Occult books

Is there any reason to study the occult if you aren't schizophrenic? Is there an academic way to study this shit? If so, where should I start?

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If you ask chances are you have at least some predisposition for it.
>Is there an academic way to study this shit
Seriously?

Read Wouter Hanegraaff. Apply to the University of Netherlands for a Western Esoteric Studies MA after undergrad. Good luck, brother!

The occult is studied in academia, absolutely. I'd avoid popular occultists like Blavatsky who just made shit up.

"The occult" as it is widely understood is Americanised entertainment. If you want to understand religion, begin religious studies.

Basically all of modern culture (science, medicine, visual art, religion, literature, music, etc) is just the splintered and forgotten fragments of Western magic, so yes. Read some Yeats, read some Osman Spare, even Moore for an absolute beginner.

Bad advice. (Except Spare)
This. But if you insist, then this: . Then again, brings up a good point. Can you do basic research?
This is important. Understand that most of the active practitioners are writing based on visions and is probably more tellig of their own psychology than anything universally or particularly factual.

Schizophrenic here...

Only study the occult if you want to end up like me...

Are you saying you became schizophrenic from studying the occult?

Without a doubt.

can you explain what exactly happened? Did you attempt some kind of ritual?

I’m not that other guy, but according to Jung, Plato, Taoist alchemists, Hindi alchemists, and others pursuing the same art, all agree that a madness comes upon the person that begins the process they describe. I suffered from it. Call me /x/. I don’t give a fuck. Just a heads-up. ‘Occult’ is typically for the people that are too stupid/easily entertained to find the actual path that occultists miss which is essentially religion/philosophy. Read Plato, Jung, and the Taoists. Then read more of the early, middle and Neoplatonists. Then read all of the secondary works you can get your hands on. Then meditate. Then practice spiritual alchemy.

In my opinion your are describing the occult at the bottom of your post.
What you were involved in was black magic.
The occult umbrellas black magic but other things like spiritual alchemy also fall under that umbrella.

>the occullt isn't religion and philosophy

nice larp

Tefirst initiative of a man seeking the Way must be to reject the ha-bitual image that he has of himself. He will be able to begin to say "I" onlywhen the magical word corresponds to the inner imagination of self-aware-ness unconstrained by limitations of space, time, or power.Human beings must retrieve the sense of the reality of themselves. Atpresent, they only limit and dimmish themselves, feeling different andsmaller than they really are; every thought they conceive and every deedthey perform adds one more bar to their prison cell, one more veil to theirvision, one more denial of their power. They lock themselves inside thelimits of their bodies and attach themselves to the earth that carries them:it is as if an eagle fancied to be a snake and crawled on the ground, ignor-ing its wings.It is not only that man ignores, deforms, and denies himself, but that healso reenacts the myth of Medusa, turning everything around him intostone. He observes and sizes nature with weights and measures. He limitsthe life surrounding him to petty laws, and overcomes the mysteries withpetty hypotheses. He freezes the universe into a static unity, and puts him-self at the periphery of the world, shyly, humbly, as if he were an accidentalsecretion, without power or hope.

>Implying that I study the occult to be like them.
I read on the occult so I can know how to identify and destroy those pederasts.

If at all, I'd recommend Guénon, Evola and Schuon, then the Ariosophists, von List an

When most people talk about ‘the occult’ they are speaking of Agrippa, Levi, Dee, the punks that actually believed in Harry Potter-level magic. I don’t think Plato, Jung, Taoists, or Hindi writers receive the tag ‘occult’ in any search database. Maybe somewhere, but it isn’t common.
Dawg, Socrates’ pedoic behavior is symbolic of philosophical concepts. Pizzagate occult ritual stuff is the fake occult stuff. That is just for blackmail so no one will squeak, nothing actually spiritual.

Yeah, I think what you're talking about is mysticism, between which and occultism there's a very vague and thin line since they often overlap. Occult means hidden, and occultism just means hidden knowledge or the belief in it, hidden knowledge which has to be reserved from the masses and into which one can be initiated and usually promises the development of latent "magical" powers. Mysticism, on the other hand, is often more about union with God or the All (not necessarily, and maybe not exactly the same/put differently, but a common theme), the seeking after direct spiritual experience and spiritual+psychological self-development outside of an established church or any dogma. Clearly, however, as you can see, the two can overlap. I would call Plato, Jung, the Taoists and Hindu writers more mystical than occult, then.

I was really interested in magic, Taken 2 different courses during my Phd, one based on a general course of magic in late antiquity another based on Greek Magical Papyri.

I was dissapointed, reality differs a lot compared to exceptions. Most magical texts are infused with religion too which is a minus for me.

Do read grimoires for fun but dont study it in academia.

Imagine what Veeky Forums would be like if every comment engaged with the thread on this level

It'd be fucking shit.

Wait.

Are you surprised magic and religion are intertwined?
You realize where we get magic?
Do you realize this is Prometheus's 'fire'? (The ingredient for inner alchemy)

Here is a secret for you guys.

No occultic knowledge is absolute, you are supposed to form your own God head with the knowledge that you deem worthy.

>where should I start?
The correct answer is Manly P. Hall's Secret Teachings of All Ages

I studied magic, mysticism and religion on my own account for years. The guys highlighting mysticism and distinguishing it from the occult ITT are right IMHO. If you want to get into magic avoiding the BS, I recommend studying the qabalah then read Franz Bardon. Suppliment him with RAW's prometheus rising in order to remain sane

>Franz Bardon
He was such a master magician he couldn't stop shoving food down his throat, the power of occult knowledge is truly incredible.

someone link me a pdf of the hermes trismegistus text, shit sounds dank but i can't find it, don't tell me christ cucks burned it up and it's "no longer extant"

Sadler read so much stoicism he became obese. This stuff really makes ya think.

Pretty sure you can find it here:
sacred-texts.com/search.htm

Fact: If you want to dabble in magic, Bardon provides the most practical and least bullshit teaching in his hermetic trilogy. His diet is irrelevant.

>Pretty sure you can find it here:
>sacred-texts.com/search.htm

thx bro, thats it

I wouldn't want to learn to play the piano from someone that can't actually play the piano. The fact that he was some fat fuck addicted to coffee and smoking that died in his 50's is diametrically opposed to the shit he was teaching. There's also nothing genuinely 'hermetic' about any of his stuff, but that's another story.

Bardon is textbook bullshit occultism.

He was also a fucking homeopath.

‘Mystical’ and ‘occult’ literally mean the same thing (‘mustos’: keep hidden by keeping one’s mouth shut in Greek) if we are getting into those semantics. Plato had ‘occult’ teachings that were called his unwritten doctrines. This subject matter is the same as that of the other writers I mentioned. The writers that are popularly understood to be occult are rooted in the magical tradition of Greece and Egypt but... ah never mind, not worth it

>another threar on magic and Occultic teachings

>no mention of astral projection

Yea but Alchemists usually got nice doses of poison during work, too.(e.g. mercury and lead poisoning was not that well understood)

I think studying occult stuff is great, because many powerful and impactful people were in cults.

Our culture can't be studied without including western esotericism in it.

Good post. If you're interested in this line of thought, OP, I suggest Stephen Skinner's Techniques of Graeco-Egyptian Magic and Techniques of Solomonic Magic.

It’s been on my wish list for a bit. I’m trying to see if I can find a cheaper offer

Real alchemists weren’t getting poisoned. Only the pseudo were practicing material alchemy. It isn’t even a matter of reading between the lines, the real alchemists were explicit in their writings about the fact that they were practicing spiritual alchemy

>no true scotsman
A lot did both.
They're good if you plan on working with the PGM or Goetia. I am a simple mystic and thus found little use for it after an initial read-through (though it was quite fascinating and lucid).

I will assume by occultism you mean the Western esoteric tradition in general.
Esotericism is a valid field of academic research. Read Hanegraaff's "Western Esotericism For The Perplexed", then proceed to the books he recommends. Although occultism is related closely to religious studies, Hanegraaff argues for a multidisciplinary approach - because of the visual, auditory ,literary, and philosophical richness of the material,along with its social impact, the occult can attract people who studies arts, sociology. literature, history, or other related fields.
Presently, the published academic writing on the occult is pretty vast, both in English and other European languages. For example, a large amount of literature - especially about Christian Theosophy and Continental Freemasonry - is in Dutch or German.
If you want occult literature just for aesthetic reading, the most recent that is actually good is written by Aleister Crowley. I find his books very evocative. Personally, I think one of the reasons why Crowley is remembered is not so much because his transgressive behaviour but because he is Veeky Forums as fuck. Having read theosophical texts, Kenneth Grant, the Dragon Book, I can say that Crowley is the only occultist from the 20th century that has excellent grasp of language and actually knows how to impress the reader without boring him to death.
If you want to engage in the occult community, unless it's your job preying on gullible middle class people, don't.
Culturally, the occulture at the moment is absolutely stagnant. The last creative authors were Kenneth Grant and Andrew Chumbley. After them, it's just poseurs building their magick upon their legacy, especially upon Chumbley's work, which seems to attract the edgiest people who because of their autism and lack of knowledge in the history of religions misunderstand his metaphors of transcendence for dark aesthetic. Just like with Thelema after Crowley, Chumbley's work is being high jacked by teenage edgelords or middle class neurotics who use it as justification for the expression of their repressed desires. Pic related is when a psychologically unstable individual with inferiority issues decided to practice Chumbley's system. It's not the system that's wrong - if the person was into Christianity, he would have ended up calling himself the Second Coming of Christ - but the people that are attracted to it and, as a result, make normal occultists look bad.
Alan Moore's "Fossil Angels" is a very honest critique of the current occulture.

Crowley admits he's full of shit:

"Teach us Your secret, Master! yap my Yahoos.

Then for the hardness of their hearts, and for the softness of their heads, I taught them Magick.

But... alas!

Teach us Your real secret, Master! how to become invisible, how to acquire love, and oh! beyond all, how to make gold.

But how much gold will you give me for the Secret of Infinite Riches?

Then said the foremost and most foolish: Master, it is nothing; but here is an hundred thousand pounds.

This did I deign to accept, and whispered in his ear this secret:

A SUCKER IS BORN EVERY MINUTE."

--Book of Lies


Kenneth Grant is a comfy kinda crazy. I have the Typhonian Trilogies, Ecpyrosis, and (just ordered) Servants of Star and Serpent. Have you read Parsons? Freedom Is A Two-Edged Sword is good too.

Lol@Ape'sChumblism

Some of the new age stuff is pretty good for beginners to, it wont teach you the old understanding but it'll be paraphrased so you may still grasp the basics.

Honestly if people are interest in magick, I'd recommened people to study their dreams.
I would also tell them to study astrology and then tarot.
The old teachings very rarely express how to use any knowledge, but once you start understanding the simple things about divinity and mysticism it starts to grow passively from there.

Colin Wilson's books on the occult are enjoyable reads. He has a very "I want to believe" mentality but tempers it with enough skepticism to make it interesting, and he connects it broader areas of history, psychology and literature. Overall reading him doesn't have me buying into occultism so much as it reveals the present limitations of pure empiricism.

>there are actually people who believe in this shit

You can say the same about any religion. At least occultism is more aesthetic.

The Outsider is better.

Meditations on the Tarot is a good manual on seeing symbolically.

I agree completely, but that's not a book about the occult so much as a book with some references to the occult

What if I don't dream?

these anons are wise

OP, most occult shit is straight forward. A group of people believe in one thing and practice it everyday. That's pretty much it.

I think Wilson is best when he's more of a mystic and less of a Mulder.
Everyone (most everyone) dreams. It is part of being human. There are herbs you can take for dreaming more vividly and enhancing recall if you truly have trouble. There are also exercises you can do while waking to enhance dream recall and/or achieve lucidity. A simple one is asking yourself whether you are in a dream. Additionally, keep a journal and write impressions if nothing else.

Its most likely just cut off from your concious.
Maybe practice creative meditation and channeling meditation.

Please try disputing this image

I think it's a US thing. No one takes this shit seriously anywhere I have ever lived.

stop smoking weed

i don't smoke weed and never dream
help

I don't think the Occult is exactly mainstream anywhere user

or Evola and Guenon who also just made shit up

>ariosophists
aping blavatsky without crediting her
>list
stole from blavatsky without crediting her also lied and made things up
>evola
stole from blavatsky without crediting her and made shit up, couldn’t read many of the texts he said he could, made no contributions to the understanding of religion, created self help philosophy for closeted virgins
its not real
all fake shit that doesn’t work
you’re fucking retarded
shut up
no its awful
notice how the circle isn’t squared at all

>butthurt blavatsky lover
Or
>butthurt materialist
?

Crowley is clearly making fun of guruism.

t. someone who doesn't even like Crowley

Also to OP; Gurdjieff and ouspensky are the way

there are two streams i have come to appriciate regarding the occult lit:
- the copy writing selling you the best fucking click bank book on how to be the most succeful chad on the planet

usualy alchemical menuscripts from the 18 19 20 century

- texts trying to deal with this murky situation we conscoius being find our selfs in
meaning there is this thing when sentences move your mind,
then words, then there is a great abyss , and on the other side you got 2+2=4 symbolic meaning which also moves your mind

figuring the abyss on either side is what those pps try to achieve.
ofcourse its un achievble but the ride might be fun

how to be a mother fucking pimp by razzle dazzle
the blazing dew of stars david chaim smith
i guess chumbley
defentily crowley, for sure he was lit as fuck

Why are you telling me to shut up?
Haveth you no mind?

...

Take the greenpill user

>making fun of guruism
Kinda hypocritical for a cult leader.

HOW
TO
FIND GOD.
not through books
But through living.

...

skip the taoists and start with the hermeticists, the fundamentals become the same when examined closely

Why don't you want to be schizo user? I just need to get to 60 without it so I can fullfill my dream of a successful academic career and to save up enough money to last through retirement, after that my plan is to induce schizophrenia with a series of increasingly intense acid/mescaline trips. Just imagine the beauty of exploring your mind free from the prison of normality.

you better buckle up your basket case full with some top tier satire
this serious attitude you got right now will
drop you floor level then 6 feet down in a blink of a shitpost drop on your mams schizophrenic seven personalty not seeing caus you forgot to put contact lenses on your 4th eye minus one edgy faggot on the board

I used to be deeply into the occult.
You want really get it if you arent a spiritual person. In fact most occultists dont really get it.
I came to the occult and paganism because i was not interested in the abarhamic religions.
The occult is about harnessing ones will and desires and pushing it into the hivemind of humanity. You can do this through various methods. Rituals, ceremonies, art, meme's.

Avoid anything new, new age, wicca, anything that was invented in the past 50 years should be avoided like the plague.
The occult is about tradition, its about the past. The best thing you can do is study the various magik of your ancestors.

a funny story about my venture into pagainism.

I decided to worship the greek god of dreams, Morpheus.
I decided i would try to find him through the act of lucid dreaming. I found this to be way more exciting than praying to some sand nigger god.
So one night im having a dream and i become lucid, and im walking around in the dream and im attacked and ripped apart by a pack of dogs.

I havent had a dream since. This most have been years ago

I just imagine something like that having meaning that I can't even comprehend and it seems so beautiful to me. I'm pretty sure schizo is just another plane of existence that doesn't intersect fully with our own linguistic structure. Shame that it fucks over people so bad in today's world with homelessness and ostracism.

You may not noticed, but several branches of occultism are having different opinions and recommending completely different authors ITT. My advice, take note, they are way different from each other, and authors appeal to entirely different audiences too.

Disregard hypocrites and non-competent posters telling you not to read. Imagine a well read individual listening to these disciples of ignorance, he would never know the worlds to discover he can find in these books.

t. an atheist

Brill has a lot of stuff on gnosticism and mystery religions and it's all academic, you can be sure of that.

just facts little baby nazi thief
speak less
he is making a joke you dumb nigger
no this isn't true, just because Crowley and Bardon did it doesn't mean everyone will, read the Taoists

ALSO SHAME ON ALL OF YOU FOR NEVER MENTIONING BARDON
>Avoid anything new, new age, wicca, anything that was invented in the past 50 years should be avoided like the plague
yes, but art shit is good and should be closely studied. All the books are garbage
>tradition
no its not at all its about power and wisdom, it has nothing to do with exoteric values
>The best thing you can do is study the various magik of your ancestors
nothing mentioned in this thread has anything to do with your ancestors who were almost definitely peasants and low caste serfs in Europe. You have no ties to Druidic wisdom by blood stop LARPing and if you're speaking of the Greeks-Egyptians-Indians you should jump out a window and see if your ancestors will help you fly like the eagle
its not that special, most schizos are extremely dangerous, cruel, unpleasant and ugly. Some of them are the purest souls living today, but most schizos are evil demons in human form, literally soulless as there soul has fled its body already. Most mentally ill people deserve ostracism, the issue is that the discriminatory faculty of the oversoul of most groups doesn't see the beautiful one's mixed in with the demons. Very problematic, especially for Jews and other vagabond races.

hello dunce of thoth

wit is a difficult thing to cultivate, even harder to maintain, but very easy to abuse or neglect

i agree but your words poked harsh
hostility on sacred ground is where truce ends
my silly friend

there are no sacred grounds, everything is permitted

an act of everything just permits sanction

you see where you loop?

it slays itself before the circularity can arise brother, not all turning words return to the same place

Cockilikecock

Not bad advice at all; it's fairly obvious a lot of the forces apparent in modern science, such as magnetism and charge, were seen as "magick" in ancient times. Alchemy is the precursor to modern chemistry.

>SHAME ON ALL OF YOU FOR NEVER MENTIONING BARDON
I did, right here

...

The same author has a book on mentally molesting people. Wacky guy.

The occult is mostly just religion for edgelords. If you are interested in religion you might want to investigate it but otherwise there isn't that much of a point.

Study the occult as you would religion ... in the Jungian sense. It really helps to have a functionalist approach, i.e. "what does belief in a succubus do" with the answer being "creates one object to place all lust on and banishes it". seriously, occult magic is mostly just creating rituals to overcome everyday problems

just dl'd and it seems like he took Theosophy and Gnosticism+anarchism and made an LHP cult out of it, bretty cool
hermeticists tend to like to fuck with people a lot, the Kybalion touches on this many times
the Occult is about esoteric sacred knowledge and ritual it is as old as the Shaman and the private initiation of priests. most religion is for the masses
Jung psychologizes the spiritual and racializes it as well
>creating rituals
not all magic is ritual, not all of the occult is magical

>not all magic is ritual, not all of the occult is magical
and I said occult magic is mostly ritual. i didn't say all magic was ritual, and I was speaking only about the part of occult that is magical, so your reply was very unnecessary

its not even mostly about rituals, that's 19th century doctoring of history

Where we are
In the blink of an eye
You get several meanings

>The same author has a book on mentally molesting people
Thats the Forbidden Religion if you ask me, I remember when a guy from /x/ found this book and his world view became shattered, he made a thread asking if /x/ believed God to be the devil. Pretty cool.

There's a simple fact you've overlooked. Most people are fucking morons. If you think for instance Manly P Hall isn't Occult, then you're dumb as hell. Furthermore there is the whole right hand/left hand paradigm. The attitude of ignoring these distinctions was a fundamentally Catholic notion and others like Anton Lavey in kind have found some amusement in embodying this broad-brushed characterization of the occult. Its all a big Larp for them.

Gnosticism, once you see you'll shit bricks.

Good list.

>the occult is muh special sekrit club
here's a clue user, you are "the masses"
and everything you think of as "the occult" is still utter bollocks