Why did you start?

[thornshurt]

What initially got you into the occult and why do you continue to pursue it?

 

[Hound of Chulain]

since childhood i always have questions about both history and life to my dad, until im old enough to learn on my own while also having a hard time to comprehend some words, history was my favorite subject and i fell in love with Ancient Greeks because i keep imagining how beautiful the city of athens overlooking the Mediterranean sea and dreams to have a house there until they released this game called Assassins Creed Odyssey, i was truly fascinated by their own depiction of that city, very beautiful, long story short it was mostly during middle school, i was crazy for history and then a bunch of talks about UFO, that time topic like this is very hot in my country even made it into commercial channel on TV, its rare to see it discussed here in his country because its in English (i was bad at it and even now) thankfully there are a community of my fellow countrymen that made a whole blog on fringes and conspiracy theories in general in my native language, that was probably the start and for some years i keep reading a lot of it and articles that ended up in a big rabbit holes, i started to notice something off with history about world war account because most of them are from allied perspectivea and i want to know the other sides stories too and ended up into the pseudohistory like Hitler in Antarctica and that is another rabbit hole i fell all over again until i learned about esoteric... rabbit holes and here i am, it just a cycle of my curiosity took the best of it.


Why i continue is mostly because i don't want to throw all of my effort into the drain of learning up until this point also this subject and art is the only vices that gives me freedom of imagination and peace (though some readings can get me overthink like crazy) but really, i just love doing this, knowing something and new knowledge is worth than anything a man can ask for

 

[Robert Ramsay]

Always been interested in the paranormal. One day, I decided that if it really existed, there had to be a scientific explanation of it, that we just haven't found yet. So I've spent thirty years investigating that.

I'm still here because my discoveries changed my life, and I can't think of the world any other way.

And there's always more to learn, isn't there?

 

[Accipeveldare]

At first I think it was because I was trying to figure out who I was as a person and also (as a lot of teenagers do, I started at 14) I was trying to seperate from the crowd.

Eventually by about 16 years old I realized that I should not try so hard to seperate because the seperation will happen naturally based on who I should be around for my owm personal growth as long as I am doing the work. I also realized there was more ego in trying to be a black sheep than just doing my own thing. So, then it shifted. I began doing things for myself or to help others rather than attempting to be something that I am not.

Nowadays, I very much enjoy the pursuit of knowledge and wisdom, and I hope the journey never ends.

 

[hollowglasd]

i started when a tarot deck was given to me as a young teen. i dived in and began to understand how to use it and what for. im still doing it to be true to myself. and to know myself

 

[m88kie]

Ever since I was a kid the question of the unknown always poked at me I always a wanted to know more even if I found my answer. These last couples of years have really urged me to figure out what I wish to know and control

 

[Kepler]

What initially got you into the occult

Unsure if it was a dream or a real event. My earliest childhood memory is a vivid one of waking up in a crib, standing up and looking around. There was a Ouija board among games on the top shelf of the closet. There was also a styrofoam mannequin head with a shoulder length 60's bouffant wig on the same shelf. I wanted the wig and it levitated toward me.
Once I discovered the religious shows on other channels between children's shows they were a big initial attraction trying to get answers, but that got nowhere.
Works of fiction and anything really that brought back that memory as a child would fascinate me and get me to read things about the subject. Focus with telekinesis and astrology, then ciphers and stage magic. Spirits and ghosts. Red Room Riddle was one of my favourite stories. Ancient Egyptians. Arthurian. Then scifi around 1977 with Star Wars, Star Trek, and Galactica. Project Bluebook. Close Encounters.

and why do you continue to pursue it?

Ability to investigate and experiment improved with school and greater access to material and personal freedom growing older. Peers doing their own things, but willing to get together for stuff. This is the 80s now and I'm 11. Michelle Remembers...
Threats of invasion and war.
Expanded practices to Jane Roberts and adjacent materials for the next few years which produced successful results that allowed for more determination and clarity going forward.
Videodrome, Firestarter, Cosmos, Hitchhiker's Guide, Dune, Mechanical Universe, Gleick's Chaos, ... String theory
The universe was beginning to make a glimmer of absurd sense.

 

[ImpulzResponz]

I have always been drawn to it. The deal was sealed when I walked into a "witchy" shop as a teenager and connected with people who were practicing. My first rituals were before I was even out of high school. Since, I've explored a few different facets of occultism as well as Buddhism (Tibetan and Zen). I think some of us are just drawn to it as a spiritual path.

 

[Firetree]

'Born that way '. 'Came with it ' . ( My mother fessed up once that she had 'strange dreams' about me ... 'weird shit' started happening around me as a kid . ) I started to tag what was going on when I was about 12 when I was allowed to go off by myself and travel around on the train network , I found a place with huge library and for some reason it had a big occult, religion, spirituality section ...... jackpot !

 

[rice candy]

I was lonely back then. Maybe that's why my dreams would bring me to different worlds every night, as a result I met and bonded with many types of spirits. I sought out the occult because it was also the natural evolution of my spiritual path. It gives me an opportunity to do collaborative work with my spirits and vice versa.

 

[FleaWizard]

After a 14-year spiritual journey that seemed to lead nowhere, I recently realized just how significant the Hermetic principles of Mentalism and Polarity are, and started putting them to practice more with great results. The past 14 years were filled with realizations, epiphanies, and synchronicities, but I was merely collecting knowledge without actually using it. Although I'd owned books on the 72 Goetic demons early on, I finally realized I should look into the 72 angels as well!

Working with the 72 angels pulled me into a new rabbit hole of magick. I began to see the true value and importance of magick rituals. Rituals are how we put spirituality into practice and integrate what we've learned into our lives! I started understanding how it all works: change without must begin from change within, and "all is mind". I knew this before too, but ritual is how we actually DO it and put it into action.

Reconnecting with Gnosticism, the idea of using magic for Theurgic purposes resonated with me. I realized the role magick rituals could play in identifying and banishing the lower Archonic forces within us. Mundane life constantly pulls us back to the ego and the physical. A bonus benefit of ritual is it reminds us of our divine origin, to not react to the material world, that "all is mind". It keeps us in the right state of consciousness! Without ritual, spiritual knowledge is almost pointless. I see ritual as the physical manifestation of spiritual knowing.