Ask an Occultist (divination,talking to spirits, siddhis, etc)

[Scholar]

29 minutes ago, Matt8800 said:

@Scholar I do suspect that animals have some kind of psychic abilities. Animals and insects seem to know things like coming storms, earthquakes, etc with no scientific explanation. When a spider weaves a web, how does all that intelligence originate from such a tiny brain?

If my dog is in the room and I start talking, he doesnt react much. If I start talking to spirits, he gets the hell out of the room immediately.

I believe intuition, and possibly creativity, is a kind of psychic ability. When things happen often, they seem to be dismissed as mundane. 

What do you think about phenomena like thinking about a random person and then suddenly getting a message from them seconds later? I have that happen quite often.

[Matt8800]

8 hours ago, Scholar said:

What do you think about phenomena like thinking about a random person and then suddenly getting a message from them seconds later? I have that happen quite often.

@Scholar I think those are premonitions. I think everyone has psychic abilities deep down but some are more in touch with them.

[Esoteric]

@Matt8800 Is your connection to Hecate distinct from your connection to your guardian angel? When you ask for spiritual guidance from both do you feel you get guidance from 2 entities that are distinctely different from eachother? If you would add another dark Goddess, let's say Kali. Could that create problems? Could your devotion be questioned from any of the entities and create problems for you?

[Matt8800]

4 hours ago, Esoteric said:

@Matt8800 Is your connection to Hecate distinct from your connection to your guardian angel? When you ask for spiritual guidance from both do you feel you get guidance from 2 entities that are distinctely different from eachother? If you would add another dark Goddess, let's say Kali. Could that create problems? Could your devotion be questioned from any of the entities and create problems for you?

@Esoteric Some traditions call them guardian angels. Ive heard another occultist refer to other spirit relationship categories as allies and guardians. 

We can have different allies and guardians. Hecate is an ally and guardian but different than the ally and guardian that has been with me the whole time.

Hecate respects others' sovereignty. She would not mind if I worked with other beings for my own evolution. I would not follow a being that put rules on me like that. I am a devoted student; not a restricted slave. Hecate is about discarding limitations. With that said, I invest a lot more into my relationship with her because of the realness and intensity of the relationship. I dont have much of a desire to work with other gods and goddesses because she gives me so much but Im not opposed to it. 

I do regular offerings to local spirits though. Other witches and sorcerers swear this makes the biggest difference in getting magical results more than anything else. When I started do offerings, I could totally feel how the universe seemed to be more in harmony with me and seemed to be rooting more for my success. My offerings are for spirits that want my success and extending goodwill towards wrathful spirits that humans (or myself) have offended. Some spirits are wrathful simply because they are disturbed, which causes them suffering. I offer them my blessings of peace and calm and they seem to appreciate it. I am compassionate towards them just like I would be compassionate to a disturbed person that is suffering. Even formerly wrathful spirits that are against you can become your allies with time if treated with kindness and respect, but without showing any fear. I will call in my allies and guardians if they give me any shit though

Edited September 15, 2019 by Matt8800

[Esoteric]

@Matt8800 What do you mean by "local spirits"? And what have you found to be good offerings? I will soon start working with spirits. Been gathering info on evocations but from a Chaos Magic and a more traditional Magick sense. Both styles tend to melt into eachother beautifully in general like you wrote. I've been watching some podcasts with Jason Miller, really resonate with him, and he makes that point as well. The freeing and very non-dogmatic aspects of Chaos Magic merges with the traditional Magick and blends into a very powerful toolset. I have decided to start his 1 year course in some weeks

Oh and also. When calling the entity in and you feel the presence. Do you have to make requests? Can you evoce just to be with the deity and establishing a connection? Not talking about doing it for fun and see what happens. But just be present with the deity and be grateful for showing up without neccesarily asking something?

Edited September 15, 2019 by Esoteric
Added question

[Matt8800]

3 hours ago, Esoteric said:

@Matt8800 What do you mean by "local spirits"? And what have you found to be good offerings? I will soon start working with spirits. Been gathering info on evocations but from a Chaos Magic and a more traditional Magick sense. Both styles tend to melt into eachother beautifully in general like you wrote. I've been watching some podcasts with Jason Miller, really resonate with him, and he makes that point as well. The freeing and very non-dogmatic aspects of Chaos Magic merges with the traditional Magick and blends into a very powerful toolset. I have decided to start his 1 year course in some weeks

Oh and also. When calling the entity in and you feel the presence. Do you have to make requests? Can you evoce just to be with the deity and establishing a connection? Not talking about doing it for fun and see what happens. But just be present with the deity and be grateful for showing up without neccesarily asking something?

@Esoteric There tends to be local spirits attached to the land, animals, etc. Six Ways and Sorcerers Secrets talk a lot about them and will give a lot of guidance on offerings.

I like to initially call in entities simply so I can get to know them and build a relationship with them. Showing gratitude and honor is good. In the beginning, my requests are pretty much limited my spiritual evolution and guidance in that regard. Later, I might ask for help in with money, business, etc and combine with some sigil magick.

[Scholar]

Do you think there is Hell, in the literal sense? I had some strange experiences related to that.

Edited September 15, 2019 by Scholar

[Esoteric]

@Matt8800 Thanks!

 

[Matt8800]

39 minutes ago, Scholar said:

Do you think there is Hell, in the literal sense? I had some strange experiences related to that.

@Scholar I think we create our own "heaven" or "hell" depending on our unresolved attachments and aversions. I think another factor is our vibration of love, gratitude and appreciation of beauty, which has to be cultivated. We swim upstream with effort or we float downstream. We cant wait for higher vibrations to come to us - we have to proactively make them a part of us and integrate them.

When I spent some time studying NDEs, I found that people's experiences were in many ways dependent upon their cultural expectations and biases. A Catholic might see Mary and a Hindu might see Shiva but not the other way around. At first I thought this means that the experience is created and not "real". Now I believe they are created in many ways by us but are still very "real". My experiences with magick seems to increasingly confirm this.

We create our reality, even after death, and it becomes real. Someone saturated with attachments, aversions, fear, greed, hate, judgment, etc, etc, will never see heaven. Conversely, someone saturated with love, beauty and gratitude and has dissolved attachments and aversions will never see hell.

 

Edited September 15, 2019 by Matt8800

[Scholar]

13 minutes ago, Matt8800 said:

@Scholar I think we create our own "heaven" or "hell" depending on our unresolved attachments and aversions. I think another factor is our vibration of love, gratitude and appreciation of beauty, which has to be cultivated. We swim upstream with effort or we float downstream. We cant wait for higher vibrations to come to us - we have to proactively make them a part of us and integrate them.

When I spent some time studying NDEs, I found that people's experiences were in many ways dependent upon their cultural expectations and biases. A Catholic might see Mary and a Hindu might see Shiva but not the other way around. At first I thought this means that the experience is created and not "real". Now I believe they are created in many ways by us but are still very "real". My experiences with magick seems to increasingly confirm this.

We create our reality, even after death, and it becomes real. Someone saturated with attachments, aversions, fear, greed, hate, judgment, etc, etc, will never see heaven. Conversely, someone saturated with love, beauty and gratitude and has dissolved attachments and aversions will never see hell.

 

But what about true Hell, as in collective Hell, where souls scream in unimaginable horror and agony? I heard that once in sleep paralysis, and I am not at all religious. It was the scariest and loudest thing I ever heard in my life. It was unnaturally loud, like loud beyond anything that could actually come through my ear. And it was so weird, it was like I could sense each scream individually. It wasn't listening to a mass of people screaming, it was like each individual scream was heard identifiably. It wasn't a mixture.

Why would my brain just generate that? It was a sound more real than anything I ever heard in real life. I also heard giggling sometimes in sleep paralysis, I remember when I was a child I heard giggling under my bad, like some evil kobolds, and I got up and ran screaming into my parents bedroom. The last apartment I lived I had an experience where I was paralyzed and could sense two people in my room, they were looking at me and talking about how I was sleeping. These things I just dismiss as hallucinations but the screaming hell thing was just disturbing, however I do also dismiss that as some sort of hallucination.

What do you think about sleep paralysis in general, are the entites encountered just imagination?

[Matt8800]

23 minutes ago, Scholar said:

But what about true Hell, as in collective Hell, where souls scream in unimaginable horror and agony? I heard that once in sleep paralysis, and I am not at all religious. It was the scariest and loudest thing I ever heard in my life. It was unnaturally loud, like loud beyond anything that could actually come through my ear. And it was so weird, it was like I could sense each scream individually. It wasn't listening to a mass of people screaming, it was like each individual scream was heard identifiably. It wasn't a mixture.

Why would my brain just generate that? It was a sound more real than anything I ever heard in real life. I also heard giggling sometimes in sleep paralysis, I remember when I was a child I heard giggling under my bad, like some evil kobolds, and I got up and ran screaming into my parents bedroom. The last apartment I lived I had an experience where I was paralyzed and could sense two people in my room, they were looking at me and talking about how I was sleeping. These things I just dismiss as hallucinations but the screaming hell thing was just disturbing, however I do also dismiss that as some sort of hallucination.

What do you think about sleep paralysis in general, are the entites encountered just imagination?

@Scholar I believe I have read somewhere that parasitic entities will sometimes scare people while in sleep paralysis so they can feed off the psychic energy that their fear puts out.

There is no entity that puts people in a collective hell as retribution for "sins". People put themselves there and it is their low vibrational state that creates their own suffering. I read somewhere where a spirit was channeled that people may go there between incarnations to burn off their attachments and aversions. That makes sense to me.

Take a stiff dose of psychedelics and resist the experience and try to control it. Thats a great way to experience hell. Let go of all resistance and control, and it opens up to great beauty. I think this provides a peek into the spiritual realm.

I believe that Love and Beauty are the Great Attractors that pull ALL beings towards it eventually as their existence progresses. Consciousness moves away from suffering, which is caused by the absence of love and beauty, and moves towards the cure imo.

A note on seeing spirits: some people get involved with the occult because they desire to interact directly with the spirit realm and spirits but others get involved with the occult to manage and tone down their interaction with the spirit realm and spirits due to a natural unusual psychic sensitivity. 

Edited September 15, 2019 by Matt8800

[oMarcos]

@Matt8800

Today morning I was sleeping and meanwhile in the middle of it I "woke up" to a very vivid hallucination of me getting up from my bed, it felt like I was merging into a realm of imagination but I didn't totally surrender because I felt like I didn't want to replace my common reality for another mysterious one, I am afraid of not being able to come back to the "original reality". What would you call this experience, a lucid dream or an astral projection? How would you make the distincion between the two? It's not my first time either, I often have this almost total merging in more different scenarios but I run away from it, what would you recommend to overcome that fear and just surrender to explore the realm?

Also,  what is your personal opinion about sigil magick, is it low magick?

Thank you.

[Matt8800]

31 minutes ago, oMarcos said:

@Matt8800

Today morning I was sleeping and meanwhile in the middle of it I "woke up" to a very vivid hallucination of me getting up from my bed, it felt like I was merging into a realm of imagination but I didn't totally surrender because I felt like I didn't want to replace my common reality for another mysterious one, I am afraid of not being able to come back to the "original reality". What would you call this experience, a lucid dream or an astral projection? How would you make the distincion between the two? It's not my first time either, I often have this almost total merging in more different scenarios but I run away from it, what would you recommend to overcome that fear and just surrender to explore the realm?

Also,  what is your personal opinion about sigil magick, is it low magick?

Thank you.

@oMarcos Sounds like astral projection. Also, there is a very fine line between lucid dreaming and astral projection. Why not overcome your fear and go for it? Fear is very limiting to beautiful experiences and ones evolution.

I am a huge fan of sigil magick and do it all the time. I used to get concerned over the distinction between high/low and white/black magick but I finally realized it is the intention that matters. If you have to work at a job for money, why not increase your ability to make money via sigils? I view sigils that way in relation to a lot of things.

[Esoteric]

36 minutes ago, Matt8800 said:

@oMarcos Sounds like astral projection. Also, there is a very fine line between lucid dreaming and astral projection. Why not overcome your fear and go for it? Fear is very limiting to beautiful experiences and ones evolution.

I am a huge fan of sigil magick and do it all the time. I used to get concerned over the distinction between high/low and white/black magick but I finally realized it is the intention that matters. If you have to work at a job for money, why not increase your ability to make money via sigils? I view sigils that way in relation to a lot of things.

@Matt8800 Damien Echols and Peter Carrol say for sigil magick to work you need to forget about the intention and let it grow in the unconcious while Jason Miller say that it is not the case. What is your perspective on that?

Also when it comes to making money do you do divinations to make sure it doesn't turn into black magick? I know Kraig wrote about that being important. I haven't done any casting or sigil magick yet. Been focused on LBPR and Middle Pillar mainly so I wouldn't know but would be interesting to get your thoughts and experiences on that.

[kieranperez]

Can Occult practices be used to help with emotional development and purification (of even psychosomatic traumas)? If so, what “branch” of the occult would be utilized towards such an end?

What branch of occult would be best for purification? For example, purification of the subtle/psychic/astral body, energetic, samskaras and vasanas, etc.

Regarding Law of Attraction, I don’t understand why occultists seem to be fond of beliefs and emotions. I mean on the one hand, I get it. On the other hand, all emotions tend to have layers to them. So if I superficially set a certain intention or even create a certain though form or something to reach a certain end, that thing I want could still be based off of something really driven by fear. And also all beliefs are fear based to provide a false sense of certainty in a very uncertain reality. I notice this with my own emotions where if I feel inside deep shame, that tends to have a double side to it that ties very deeply to a strong anger or rage that has been repressed but also vice versa. Law of Attraction seems to be about setting a strong, clear, single minded intent to some intended outcome but in practice we find that there almost is no such thing among indivual minds. Can you help reconcile this?

Edited September 19, 2019 by kieranperez

[Esoteric]

@kieranperez To give my perspective on this. Doing the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram and Middle Pillar Ritual has helped me very much. Check out the book Modern Magick to get those rituals. It has been the best purification practices I have ever done, and also the best energy practices. I have seen great effects in a very short time, so you might want to check out those rituals and see if they do anything for you.

[enderx7]

1 hour ago, Matt8800 said:

 

I am a huge fan of sigil magick and do it all the time. I used to get concerned over the distinction between high/low and white/black magick but I finally realized it is the intention that matters. If you have to work at a job for money, why not increase your ability to make money via sigils? I view sigils that way in relation to a lot of things.

I agree, anyway what works works if it works there it can probably also be applied to aid a spiritual path.  I gave up on even learning all the various distinctions after a second, it seems like the common factor so far is working like a more scientific concentrated version of the law of attraction, but it makes most general magick pretty simple actually, the details tune things a little but dont seem as important as powerful intention and powerful emotion. which works better when single minded in higher vibrational states which is why it seems like a natural compliment to a yogic path. 

You mind elaborating on sigil magick a little bit? Is it basically storing intention in a physical item or is that called something else? Im thinking of trying that anyway, do certain materials work better then others, if the details even matter much?

Edited September 19, 2019 by enderx7

[astrokeen]

@Matt8800 , have you been in homes which are imbued with positive energies? I would very much like to transform my home into one such - a positive space with healing, peaceful qualities, one which attracts angelic energies. I could try to make that happen by visualising, inviting angels in or using sigil magic to make it so. 

Could I accomplish this? Any suggestions as to what may be required? 

[Matt8800]

4 hours ago, Esoteric said:

@Matt8800 Damien Echols and Peter Carrol say for sigil magick to work you need to forget about the intention and let it grow in the unconcious while Jason Miller say that it is not the case. What is your perspective on that?

Also when it comes to making money do you do divinations to make sure it doesn't turn into black magick? I know Kraig wrote about that being important. I haven't done any casting or sigil magick yet. Been focused on LBPR and Middle Pillar mainly so I wouldn't know but would be interesting to get your thoughts and experiences on that.

@Esoteric I would go with what Jason said. Hes the man imo. Also, Aiden Wachter has some good things to say about something he calls sigil "shoaling" on his blog that I like. I think he got that from the guy that does Rune Soup. If you google "sigil shoaling", you'll find some great info.

I dont do much divination. Also, the more Ive gotten into it, the less I am concerned about "black magick". I think Kraig's perspective is a little too restrictive. I believe it is a false dicotomy to demarcate between "white" and "black". If one acts from a place of high vibrational values, they will keep on the path of light. Personally, I have done "black magick" as a way of getting an adversarial person to stop what they were doing but I put a lot of thought into it first. For example, many people here would say they would never punch someone in the face but they might reconsider if it meant saving someone else from serious harm from an attacker. 

[Matt8800]

4 hours ago, kieranperez said:

Can Occult practices be used to help with emotional development and purification (of even psychosomatic traumas)? If so, what “branch” of the occult would be utilized towards such an end?

What branch of occult would be best for purification? For example, purification of the subtle/psychic/astral body, energetic, samskaras and vasanas, etc.

Regarding Law of Attraction, I don’t understand why occultists seem to be fond of beliefs and emotions. I mean on the one hand, I get it. On the other hand, all emotions tend to have layers to them. So if I superficially set a certain intention or even create a certain though form or something to reach a certain end, that thing I want could still be based off of something really driven by fear. And also all beliefs are fear based to provide a false sense of certainty in a very uncertain reality. I notice this with my own emotions where if I feel inside deep shame, that tends to have a double side to it that ties very deeply to a strong anger or rage that has been repressed but also vice versa. Law of Attraction seems to be about setting a strong, clear, single minded intent to some intended outcome but in practice we find that there almost is no such thing among indivual minds. Can you help reconcile this?

@kieranperez Yes, the occult excels at emotional development and purification imo. I did a post here on building inner strength occult style that is a perfect example. I would suggest looking it up. If you cant find it, DM me. Once you raise the energy of gratitude, that energy can be used for more than just building strength.

There is nothing wrong with emotions. The occult path shares a lot of philosophy with Tantra regarding that. Emotions are the fuel for magick and can make life beautiful.....or miserable if you dont master your mind. Once you transcend the ego, fear and shame dont pollute your mind or emotions. To truly master it, you have to be willing to go through the dark night. To get through that, you have to fully accept that nothing you thought matters really matters, including you, your life, your dreams, etc, etc. When you fully accept that, you are free to experience real love, beauty and truth in the flowing present moment where you abide.