Re- Beginning My Studies Of Occultism?

[Taiyounoryu]

I have always had a strong pull into the occult, ghosts, magics, demons, basically anything that would make other people look twice at what I'm reading. Now, back when I was younger I moved from anything from energy work, psychic vampirism, to even trying to harness any "special" abilities such as intuition and etc.

I did find I have somewhat of a talent for these types of things, and I've been feeling this pull getting stronger since I quit my practices. I had joined more or less a Satanic cult, and needless to say things got bad for me. Nightmares, shit around my house being weird. (electronics turning on and off, light-bulbs blowing up, malicious beings, shit like that.)

Now that I've lived in a new house for a year, I'm pretty sure there is nothing active in this house, so I'm considering coming back to the path of enlightenment so to speak. Now, here's my question. If I DO re-start my studies and practice, how can I avoid the last scenario? Being a younger kid it all fucked with my head pretty good.

I'm older, and I believe I'm ready to give everything a shot again. And also, with all this so far behind me I've more or less lost my place.. If I do pick this all back up, where would a good to place to restart be?

[dRider]

A lot of the threads in this Beginners forum has information on books to read, ideas to ponder, etc. I'd also recommend reading the very first post on the last page of this forum, page 88. The stickied posts at the top have links to other awesome information. Other than that, you'd just have to read around. There's information in almost every post, even if you don't know what you're looking for.

To know what you're looking for, you'd have to feel around. What interests you most? What piques your intrigue? Satanism, just like anything around here, is both powerful and benevolent, or terrible and frightful, depending on how you go into it. If you take a Christian attitude to a skillset named Satanism, then of course you're going to encounter what you'd end up thinking were terrible demons. As has been said around here before, if you look to demons thinking they're evil scum, and start demanding in the name of Christ, then it's no wonder they're wrathful! I've never followed Satanism, personally; please tell me what you did in it.

[weezyfosheezy]

Spiritually you need to become as strong as you possibly can and this may take some time, but it is a long long path to undertake.

Knowledge is power and without it you are powerless. Just because you learn something doesnt mean you should practice it right away, you may need protection, dispelling, banishing skills (by the nature of your problems). Try to prepare for any possibility.

Lastly understand that things do not always go as planned have a friend who can aid you in your spiritual journey and potentially save you from the same fate you had earlier.

[Taiyounoryu]

Well as far as the guy who posted after me, I didnt go into satanism with a "christian" mindset. As far as I knew from the uh, satanist set I joined Demons were thought of as protecters and guides. Just I started "playing" with it and I believe me not taking things serious caused the issues. Hmm, thanks for the help ya'll. Just the unknown is such a large subject its hard to find a new place to start.. Could you suggest anything more.. intermediate ? to study.

[Taiyounoryu]

Oh sorry, missed a question. As far as satanism goes most of the stuffs I stayed with was energy work and meditation. I did however did a few rituals for "anubis". I did a lil of everything I suppose? As far as what I'm into, I always had a strange pull to anything egyptian? The satanic deal which I got into had strong ties with egyptian culture and all that. Which is why I probably gave it all a shot.

After I quit all that I stayed with energy work and after awhile I even quit that. I'm not sure Im looking for a system with gods blah blah blah, just something that fits I guess. The closest thing I've found that explained everything Ive seen and felt is a book called The Psychic Vampire Codex, cant remember who wrote it though.

[dRider]

Those sound like serious Satanists, as that's the same thing I hear around here.

Could you suggest anything more.. intermediate ? to study.

What do you mean by intermediate? Do you mean you want something more or less advanced? Have you tried to study your dreams or practice lucid dreaming? They’re about the simplest and most advanced thing you can get into.

In the end, there are a lot of paths, from Satanism to Catholic magick to ancient Hebrew lore, to Buddhism and yoga/qigong/tai-chi, to psychic abilities or polytheism or ritual/ceremonial magick. But in the end, it really does take at long time to get serious, consistent results and understanding. For instance, practitioners usually say that Tarot takes a year of using the cards every day to “master” it, and Tarot is pretty simple. I’ve heard that some people can get cool things to happen with rituals even if they don’t believe, first time. But that doesn’t mean it’ll happen again or that they know what they just did.

Also, I will go ahead and say that theory and history are far more effective knowledge bases than individual rituals or spells (and even training in individual paths). I spent a more than a decade learning the theories of the mind, off and on in a very inconsistent manner. I’d say that if you made it a real hobby or pastime, you’d learn more than I know in just two years. The power in it is in being able to construct your own magick without needing prescribed methods. In many cases, most spells out there are built with the builder in mind, and others will at least have to modify it for themselves.

[dRider]

My own personal path took me through both fiction novels (which you can learn an amazing lot from, anyway) to quantum physics movies and books, to personal meditation. Pick any given interest, and read five books that stand out to you. That's a very direct way to go about it, maybe boring, but it'll give you understanding you didn't have before, I guarantee that!

[Taiyounoryu]

Haha well, I'm not looking for anything in particular, what I meant by intermediate is whatver suggestions you make they dont need to be COMPLETELY at the start. I was playing with magic and reading everything I could for a year or two. So I dont NEED to start at the very basics, brushing up on basics wont hurt either though. I honestly can't say I've thought of reading fiction novels?

[Nahemah]

The closest thing I've found that explained everything Ive seen and felt is a book called The Psychic Vampire Codex, cant remember who wrote it though.

Michelle Belanger.


You should explore the Energy model of Magick first,I think.Just a suggestion.Follow on with the psychological model and extrapolate round all of them from there,as you will.


The below link is in our Beginners Resources thread,which has some handy information,if I say so meself,lol.

Intermediate also,can be done,giss a wee while and we'll get some linkage for you,members here are rather knowledgable,so I 'm sure you'll get lots of advice on this from others too,link here :

http://www.chaosmatrix.org/library/chao ... model.html

...anything that would make other people look twice at what I'm reading...

This is a very telling statement,just saying.

[Taiyounoryu]

Yea! That's it, Michelle Belanger! I was actually re-reading up on the models of magic last night. I'm trying to get re-aquainted I guess

Most of the people here seem pretty knowledgeable, and I like the fact everyone here seems to come from a different practice. I like it (:

What do you mean by a telling statement? I think most anyone would give you a weird look if you were on this website. Whether its summoning a demon or just a ritual for good luck, magic isn't looked at with the best mindset by most people. Lol.

So far just to get a feel for working with energy I'm just working with sigils at the moment. I'm slowly getting the hang of it back, though I can't really get to the same "state" with meditation like I used to.
Although I figure if I start back at my roots with working with energy I'll eventually pick it all back up right?

[reptilian]

I re-began not too long ago with SSOTMBE and it reminded me of why I got into magic to begin with, which was very important for me at the time.

To avoid bad things happening: disbelieve in said bad things, cleanse yourself, your home and your things through whatever ritual method you prefer, and try to communicate with and understand any entities before invoking/evoking or asking favors of them.

[MrBlack]

@OP: I would suggest Initiation Into Hermetics if you want something more "intermediate"
to sink your teeth into.

[Rin]

@OP: I would suggest Initiation Into Hermetics if you want something more "intermediate"
to sink your teeth into.

I'll second this. I'm in a similar situation in regards to re-entering my studies after a time off, and I've found IIH immensely helpful. It provides a step by step guide to progressing physically, mentally and spiritually without getting bogged down in heavy or obscuring terminology or pushing one world view or another on you, which means it can be adapted with success to more or less any path or belief system.

I'm only in the early stages but I can already feel it doing me good. It does require a dedication though, he says quite bluntly that if you want to get anywhere in magic you have to work for it, and recommends at least 2 hours a day 5 days a week if you want to make progress, as well as being willing to seriously examine yourself as a student and an individual.

There's also A Bardon Companion by Rawn Clark which will help to clarify a lot of what Bardon says (although he's better than most of the books from his era, he can be a little ambiguous, some of which I think can be put down to the time gap and translation), as well as offering addition advice for the early stages of his steps.

Look into it at the least