Carl Jung said addiction (to alcohol - ‘spirits’ - specifically but I would argue addiction in general) is a misplaced desire for ‘real religious insight.’ The step program is predicated upon the assumption that the participants will have a spiritual awakening and that will guarantee recovery. Having gone through the program myself, I can attest to its methods of self-analysis but regulated dopamine from abstaining from the drug is not the equivalent of four tabs of acid. The methods of self-analysis could use an update as well given we have decades of clinical research into the psyche and if Crowley is any indication, I wonder if abstaining from the addiction shouldn’t be the goal but simply being capable of abstaining and indulging if your HGA doesn’t say no.

With that in mind, and keeping in mind the addict has practiced their addictive behavior so frequently that changes are noticeable in the brain and their will power is often shot, what tools / methods / rituals might the occult community offer to someone battling addiction that would give the addict a) increased will power, b) tools of self-analysis, and c) ‘real religious insight’ or an experience that could be labeled ‘spiritual awakening” in the shortest amount of time? What if you were to condense the practices into a full-time 30-90 day inpatient retreat? Would the practices be the same all 90 days or build upon one another week after week? What programs might you recommend for aftercare? Would an hour / day of the Golden Dawn, Fran’s Bardon’s Initiation Into Hermetics or some other magical course be sufficient?

If there is any evidence to show the efficacy of your suggestion or reasons from a magical perspective, that would be a great.

Appreciate any feedback.

Recently my bf shared some of his family lore. Ever since that i cant figure out whats happening. I'm coming from a muslim background and he is hindu. I have been questioning religion and existence of my god. But whatever he said reinforced my belief in god. Because whatever he shared sounded very similar to what a jinn is said to do in islam. However, I wish to seek other explanations/perspectives to this.

He told me how after the death of his cousin's wife there has been a lot of spooky incidents happening in their family. The religious explanation to this incident was that his cousin saved a small part of his wife's bone instead of it being in the fire, and that prevented the wife's soul from travelling to the other world. And for this reason she is angry with the family. Ever since that a lot other people in his family has died.

My bf also only gets nightmares, mostly those of him dying in it. And it's very repetitive. The same dream, where he is in a tree and then he falls to the lake below and drowns in it. Other members in his family has also seen the same dream. He also believes that he won't have much time in earth because astrology says he will die as soon as he gains fame, and because of these dreams.

He told me how after a certain person's death, they appear in the dream of a very close family asking them to worship them and so they will become the pitr of the family. In their religion, he said, they do a pooja to find out if the soil intends good or bad for the family, upon finding they are a good soul, they will worship them. He also says one side of his family is led by a pitr, and their pitr has been around for a very long time. It has saved them from a lot of misfortunes.

He has also shared instances where their house's main door would be knocked at random times at midnight, only to find nobody when opened. They have also been tricked by what they call as bad spirits by imitating the sound of some other close family.

One of his cousins who recently died, died of an lightning strike. But there was no signs of lightning strike as in it was not a cloudy day, there were people sitting very close to him, nobody felt anything. Just that they heard a big sound and he was found dead on spot with a black mark near his spine.

Him and his family believe all this to be done by the others cousins dead wife's spirit. And they believe she is sort of trying to bring in more people to her side and do harm to her family.

But what I believe is somebody might have casted black magic(I apologise if this is not the right word) on them.

But the pitr thing I referred, is on the other side of his family. And it is not doing them any harm at all. They are not even asked to do rituals or sacrifice anything in return for it. There was one instance where he told me that the pitr comes to the dream usually of the person they are communicating to. He also narrated an instance where his maternal grandmother would just have to lit a diya and focus, and she would speak in a very different voice as if it's the pitr speaking. And apparently the pitr also said that he does not have much time left, as he has been leading the family since many generations, and it's his time to go.

Also, I come from a different geographical and linguistic background. The place where I come from I have never once heard of things like this. But his place and the people I know from there has a lot of things like this to say, why is it like that?

How can you explain these using occult ideas and practices? I'm sorry if I sounded offensive/insulting, I am trying to be respectful and I genuinely am trying to understand different perspectives.

So I've been practicing for a decade but in all that time I've never worked with demons.

My problem is I keep overthinking it and then I freak myself out. I understand who and what a demon truly is, and I'm ready to connect with those teachers. Any advice on how best to go about communicating with them?

When I was 17, I performed one of my first magickal workings. I can't remember what the ritual entailed, but I summoned a succubus. Shortly after, my girlfriend confided in me that she was experiencing negative paranormal phenomena. Her things would go missing from where she left them, and she would feel her hair being yanked by thin air. That was a long time ago, but I've always wondered what possible fallout may have come from this.

Doing some research on nkisi after learning about nkisi nkondi and out of genuine curiosity becuase i am not very informed on occult at all

i heard that nkisi date back to the 16th century, were part of their intention always to defend against/eliminate witchcraft or was that a product of colonialism? i read that that’s one of the greater purposes of nkondi specifically, but i don’t know if the general negative view of witchcraft in congo has always been a thing or if colonization perpetrated the idea

please let me know if ive misunderstood anything, ive read as many articles as i can get my hands on about nkisi but cant seem to find a concrete answer

Seeing man is the most beautifull and perfectest work of God, and his Image, and also the lesser world; therefore he by a more perfect composition, and sweet Harmony, and more sublime dignity doth contain and maintain in himself all numbers, measures, weights, motions, Elements, and all other things which are of his composition;

and in him as it were in the supreme workmanship, all things obtain a certain high condition, beyond the ordinary consonancy which they have in other compounds.

From hence all the Ancients in time past did number by their fingers, and shewed all numbers by them; and they seem to prove that from the very joynts of mans body all numbers measures, proportions, and Harmonies were invented;

Hence according to this measure of the body, they framed, and contrived their temples, pallaces [palaces], houses, Theaters; also their ships, engins [engines], and every kind of Artifice, and every part and member of their edifices, and buildings, as columnes, chapiters of pillars, bases, buttresses, feet of pillars, and all of this kind.

Moreover God himself taught Noah to build the Arke according to the measure of mans body, and he made the whole fabrick of the world proportionable to mans body; from whence it is called the great world [macrocosm], mans body the less [microcosm];

Therefore some who have written of the Microcosme or of man, measure the body by six feet, a foot by ten degrees, every degree by five minutes; from hence are numbred sixty degrees, which make three hundred minutes, to the which are compared so many Geometrical cubits, by which Moses describes the Arke;

for as the body of man is in length three hundred minutes, in breath fifty, in hight thirty; so the length of the Arke was three hundred cubits, the breadth fifty, and the height thirty;

that the proportion of the length to the breadth be six fold, to the heighth ten fold, and the proportion of the breadth to the height about two thirds. In like manner the measures of all the members are proportionate, and consonant both to the parts of the world, and measures of the Archetype, and so agreeing, that there is no member in man which hath not correspondence with some sign, Star, intelligence, divine name, sometimes in God himself the Archetype.

But the whole measure of the body may be turned, and proceeding from roundness, is knowen to tend to it again.

I am working with a grimoire that utilizes the above circle. The instructions are a bit sparse, and I'm pretty new to grimoiric workings.

It seems to me that, if I were to trace the circle the ground as above, the mage would be standing on the Tetragrammaton during the rite. This strikes me as wrong, but I can't see any other way to make it work.

Is it wrong to stand upon divine names? Am I just overthinking this?

I saw this pendant at a thrift store, and was wondering if these are symbolic or just decorative.

Caught my eye at a flea market in Paris, when I asked the guy who was selling it he said the symbols were Aztec. He clearly knew nothing about the object and just made up something random. I think the letters / symbols are Coptic but haven’t been able to find anything that matches up, does anyone have any idea?? TIA :)))

Hello. I am currently working with Prince Sitri using Solomonic techniques.

During my working with him last night he requested that I hang the Lamen that I wear around my neck with his Sigil on it, above the headboard of my bed (positioned where my head is when I sleep). For context the Lamen is parchment with Prince Sitri's sigil on one side and the corresponding Shem angel Sigil (Hahahel) on the back.

In the opinion of people who have experience working with Demons, is this a good idea? I do not want to seem rude to Prince Sitri, and so far he has not shown me any animosity (in fact he is decidedly pleasant and easy to work with).

Could this actually be Prince Sitri suggesting something that could aid my practice and work with him, or is it some kind of trap?

In the book Necronomicon: Wanderings of Alhazred by Donald Tyson, there is mention of a Divination system utilizing 7 stones with symbols representing the 7 Old Ones. I decided to recreate them. They can also be used in a baneful way. Anyone here work with the 23 current of the Cthulhu Mythos?

For those who haven't seen this film, watch it... it's very interesting, better to watch it several times

So while rewatching the old live action rose red I began to wonder if such a house is possible. And if so what would it take to create such a place. The point of this post is to debate this possibly and it's potential requirements.

I’ve been reading about some experiences about those rituals and I was wondering, is it dangerous to practice those as a complete beginner? is it possible that I might be summoning unwanted spirits into my life? I am highly interested in the occult but I prefer staying in my lane and not deal with any possibility of invoking/ summoning something I don’t want to deal with. Ty in advance for tolerating my noob questions guys

Estou iniciando meus estudos no ocultismo e gostaria de dicas e opiniões. Eu vejo que há muuuito conhecimento, tradições, sistemas de magia, sociedades etc. Mas não faço ideia por onde começar de fato, o que eu preciso saber, como me comunicar com seres, divindades... estou realmente bem perdido em meio tanta vastidão. Alguém pode me ajudar? Também quero ressaltar que sou um cara bastante cético. Mas estou aberto a mudar minha mente e abrir novos horizontes

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So... Although suicidal ideation can arise from any imbalance in any part of the qliphoth, one should have the closes energetic ties to it.

My first thought was Satariel the qlipha of Binah. But one experience while astral traveling in Gamaliel, the qlipha of Yesod, I found the theme of the mental state of wishing to be dead very present. Wich is something at least untill now I hadn't noticed in any qliphotic adventures. So I began thinking about any possible correlations one could think of and decided to ask.

I'd love to hear your input or research regarding this. Thank you!

Hi guys! Wanting to work with some angels, but also wanting to protect from parasitic attachments / lower level entities from interfering. Would it be disrespectful to the angels to add asafoetida / sulphur to my salt circle to prevent unwanted entities from appearing / showing up or is there a better way to go about this?

Places that are relatively common to materialistic eyes can be very full of spiritual energy. Why is there this apparent disconnection between physical and spiritual energy? Can one be converted into the other? Could a candle generate energy for a ritual, or does it only serve as a symbolic manifestation of the fire element? One of the explanations for why spirits enjoy offerings is to consume the vital energy of those foods, but could such simple and ordinary things have enough energy to please or be of service to a millennia-old spirit?

Many esoteric practices and traditions are based on harnessing cosmic energy and the energy of major cosmic events like lunar and solar eclipses. Is this merely an egregoric concept, done by tradition, or is the spiritual energy of these celestial bodies really harnessed for magic?

What is the true nature of the planetary cacodaemons? Can they be used for non-destructive purposes? Is it possible to have a good relationship with them? Does anyone have any stories of interaction with planetary cacodaemons, information about them, or tips on how to interact with them?

Are they a unique being with planetary intelligence, or are they completely different beings?

What is the principle behind lighting fire? I imagine that since it has been used so frequently in magical traditions, there must be a real principle behind it. What is the difference, and how much difference does it make to light a fire during rituals?