My #OccultThoughtOfTheDay today takes commentary directly from my latest VulpineVoice newsletter. It may be as controversial an anthill to kick as many of my other posts here I suppose. Guess we'll see.

"[C]ultural appropriation. It is a difficult topic for chaos magickians to understand, as when results are all that matter any sensitivity towards the practitioners of other paths becomes a moot point. That said, I have always tried to lean towards appreciation instead, though some would say that willingness to temper my lust for new occult toys with deference to the feelings of others holds me back. Far from it, in actuality it pushes me to find similar strands within starkly different esoteric disciplines, and seek results through the technical building blocks which underlie open and closed traditions alike. I did not become a chaote to blindly ape the actions of others, but to understand the roots of spell work and strike out on my own."

https://theacceleratedchaote.com/2023/07/29/vulpine-voice-august-2023/

My #OccultThoughtOfTheDay is more of an observation on alarmist politics and the media. No, it's still relevant. Watch.

So I am an accelerationist. And the mass media would have you believe that the word may as well be shorthand for Alt-Right Neo-Nazi or some such crap. Accelerationism as a term is a set of tools, not a political polarity. We hail from all different social spheres. I myself lean towards the Left as well as Libertarian ideas, maybe some anarchy too. I am as far from a fascist as you can get.

Yet every time accelerationism is mentioned by the media it is in relation to whatever the Nazi in the room is up to today. Fine. Ignorance is the opiate of the masses and all that. Why do some deeper research when you can just find the worst of the people aligned with a given term and tar everyone else involved with the same slurry of hate and outrage?

Funny thing is though, go back several years, and equally alarmist and poorly referenced hack authors and journalists were saying the same thing about Chaos Magick as a whole due to a cartoon frog, despite having no clue about the actual origins or ethos of the movement.

My #OccultThoughtOfTheDay is more of a question.

"Does reality have it's own psychic censor?"

In my experience doing everything you can in the physical world to give a spell the best chance to manifest is a prerequisite for success. So does reality actually require the 'get out clause' of it being coincidentally possible for a result to occur to allow your success to slip through?

#OccultThoughtOfTheDay that I totally might spin into an article sometime...

"20th Century society was a purely necromantic endeavour, fuelled by the fossilised remains of the long dead. It is hoped that 21st Century society will be governed by far more naturalistic laws, seeing as renewable energy relies on the air, fiery sun and water to generate power, and of course the geothermal earth as well."

If you haven't seen it or it's been a while today is your reminder to go back and watch Grant Morrison's famous speech at Disinfo Con.

#magick #SigilMagick #occulture #occult #OccultThoughtOfTheDay

#OccultThoughtOfTheDay I find magick works better when you seek win-win results for all affected (that you know of).

#OccultThoughtOfTheDay focus on what you're doing right in your Practice. Focus on growth. Obsession with how "wrong" you are will just make you miserable.

I'm personally wary of occult sources that stereotype entities.

(Example: Saying that all Faeries are too evil to work with or are all untrustworthy. Or saying that all non-human hauntings are inherently malicious/parasitic.)

While certain traits may be more common among certain entities, non-human beings are hardly a monolith amongst themselves. It's just like no two humans are exactly alike, even if they share certain traits or a common background. In some ways, the differences between non-human entities may even be *more* nuanced.

And, as an aside, I find the folks most likely to demonize the non-human Other are also more likely to demonize other humans who exist on the margins.

#occult #OccultThoughtOfTheDay #spirits #SpiritWork #paranormal #witchcraft #witch #pagan #paganism

#OccultThoughtOfTheDay
You don't have to write OR read that next book. Ask what's really important to you.

#OccultThoughtOfTheDay I hear about City Mages, Country Mages, etc. I often whip stuff up with sticky note sigils and inkpens, notebooks and tape.

Maybe I'm an Office Mage.

#OccultThoughtOfTheDay over-detailed maps of mystical experiences, "levels," etc. make it easier to trick ourselves.

The journey requires room to experience it yourself.

#OccultThoughtOfTheDay we all model our mystical actions on role models, historic figures, pop culture characters, etc. The important thing is to be aware of how much is the real you and how much is an (at times unconscious) act.

Sometimes magick and mysticism can make you less of who you are.

#OccultThoughtOfTheDay

The punk rock pirate rebellion of #ChaosMagick from the 90s and 00's has lost its sense of self and purpose and moved on to indulging in being a satire of itself. We've avoided developing a culture of #magick in favor of an anti-culture based on the fear of being co-opted or becoming hypocrites. Maybe we're not willing to admit it, but there's a visceral sense that Chaos Magick failed and I think we've been living in a state of zombification for more 10 years. Like we gave ourselves a deadline and when the Weird Bombs didn't go off (at least, certainly not in the way we fantasized they would) we no longer knew what we were supposed to be doing.

We don't have a common language of the #occult or #mysticism or magick. We spend far too much time saying the same things, but differently, and demand that our personal languages and private gnosis be validated before we can have a decent conversation on magical theory. You can ask 3 people what a Servitor is and you'll probably get 4 answers if you're lucky. It's okay to have an Outer Yard where we speak in a common tongue, and still have our Inner Yard with our private language and personal gnosis left completely valid and inviolable. Being completely resistant to the idea of a common language of magick based on some paranoid fear of future catastrophe of control or manipulation is a trauma response not a reasonable deliberate choice made by a rational adult. Rather than have no #conversation about that we can at least discuss how to better create a public commons that is safe for everyone.

We've got no vision for the context of the #magician in today's society that isn't within the confines of #Capitalism.
People think "I want to make a living off my magick!" rather than simply living magically, and don't get me wrong I understand the feeling. We become craftspeople and sell goods and services, we work at occult shops, some of us try our hand at Content Creation. However, this is what gives rise to these Cults of Personality because when we make magick a function of survival in a Capitalist System rather than the best practice for resistance against it we invite the incentive to exploit others which is the fundamental growth force of that ideology INTO our magick as it becomes our #Brand.

I think the only example of an active force within the Chaos Magick scene that seems to intuitively understand this and is doing more walk and less talk about it would be the #HexorianMovement. They are, right now, what I see as the bright spot in a murky landscape of occulture who are trying to articulate their context and establish a real culture of magick.

#OccultThoughtOfTheDay the modern occultist has access to more legitimate sources than anyone in the past could have dreamed - but also faces bullshit and distractions they couldn't imagine.

#OccultThoughtOfTheDay a sense of humor is critical to occultism, because you WILL need to laugh at yourself.

#OccultThoughtOfTheDay : Many of us here believe in reincarnation, right? If it's true that we have lived numerous lives before this one, then it'd follow that this is likely *not* the first time we have dabbled in the Mysteries, in the Occult.

And that knowledge, once learned, is never truly lost. Even if we've forgotten how to retrieve it. So, all we have to do is remember.

#Occult #Occultism #Magick