fluff and argue: yes, we can all acknowledge derogatory language might boost an unfavorable belief toward certain women. We could promote constructive and sensitive dialogue, but surely, not all the time? No! How can our politeness and inclusivity correct bad behaviour?

If human morality really evolved in natural communities, then evidently; countless people will have necessarily experienced disgrace, guilt or shame for their own societal wrongdoings. Guilt, shame and dishonour do incentivise behavioural modification. If our social principles involve rewarding selfish individuals with inclusivity and kindness, you'll inherit a narcissistic world. Oh! 

Names are a tried and tested historical intervention, like sinner or criminal, low-life or riff-raff. It doesn't sit well with those gentle-people who reward those who don't deserve it. 

By definition, Helly Sourham might be a trollop, because she allow's her little ones to play in her poo ridden garden, instead of picking it up. She blames her family for her behaviour; sadly putting demands on her husband, and her mother to mind her little ones, capitalising on breakfast mornings, and after school clubs, notching up their days with ten hours in school. Her children's reading problems, and hatred of the institution, are not considered her concern. Who will sort her out? 

Even as Steven works long hours, she makes deliberate plans to see other men without him knowing. Her unsupervised children salvaged sweets from across the filthy house where her dogs (with electric collars) defecate and run-in garden dirt! To be fair, the children are mostly nourished by takeaway. 

After boasting to her younger sister about having unprotected sex numerous times with a stranger, she detailed doing the same in the marital bed, with her husband, after returning home the same morning—the strangers bodily fluid was still present. This modern expression of  a 'trollop' knew better, after studying sexual health and contraception.

The Western World has taken a lot from Judeo-Christian history and culture, including the archetypes of The Whore of Babylon and The Virgin Mary. Even today, the whore and the virgin can serve as a spectrum or a dichotomy on which society often makes subconscious comparisons regarding women and sex. It is harsh and unfair. Where is the man trollop? 

The sexual revolution of the sixties and seventies brought liberation. Normalising the pill was a victory and the vindication of masterbation, sex before marriage, and pornography all rightly challenged patriarchal religion across the Western World. In modern years, people in Chicago and Germany went on so called, 'slut walks' to promote women's rights to dress how they like without male discrimination, and I agree 100%. 

Helly Sourham, on the other hand, has little respect for people. Badgering her husband to buy her breast implants and a tummy tuck after cheating on him is not in the same spirit as the slut walk! The new surgery body was planned for her holiday to Ibiza in which, Steven never went. He is sadly thought of as a Simp and she limits expenditure on her children but lavishes herself. 

Helly Sourham has also disrespected herself not only by recklessly avoiding contraception, but also with fad dieting, suffering for her physical appearence at the expense of her loved ones! Surgery and diet pills, don't help. The sexual liberation of the sixties and seventies, meant freedom, it didn't advocate todays bondage of self-criticism! 

Agreed, it might be tempting to label Helly as a free-spirited, sexually liberated woman, we can be ignorant of her infidelity, hedonism and toxicity toward her family. Yes, ignorant. Therefore, seeing her as a 'trollop' seems quite forgivable. 

Then again, we don't have to go around calling people names...?