In part three of this series, we dig into conspiracies connected to the occult. These are my favorites. I have studied them for over 30 years. Many are false flags used as distraction techniques. The most popular today is the notion of a hidden cult of devil worshippers, some of which are public figures and celebrities, who are performing human sacrifices in order to rule the world. This is not to say unknown parties we shall refer to as the “powers that be” do not perform binding initiatory rituals. They are very aware of ritual magic and the occult. The conspiracy is how they want to control those energies and the knowledge of how to tap into them. I am open to pre-LaVeyan forms of Satanism. It is unlikely that they are flourishing among the shadow governments of the world. It is even more unlikely that public figures of any flavor would be in their inner circles since their huge egos do not allow for them to keep low profiles.
Knowledge, much like energy, is something to be controlled. Before printing presses, scholars translated grimoires by hand; the more decoratively made, the higher the price tags. These were collected by barons who used them largely as conversation pieces to appear more mysterious in their social circles. People have not changed much over the years, as occult imagery is often appropriated on various social media platforms to bolster someone’s “witchy aesthetic“ in order to create a brand rather than a dedication to a magical path.
The Catholic Church is the biggest hoarder of these magical texts. Priests from all different sects ran an underground black market during the occult explosion of the 60s. The demand became so high that occultists formed fake Catholic Churches in order to get in on the business.
The Church’s investment stems from their need to have a monopoly on ritual magic since their rites go back to pagan roots, similar to a cover band trying to pass off the songs they’re playing as originals to an audience that have never heard the original versions. This is an interesting point of note, as religion was used much like science is today. Only a small percent of the governing powers could read, therefore to the illiterate masses, the word of the God they handed down had to be true since they could read. Their audience could not, so who was to prove them wrong? The peer-reviewed science of today comes from university labs funded by government grants. If you were to write a grant for a study that did not go with the flow of the mainstream science community, it is highly likely that your study would not receive funding. Thus creating today’s echo chamber in the scientific community, who certainly is not eager to look into paranormal research. Private company labs are another avenue we are not getting into here, but are largely controlled and motivated by money.
The occult explosion mentioned earlier took place in the western world, where psychedelic culture opened their awareness to spirituality outside of religion. This became mass-marketed. Once hidden truths became available for the low price of 19.99, Oprah gave a spotlight to authors like Deepak Chopra. New Age speakers got PBS Specials and sold-out arenas like rock stars. This was a giant leap from the workshops of a pre-internet world once held in the back of bookstores.
Youtube channels now create the sense that anyone is an expert. The truth always surfaces; “the powers that be” control the narrative by creating a culture where the general populace is in a state of constant distraction. This keeps the general populous from illumination, as they are never present enough to invest the time in a lifestyle of mindfulness and meditation. It requires looking at things you might not want to see and accepting them, rather than an idealized version of a rose-filtered world. Something society continues to drift further from, with social media cosigning unhealthy traits and creating a virtual bubble.
Magic is not effective for most people because they lack the fortitude to face what is in front of them, accept it, and apply their intention to it. This is why they lack the power to manifest anything. Magic will be a cool concept to them, but it ends there. If you are an ineffective person, how will your magic not mirror that? One mage once said, “You will know a tree by the fruit it bears.“ What’s growing on your tree?
The current trend of hedonism equating magic further blurs truths and more often than not enables addicts to justify their downward spiral by calling themselves psychonauts. An actual psychonaut picks up tools from the altered state and applies them to the physical plane. They know anything they experience altered, they can replicate sober through various forms of transcendental meditation, using the ritual to show them where they can go rather than rely upon the substance. Dropping acid every week and then piling other drugs on top of it is not doing magic. They are unable to make conscious contact with anything since they are afraid to be conscious.
It is easy to try to hide behind Crowley’s infamous phrase: “Do What Thou Wilt Shall be the Whole of the Law.” Despite Crowley’s own vices later in life, this is not the dinner bell for the hedonists. It is a call to action. A call to break away from herd conformity and find one’s own path. Here, followers of Thelema are tasked with seeking out and following their true path. Being your highest self—not getting yourself the highest. If the difference between the two sentiments is a cause of confusion or dissonance, pursuing the path of magic might not be for you.
The word mundane has an interesting dual meaning. On one hand it means “of the earthly world,” rather than a spiritual one. The other meaning is “lacking interest or excitement, dull.” The latter being the reason many claim to indulge themselves in hedonism, as they believe the sober world is dull and lacking in excitement. Psychedelics are meant to show you the path, not to carry you on that journey. Only infants need to be carried.
Do all conspiracies including those involving the occult weave into one another? Yes. One example is: what we think of as “aliens” might be interdimensional beings. What to many is the “realm of spirit” is just another vibrational frequency—so terms like angels, demons, and even gods, could refer to interdimensional beings. If you were creating myths with no grasp of the science now more commonplace today, those supernatural concepts might make more sense. Communing with such beings would then be an act of magic, as it would use your own personal power to tap into that frequency. UFO cults who see these interdimensional beings as the basis for their worship are widespread around the world, including Heaven’s Gate, the Kaokala Group, Sunrise Valley, the True Way, the Aethurius Society, the international Raelien Movement, and the Ninth Church of the Elohemoth. Some of these groups use rituals from other mystery schools to invoke alien consciousness or inter-dimensional beings.
For a community that is supposedly open-minded, occult circles today tend to conform closer than ever to societal norms. I have even seen some occultists coming out in public forums to cast dispersion on “conspiracy theorists.” This aversion to questioning everything when the questions do not conform to one’s prescribed narrative is dangerous. It means some things are ok to think about, but not others. This was the kind of thinking that sprung up in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1641, when witchcraft was made a capital crime. Witchcraft questioned the religion of the day, and the science they trusted to prove the accused as witches was to throw them into the water and see if they floated. Seemed sound enough at the time, since the general populace knew no other methods, so they took the word of the Witch Finder General—and we know where this led. But that could never happen today…or could it?
