jason carr's mousepad: - Great work, tarot, esotericism

To my Christian brothers and sisters

I want to share some of my background. I hope this will help us to co-exist more peacefully. I bear you no ill will, and hope you feel the same about me.

my background

I was raised a right-wing Christian ("fundamentalist"). I still treasure my studies of the Bible, read from it frequently, and I believe it to be the most influential collection of literature in the Western Hemisphere.

Common Christian conceptions of Occultists

I know first-hand that some Christians regard occult teachings as evil or Satanic. I certainly did when I was a Christian and I didn't know anyone who believed otherwise. It was not personal, so to speak; rather it was an article of faith. Even though I no longer subscribe to that belief system I know there are many good people who do. (see the resource on occultism at www.religioustolerance.com).

Occultism is not related to devil worship, human sacrifice, or an other bizarre thing the urban legends, insane street preachers and tele-evangelists might try to sell to the masses. It is a process of perfecting the self, becoming more Christlike, attaining the higher limits of our possibilities. To give you an example of how occultism is misunderstood, consider Crowley's famous dictum: "do what that wilt shall be the whole of the law." This is widely perceived to be free license to do whatever feels good. The actual, occult ("hidden") meaning of the phrase is to conform oneself to the will of God (to be Christlike); when one is truly Christlike then you only want to do those things which are pleasing to God. Does that make sense?
St. Francis said the same thing several hundred years prior and it didn't seem to cause a ruckus then.

know your enemy

If you want to "know your enemy", check out this short snippet from one of the formative occult works: Three Books of Occult Philosophy by Agrippa. See for yourself; don't believe the hype. Yes, there are rebellious 16-year-olds running around out there with inverted cross necklaces that call themselves occultists, but who wants to take notes on theological doctrine from children or kooks? I wouldn't base my eternal salvation on what some youthgroup zealot had to say, either.

I think you will find we have more in common than you may think: the roots of Occultism lie in Classicism, Christianity and Renaissance humanism. You might be surprised at how often Jewish and Christian concepts are used on the occult path.

There are differences, of course. Here are some rough stereotypes that may be useful:

Christian Occultist

Nature of man Degraded, radically separated from God by sin. Essentially like God, only most do not realize it.

heaven/hell Actual places in the afterlife. Here and now; Heaven and hell is a condition of being conformed to the will of God or not.
Some occultists believe in an afterlife in the Christian sense; some do not.

the devil an actual being a symbol of wrong thinking and perverse use of our abilities.

magic and ritual Satanic activities Effecting change by understanding natural forces; believing that the natural world is function of the spiritual world. Example: you might not water your yard at 3pm because of the direct sunlight. The occultist might not do a particular thing at a certain time because of astrological or numerological factors. Same concept, different underlying belief system.
Interestingly enough, what was called "magick" and occult psychology 100 years ago is now repackaged and called "sports psychology", "psychology of success", "salesmanship", "positive thinking", etc. :-)

So even though the info above distorts because of its simplicity, you can see there are differences. The occultists generally sees value in Christian teachings, although the occultist usually puts an esoteric spin on content.

wearing the pentagram

Some occultists wear pentagrams or pentacles (the latter have a circle around them), the same way you wear a cross or a WWJD bracelet. It's the same thing, only our kids get expelled from school for wearing our religious symbol.

The pentagram was one of the early Christian symbols, as the five points were associated with the five wounds of Christ (Constantine saw it as the primary Christian sign).. The pent has five points: the upper point is the spirit, and it is above the other four points (four elements: fire, water, air, earth). This refers to the amenability of natural forces to man's spirit and understanding.

an unfortunate caveat

There are a minority of occultists that are actively hostile to Christianity; this is generally a result of mistreatment by self-professed Christian family and former friends. [thought experiment: how would you treat a relative or friend if they told you they were an occultist?] I do not ask you to forgive them, only to understand that they have confused the actions of a few with the philosophy of your religion. This happens on both sides of the fence.

benediction

I promise to respect your beliefs, and refrain from trying to convert you. I'd like the same in return.

L.V.X., Frater Mus

$Id: christian.orb,v 1.6 2004/05/09 00:20:38 mouse Exp $

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	Christian	Occultist
Nature of man	Degraded, radically separated from God by sin.	Essentially like God, only most do not realize it.
heaven/hell	Actual places in the afterlife.	Here and now; Heaven and hell is a condition of being conformed to the will of God or not. Some occultists believe in an afterlife in the Christian sense; some do not.
the devil	an actual being	a symbol of wrong thinking and perverse use of our abilities.
magic and ritual	Satanic activities	Effecting change by understanding natural forces; believing that the natural world is function of the spiritual world. Example: you might not water your yard at 3pm because of the direct sunlight. The occultist might not do a particular thing at a certain time because of astrological or numerological factors. Same concept, different underlying belief system. Interestingly enough, what was called "magick" and occult psychology 100 years ago is now repackaged and called "sports psychology", "psychology of success", "salesmanship", "positive thinking", etc. :-)