On Occultism
Occultism is a set of methods for obtaining information and acting in the area of unknown or partly unknown. While science is a method for getting statistically-verified knowledge (with technology as its application), for the sake of reliability and robustness science sacrifices everything else. Thus, scientific approach, being effective in minimizing risks of failures, becomes highly inefficient when you desire extreme progress in a limited time, need swift decisions and take rapid actions in a dark territory, willing to take a high risk. That is why occult method has a place on the crooked path of dark development, where extremely risky self-development practices are required (of course using the power of science and technology when the progress makes it possible). Thus, no action in the field of dark arts and on the path of deific individuation is possible without the occult method, which consists of mysticism (as a way of comprehending unknown and irrational) and magic (as a way of acting upon it).
Historically, European occult tradition has been repressed by the Christian cults. These cults have opposed any natural knowledge for millennia, which led to significant degradation of occultism comparing to its ancient hermetic roots. The occult sphere became completely detached from the scientific progress of the last centuries and now is frequently understood as an aggregate of self-contained dogmas. While esoteric knowledge of ancient priests and philosophers in Sumer, Egypt, Greece etc. were derived from their observations on nature, scholasticism and monotheism created a strong current towards imaginable “other realities” (dualism, Gnosticism). Those days it was a reaction to the monotheistic oppression: if you have no rights to discover and improve the nature (since it is “created by impeccable god“), your only option is to attribute your studies to another realm. Such oppression is in the past now, but many modern “occult” and “esoteric” schools continue to reproduce this approach and are left out of touch with the reality.
At The Thirteen we take another approach: we re-shape the occult tradition by merging its ancient roots from different cultures (of Ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt and Greece; Shaivism, Vamachara, Tantric Buddhism, Taoism, Zen, etc) with post-modern worldview and state of the art in science. Thus, we see alchemy as an extension of complexity science, projecting natural laws, patterns of emergence and non-linear evolution onto initiatory practice of self-development; we see numerology as generic patterns within time series of the natural phenomena (“the music of the spheres”). We see astrology as an occult extension of astrophysics and cosmobiology, based on the known data regarding the influence of lunar cycles, solar and planetary magnetic fields, cosmic radiation etc. on psychological and biological state of humans and processes of emergence in complex self-evolving systems. But again, we do not limit ourselves by strict scientific (statistically-proven) knowledge, but extend it using sympathetic analogies into the area of unknown, taking the risks of mistakes for the sake of further stimulated self-development progress, in the same way as was done by ancient priests or Renaissance genii. All these represent our own approach to modern occult knowledge and practice, which is a crucial, integral and organic part of non-dualistic hermetic Satanism. No “another realities” are required when our own reality remains mainly unexplored.
Occult approach requires openness to the unknown, ability to work with own fears and a strong will towards development without compromises. All these have to drive individuation beyond the limitations of human nature, towards deification and, according to hermetic link between micro- and macrocosm, lead the progress beyond current limitations of the mundane.
Originally published at blog.hermeticsatanism.com.
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