It’s amazing how occultism survives in the modern time where the world pursuits the technological advancement, ordinary people strive to replace Apple 11 with Apple 12, and many routine steps daily are made with help of machines. The world is under the rule of logic and science! Nevertheless, the black magic exists beyond time and place. Some people, who definitely seem to be strange to others, willingly practice occultism for their own certain purposes. Most of them do this to keep the tradition of ancestors, few want to engage into the black magic out of their own interest.
You may think that occultism has nothing to do with the Cross, but Christian people actually perform occult practices without a second thought – for example, they think they’re watched by ancestral spirits and believe they may influence their lives, may protect them or cause troubles to them. But how far does occultism go in the modern time? What form does it have? Let’s discuss this issue in this article.
Occultic practice is rooted in the desire to have certainty regarding some events of the future and the past, someone’s thoughts and the phenomena that cannot be explained by people. In the absence of the answers in the Bible, people turn to the supernatural world and its power. This power can be favorable or destructive to people’s minds. Our abilities are limited by nature, and maybe it is something that we should not try to change. Practicing occultism, a man may create something in his/her mind, which can’t be perceived physically, it grows unconsciously through excessive thinking and focusing, and this something soon becomes the object of his/her fear. It’s exactly how we gave birth to demons, ghosts, supernatural phenomena, sacred things and locations. Altogether they form a bridge between this world and the other, between life and death, between living people and those who passed away.
Each person has his/her own relationship with occult. Some treat it as a joke, others perform occult practices unconsciously, few treat occultism seriously and devote time or even life to occult. We historically believe that occultism is something we should avoid and fear. Although, many legendary figures had regular occult practices in their lives – such as E. Presley, I. Newton, D. Bowie or Queen Victoria…
The worst thing that may happen to the one, practicing occultism, is being swallowed by this practice. And the Bible warns that such people won’t have an opportunity to enter Heaven.
The very word “occult” is associated with something mysterious, dark, hidden, unknown or invisible. In the civilizations, ruled by logic, science and rationalism, occultism tended to develop in the context of science and art. In the religious context, occultism is thought to be an art of magical practice that involves contact with the dead. Divination practices, magical rituals and superstitions have always been associated with occultism in religion. Although, science promotes a bit different point of view and treats occultism as a belief in the supernatural powers and mysterious spirits, as well as rituals performed to contact these spirits for certain purposes.
Occultism followers believe that supernatural figures and spirits may influence real lives and events, bless or help living people or, on the contrary, hurt or even kill them. This is why, they become objects of fear or worshipping.
Occult practices have a spiritual nature and can be compared to worshipping unorthodox deities. Below we will name the most common occult practices, which still exist in many cultures.
Heated by the desire to foresee future, people address fortune-tellers, use tarot cards or practice crystal-ball gazing. Water, candles, tea brew turn into instruments to see the images of the future. The Church has always treated divination as the evil and devilish ritual. However, occult practitioners have a different point of view. Severely punishing people for any forms of divination in the past, the Church is responsible for numerous deaths, tortures and cases of burning at the stake.
Always involving and led by a medium, occult seances are performed to contact the spirits of the dead for certain advice or answers. Practitioners believe that ghosts talk to them through the medium and with his/her voice. They may also use various instruments to deliver a message to the real world. So far, there is no evidence in the modern science that proves the fact of ghosts’ appearance in any form during such seances.
Occult practitioners believe in the power of various mysterious symbols. In their opinion, they open the door to the hidden parallel world. One of the most well-known occult symbols is the pentagram. Its history is very old rooted in ancient Babylon. Occult practitioners depict sigils to contact spirits of the dead, various deities – good or bad, to get the power and strength normally inaccessible to people.
Satanism is not a synonym of occultism but they are interconnected in many ways. Over the centuries, they borrowed practices one from the other. For better or worse, we cannot say where and how Satanism was born, because all its roots and cults have been severely and hastily suppressed by the Church everywhere they emerged. However, the records of the seventeenth century do describe the Satanic cults.
Satanism is based on the belief in dark mysterious figures who came from the underworld, the world of the dead. Such figures represent dark pagan gods, not even Satan himself. That’s why worshipping them is much connected with occultism.
In the mid of the XX century, the practice of Satanism was very popular in the USA, the number of the followers didn’t count millions though. Followers performed crazy and violent practices with suicides and murders among them. The Church still treats occultism and Satanism as the same thing regardless of quite distinctive differences.
This practice is used with the aim to convert the power of demons in one’s own favor or for one’s own evil plan. Occultists believe they can use fallen angels to cause misfortune to certain living humans. Even now, many violent acts are explained by demonic practices.
It’s a huge practice that involves much ideology, ancient manuscripts and esoteric theory. Nowadays, it also embraces the pseudoscientific knowledge of astrology. Hermeticism aims to reach in-depth understanding of God’s ideology and turn supernatural into natural through learning. The concept is based on the idea that unknown and mysterious things can truly be made known and comprehended, can be “tamed”. Under the umbrella of Hermeticism, we can find Alchemy, Freemasonry, Gnosticism. Can we call Hermeticism a field of science? Actually, we can’t. Its goal is not scientific. The practice studies the supernatural realm in order to explain the things, which still arouse many questions, while science mostly studies the natural world. Just like occultism, Hermeticism is fully about more fundamental study that goes beyond the natural world.
The interest to occult practices has up and down periods through the history. But in all times, even bright globally known figures were engaged into occultism in different ways. One of the most demonized figures is Hitler, who was believed to conduct occult rituals and keep different artifacts in order to achieve his terrible bloody goals. Some people even stated he was possessed by a demon or was the Devil incarnate.
