How true is it that reading fiction strengthens your magickal practice?

[jacobus]

I was reading Theodore Rose's "Lucifer and the Hidden Demons" the other day. He says that reading fiction is one of the greatest things you could do in your occult practice. How true have you found this to be?

 

[Adrian]

I will be speaking from my experience as someone who practices Greek goeteia. Most of my sources are works of fiction from that period as there are not a lot of occult/historical sources on things like ritual setup, choreography, etc. 'Write what you know' is as old as time and at least some of the ritual practices from fiction have to be accurate to some degree.

 

[Eliyel]

It probably depends on the fiction you're reading, but I've found it to be more of a setback than a help. As a long-time occult-horror nerd, getting into actual occult practices has been a tedious process of unlearning all kinds of tropes and misconceptions that get thrown into works that prioritize entertainment over accuracy. I also see a lot of people get so entrenched in their favorite fantasy worlds that they're unwilling to accept that reality might differ from their expectations, which ends with them getting stuck in a rut of mistaking their own daydreaming for spiritual encounters and never making any real progress.

If you enjoy fiction and find it more engaging than textbooks and theses, I'm sure it can be a useful tool to get a vague idea of the bare basics of some subjects. But the number of fictional occult films, books, and games I can now recognize as having done considerable legitimate research on the subject they covered is very, very low.

 

[Beyond Everything]

He says that reading fiction is one of the greatest things you could do in your occult practice.

lol would that it was so simple

 

[Morell]

I was reading Theodore Rose's "Lucifer and the Hidden Demons" the other day. He says that reading fiction is one of the greatest things you could do in your occult practice. How true have you found this to be?

It can alter your mindset so it can alter your practice both for the better and for the worse. It can be used intentionally for improvement. I like to read vampire tales books to strengthen my connection with the current, but it is re-reading stories I already know for the purpose. Fortunately the effect has to be build up, so no reason not to read something new and explore what is out there.

In fact, computer games and fiction tales lured me into learning magic in the first place, although it also meant unpleasant obstacles. Simple fact is that while we know it is a fiction, our subconscious is way less able to discern. But learning is in repetition, so no reason to be afraid.

 

[D Magick Johnson]

It helps us have a bigger imagination.

 

[halafman]

This reminds me of something I read by Stephen Buhner in his book about plant intelligence. Storytelling is usually our first experience of altered states of consciousness. Words as symbols bring out feelings and visions as we imagine the story to life. Think about how you can be lost in a story, only to be snapped out of it by an external distraction. More than that stories teach us to generate meaning from feelings, the core of sensory development and intuition; a person can be warm or cold bright or gloomy etc.

Books are Magick! … but I wouldnt go there for occult knowledge, with a few exceptions, I always thought Terry Pratchet and Douglas Adams had an interesting occult undercurrent.

 

[Jumi]

Fiction can sometimes offer the gateway into creative actions in your own practices in essence. Slight adaptations, such as eating a sugary bite after a ritual. It's grounded, and it's useful. Not all fiction is worth paying mind to, though.

 

[DoppelgangerFred]

Just my opinion but reading fiction actively is a great exercise for the imagination. Is there anything imagination and will are useful for? Some fiction does have an author's informed opinion on magic baked in (the canonical example being James Blish's "Faust Aleph-Null"). Most fantasy/magic fiction has something half-baked thrown in. Don't look to fiction for anything serious pertaining to magic. On a related note, you might want to look at how many people doing ritual magic of some form have a long-term involvement in Role-playing games.

 

[halafman]

I would add that there are a few books with overt information in them like Crowley’s Moonchild, but mostly they are terrible lol. I could t get through the first chapter of Dion Fortunes effort the “goat foot god” was so terrible I couldnt get past the first chapter. She wrote several books, which are supposed to impart occult knowledge and be an initiation of sorts, I just can’t get past her bad writing.

 

[Thee Nightfool]

William S. Burroughs believed (and claimed to have observed) that fiction/the written word could change reality itself. He was doing experiments in this realm decades before Grant Morrison coined the phrase "hypersigil" even. I think there is some truth to this, however, it (probably) gets lost in a web of complexity that we can barely understand on any rational level. Perhaps long-term acolytes of gods like Thoth might understand the ebb and flow of such a sorcerous practice?

 

[Morell]

William S. Burroughs believed (and claimed to have observed) that fiction/the written word could change reality itself. He was doing experiments in this realm decades before Grant Morrison coined the phrase "hypersigil" even. I think there is some truth to this, however, it (probably) gets lost in a web of complexity that we can barely understand on any rational level. Perhaps long-term acolytes of gods like Thoth might understand the ebb and flow of such a sorcerous practice?

Not sure about reality change, but change of reality perception is already described. The Exorcist Effect is both the term and the book about it, worth reading.

 

[Thee Nightfool]

For those interested, btw, there's a book called The Third Mind by Burroughs and his artist pal Brion Gysin that is quite fascinating and goes into some detail about these methods. The Cult of Golgotha by Craig Williams has a section on this as well, and he apparently used it for very interesting experiments with his own sorcerous sodality.

 

[Keldan]

I find it untrue. But you can use them as creative outlets when something is doable.

 

[Yazata]

I was reading Theodore Rose's "Lucifer and the Hidden Demons" the other day. He says that reading fiction is one of the greatest things you could do in your occult practice. How true have you found this to be?

Maybe what he meant is that in reading fiction you are actively forming the imagery in your mind, thereby training visualisation. As opposed to mindlessly consuming videos.
Same with making a Summary of a text yourself rather than have a robot do it for you.

 

[Seimulluh]

When you watch movie, you are given the visual stuff. When you read a book, you have to use your imagination to visualize the stuff...

Check this out from Gary Lachman, The Lost Knowledge of the Imagination:

"The ability to imagine is at the heart of what makes us human. Through our imagination we experience more fully the world both around us and within us. Imagination plays a key role in creativity and innovation.
Until the seventeenth century, the human imagination was celebrated. Since then, with the emergence of science as the dominant worldview, imagination has been marginalized -- depicted as a way of escaping reality, rather than knowing it more profoundly -- and its significance to our humanity has been downplayed.
Yet as we move further into the strange new dimensions of the twenty-first century, the need to regain this lost knowledge seems more necessary than ever before.
This insightful and inspiring book argues that, for the sake of our future in the world, we must reclaim the ability to imagine and redress the balance of influence between imagination and science.
Through the work of Owen Barfield, Goethe, Henry Corbin, Kathleen Raine, and others, and ranging from the teachings of ancient mystics to the latest developments in neuroscience, The Lost Knowledge of the Imagination draws us back to a philosophy and tradition that restores imagination to its rightful place, essential to our knowing reality to the full, and to our very humanity itself."

 

[Diamond-otherkin]

It can alter your mindset so it can alter your practice both for the better and for the worse.

Totally agree with that, I would even extend it to all forms of Art, and random events as well.

It helps us have a bigger imagination.

In my opinion this, combined with the above point about altering mindset both when reading and long-term is a clear proof that there is an effect of reading fiction on magic. Especially at a younger age, people who do not read nor do any kind of imaginative play tend to have weaker abilities.

The Exorcist Effect is both the term and the book about it, worth reading.

Never heard of it but very interested