My approach to public occultism

The subject on every occult blogger’s fingertips this week is the subject of public occultism. For those who have not seen any of these posts, last week the infamous Nick Farrell said that public occultism was a failed experiment, and that he didn’t remember the last time someone got past the third lesson in his magical Order’s correspondence course. And this lit a fire as various bloggers weighed in on the subject. I, myself, outlined a couple of posts, and then wandered off before writing them (it is not like the posts will spoil, so I can write them when I am good and ready to).

My viewpoint on public occultism is slightly different than a lot of people. I have been involved in public occultism for years and years. I do the Tarot Blog Hop; I am the public representative of a small group; I moderate and manage a few Facebook pages, including the Sanctuary of Mau (for Golden Dawn self-initiates); I post videos about the occult on Youtube; I am a board member of the Hearthstone Community Church which does open full moon rituals; I write a newsletter column and maintain this very public blog; plus I write small articles on magic and Wicca (checkout my Amazon page).

For me, public occultism is a way of life. I have spent a lot of time directing traffic, so to speak. I help people come into the community.

But please note I have always reserved the right to not be helpful, and even downright rude, if I think that I am dealing with a member of the religion of the month club (or the magic of the month club). In fact, I can be downright misleading; I have sent some utterly useless people in the direction of a certain group because I like to keep all my lunatics in a single basket.

I am not at the beck and call of the Woo Woo community. Heck, I am notorious for not answering the phone, emails, and instant messages even for people that I like. Online, I am not the nicest person. While I have never succeeded in getting someone to set themselves on fire, it is not for the lack of trying. I consider myself Karma’s IQ Test; if you are dumb enough to try to open up a box of corn flakes with a stick of dynamite, not only will I give you a match, I will also encourage you to shorten the fuse.

For me, public occultism is not in danger of dying out. There is a certain amount of churn in our community; and yes, we have a major dropout rate as well as some wanna-be leaders (typically people who have read one or no books on the subject, yet they think that they know more than those of us with decades of experience). My job is to help the serious and decent seekers in the direction of good groups, and the riffraff in a direction where their idiocy can be contained. It is not a pleasant job, but it does provide me with hours of amusement.