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Pragmatic occult theory?

oregano

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I'm wondering if there's anything like a book or series of books that delineates an "occult theory", but not one that is claiming any kind of objective, physical, nor metaphysical truth.

Rather, a theory that comes from a vast set of experiences in many different occult traditions and practices from around the world, and is motivated to draw parallels between them and describe a set of general principles that most if not all systems have.

This would equip a student with a practical working model that would enable critical thought about how to approach novel problems with an occult lens.

Not a philosophy, a praxeology informed by many worldwide historical practices. Can you think of anything like that?
 

Robert Ramsay

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I've written one, but you'll hate it.
 

oregano

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I have something that is working for me that seems similar to what you are describing. BOTA Is an occult school that offers lessons either by download or through the mail. One lesson a week, and yes there is a cost involved. I have been doing it for 2 1/2 years and some weeks the pace seems agonizingly slow. Other weeks it seems like no matter how hard I try I will not master this weeks‘ lesson in only seven days. It focuses on building magical skills at a slow and methodical pace. The slow pace is designed to help prevent the magician from getting into trouble by using skills that are only half-baked and summoning something they can’t control. If you are looking for a system that produces specific results in a short period of time this is probably not the system for you.
 

luotenrati

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Chaos magick is extremely practically oriented. I believe it is very much in line with what you are looking for.

For something even more pragmatic, there is psychonetics, a Russian method for creating operational phenomologies directed to specific tasks. It was developed with an eye towards military usage, so that soldiers could deal more efficiently with extreme situations. Recent research has shown that with those techniques, a soldier can maneuver a drone with his mind, while receiving instructions, and preparing a meal at the same time. They are working towards them maneuvering several drones at once, as the idea of holistic objects allows one to manage multiple ideas at the same time.

The main idea is that you create local mental environments (LME) in which perception is different from everyday reality. The basis for creating such is deconcentration, where one engages with the entire field of perception all at once, allowing one to deal with more information than would be possible otherwise. LMEs are usually built out of concentration, deconcentration, and a sensory modality. By employing the method of convolution-deployment, they are able to condense an idea into its subrepresentational state, what is called a 'pure concept' (convolution). Those pure concepts can then once again be represented within a given modality (deployment). In this manner, you can take the concept of a chair, convolute it into a pure concept, and deploy it again as a color or a sound (gestaltization). Those deployed concepts can then be placed inside local volumes of attention (LVA) which is a sphere of attention, created by concentration within a deconcentrated space. The combination of such LVAs and the space surrounding it is called a holistic object. There are many such things one can do with holistic objects, such as creating organismic holistic objects out of them, by imbuing them with the pure concept of personal will.

In my opinion, this is the most pragmatic practice there is. It is completely non-denominational and does not make any metaphysical assumptions. Instead, it starts from direct experience and phenomenology, and develops its theories and methods from there. It does use philosophical theories, like the Leibnizean Monadology, Gestalt psychology or Buddhist phenomenology (someone called it 'pragmatic samatha' once and I think this description is adequate). It is a rigorous technology and every one of its statements can be experientially verified.

Combining it with chaos magick, especially sigils, would be extremely powerful in my opinion.
 
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