Why not keep the occult secret?

General Discussion
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Let me preface this post by saying that, personally, I greatly appreciate the existence of forums like this as well as magicians like EA whose principal aim is that of magickal education of the masses. Without them, I most likely never would have started getting into the occult in the first place.

That being said, from a purely pragmatic and/or selfish perspective, why do we want other people to learn magick? From my admittedly beginner’s perspective on the occult, it seems like one of the primary benefits of magick is precisely that it is hidden and behind-the-scenes. We employ it in order to gain an advantage over our situation and other people: for example, we may perform a ritual in order to manipulate our desired target’s emotions favorably for us, or to hinder a competitor in the workplace, or to eliminate someone who is threatening our peace of mind. In all these cases, we do not want the intended target knowing about our magick as this could allow them to enact countermeasures detrimental to our success.

Therefore, it seems as though the ideal world for a practicing magician is one in which everyone but them is unaware that magick exists. Why do we want to give strangers the power to spy on us astrally or influence and manipulate our thoughts/emotions? Why do we want to let our colleagues at work get an edge over us for that promotion we wanted? Why do we want to give our enemies the power to curse ourselves into misery and death?

Obviously, this goes against the semi-popular grand ideal of a Mass Enlightenment of humanity, where every living person is tapping into their own infinite potential as benevolent co-creators of reality. I have no problem with this ideal either, but we’re not there yet, and not everyone has the same goals. Educating mankind at large seems like it would diminish our own power to change the world in the way we want.

Thoughts?

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Once, long long ago, magicians where Gods walking on Earth. We were at the top of the food chain. Everyone could practice magic and it was each and every human’s right to do so. Magic was everywhere and everything was connected. But look at us now, we are hidden and scared to talk because these fools have the power of governments. I mean, we, who could control time and space freely, who created dimensions.

The reason that people want it to stop being secret, is because everyone pretty much wants to return there. These times anyone could ascend easily. Well, that happened before any history record exists (at least history books that people read). Everyone forgot everything about magic, the relics of old and their true powers…which is a shame.

Also, it’s better to share knowledge with others. That way, you also gain a lot of knowledge.

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You make thoughtful and provocative points. I think part of the answer is that the occult is a very personal and individualized path. You can’t just go read a book and start zapping people (sorry, “Doctor Strange”). So sharing some knowledge does nothing for those who are not suited for it, and it does a lot for those who are meant to have it? This thought is incomplete, but hopefully I expressed the general idea

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Well, it’s true that all types of magic are not for everyone, if you know what I mean. But I have no problem sharing my knowledge with others. I mean, we are all allies in this maze. We need to be together in order to survive the storm (If I said the phrase correctly XD)

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Fanatic here - I’m on a mission from God (within :smiley: ) and seriously think the world was going to be kind of archived in read-only mode if it had persisted beneath the twin delusions of the troll god monotheistic faiths, and a mass of disempowered materialists.

Exposition in more length:

Every spirit I work with tells me that, basically, although we have won, magick MUST be promoted and pushed to as many people as possible, and I not only believe that, I put in the work, helping people on here, in replies, in PM, e-mail, not to mention offline work with people studying various things, some of whom know I do black magick, others just learning a few little spells or things with crystals.

(I don’t get paid for this and I don’t accept payments, gifts, or donations, firstly because we’re doing very well, secondly it’s a tax headache to declare occasional small income, third it could interferere with my fanaticism :smiley: and fourth, I hate the limelight with the kind of passion you only develop when you know the world of media and so on very well…)

And then I do group and individual workings to tear the old aeon down as well, and to push for a change in the relationship between mankind, and the divine… :thinking:

Fanaticism doesn’t tend to look at the small picture of the “me first” aspect, so I can’t answer for someone saner, but the same was also true of creating fire, and reading, and all kinds of skills - keeping them in a small group granted power, and yet eventually, that system ended (or was ripped open) and people would ascend in power as a result.

Look at the unprecendented mass literacy we see in 2018, nothing like this has existed in recorded history. It seems to me that to take that away and get it back under lock and key to a small elite would be a criminal act on a massive scale.

On the other hand, when knowledge got lost, it was a loss for all of us, including future generations of our own bloodlines and future incarnations of ourselves, so on the evidence, an open culture (with of course everyone choosing to keep SOME works to themselves) seems like the best way ahead.

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Maybe just a little :grinning:

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I do very much agree with this, as well - magick is pretty much self-policing in a lot of ways, more so than many fields of study, so if we use the metaphor of magick being a building, I believe in the doors being held open for all who want to enter, but only a minority will make it to the top floors, and they will usually be the ones most suitable to handle being there.

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The way i see everyone has the opportunity to explore magick and the level of “depth” they want to take it. For me i am in for the deeeeeeeeep dive down the rabbit hole. If i bring back some goodie i share what i can make sense of and some of what hasnt been “unpacked”

I don’t see magick being public knowledge a problem for the reason @Lady_Eva stated it does have a way of self-policing itself. Ya go too far too fast with an agenda of fuckery held in mind and ya tend to see brains on the wall (sometimes literal sometimes figurative). That and competition in general promotes growth and evolution.

For example if i was doing work to get advancement at work and unbeknownst to me someone else was doing the same the unknown conflict of energies would manifest in certain patterns and would reveal itself. This would cause me to have to push myself and come up with a better plan to get to my goal.

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Reading and writing was "Occult a long time ago"
Mathematics was "Occult a long time ago"
Astronomy was "Occult a long time ago"
And look at what happened!

Society just needs a little time to catch up we are just a little ahead in the game of Life!

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No different than learning to write, or play golf, or anything else really -

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Personally I would prefer that the less people know about the occult and I wish this forum wasn’t public.

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If that were the case you may never have found it :wink:

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@Dinmiatus I found it years ago when it was still closed :smirk:

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May I ask why?

This is the reason I have an issue with lodges and orders. They think this stuff should be kept secret and only the elite should have access. But who does that serve? What benefit do we get from hording this?

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It was quite a big change to go from a smallish forum that was behind a log-in, to this as it is now. Not everyone liked it, which is understandable. :wink:

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@KingOfHearts616 because if everyone becomes a God there’s just no more point being one. If everyone drove a Ferrari it wouldn’t be a dream car.

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I can understand the change was a large one. Thats not what I’m meaning. Even if this forum was closed, I could have had access to the books I have purchased. Sure, I wouldn’t have had the help from you all, but I would have eventually progressed.

Thats the thing. Not everyone will be one. There were times when magick was common place. Where you consulted with witches (witch being derived from a word meaning wise woman.) Or shamans for help. Even during those times not everyone persued this path, but they all understood the importance.

That is why I believe it should be public knowledge. It is important. It benefits us all.

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@KingOfHearts616 yes I understand that not everyone would become a God and that’s fortunately. Only the more widespread occult is the more the percentage of potential Gods increases and this makes me really uncomfortable.

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:heart_eyes: love it and seems accurate. The “hows” on the becoming a god are fairly easy to find. I dug it up when i was a kid in an old bookstore then when i started digging around the internet. The Work of coming into power is a whole other matter that not everyone has interest or the persistence and perseverance to achieve. Least in the case of deep dives.

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I kind of like to think of it as the bigger amount of people who believe in it, the stronger it becomes. If no one believes, does it become weak? I am certainly thankful this is an open forum as I finally feel I have found what I have been searching for, could never find, and I only stumbled on this by “accident”.

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