If you ask five different occultists what magic is, you’ll get at least ten different answers. There are so many different ideas about what magic is and how it works, even more if you look at historical ideas of magic. But, at the same time, there is also a current of specific philosophical ideas that underlie the Western esoteric tradition. I’ve also observed, frequently, that mystically-minded people tend to come to similar conclusions even when they come from wildly disparate cultural contexts. Here’s some of the commonly recurring ideas in Western estotericism, some of which are philosophical concepts that date back to Plato and thereabouts, and some of which are mystical motifs that apparently crop up of their own accord:
“One is All and All is One”: Summarized by the one and only Edward Elric, “Everything we see, everyone we meet, is caught up in this great unseen flow. But it’s bigger than that. It’s the entire world. The entire universe, even! And compared to somethin’ as big as that, Al, you and I are tiny, not even the size of ants. Only one small part within the much greater flow. Nothing more than a fraction of the whole. But by putting all those ‘ones’ together, you get one great All, just like Teacher said! The flow of this universe follows laws of such magnitude, that you and I can’t even imagine them.” Not all occultists are necessarily pantheistic, but most do conceive of the universe as a single cohesive system, and it’s a common mystical motif that human beings are not separate from each other or from Nature. As time goes on, I’ve trended more towards hard polytheism, instead of the idea that all gods are just facets of a single God, but I still believe that everything is intrinsically connected.
Emanation: The Platonic idea that the world exists in a series of emanations, beginning with God/The Great Divine/the Demiurge and proceeding downward through a series of realms or spheres, with each one being an expression of the previous one, until it reaches the material plane. Most believe that one can ascend upward through the series of emanations until one reaches God. In modern occultism, this idea isn’t always expressed in exactly these terms, but most Western occultists believe some version of it just because of how influential it is. You’ll see modern occultists talk about a “spiritual plane,” “emotional plane,” and “mental plane” in addition to the physical one, sometimes identifying them with the four elements, and some will talk about ascending divine realms that they can visit in meditation. If they’re influenced by Kabbalah at all (even by knockoffs like Hermetic Qabalah), then they’ll definitely believe in this idea. Oh, and I’ve seen a lot of occultists mention The Matrix as an example of a film with real occult ideas, and The Matrix is just a modernized version of the Allegory of the Cave. (Personally, I don’t think the emanations are a chain so much as a web extending in all directions, but that’s just my UPG.)
“As above, so below”: In keeping with the idea that the whole universe is a cohesive system and that it proceeds on a chain (or something) between the higher and lower realms, it only makes sense that those realms should influence each other. “As above, so below” is usually interpreted to mean that the Macrocosm (the universe at large or the spiritual realms) affects the microcosm (human life), and vice-versa. If you affect one, you affect the other. Understanding how the Macrocosm and microcosm interact, reflect, and relate to one another allows one to exploit or even directly control these influences. Or, if you don’t want to think of it that way, you could improve your life by aligning yourself with the current universal trends or vibes.
Correspondences: A popular idea in Renaissance occultism was that of “natural magic.” Following the “As above, so below” doctrine, it was believed that there are symbolic links between everything that exists in nature: plants, stones, metals, animals, planets, colors, parts of the human body, etc. All of these things were thought to have hidden “occult virtues” that one could make use of. This discipline was a kind of proto-science, examining the connections that exist between different things in nature and trying to utilize them in magic and medicine. (Some of the plant correspondences, for example, were based on the actual medicinal properties of the chemicals in the plants. e.g. Garlic wards off vampires because it’s a natural antibiotic.) Correspondences are hugely popular in modern occultism, so much so that correspondence tables are often the first thing aspiring witches will see on the internet. Whenever you see those little cards in crystal shops that tell you about the crystal’s mystical properties, you can thank the early modern writers for that.
Death/rebirth: Western mystery traditions usually involve confrontation and transcendence of death in some capacity, often as a preliminary step. There’s a bit of an asterisk attached to this one, because it’s very possible that Western occultists’ preoccupation with death and rebirth is heavily informed by Christianity. But it’s also possible that the reverse is true — that Christianity is so preoccupied with death and rebirth because it’s essentially a mystery cult. One of the few things we are fairly certain about regarding the Eleusinian and Orphic Mysteries is that they were concerned with the afterlife in a way that most of Ancient Greek religion was not, and that they seemed to offer the initiates passage to a better afterlife, dispelling fear of death. (Though, again, a lot of scholars project Christianity onto them.) Descent into the underworld and spiritual rebirth shows up in a lot of different myths from around the world, and it also shows up in private revelations like those in Carl Jung’s Red Book. Confronting death and darkness, coming to terms with it, and emerging triumphant is a necessary part of initiation. (However, it is my opinion that death/rebirth is not enough anymore. It was a big revelation two thousand years ago, but now, it’s old news and you need to get through it several times so that the real work can begin.)
I’d say that these are the main underlying beliefs in Western esotericism. There are common practices, too (magic is just as much about the particular methods one uses), but that’s another post.
Common, but not universal, is the idea that spirits and other subtle forces can be interacted with directly and sometimes controlled. Exactly what these spirits are, how they work, if they should be commanded or worshipped or “worked with,” etc. varies significantly. Sometimes it’s believed that magic comes from them, other times it’s believed that the magician has inherent power. Some occultists do not believe in spirits, but instead interpret them as archetypes in the Jungian sense, purely internal rather than external forces. Some occultists (especially those who identify as witches) are animistic and believe that Nature is alive and responses, but others believe that divine spirits are wholly separated from the material world.
A growing trend in Western occultism is an emphasis on UPG (“Unverified Personal Gnosis”), personal experience of the Divine or other spirits, as a or even the source of mystical knowledge. This flies in the face of historical occultism, which placed much greater emphasis on the supposed greater wisdom and knowledge of the ancients, and only conferred said knowledge through complex initiatory traditions. That doesn’t seem as necessary anymore. I tend to lean towards UPG myself, but I also acknowledge that it’s a double-edged sword — a lot of newbies who do not have direct experiences with spirits feel like they’re doing something wrong, when they might just need guidance or they just don’t have that skill.
Belief in thoughtforms, or the ability of one’s desires, intentions, and perceptions to directly inform tangible reality, is also an increasingly popular idea. A lot of occultists interpret magic as involving a combination of intention and willpower. Some occultists believe that gods are egregores, large entities created by groups of people rather than preexisting supernatural beings that are wholly independent from humans. The subjectivity of perception, and therefore of reality, also has pretty good scientific backing by now.
There are some major points of contention, though:
Duality vs. non-duality. I saw a post on r/occult the other day in which a person went on a rant about how the world is divided into dark and light, angels and serpents, and how much he wanted the angels and serpents to stop fighting and play frisbee. Seems pretty good on the surface, but a big piece of his rant was a gender essentialist screed about how men’s nature is fundamentally light with a bit of feminine darkness and how women’s is fundamentally dark with a bit of masculine lightness. That reminded me a lot of Jung’s anima/animus concept, which sounded like gender essentialism until I read The Red Book and realized that it was actually based in a revelation Jung had about deconstructing the gender binary. I told this person that the next step forward would be to realize that there are no angels or serpents, just spirits that can take either form, and that men and women are also two forms of the same thing instead of these fundamentally different Mars/Venus opposing forces. The person then blocked me after accusing me of gaslighting and of wanting to “erase God and divine gender.” So… yeah. Personally, I think that synthesizing duality is also a necessary part of mysticism, but so much of Western esotericism is also informed by Christianity, which has an inherently dualist cosmology. Also, the Divine Masculine/Divine Feminine concept is still super popular in Wiccan, Wicca-related, and New Age circles.
Hierarchical vs. non-hierarchical: Much of the older material assumes that there is a cosmic hierarchy, beginning with God at the top and progressing downward through the chain of emanation, with various kinds of spirits at various ranks in between. The divine hierarchy was reinforced by Christianity, but it predates it. I’m not generally a fan of hierarchies, and lately I’ve started perceiving the spiritual world as having a much more complex arrangement. Hierarchies are nice and simple and easy for the human brain to understand. Complex webs of interconnected stuff moving every which way, with nothing apparently “first” or “in charge,” is not easy for us to wrap our heads around. The hierarchical model is still preferred by a lot of occultists, but I think it’s a bit limiting.
Nirvana vs. incarnation: The ultimate goal of most mystical systems is to reunite with God and once assimilate back into the ecstasy of the Divine. Or, to reach apotheosis and become a god while still on earth. Or somehow to reach a state of divinity. Some systems are focused on breaking the cycle of incarnation, and many occultists who have attuned themselves to spiritual realities feel like their flesh is a prison. (I think Plato says as much somewhere.) However, we’re all alive, and there’s a reason why we’re alive. Are you going to reunite with God, or are you going to do spiritual work here on earth?
Asceticism vs. hedonism: Despite the reputation of people like Aleister Crowley, occultism has historically been very ascetic. It’s easier to devote yourself to spiritual pursuits if you don’t have the material world getting in the way. Studying magic is also time-consuming, and both intellectually and spiritually demanding. But hedonism, or really ecstatic trance techniques, are just as valid a path to the Divine, and they can be more effective for some people. I’ve heard a lot of witches say that you should never do spells while under the influence, but use of entheogens as a mystical tool goes back literally as far as humanity itself. And a lot of gods and spirits like sex! Ecstatic dance is downright underrated in modern occultism. Hedonism isn’t for everyone, but I don’t think that sensuality and spirituality should be treated as separate, and the material world definitely shouldn’t be seen as corrupting. Why do I believe that? Because I trend naturally towards asceticism, but I need to learn to live in the world (see above) and that means putting my feet in the dirt, so to speak.
Rationality vs. irrationality: The influence of Platonism and Neoplatonism on Western occultism, and Hermeticism in particular, results in this notion that God is inherently rational. In both Platonism and Hermeticism, the first thing to emanate from God is Nous, or “Mind,” and from there God thinks or speaks the world into existence by means of the Word, Logos. This is all well and good, but perceiving the Divine as wholly rational by nature is, in my opinion, projecting human values onto it. If you expect God to adhere to an internally consistent philosophical framework, you’re inevitably going to miss everything that doesn’t fit into that framework. Mystical experiences frequently feel like madness, and are consistently associated with madness in a lot of the same Hellenistic sources that these ideas come from. Jung thought he was going mad in his Red Book visions, and struggled to reconcile them with his values of rationality and scientific thinking, and his desire to be taken seriously. Lovecraft embraced the madness and showed us a vision of God that is intentionally as irrational as possible, hitting on some major mystical insights in between all the pulp horror. Also, the Enlightenment distaste for anything “irrational” is precisely why magic has been understudied and even outright dismissed in academic circles until very recently. We’re all mad here, and it’s okay.
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