What is the end goal of the occult?

[sajedbadir]

Material gain? Salvation?

 

[Necro]

Personal Gnosis

 

[akenu]

At a certain point the end goal stops being important. There are so many practices you can mess around and so many ways how to accumulate new personal experiences.

 

[lekvar]

Curiosity, mostly. I've always been fascinated by the Mystery Schools, and magic scratches that itch.

 

[hollowglasd]

to know myself and be true to myself

 

[boymatmat]

I wouldn’t strictly classify the goal of occultism as either material gain or salvation. Personally, I’d say spirituality, self-development, and a deeper connection with whatever one understands as the “higher” or transcendent aspects of reality are much closer to the core of it.

Of course, it can be used for very practical things too — love, success, money, protection, finding purpose, etc. I don’t think there’s necessarily anything wrong with that. But ideally, I think the practice should also push us beyond our current limitations rather than simply reinforce whatever we already want.

So if I had to give it an “end goal,” I’d probably call it elevation or transformation: becoming something more than what we started as, rather than simply getting more things from the mundane world.

 

[Firetree]

Material gain? Salvation?

To keep things hidden .

( To answer your thread title correctly )

 

[ortizem]

Material gain? Salvation?

 

[Pneuma_Purifier]

Initiation.

 

[Robert Ramsay]

Initiation.

Surely, by its very nature, initiation is how the work truly begins, not how it ends?

 

[Pneuma_Purifier]

Surely, by its very nature, initiation is how the work truly begins, not how it ends?

The ancients treated full conscious astral projection as the natural completion of earthly development.

After that, the work continues, but it continues on a different plane, not in the reincarnating cycle.

 

[Robert Ramsay]

The ancients treated full conscious astral projection as the natural completion of earthly development.

After that, the work continues, but it continues on a different plane, not in the reincarnating cycle.

And that's initiation, is it?

Ok, that's very different to any definition of initiation that I've ever seen.

 

[PalmerEldritch]

Ok, that's very different to any definition of initiation that I've ever seen.

What even is initiation today? Magick isn't kept secret like it was for most of the 20th century.

 

[Phillian]

I think by exploring something that escapes the norm, you learn to embrace your identity more. In other words, by exploring the occult, you lift the shadows of a format everyone is forced to fit in; you break the shackles and discover who you really are. Most things I have learned through my craft are that being a practitioner is not about being a powerful magic caster, is about seeing magic where no one sees. Even the most mundane thing can be magical once you embrace it; perhaps, if you look back into your childhood, you will find signs of that pure magic in there. So, to answer the question: I believe studying the occult is a way to unlock your freedom and love for life.

 

[Pneuma_Purifier]

Ok, that's very different to any definition of initiation that I've ever seen.

A Spanish author’s definition of Initiation is in this book, but the book (100 pages) is hard to find.

 

[Robert Ramsay]

A Spanish author’s definition of Initiation is in this book, but the book (100 pages) is hard to find.

Ok, so your unusual definition of initiation comes from one book in Spanish that I would almost certainly not have tead. Got it.

 

[Jhary-a-Conel]

Phrasing questions like this in the singular will fuck you up.

 

[Firetree]

The ancients treated full conscious astral projection as the natural completion of earthly development.

After that, the work continues, but it continues on a different plane, not in the reincarnating cycle.

What 'ancients' ? Its all very well to name some obscure 'ancients' as some type of 'valid' reference , to someone that has absolutely no knowledge of 'various ancients' .

I have contact with some ; I live among some of the descendants , still practicing culture and magic, from one of the oldest most ancient cultures on the planet . I can affirm what you claim is not at all their ' natural completion of earthly development '.

 

[Tehuti]

Material gain? Salvation?

I dont think there is actually an end go to occultism to me, we keep practicing to become perfect which we know it imposing that that doesn't mean we shouldn't keep doing it.

 

[Pneuma_Purifier]

I have contact with some ; I live among some of the descendants , still practicing culture and magic, from one of the oldest most ancient cultures on the planet . I can affirm what you claim is not at all their ' natural completion of earthly development '.

In the traditions I’m referencing, Initiation isn’t the beginning of human development, it’s the end of it, and the beginning of something beyond the human cycle.

 

[BasicWizBiz]

Material gain? Salvation?

I think it's a combination of big goals and small goals. For me, small goals would be like using magic to manifest things in order to further understand the basis of reality and what lies beyond. It's also useful for helping in daily life but I see that as more of a side effect. As for a big goal, at the moment I think my main occult goal is to become a Daoist immortal and wander different realms and help people. So boiled down, I guess my goals with the occult are improving my life while being able to connect to the wider universe and help people.