Hearing about E.A.'s pull to the occult as a child reminded me of my own attraction.
My family was not religious or spiritual, although they certainly had roots in it in their own childhoods/upbringing. When I was in 2nd grade my grandmother took me to an occult book store (for what reason, I have no idea). I remember a strong feeling of belonging and surge of interest/energy as soon as I walked in the door and smelled the incense smoke, saw the floor which was inlaid with a huge pentagram (at least it appeared huge to me as a little child). I was utterly fascinated. After that I took an interest in fantasy books/comic books that featured sorcerers and magic. I would draw an old Marvel character called Son of Satan, and my mother would scold me for it.
In third grade, I moved up north and we lived with some Christian relatives. Every once in awhile, my aunt would take us to a spiritualist retreat to, I guess, gawk and point fingers at the ‘evil Satanists’ as we drove through, but I was equally fascinated with the place. But hearing about real life witches definitely piqued my curiosity. For me this meant they weren’t just stories.
I never understood Christianity, and I was always doubtful and unattracted to it, even as a young kid. The stories about guys going to talk to the devil and coming back with white hair and in shock was pretty entertaining and scary, but that was about it.
Around 4th and 5th grade I was, by then, a voracious reader, and I began checking out any books I could find at the occult at the libraries. My reading comprehension was good, but not good enough to understand everything I read, but I learned quite a bit. What really frustrated me was that all the serious occultist books were reference books and you had to be an adult to look at them. These were books like Drawing Down the Moon by Margot Adler. Keep in mind, I lived in a very small, hick town that was lucky to have a library at all. Most people were religious and went to church a lot.
Eventually in my teenage years I started listening to rock and metal, and would take albums like Motley Crue’s Shout at the Devil, the LP of which unfolded and had a big pentagram on it, and we would try to do rituals that never really went anywhere except to scare us a bit that we were going to go to Hell or something (lol). Then I got my first Tarot Deck (Rider/Waite) and started doing readings for friends at parties and stuff (nice parallel to E.A.).
Some time ago, I started to journal all the experiences I could remember as a child that were strange. From shadow figures at my bed leaning over me to several instances of displaying some measure of psychic power. It surprised me, looking back, just how many experiences I had had. I never realized just how many weird, supernatural experiences I had encountered until I began to remember them all and write them down.
Anyway, I always kind of knew that this was in my blood.
Did you guys have the same pull?
