Why the Occult is NOT growing in America.17:20 Apr 12 2011
Times Read: 483
In my years of researching the Occult, I always asked myself “since we are in such a hedonistic culture, why are there not more serious students of the Occult?” The answer I have is this; the occult is seriously complicated and misunderstood. You find various alarmists and so called “occult specialists” who claim that this that or the other branch of the occult is growing. The Catholic Church has recently made it a point to have a trained exorcist in every diocese, due to the influx of occult material available on the internet. I shake my head at the fact that people take those statements seriously.
Many people’s ideas of what “The Occult” is are shaped by popular culture and TV. Television shows portray occult themes for entertainment, but giving them the fictionalized Hollywood treatment. Hollywood portrays Magick as wave a wand and boom, you get whatever you want. Magick is portrayed as a means to get back the guy who dumped you, or to get back at the girls at school who make fun of you, or as a way to madness and devil worship. It says “you want this, well here you go. No work involved” It is instant gratification gone awry, playing to what many Americans have become, a nation of Veruca Salts.
We have become spoiled children who have never been told “no”, and given everything we want, when we wanted it. If someone dared tell us “no”, we would find a way to get what we wanted, even if it meant a grown man throwing a temper tantrum. What’s worse is that it’s a sense of entitlement that we have passed on to a new generation. The internet has played into this as well. A few clicks and you can order a pizza, a book (or download one to your kindle and have it read to you), music, you get my point.
The internet has been both a blessing and a curse for those in the Occult world. Whereas it has opened many doors and made research much easier (for those of us who know where to look), it has also taken away many of the mysteries that have been guarded for years. Gone are the old days of having to search out an occult bookstore down an alleyway in the wrong side of town to find that special grimoire, or waiting for the catalog, or some add in the back of a magazine. Teachings that had been hidden were now available to whoever was able to use a search engine. With these “hidden teachings” now available to the general public, is it still proper to refer to them as occult?
The other problem with this is that the information is out there without the context behind it. Without the contexts, and other previous lessons involved in magickal workings, it leaves too much room for misinterpretation and misuse. Look at it like this, when I was in high school, you had to take Algebra 1 before you could take Chemistry. Why? Chemistry is an exact science that leaves little room for error. One small mistake and you blow yourself up. I’m not saying that the consequences are as dire, but I have had ritual work blow up in my face (and produce unintended consequences).
Another Hollywood misconception is that people involved in the Occult are mentally ill, dangerous, violent, or narcissistic psychopaths who seek to inflate their own egos by becoming cult leaders. It doesn’t help when someone who does fit the above description gets arrested and the tabloid press has a field day. Most people involved in any occult science, or teachings tend to be fiercely individual free thinkers. They use deductive reasoning and critical thinking skills when it comes to what they want to believe in. They are not blind sycophants who accept every word as dogma or gospel. In other words, they are not the brain washed zombies that Hollywood and others would portray them as. I’m not saying that cults that teach occult practices don’t exist; however what I am saying is that there are not that many of them. They wouldn’t attract many followers. The ones who do attract the blind followers don’t last long. Without new blood, new ideas to help adapt to the changing world, the movements become stagnant and outdated. They fall apart after a couple of years at most.
An interesting and influential group that came about in 1981 was Thee Temple ov Psychik Youth (TOPY). It built upon many ideas that had been set down by the OTO; however there was no “leadership” or “membership” as with many traditional groups. They spread their message through their Psychic TV specials (and a musical group by the same name). TOPY is also credited with being the creators of the “acid house” rave scene and industrial music. They also were involved with body piercing and tattooing as a form of spiritual expression. Many of their ideas became adopted by the pop culture of the 90’s, and now are rather passe. According to some surveys, 25% of people 18-24 years old have tattoos, body piercing or some other form of body modification. I’m pretty sure most of them have no idea who pushed to popularize it nowadays. Still, you can find a little bit of TOPY’s DNA in many “newer” occult groups.
You are more likely to find cult like behavior within more traditional conservative Christian groups where questioning scripture or the pastor/ priest/ minister is frowned upon. In fact, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center one of the scarier hate groups is the Christian Identity/ New Apostolic Pentecostal movement. They generally proselytize to teenagers (who have not yet learned those critical thinking and deductive reasoning skills), and preach that they must do “spiritual warfare” against the GLBT community, liberals, Muslims, Pagans, Feminists, ad nauseum. A spiritual mentor for VP candidate Sarah Palin once bragged about praying for a Wiccan pastor to get cancer (great way to show the love of Christ, huh?). Some are praying for the death of President Obama. Apparently they are the only ones who should use malefic Magick against others. For more information on cults and how to define weather or not a group may qualify as a cult, check our Isaac Bonewits’ Cult Evaluation frame (which can easily be found online).
I could go on; however I think you get my point. Some alarmists out there would have you believe that this “big, bad, dangerous Occult” is growing and trying to target your kids. Nope, the above should answer that question.
Consider who is making such statements. It’s usually some conservative, fundamentalist groups who already have an agenda to wipe out any religious beliefs other than their own. They do not recognize the rights of others to worship as they please because they do no see other paths or religions as valid. They want to convert everybody to their way of thinking. Some seem to think that if they just argue and try to convince you of the love of Jesus, you’ll just bow down and worship. And why not? Their God is more powerful right?
What happens to those of us who don’t want to convert? I’ve never gotten a straight answer from anyone on that. However, I’ve heard some mention of Sarah Palin and others advocating throwing all Pagans in concentration camps (I cannot verify this statement at this time).
All I can say is that whenever you hear some crazy alarmist “The Occult is growing and wants your kids” crap, consider the source.
Teens and the Occult; what parents need to know…
03:44 Apr 05 2011
Times Read: 497
After many years of so-called experts “warning you about the dangers of the occult to your kids”, and most of them being debunked as frauds (or people with obvious religious bigotry towards any faith that was not their own), perhaps it’s time to tell the real truth. It’s time the truth won out over mass hysteria, ignorance, fear and bigotry.
Well we don’t have witch burnings anymore, right? Witch trials are a thing of the past, or are they? From the 1970’s through the early 1990’s there was a period of time when many books were written and the press sensationalized “Satanism” as the new extreme fad young people were involved in. Blame that evil heavy metal music! Burn it! Every so often some talk show would have “victims” of SRA (satanic ritual abuse) on who would tell wild stories of babies being eaten, or sacrificed. They would tell wild tales of orgies and bonfires where drugs were readily available. It was an easy answer to a complex set of problems.
We’ve all heard these stories. Eventually after the early 90’s they went away, for the most part. Nobody hears about why the stories went away. Many of the fear mongers were discredited, by Christians and non Christians alike. The Lanning report to congress debunked most of the stories of SRA (Satanic Ritual Abuse) as being unfounded urban legends and media hype. There was no forensic evidence, and many of the “victims” later came out and recanted their stories. Some criminal cases were dismissed due to the leading questioning of social workers, child psychologists and police. The lack of forensic evidence did not help either. Despite this, the belief in “Satanic child pedophile rings” persisted among many involved in the fundamentalist Christian movement.
Many Wiccans came out of the broom closet, and people were likely to know someone who was. These weren’t the rabid “Satan worshipping” type of people, more like hippy bunny huggers. They were becoming more likely to fight back as well when they felt they had been misrepresented in the press. People started seeing that Wiccans were not evil people, but their neighbors, friends and family members. That killed the ideas (mostly spread by fundamentalist Christians) that witches were all baby killing, devil worshippers. Many areas and towns have a small circle of Wiccans who practice their beliefs in homes, or at the local parks.
Recently the panic is having a renaissance. It’s the same old “warning signs” that your teenager may be “at risk” (most of those disturbing signs were called “being a teenager”). Some ex-cops and so called “experts” are at it again. Now this time they are warning you of the “dangers of the vampire (or occult) community”. Here we go again, same old story just a new name.
Most of these so called “experts” have not undergone any official training that certifies them as an “occult expert”. I know of one who, when I asked where he got his facts from, he said “well I’ve been a cop for 30 years, and investigated various cases...” That doesn’t mean he knows anything about the occult, and from his presentation I can tell you that he didn’t. Most of what he does know is rehashed “satanic panic” crap that was debunked by Ken Lanning, the head of the Behavioral Analysis Unit for the FBI. You can Google the Lanning report and download the report for yourself. At the end of his seminar he said “if I’m wrong, tell me” and looked right at me when he said it. I took him up on his offer, and he did everything he could to brush me aside. He didn’t want the truth; he wanted to sell fear to the fundies. I even invited the man out to dinner, and he took off like his butt was on fire. Why this man is still teaching cops this with my tax dollars is beyond me, other than the fact that many politicians in my state have ties to the fundamentalist Christian community and don’t want to loose those campaign dollars. I’ve considered contacting the media just to push the “waste of taxpayer dollars” issue.
So I guess I should answer the one question many of you have at this point, what is the Occult? How do you define it? Occult is an old Greek term meaning “hidden teachings”. Why were they hidden? To make a long story short, look up the inquisition, or burning times. Anybody who didn’t practice as the church dictated was burned alive as a heretic. Not a pleasant way to go! The reasons these teachings continue to be hidden today, in our age of religious freedom, are many. Many teachings are still hidden out of tradition. More often than not, it is out of fear of persecution. People still face harassment at work, and in their communities in the US and throughout the world.
In Africa and India, women and children are injured, killed and sometimes burned to death by “witch hunters”. There are cases in the US of parents having their children taken away by well meaning social workers because they didn’t understand the difference between Wicca and Satanism. Parents have lost custody and visitation rights in divorce proceedings, because one parent was Pagan. There have been cases of assaults, worship centers vandalized and even politicians contributing to the hate (look up Bob Barr and Christine O’Donnell and their comments against wiccans). There are still those politicians who would love to take away our right to worship freely, in favor of instituting a theocracy. Check out the background of some of your conservative politicians, you’d be surprised what you find. Those who scream loudest about religious freedom are the last people to defend it for non-Christians.
Parents, let me assure you, those who are involved with the Occult (which can include Wicca and Paganism) are not out to recruit your kids. You can have them! Most of them don’t have an attention span long enough to sit and read anything longer than a comic book! If it’s not a movie or a video game, forget it. Since we are on the subject of movies, let me say this now, Harry Potter has nothing to do with real witches or the craft! Forget what the fundies (aka, fundamentalist Christians) have told you. Your kid is not going to go out and sacrifice the family cat and listen to Cradle of Filth* just because he watched (or read) Harry Potter. It is a great series of books that, if anything, encourages kids to read. Last I checked that was a good thing.
As someone who has researched various occult practices over the years, here’s what I can tell you. There is no reputable occult lodge, circle, community or school that allows members who are not legal adults (which in most of the US is 18). They do not proselytize; go out seeking members or new recruits. They won’t wind up knocking on your door at the crack of dawn on Saturday. There are many reasons for this. One is that teenagers are ever changing. One month they want to be a rock star, next month they want to be something else. Most teenagers, who do look at the occult, do so through the lenses of the media and Hollywood. It’s a distorted view. They want the quick fix they see in the movies and on TV. When most of them see that most, if not all occult studies, are a lifelong course of study and practice, they loose interest.
Reason number two, hysterical parents and the media. Let’s say, hypothetically, a kid comes home to tell mom and dad, “Hey guess what, I’m not gonna go to your church anymore! I’m going to go practice witchcraft in the woods with my new friends.” Say that the kid listens to rock bands like H.I.M. and 69 Eyes. Now the parents watch the news and the local self appointed “occult specialist” tells them that “the occult is trying to lure your kids into crime and devil worship!” Never mind the fact that the “specialist” is getting paid tons of $ for his appearance, has ties to the local fundamentalist churches, and has no real facts or any scientific studies to back up his statements. The parents call the police and say “my kid’s been involved with Satanists! What do I do?” They haul the kid into the station; scare the bejesus out of him to tell who his “abusers” are. After hours on end, he relents and gives a few names. Some people are arrested. The headlines read “Satanic Cultists Charged with Child Abuse”. After a few months and the headlines die down, the trial begins. The kid takes the stand and says “no, they did not abuse me, Satan was never involved, ECT” By the time the trial is over, and everyone acquitted, their lives are ruined. Most have lost jobs, homes, families torn apart, kids taken away. The story of the acquittal runs on page 8, which nobody reads. They are tarred and feathered for life as “Devil Worshippers”, even though they were a group of Wiccans. Sounds like a modern day witch hunt, doesn’t it?
Imagine a case where the innocent are convicted by hysteria and no real evidence, and despite media attention and public outcry, they remain in jail for over 15 years. This is what has happened in West Memphis Arkansas. The case is known as the West Memphis Three.
The most recent target of such “occult specialists” is the Vampyric community. A few cases of predators using the persona of a vampire wound up in the media, and were widely overblown. Most of the people involved in those cases were seriously mentally ill, and had been for some time. Interest in the vampire community may have been a symptom of mental illness but not the cause of the behavior. Once again, the organized vampire community (households, temples, lodges, ECT), do not admit anyone under the age of majority (18 in the US). Most members of the organized community will not socialize with anyone under 18 unless they are immediate family members, just to avoid the accusation of recruiting minors. This includes online conversation as well. If you are interested in what many vampires do believe, look into the Black Veil. It is a general guideline that is followed by most of the community.
This is somewhat of a double edged sword. Whereas most people involved in the organized community will not get involved with minors, won’t talk to them on the internet or in chat rooms, which leaves the ones who will. The ones who will may be predators, or someone with severe mental illness who can endanger your child.
How often do we see something on the news of some teen who took off with someone they met online and it turns out that the person is a predator? You’d think parents would have enough sense by now to sit down and talk to their kids about street smarts. They don’t just stop on the street. Internet chat rooms can be great, but you never know who you are talking to. It can be anybody. Never agree to meet someone alone, or at their house. If you do meet up with someone (which I don’t suggest), do so in a public place like a mall or a coffee shop. You want to be someplace where there are people around. You also want to be able to leave on your own, so if you do not have a car and your friend is your ride, you stay with your friend. Do not leave with this new person, no matter who they are. Trust your instincts, if something doesn’t feel right, leave.
What about these books my kids brought home? What about those? I can’t stop your kid from buying The Satanic Bible, Vampires in their own words, or the Necronomicon. You are the parent! You make those decisions. Instead of freaking out because some so called “expert” has them on his list of “dangerous books”, try reading them for yourself. I’ve found many parents who found Vampires in their Own Words by Michelle Bellanger to be quite enlightening. Discuss these books with your kids, find out what it is they like about them. Educate yourself, as a way to fight fear and ignorance. No matter what, don’t believe the hype!
If you are truly stuck, and don’t know what to do, call in the councilors or psychiatrist. Ask around, and find one who’s used to working with teenagers. Having to get professional help does not mean that you have failed as a parent! It means you care about your child. They didn’t come with a manual when they were born, so sometimes you need an outside opinion. More than likely they will help sort it all out, and address any underlying issues that may or may not be there.
“The Occult is not the problem, parents are”- Dr Paul Reilly
Laws Vs. No laws03:33 Apr 05 2011
Times Read: 500
Again the debate has heated up, laws vs. no laws. There seems to be no middle ground on the issue, as neither side is willing to budge. I’ve written my views on this matter many times only to be called a heretic, militant, and many other things. I see that I’m not the only one who proposes such ideas, other elders do as well. Still, those who have not had to live in chaos and fear will never know what it is like to do so.
If you have not had to deal with hostile law enforcement officers, who pull you out of work and accuse you of being a “devil worshiping, baby eater”, running a pedophile ring and a cult, you cannot understand how it feels. Unless you have been threatened, had your home ransacked, had social workers take your children away, you will never know how it feels. Because they have never had the problems we have had in Virginia, they don’t see the need for any kind of laws (outside of mundane laws, and basic courtesies). As I’ve said before, we can be optimistic and hope that everyone would act in a way that was courteous towards everyone in the community and outside of it; however I’ve found this to not be the case.
You can say I don’t have a lot of faith in people. I’ve probably spent too many years working in the public sector and seen the worst in every group of people. I’ve worked in rich neighborhoods and poor ones. I’ve seen people of all walks who were good and bad. I can say this; the overwhelming majorities are self-centered, selfish, narcissistic assholes. It’s about “I’m the center of the universe and how dare you deny me what I want”. It’s all about “me”.
The wealthy have a bigger sense of entitlement than the poor ever have had. We live in a society that values money over many other things. If people have money we tend to bend over backward to let them have what they want. Why? Because we want some of their money! So when wealthy people are told no, they tend to go bug shit. When you tell them that “I don’t give a damn who you are, how much $ you have or what business you run, you can’t run around breaking the law”, you see how many of them throw a fit, threaten to sue or have your badge.
All that aside, here’s what I’m seeing. I’m seeing the vampire community becoming two distinct groups, ones who want structure and law and the ones who don’t. It’s not so much an us vs. them situation, and I don’t want it to be seen as that. However, perhaps it’s time that those who do want a more structured, law and order kind of environment need to create their own version of that, their own Order. Those who want to join, can. Those who don’t want anything to do with it, we wish you well.
Since there are so many out there who are opposed to living under any kind of rules, law or guidelines, I say “fine, don’t”. We can’t force anybody to accept or want to live the way we do, so let’s let them go. They don’t have to be a part of what we are looking to do, which is unite the community for the betterment (and safety) of all. Let’s not waste our time trying to convince them. You might as well talk to a brick wall. We choose to serve something higher than ourselves, the spirit of the community (or what in the past has been referred to as Elorath). What happened to that spirit? Did we become what we loathe? We turned into the “me/ I” instead of what once was the “we”.
Once again, this is not for everybody! There are those who are going to voluntarily join and decide to serve something greater than ones’ self, and there will be those who know no god or anything higher than themselves. Let them worship their own narcissism in the darkness. When they are gone, nobody will remember them. It will be as if they have never lived. The black hole in their souls will never be filled. They will never have enough money, food, power, sex, material things and so on. Let them be empty shells of what they could be.
Let us take care of our own, those who see that what we are doing is for the betterment of all. Let’s seek to better ourselves and our communities (both Vampyric and mundane). Work to balance the dayside and the nightside so that we can be in a position to serve. Let’s work to encourage unity within the order, let each follow his conscience, and agree to disagree on some issues. Let’s let the various communities make their own traditions (or laws) according to a main charter (Black Veil or some other guidelines), dealing with their own set of challenges/ problems that may occur in that area.
The number one issue to address is that we need a system of checks and balances to make sure that the abuses of the past NEVER occur again. We need to make sure that it is clear that we will not tolerate the abuses of power that occurred before (blackmail, sexual harassment, violations of civil rights, ect). So how do we do this? We have a Council in each lodge, at least 3 members (elders of the community, preferably of a variety of paths). Let the members of the lodge vote on various issues. The lodge financial books will be open to all dues paying members for inspection. Having 3 elders (2 co-reagents and 1 keeper of the Veil/ local laws), keeps the balance. It keeps anybody from getting too power hungry, or vengeful. The other two can balance it out.
The days of the blood hunts an violence are gone. Those who break the Veil will answer for it to the lodge, tried by the council and the members. If found guilty of breaking mundane law, law enforcement will be notified and all evidence will be given to them. We will cooperate fully with any law enforcement investigation; comply with court orders and subpoenas. It is strongly suggested that every lodge consider retaining an attorney to handle legal issues and advice.
There are people who want the structure, ritual, and order that the old ways offered. However, there were those who abuse their power for their own needs. We need to make it clear that this is not the place for those who seek power, but seek to serve their community. Let’s make this a reality, a real brotherhood for those of the blood. Those who do not wish to be a part of it are free to go their own ways. May we part in peace as friends and brothers/ sisters.
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