What got you into the occult?

[nargile57]

A visit to The Sorcerer's Apprentice bookshop in Leeds back in the late 70's looking for UFO books.
It changed my life when I saw what was on offer.

 

[Hakon]

An AMORC book on Kabbalah was one of my first true points of contact with this path. At the time, I knew almost nothing about the subject, but it quickly became my first real hyperfixation and set me on a deep search through Jewish mysticism. That search, in turn, opened the way to the wider world of occultism.

Today, my practice remains firmly rooted in a strong Jewish foundation, while also drawing, with discernment and respect, from what I find most valuable in other traditions.

 

[Veracity]

I remember seeing a purple neon outine when i was 5 or 6.
In bedroom the outline stretched out a hand and i could see a face but no face was there, freaked out i screamed and dad came in and settled me down( dad wasnt a believer)
Jump forward a year and flicking through a photo album (it was the 80s) in my grandparents and i told my dad that a photo was of the ghost i saw the previous year.
Dad laughed and said it was was his grandad but he had been gone over 20 years and no more was said.
I told his dad and thats when i learnt he (my grandad)was a spiritualist.
Then a million questions and answers......

Ayyyy, so you see them
Often with neon outlines? That’s cool. Do they ever look like sparkly tv static to you?
You ever see any in full color?

Post automatically merged: Thursday at 2:26 PM

Kabbalah, in the 1970's. Got so deep into Lurianic Kabbalah that I underwent Orthodox conversion,

because the real teachers won't teach goyim (non-jews). O conversion failed, converted another branch

but got the teacher anyways. Until he passed from liver disease. That was 40-ish years ago. Miss him.

That’s pretty wild, do you still practice regularly or is it just so ingrained in you now that you don’t even think about it?

 

[unholyReverie]

For me it was just my normal upbringing I was born in Salem Massachusetts & by age 5 I was having nightly obe's and could always feel energy & sense things.

By age 10 I had a crystal collection & was reading up on witchcraft & voudo ever sense it's just been my normal life.

I can think of a number of influences during childhood, or odd experiences looking back that probably signified an affinity, but one incident really sticks out.

I found a book in my elementary school library about magic. But, it was not a catalogue of folklore or ghost stories, with maybe some vague allusions to practices (though I had a few of those as a kid too). While not a comprehensive grimoire by any means, this book had actual spells / rituals for such things as finding lost objects, making someone love you, and contacting a demon. There also was a chapter on using dowsing rods. I have no idea how this made it into an elementary school library in the early 90s.

Increasingly I think of it as something like a glitch in the matrix, or an inconsistency in a dream, which was calling out to me.

 

[decidedfiend]

I've always been fascinated by it but i was raised around Santeria. i grew up with altars in the house and a family that would do spell work on me if they deemed i needed it. I've read tarot most of my life my great grandma taught me with Italian playing cards. I've also always had strange dreams, like seeing a family member in my dream only to be told they've died or my horrible intense sleep paralysis i used to get almost nightly. id see things and hear voices or feel them touching me. the last few years I've fallen into the knowledge again but finding a path of my own. lately I've been very into Gnosticism and alchemy.