The current occultism vs the classical occultism

[hoiz7]

Hello everyone, hope yall have good day.

My question is .. multifaceted.

how different the classical occultism (aka something before the 19th century, if thats what people mostly define the classical occultism) and post-modern occultism? (Aka now, like in the current year, with all the internet access and the AI and stuff)

and how that difference may shape our perception on how to do magic. For example, is it better to be a jack of all trades and learn from the multiple systems and approaches (maybe chaos magic?) and without necessarily being a true master in a single system or approach (E.g. in astrology, you need to know what air represents, what fire represents. Basics, but not necessarily begin able to have pin point accuracy in reading like a master would.)

I hope that I make sense, but to make sure I will paraphrase my questions.

In a world with rapid access to information, where the algorithms can literally be a manifesting synchronicity, and a rapid one at that. What is the best approach to the occultism? How can a beginner reach a respectable attainment in magic in this world? (not necessarily what the classical magic would consider respectable high attainment, our and their world is different.)

How can we harvest the current energies that the current world offers to do our magic?

If im not clear you can ask me! I look forward to a good discussion.

 

[weirdbird]

how different the classical occultism (aka something before the 19th century, if thats what people mostly define the classical occultism) and post-modern occultism? (Aka now, like in the current year, with all the internet access and the AI and stuff)

You will be able to get a better grasp on the topic from a real historian, but in short (and I am going to paint it with incredibly broad strokes):

The "classical" late renaissance occultism is very much a product of its time, skeptical of the ideas and methods of the earlier medieval magic while fully embracing the growing rationalist philosophical movement. "Pseudomonarchia Daemonum" might very well be an outright mockery of the idea of summoning demonic entities to do your bidding, despite often being presented as a legitimate grimoire. Arguably the rationalist mindset was the source behind the "magic is a science not yet discovered" idea that still exists today. This it the time period where the esoteric mainstream comes to seek explanation for the occult forces in natural correspondences in an attempt to paint it as a hard science instead of something fuzzy, hard to define and mystical, while also trying to balance it with pure theology. Agrippa is your friend here, his writings are certified classic.

Here's where the fun stuff begins. By the 19th century, we have radio, electical lights, industrial revolution and so on. The late early modern people are very much into rationality, hard science, materialism is on the rise (European philosophy tends to osciliate between idealist and materialist trends in my opinion). We are slowly becoming aware of the power of the mind - mesmerism, hypnotism and all such things are at the front and center, spiritism is almost normal, but! - Everything is veiwd through a materialist lense. Biomagnetism, ectoplasm, invisible eye-beams are all very much physcial things, separate from the true mystical experiences that are in the domain of theology. You can for example, read Papus for a shining example. Or Levi - although no matter what others might say, I personally do not recommend Levi's abstract and largely insubstantial theological ramblings.

Alright, so the 20th century happens. Theosophy is as popular as it will ever be, the western world is rapidly importing bastardized easter religious ideas while trying to put the two halves of the puzzle, the magical and the mystical, back together with these shiny new eastern tools. The thought is beginning to slowly shift away from materialism as the science begins to realize not everything can be easily explained with classical physics, and we still don't really understand how conciousness works. This is when psychology comes into picture - if, as it turns out, we can not explain magic with invisible eye-beams and radio waves, then maybe it is all in our heads! This is when subconcious takes place of secret natural correspondencies. Crowley was one of the proponents of this approach at some perdios of his life - though he later grows out of it, becoming convinced the intelligences he had been in contact with are undeniably much smarter than he is, and therefore they can not be just a part of his subconcious mind. The New Age absorbs the psychological ideas like a sponge, merging them into the theosophical foundation.

Now, the modern times - we are living in the time when the those two strands of thought are merged together: the psychological approach, where the classical Chaos Magic beginning with A. O. Spare partially belongs for example, or the New Age, Shadow Work and so on - anything that primarily treats the occult as an extension of your subcioncous mind, is in a way in tune with the physical approach. There is no strong distinction between the inside and the outside of your mind (New Age is particuarly fond of this concept, just take a look at the Kybalion). On the other hand, there is a branch of thought aiming to re-explain the occult with yet newer physics, focusing on the concepts on information, energy and quantim mechanics - Pete Carroll's works on Chaos Magic often use quantim physics as the explanation for magic for example. We are also going through a bit of a revival of the ancient magical practices, with the occult public's growing interest in PGM and other ancient grimoires.

To the last bit, the internet helps us connect and gain access to the information more easily, so our everything-pot of occult ideas is cooking the esoteric soup even faster. AI is largely a non-factor, excapt we now have to be wary of the poor quality AI-generated books. Neither really change the direction where we are going in my opinion.

where the algorithms can literally be a manifesting synchronicity

If it's the algorithm's doing it's not exactly a syncrhonicity, it's just the algorithm.

How can we harvest the current energies that the current world offers to do our magic?

Use the internet to read books and ask question of forums for wizards, of course! I can try recommending some books if you can narrow down the topics you are interested in, otherwise I'd have to stick to the generic "Bardon, Kraig, Regardie, maybe Crowley" western occultism recommendation lists. Absolutely do listen to a few ESOTERICA (

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) videos on youtube too. Do mind that the word "energy" carries a lot of assumptions. I know it's a big part of the modern occult vocablurary but remember not to let your understanding of the world limit your understanding of the concept behind it.

 

[Kepler]

An overlap from the classical that should be suggested more to the modern beginner is studying many subjects of academic Liberal Arts. On hindsight interdisciplinary is particularly useful advice I would've benefitted from going into junior high school looking at occultism as a career. Not only for application in the world and familiarity with trod ideas, but the later ability to contextualize and communicate spiritual experiences without having to learn these studies on the fly.
Epistemology should be broadly mandatory with clear indications of its involvement in the processing of information from AI and internet.

 

[Robert Ramsay]

The most straightforward advice I can give to answer your question is "become a Chaos magician." You can literally make use of anything if you can get yourself behind it.