critique on proposed set of subfields of occultism

[newChemist]

Hi there!

I am pretty much brand-new to the world of occultism, but am experienced with self-study.
I learned about myself that self-studying is most effective when there is a logical structure to abide by when tackling a chosen field of study.

(I do also think that taking a more organized approach as of compared to a more impulsive one is better for most but that's not the point of the post here.)

However, in order to be able to form a personalised curriculum about occultism, it would be highly informative to be aware of what the occultism landscape more or less looks like. I don't really know where to start yet, and therefore asked ChatGPT to create a set of subfields of occultism. However, given AI is my formal field of study, I am fully aware that ChatGPT's word should not be taken as gospel and can contain mistakes. I will still share this list because I would highly appreciate feedback regarding the correctness and completeness of the set of subfields ChatGPT gave me. The set of subfields I got from ChatGPT is as follows:

1. alchemy
2. astrology
3. divination
4. theurgy and ritual magic
5. hermeticism
6. mysticism
7. occult philosphy
8. kabbalah
9. occult psychology
10. spiritualism
11. esotericism
12. witchcraft and paganism
13. sufism
14. occult traditions in christianity
15. satanism and left-hand path
16. thesophy
17. shamanism

(also, ordering is not relevant here)

With this list mentioned, I would really appreciate some feedback regarding that list. I have heard from some others who said the list was not particularly good because it still forgot some things, or that there is a large discrepancy between the sizes of the subfields in the list or that there is significant overlap, but more detail than this I did not receive, so I am still pretty clueless.

Also, for those who would be so kind as to spitball some suggestions regarding creating one's own personal curriculum, I am heavily interested in demonology and the left-hand stuff, but am aware that by only focussing on that, I see the possibility of developing some kind of tunnel vision, and will probably not catch onto concepts that are heavily related to other fields too. For that reason, I am very open to the kinds suggestions thrown my way. I am willing to deviate from my original interests for the greater good. I already am busy learning about the art and science of meditation too for example, because I figured that would be an essential skill.

I hope I gave enough info for you to provide a solid answer to this post, and also hope that this post about essentially stratifying the field of occultism into designated sub-fields, could help a lot of other fellow clueless newbies who are looking for some kind of formal structure to grab onto as we start out in this field.

With this all out of the way,
thank you very much for reading this and I appreciate all constructive feedback sent my way.
Have a great christmas and new year!

 

[Missterry]

Don't forget that there are hundreds of human (homo sapiens) cultures on Earth besides American Culture and European Culture. And for each human race and culture, there are different understanding of what "occultism" constitutes respective to each culture and race. Limiting your occult studies to just Modern Western Occultism is... Limiting in that your understanding of occultism, no matter how much you read and study, will be localized to just Modern Western Pop-culture occultism. In that case, your understanding of occultism will be incomplete.

For example, the actual definition of the word "Occultism," per Merriam-Webster is: "belief in or study of the action or influence of supernatural or supernormal powers." This meaning and definition follows the understanding of occultism in Buddhism, according to the Buddha. In Buddhism, the words "occult," & "supernatural," & "magic" & "paranormal," & "psychic" are all the same word in Sanskrit and the Buddhist scriptures. In Taoist Sorcery (Chinese occultism), all those words mentioned are understood to be the same class or category of phenomena, and at the center or core of such phenomena are the (1) Mind, (2) Intention, & (3) Chi.

Sense you are coming from a scientific or rational position, it might be useful for you to approach occultism from a different approach: If occultism is real; meaning if such things as paranormal activity, supernatural (supra-natural / praeter-natura) phenomena, psychic phenomena, and magic/k, are real, observable, and verifiable phenomena; then such phenomena are governed (made possible) by principles embedded in the make-up of the universe/reality. Thus: what are those principles?

In the West, occult and esoteric philosophy attempts to uncover and understand those principles. Pop-culture occultism is blind to or uninterested in those principles, and is primarily focused on the exoterica such as rituals, grimoires, and elements of the Americanized neo-hinduism of the 60s and 70s such as chakras, kundalini, tantrika, and karma, etc.

Those principles must have two main conditions or criteria: (1) that such principles are universal, meaning that they explain how magic works, how psychism works, how supra-natural phenomena work, in all human cultures, from ancient Africa to Modern America & (2) that such principles must be able to predict such phenomena when the right variables are inputted. Variables meaning the words (i.e chants, prayers, etc), rituals, ritual paraphernalia, intention, timing, energy (chi, ki, pneuma, psychic force), mind, will, and so on.

A second and just as important thing to consider and ponder on, which most modern-day pop-occultists do not ever think about is: in what way did occultism exist, how was occultism taught and transmitted, and from what source did occultism come if (1) writing had not yet been invented, (2) books had not been invented.

The modern pop-occultist is entirely dependent upon "occult books." The question is: from where did a person get occult knowledge and occult powers before writing and books were ever invented? You will find the answer to that question by studying ancient human cultures such as those found in Africa, Asia, and the Americas. To put it into simple English: how did Africans 5000-10,000 years ago, Asians 5000-10,000 years ago, Native Tribes across the Americas 5000-10,000 years ago get their occult knowledge and occult powers, if books, libraries, and the internet had not yet been invented? How did ancient Europeans 5000-10,000 years ago come to know of occult knowledge and come to have occult powers?

If occultism is universal to all human races and cultures, then there must exist a universal factor or common denominator that is the source of occult knowledge and occult powers. If you study such ancient human cultures, you will one day discover that there does indeed exist a universal factor or common denominator: Spirit.

Spirit is universal. All ancient human cultures were, and many still are, Animistic. Where animism here means the belief in spirits (anima), such as ancestor spirits, and nature spirits, etc. A subset of animism, which is universally found in all human cultures is known today as "shamanism" which here means the practice of entering trance to interact and commune with spirits.

Before magickal grimoires, thousands of years before books and writing were invented, before the internet ever existed, spirits were the source of occult (re: supra-natural) knowledge & power. This can be verified by simple studying an African people called the Koi-San who are our species' oldest genetic race of people, who have existed on earth for circa 150,000 years, and who were since such pre-historic times till this day Animist who use trance to interact and commune with spirits.

My fallible advice would be for you to put the books, grimoires, and internet websites aside momentarily, and to study human cultures and their various occult practices in order to discover the underlying principles and natural laws that makes all occult phenomena possible. You would gain a far greater understanding of occultism that way, and once you uncover those principles, you can use those principles to generate and produce occult phenomena. And from your direct experience of such occult phenomena you will gain an understanding and knowledge of occultism proper.

 

[newChemist]

Hi there and thank you for that well-formulated, structural response.
What you are saying here makes eerily much sense. And hearing some feedback about modern-day pop-occultism (and even just hearing about the existence of something called pop-occultism,) helps putting things in place for me. What you are saying about the universality of those principles, and that all occult books we rely on nowadays as gospel for guidance to occultism, effectively are a result of the interactions ancient people/societies had with spirits makes incredibly much sense too. The entire story cannot just begin with a book that popped right out of nowhere after all.

So if you are saying that it would be highly beneficial to study those human cultures together with their occult practices that led to the establishment of laws/rules/principles for handling occultist endeavors, do you maybe have any books/media you would recommend that explores exactly this in more depth?

Again, what you are saying seems to make eerily much sense to me, and therefore is something I wanna dive deeper into.
If you (or anyone else for that matter) could recommend any sources depicting this stuff in more detail, that would mean the world to me.

Thank you again for your response. I greatly appreciate the help.
Enjoy the Christmas and happy new year!

 

[Xenophon]

Hi there and thank you for that well-formulated, structural response.
What you are saying here makes eerily much sense. And hearing some feedback about modern-day pop-occultism (and even just hearing about the existence of something called pop-occultism,) helps putting things in place for me. What you are saying about the universality of those principles, and that all occult books we rely on nowadays as gospel for guidance to occultism, effectively are a result of the interactions ancient people/societies had with spirits makes incredibly much sense too. The entire story cannot just begin with a book that popped right out of nowhere after all.

So if you are saying that it would be highly beneficial to study those human cultures together with their occult practices that led to the establishment of laws/rules/principles for handling occultist endeavors, do you maybe have any books/media you would recommend that explores exactly this in more depth?

Again, what you are saying seems to make eerily much sense to me, and therefore is something I wanna dive deeper into.
If you (or anyone else for that matter) could recommend any sources depicting this stuff in more detail, that would mean the world to me.

Thank you again for your response. I greatly appreciate the help.
Enjoy the Christmas and happy new year!

Personally, I think you'd be further ahead in reading in your field of immediate interest, then branching out as questions arose. Otherwise you wind up like lots of polymaths aspirant: thrashing forever in the shallow salt flats of superficial omniscience. Life is short. Pursue your real interest and jump right in. Don't fritter away irreplaceable time on intellectual foreplay. Or at least be studying---and PRACTICING---your major occult interest while doing cultural studies on the side.

I knew a professor back in grad school who had shiften late in life from logic---which he never liked---into environmental ethics and Daoism. Quoth he, "I got into philosophy at age nineteen wanting the answer to certain pressing social questions. I woke up one day, I was forty-seven and I hadn't asked any of those questions since starting grad school." Why? As he explained, he got hijacked by academic highwaymen who steered him into the tortorous thickets of epistemology from which none emerge.

 

[Mars]

Hi there!

I am pretty much brand-new to the world of occultism, but am experienced with self-study.
I learned about myself that self-studying is most effective when there is a logical structure to abide by when tackling a chosen field of study.

(I do also think that taking a more organized approach as of compared to a more impulsive one is better for most but that's not the point of the post here.)

However, in order to be able to form a personalised curriculum about occultism, it would be highly informative to be aware of what the occultism landscape more or less looks like. I don't really know where to start yet, and therefore asked ChatGPT to create a set of subfields of occultism. However, given AI is my formal field of study, I am fully aware that ChatGPT's word should not be taken as gospel and can contain mistakes. I will still share this list because I would highly appreciate feedback regarding the correctness and completeness of the set of subfields ChatGPT gave me. The set of subfields I got from ChatGPT is as follows:

1. alchemy
2. astrology
3. divination
4. theurgy and ritual magic
5. hermeticism
6. mysticism
7. occult philosphy
8. kabbalah
9. occult psychology
10. spiritualism
11. esotericism
12. witchcraft and paganism
13. sufism
14. occult traditions in christianity
15. satanism and left-hand path
16. thesophy
17. shamanism

(also, ordering is not relevant here)

With this list mentioned, I would really appreciate some feedback regarding that list. I have heard from some others who said the list was not particularly good because it still forgot some things, or that there is a large discrepancy between the sizes of the subfields in the list or that there is significant overlap, but more detail than this I did not receive, so I am still pretty clueless.

Also, for those who would be so kind as to spitball some suggestions regarding creating one's own personal curriculum, I am heavily interested in demonology and the left-hand stuff, but am aware that by only focussing on that, I see the possibility of developing some kind of tunnel vision, and will probably not catch onto concepts that are heavily related to other fields too. For that reason, I am very open to the kinds suggestions thrown my way. I am willing to deviate from my original interests for the greater good. I already am busy learning about the art and science of meditation too for example, because I figured that would be an essential skill.

I hope I gave enough info for you to provide a solid answer to this post, and also hope that this post about essentially stratifying the field of occultism into designated sub-fields, could help a lot of other fellow clueless newbies who are looking for some kind of formal structure to grab onto as we start out in this field.

With this all out of the way,
thank you very much for reading this and I appreciate all constructive feedback sent my way.
Have a great christmas and new year!

AI is great for something like this. And it mentioned you stuff that most don't even dare to look at. They rather start sucking crowleys dick and sperg out when someone suggests them you can get further in occultism without taking drugs or fucking children like the thelema people.

Since it mentioned sufism, I recommend you Guénon and Evola. As both were initiated into it as well. Sufism is the last modern tradition closest to the original Atlantean hermeticism. Although it has been somewhat distorted and corrupted by Islam. But still better than freemasonry or the other shit

Post automatically merged: Monday at 10:35 AM

Theosophy is great.

I recommend you to scrap kabbalah. Its just jewish mysticism which is a perverted form of sumer mysticism. Om Ishtar Ama.

Also christian "esotericism". Thats just discount hermeticism like freemasonry.

 

[HoldAll]

Hi there!

I am pretty much brand-new to the world of occultism, but am experienced with self-study.
I learned about myself that self-studying is most effective when there is a logical structure to abide by when tackling a chosen field of study.

(I do also think that taking a more organized approach as of compared to a more impulsive one is better for most but that's not the point of the post here.)

However, in order to be able to form a personalised curriculum about occultism, it would be highly informative to be aware of what the occultism landscape more or less looks like. I don't really know where to start yet, and therefore asked ChatGPT to create a set of subfields of occultism. However, given AI is my formal field of study, I am fully aware that ChatGPT's word should not be taken as gospel and can contain mistakes. I will still share this list because I would highly appreciate feedback regarding the correctness and completeness of the set of subfields ChatGPT gave me. The set of subfields I got from ChatGPT is as follows:

It's rather rare that somebody approaches occultism in such a structured way, usually people begin their introductions with "I feel drawn to [this or that topic]", which isn't the worst strategy to choose because after all, why should people study something in their spare time that bores them to tears? In one of his books, Wouter J. Hanegraaff (Centre for History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents, Faculty of Humanities, University of Amsterdam) calls esotericism a 'waste-paper category' containing 'rejected knowledge', which is charactistic for the quandary modern scholars of religion find themselves in when they decide to take occultism seriously instead of discounting it as mere superstition as was usual until not so very long ago (and they still bicker about a definitive definition of 'magic' and will probably never find one).

It's an admittedly chaotic field. If you want to stay on the sidelines for the time being (and remain what is uncharitably called an 'armchair occultist'), you may want to start with books by serious scholars of religion or philosophy, anthropologists, historians, etc. (hint: when in doubt, always judge an occult book by its cover if you don't know the author; scholarly books can be easily recognized by their sober covers). Or you could ask "What's the best book on [this or that topic]" in our forum's Book Discussion and Reviews, or search the Forum Library. There are many ways to categorize the occult (e.g. historically, culturally, methodologically), and it's entirely natural to make a few false starts and discover that the book you're currently reading is actually rubbish or that its subject is so abstruse that you may want to abandon it. Someone once said, "There is no authority on magic", meaning that the definitive book on magic will never be written (some might disagree here), and returning to those scholars I mentioned, they'll never come to an agreement concerning this slippery chameleon of a subject either.

Tell you what: I'll simply recommend reading Tanya M. Luhrmann's "Persuasions of the Witch's Craft" because it describes the 'interpretive drift' (that term made her mildly famous in the academy) you'll very likely go through, i.e. the change of occult students' beliefs over time depending on the books they've read and the practical experiences they've made. It's a scholarly/anthropological/psychological work written at a time when a certain dogmatism still reigned, nowadays it's more an eclectic individualist free-for-all. That dull period fortunately (in my humble opinion) ended when chaos magick burst onto the scene (Peter J. Carroll's "Liber Null & Psychonaut" proved seminal here), and after that everything exploded - on the one hand scholars began to take a serious interest in esotericism, on the other the market was inundated with 'how-to' books, many of which of dubious value. Now we have the scholarly tomes, both the serious and the lightweight occult books as well as the NewAge fluff side by side, and it will probably take you some time to learn discernment (again, the cover will tell you everything about a given book's quality) because it's a jungle of esoteric knowledge out there. Bibliographies in books help, if you see references to a specific one frequently, you know it's likely to be important.

It's crucial to embrace that interpretive drift, keep an open mind and at the same time take everything with a grain of salt. At the beginning it may in fact feel like rummaging through a waste-paper basket of rejected knowledge but you're bound to discover some items there that may prove fascinating to you.

Post automatically merged: Monday at 11:17 AM

And if you actually want to get your hands dirty, so to speak:

Beginner's Decision Paralysis

Hello everyone, I'm starting this thread because I'm truly stumped, and I know I'm not the only one who's experienced this. I have read countless grimoires, occult books, etc. with the intent of getting started in some sort of spiritual practice (in no way is this me saying that I know it all...

wizardforums.com

 

[Wintruz]

Hi there!

I am pretty much brand-new to the world of occultism, but am experienced with self-study.
I learned about myself that self-studying is most effective when there is a logical structure to abide by when tackling a chosen field of study.

(I do also think that taking a more organized approach as of compared to a more impulsive one is better for most but that's not the point of the post here.)

However, in order to be able to form a personalised curriculum about occultism, it would be highly informative to be aware of what the occultism landscape more or less looks like. I don't really know where to start yet, and therefore asked ChatGPT to create a set of subfields of occultism. However, given AI is my formal field of study, I am fully aware that ChatGPT's word should not be taken as gospel and can contain mistakes. I will still share this list because I would highly appreciate feedback regarding the correctness and completeness of the set of subfields ChatGPT gave me. The set of subfields I got from ChatGPT is as follows:

1. alchemy
2. astrology
3. divination
4. theurgy and ritual magic
5. hermeticism
6. mysticism
7. occult philosphy
8. kabbalah
9. occult psychology
10. spiritualism
11. esotericism
12. witchcraft and paganism
13. sufism
14. occult traditions in christianity
15. satanism and left-hand path
16. thesophy
17. shamanism

(also, ordering is not relevant here)

With this list mentioned, I would really appreciate some feedback regarding that list. I have heard from some others who said the list was not particularly good because it still forgot some things, or that there is a large discrepancy between the sizes of the subfields in the list or that there is significant overlap, but more detail than this I did not receive, so I am still pretty clueless.

Also, for those who would be so kind as to spitball some suggestions regarding creating one's own personal curriculum, I am heavily interested in demonology and the left-hand stuff, but am aware that by only focussing on that, I see the possibility of developing some kind of tunnel vision, and will probably not catch onto concepts that are heavily related to other fields too. For that reason, I am very open to the kinds suggestions thrown my way. I am willing to deviate from my original interests for the greater good. I already am busy learning about the art and science of meditation too for example, because I figured that would be an essential skill.

I hope I gave enough info for you to provide a solid answer to this post, and also hope that this post about essentially stratifying the field of occultism into designated sub-fields, could help a lot of other fellow clueless newbies who are looking for some kind of formal structure to grab onto as we start out in this field.

With this all out of the way,
thank you very much for reading this and I appreciate all constructive feedback sent my way.
Have a great christmas and new year!

Are you looking to build a personal curriculum (do you want to be a magician in other words) or are you looking to intellectually master occultism as a category of human activity?

If the former, find something that "speaks" to you and dig deep (we have some decent conversations in the Left Hand Path section if that's what captures your imagination), remembering that challenging what you want to be true will always deepen your awareness of truth and that will make you stronger. If the latter, for a mind that wishes to approach this in a structured way, I would say chronological study would be the best approach.

The areas covered by the ChatGPT list are enormous and many people, including those studying and writing about the occult, are prone to confusion because there is a lack of developmental awareness: many see the links between systems but they don't understand the intellectual evolution of those systems. There are also considerable overlaps and vaguenesses on that list too. For example, any item on that list might be colloquially classified as "mysticism" yet, technically, "mysticism" is the pursuit of union with God. Mysticism is then a subcategory of religion. "But, wait, aren't all people on a journey to God? Isn't that what most mystics have taught?" Well then is there a single aspect of human life that isn't mysticism? This is the problem with vagueness in this area: theories of everything, encompass everything.

What I set out below is outrageously broad (and undoubtedly some pedant will want their niche interest to be covered) and Western specific (things have evolved differently in other parts of the world) but to do this chronologically, you'll want your curriculum to look something like this:

"Shamanism" (there are problems with this term) generally covers the oldest deep spiritual impulses of humanity of which we have any kind of awareness. In many senses, everything that comes afterwards is a refinement and evolution of those shamanic impulses. Mircea Eliade's Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy is a good book to read on this subject, though, like everything else recommended, it has been challenged. Indigenous shamanic practices were increasingly intellectualised as societies mastered agriculture and this is where "shamanism" evolves into ancient forms of paganism. Paganism is a very, very broad church and encompasses everything from elevated carnality to a desire to leave the material world entirely. In some cultures, such as those of the Levant, proto-sciences were understood through a pagan lens and this gives rise to astrology and (very early) alchemy, both of which are still with us. Increasingly sophisticated societies permitted increasingly sophisticated thinking and philosophers such as Pythagoras and Plato attained a kind of sophistication in their mystical thoughts which transformed these subjects beyond recognition from their earthy shamanic beginnings. Platonism had an enormous influence on Christianity ("esoteric" dimensions of Christianity might be called "closer to Plato" than the mainstreamed versions). Platonism is also at the root of Sufism (most Islamic theologians, especially those from Persia and what is now Turkey, were open about their debt to Plato and considered him to be a righteous pagan) and, through Philo of Alexandria, it's at the foundation of Cabala, (unlike the Muslims, the Jews have been very careful to hide these roots and present Cabala as a homegrown tradition). In the same hothouse atmosphere of late antiquity which allowed Platonism to influence these religions, other smaller movements emerged, synthesising the same material in different ways. One of the most famous of these (though overestimated in terms of its historical influence, see Hanegraaff) is Hermetism/Hermeticism. Another was Gnosticism. The rise of these movements led pagans to want to codify and protect their traditional beliefs and Neoplatonism sought to fulfil that role. There was enormous crossover between Neoplatonism and these other forms of speculative mysticism.

These themes play out for centuries. In the West, Aquinas' influence on theology creates a clear categorisation of belief: good Christians believe certain things and reason points towards those things. Anything outside of this "orthodoxy" is spiritually suspect. This gives rise to the occult proper although many aspects of the occult had a complex relationship with Christianity in the late Medieval/early Renaissance period. Read Hanegraaff's Esotericism and the Academy for this subject. That relationship becomes less complex towards the end of the Renaissance when occult practices are alternately seen as either fraudulent or evil. The latter gave rise to the witch-trials, where occultism was revealed to be knowingly in cahoots with the Devil. In a certain sense, as a motif, you could say that Satanism enters the picture fully at this time. At the same time, through writers like Böhme and the Rosicrucians, a kind of Christian theosophy emerges which is heavily influenced by the Platonic aspects of Christianity. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Aquinas' reason turns on religion itself and many writers begin to consider all non-rational/material systems to be hocus pocus. The Romantics, however, find deep value in ancient paganism and their poetic writings on these subjects will have a huge influence on the pagan revivals of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The famous "occult revival" of the nineteenth century, with Blavatsky, the Golden Dawn, Crowley, the French Satanists, Guido von List, etc. etc. has radically shaped our perceptions of the occult. A good book to read on this subject is Alison Butler's Victorian Occultism and the Making of Modern Magic.

That takes us up to the twentieth century. I won't overload even more but I'm happy to discuss anything (that I can) in more detail if it's of interest.

 

[HoldAll]

Forgot to add: "Lords of the Left Hand Path" by Stephen E. Flowers is a good LHP introduction, I'd say:

Book – PDF - Lords Of The Left Hand Path: A History Of Spiritual Dissent — Stephen E. Flowers

Download: 14.85 MB file on MEGA

wizardforums.com

Post automatically merged: Monday at 2:25 PM

A good book to read on this subject is Alison Butler's Victorian Occultism and the Making of Modern Magic.

That takes us up to the twentieth century. I won't overload even more but I'm happy to discuss anything (that I can) in more detail if it's of interest.

Great analysis, splendid recommendation, it's a solid scholarly book, and I've just updated the mega link:

Book – PDF - Alison Butler - Victorian Occultism and the Making of Modern Magic: Invoking Tradition

The late Victorian period witnessed the remarkable revival of magical practice and belief. Butler examines the individuals, institutions and literature associated with this revival and demonstrates how Victorian occultism provided an alternative to the tightening camps of science and religion in...

wizardforums.com

 

[Missterry]

So if you are saying that it would be highly beneficial to study those human cultures together with their occult practices that led to the establishment of laws/rules/principles for handling occultist endeavors, do you maybe have any books/media you would recommend that explores exactly this in more depth?

Again, what you are saying seems to make eerily much sense to me, and therefore is something I wanna dive deeper into.
If you (or anyone else for that matter) could recommend any sources depicting this stuff in more detail, that would mean the world to me.

Thank you again for your response. I greatly appreciate the help.
Enjoy the Christmas and happy new year!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you also!

I forget you are 22 and still young. I also forget that I was once 22. You've already gotten excellent insights, suggestions, and advice, by rational and intelligent people in this thread already. And so, what I will do is try to explain what I did, beginning when I was in my early 20s like you are now. And from my example or outline, you will hopefully end up figuring things out on your own.

I was interested in occultism in my late teens. And, like most people, I started off reading books, or certain authors to be more precise. And those books or subject matters those certain authors taught are, unfortunately pop-occultism in genre. The unfortunate things is that we all have to start somewhere, as a beginning point.

The three authors I began readying and studying were (when I was your age)
1. Anton LaVey, the author of the well-known Satanic Bible.
2. Crowley and all of his writings, such as his Thelema shit and his Equinox issues.
3. (as already suggested by HoldAll) Peter Carroll and his Chaos Magick stuff.

When you read or study those authors and their books, you do so in a slightly different way then just reading a book. What I did was, when I read, for example something by LaVey, and I encountered a subject he talked about, such as for example the Templars, the OTO, the Enochian keys, what I did was put that book down, and I would spend as much time as I could to research and study those topics. I did this in order to try and learn what things LaVey and Crowley etc got from such subject matters.

When you study Crowley and his massive heap of texts, you will be led around far and wide, from everything to the Golden Dawn all the way to the mysticism and esoterica of India. The question you should keep in mind is: What did Crowley see or learn in such things which gave him his occult knowledge?

Today I think Chaos Magick is silly, but Peter Carroll and other such big-name authors of that genre breaks down for you how and why Magick seems to work, at least magick of the Western Occult Tradition.

I took what I learned from LaVey, Crowley, and Chaos Magic, and I made a few hypotheses regarding how and why Magic and supernatural phenomena and psychic phenomena work. Then, having grown a little older and smarter, I set out to test my hypotheses: If my hypotheses hold, then I should see the same factors, variables, and "ingredients" in all traditions and systems of magick in every human culture.

To test my hypothesis, I spent years and years immersing myself in the living occult traditions of various other races and cultures. For example, I studied the witchcraft and magical tradition of my own culture, then I got initiated into a Taoist Sorcery Sect, then I studied An African religion brought to the New World by slaves from Nigeria generically called "Santeria" (properly La Regla de Ocha). Essentially, what you want to do is not localize yourself to just Modern Pop-Occultism, you diversify, and research the occultism of Old World Europe (which actually meant something different than what occultism is understood to mean today), diversify by studying and researching the traditions of other human races and cultures not your own. When you do this, you will begin to see factors and variables that repeat across those cultural traditions. Studying and immersing yourself in a Living Tradition is far more enlightening than reading books, because you end up directly witnessing supernatural phenomena, you end up witnessing those repeating factors and variables, and so you end up learning that a set of common factors and variables are universal to all magick and occultism regarding all human cultures.

Once you discover those factors and variables, you then ask yourself: Why do those factors and variables, when brought together, into a formulated procedure work to create or induce change in reality? Why and how do such factors and variables manipulate or influence the universe or reality to alter and change to produce things like magic and supernatural phenomena?

Once you begin to try to discover the answers to those questions, you are then genuinely on your path to Occult Knowledge. That path, which I took, will once day lead you to study Cosmology, meaning the Nature of Reality as the Buddha put it. What is the Nature of Reality, and how do those factors influence reality? This is where Old World European Esoteric Traditions come into play, because such esoterica attempt to explain the Nature of Reality, beginning with the Nature of the Ultimate Bedrock of Reality, called by many systems and traditions as "God," which is the Divine Source, or the Divine Mind (as Hermes put it) of Reality.

When you study and contemplate on the Nature of Reality and the Nature of the Divine Mind, you will come to one day realize that you are yourself a Mind. And so the Buddha asks you the rhetorical question: What is the Nature of Mind?

When you realize that fundamentally, there are only two real elements in reality: 1) the Divine Mind & 2) your individuated Mind (Macrocosm & Microcosm as the hermetic tradition puts it), you will begin to understand that the same principles (here meaning laws of nature) that makes shit like magic and supernatural phenomena work, is the same principles that allows the Divine Mind to Create Reality.

What the Divine Mind is fundamentally and how it Creates the world, is the foundation of Occultism and esoteric philosophy, in any human culture and tradition. The language and myths and lens will change from human culture to human race, understandably, but in essence, we are all trying to speak of the same thing.

That was basically how I did things. I started simple, with books nearly anybody here in the West would be familiar with, but I approached things from a rational and scientific position where I made hypotheses and spent time trying to test them, and from there, I was naturally led to mysticism and esoteric philosophy. Hopefully, this will give you a rough road map to help you begin your journey.

Essentially, in order for magic and supernatural phenomena to work, something about the Nature of Reality must be responsive.