“Poor idiot! Are you so foolish as to believe
we
will openly teach you the greatest and most
important
of secrets? I assure you that anyone who
attempts
to study, according to the ordinary and literal
sense
of their words, what the Hermetic Philosophers
write,
will soon find himself in the twists of a labyrinth
from
which he will be unable to escape, having no
Ariadne’s
Thread to lead him out.”
The occult as a source of study has traversed a myriad of
philosophical schools of thought. Anthropologists and Folklorists have discussed the
implications of magic on socio-cultural and religious levels but have largely
shied away from individual agency as part of the occult process. The reason is
simple. It is much easier to infer the effect that magic and religion has on a
group rather than make speculative guesses on the causal and deterministic
motives that the ‘individual’ makes use of. That’s not to say that metaphysical
quandaries don’t have a place in occult study. On the contrary, much of what
characterizes occult discussion is based on solid metaphysical properties. For
example, Jan de Vries has remarked that, “If we view magic as an institutional
technique, it does seem that the sprinkling of water causes the rain to appear.
But the person who executed this act for the first time did not in the least
desire to apply, albeit incorrectly, the law of causality. Primitive man had
not come that far at all; He laid hold on the expedient of magic because he
found himself in one or another emergency” (176). Even if the causal factor is
refuted, the fact that causality is included in a study of magic shows the
potency of metaphysical thinking on occult study.
Even
Frazer’s work on sympathetic magic had largely causal concerns. It is no
surprise that imitative magic makes use of causation as part of their design.
For example, the desired effect of manipulating somebody’s personal hair
clippings or clothing was to produce a significant effect in their owner. A
classic cause and effect scenario. Often times, the experiential nuances of the
occult ritual are much more important to understanding occult reasoning than
causation or deterministic structure. Famous folklorist Lutz Rohrich has stated
that, “The experiential legend depicts numinous astonishment at the apparent
suspension of the natural laws of causality in external reality” (26). The
shock of witnessing the supernatural becomes an integral aspect of interpreting
the magic experience. But is this all there is to occult philosophy? Are there
other paradigms that enter into the occult way of thinking?
Whether it is demonic legends, Old Hag, or even UFO
abduction narratives, the occult disregards theories accepted in scientific
milieus yet is concerned with science. The occult wants to be legitimate. Many
occultists strive for the valid deductive argument form: If [theory +
experimental conditions + assumptions] then prediction. The problem lays in the
fact that many occult and paranormal researchers tend to affirm the
consequence of their predictions. For example, a Ufologist might
suggest that:
If a UFO, then presence of anomalous lights.
If presence of anomalous lights
Therefore, a UFO.
However, just because there are anomalous lights does not
automatically mean there is a UFO present. There obviously could be another
explanation. These invalid deductive arguments are more common in studies of
paranormal and occult than you many realize. In fact, even some aspects of
Ancient Astronaut Theory is guilty of invalid deductive form. It is known that
many aspects of AAT make use of highly complex megalithic structures to prove
the influence of extraterrestrials on early Man. They postulate that at sites
such as Puma Punku in Peru, early Man wasn’t sophisticated enough to design or
engineer such an intricate complex. Therefore, aliens must have intervened. The
argument tends to take these forms:
If
ancient aliens, then highly advanced megalithic structure.
Highly
sophisticated megalithic structure,
Therefore
ancient aliens.
Or
If
highly advanced megalithic structures, then aliens.
Aliens,
Therefore
highly advanced megalithic structures.
Although these examples may seem trivial, you can see the
complications that arise when attempting to deductively formulate a sound
occult or paranormal prediction. However, that’s not to say that the occult is
abhorrent to philosophy. On the contrary, there are other philosophical forms
that lend a great deal of credence to the occult.
I would lean towards an experiential phenomenalism that
relies on some aspects of materialism for its foundation. This theory would
postulate that behavior is based upon the phenomenal qualities or
interpretations of experience. The mind would provide input based on
experiential happenings and determine whatever output or behavior is
appropriate. Subsequently, we negotiate phenomenal qualities based upon our
perceptions of an experience. And since we are constantly experiencing, we are
constantly digesting new input that affects our behavioral output. This would
be conducive to memory as well. Past experience would necessarily effect our
interpretations of phenomenal qualities thus potentially altering our behavior.
For example, if somebody happens upon a UFO, experiential insights are going to
be produced by inferring phenomenal qualities as it happens. This
person may have never seen a UFO or indeed have no conception of what a UFO is
and yet still experience something on account of phenomenal associations.
Whether the behavior is awe, bewilderment, or terror, the experiencer’s mental
state will change and produce more mental states. The fact that the experience
and its phenomenal sensations are occurring and changing in real time as
the experience unfolds is why we see multiple behaviors manifest. (i.e.
confusion, to fear, to awe)
Much of what constitutes occult and the supernatural involve
reality and how we interpret the world around us. Whereas a realist would say
that our world is not dependent on human minds for existence, a post-realist
philosopher such as Hilary Putnam would assert that the external world is mind
and theory dependent. The world is a human construction. He states that, “There
is, then, nothing in the history of science to suggest that it either aims at
or should aim at one single absolute version of the world” (228). A relativism
concerning ontology and truth, what exists and the nature of what exists is
relative to society. As we formulate a theory in society, we construct a world.
Therefore, all versions of world-making are equally valid. It’s not hard to see
how proponents of the occult and investigators of the supernatural would find
this philosophy significant. World-making is a relativism that is community dependent.
A pertinent example can be found in the social organization of Malaysia. As
part of the social structure that permeates Malaysian culture, magic is a key
ingredient in the belief systems and solidarity of the group. Along with
socio-political and economic milieus, the magic that accompanies their
religious convictions is an integral aspect of understanding Malaysian reality.
Although the Western world largely trivializes magic as something anachronistic
or archaic pagan debris, for the Malaysians, it is accepted as part of their
everyday reality. Because as a society they make the choice to
include magical practices, it becomes true and real. As
Goodman eloquently remarks, “If we make worlds, the meaning of truth lies not
in these worlds but in ourselves—or better, in our versions and what we do with
them” (38). By utilizing a social and religious ecology to make sense of
reality, Malaysia has found what works for them as a culture.
Another mediation that occurs in occult practice and
metaphysical thought can be found in the ‘paradigm of appearances’. Paul
Feyerabend uses this ‘paradigm’ to discuss the idea of god in different
societies. He remarks that the god that is worshipped in the Abrahamic
religions (i.e. Christian, Muslim, Judaic) is ultimately the same God but
described differently. A very new-age concept, this God appears to
people in different ways but it’s a same reality. God and reality are ineffable
and determined by interpretations of appearances. For Feyerabend, reality is
pliable and we sculpt the external world. In regards to the
Greek Homeric Gods, he concluded that these otherworldly entities were
constructed in the same way that modern society constructed the idea of
electrons and protons. He remarks that, “If the entities postulated by a scientific
worldview can be assumed to exist independently of it, then why not
anthropomorphic Gods?” (34) Indeed, why not? If reality is malleable, then all
the demons, ghosts, or entities an occultist can conjure are equally valid and
real. They take an autonomous existence.
Another example where concepts of appearance and
construction can be applied is in supernatural assault narratives. Folklorists
have studied accounts of UFO abduction in terms of their morphology and
structural similarity to more traditional supernatural narratives. However,
much more work could be done with these stories using a study of ‘appearances’
and social construction. For example, for somebody who has had a first-hand UFO
abduction experience, their initial impression of the trauma is a legitimate
and more importantly, real occurrence. However, if the abductee
comes to realize that the experience was akin to a liminal rite caused by some
extenuating circumstance or personal Ordeal, then that impression is equally
valid and equally successful. Because reality is ineffable, both impressions
are a manifest reality or experiential construction of what exists.
Perhaps
what really provides ontological and epistemological credence to occult study
is the fact that it can be examined in terms of Actor-Network Theory. Latourian
ANT theory makes use of mediations to explain the many nuances that make up a
subject. According to Luckhurst, “Actor-Network Theory is the predictive
tension between the centered actor and the de-centered network, enabling the
critic to move across different scales of explanation” (8). Actor-Network lends
itself to the occult so easily because there a multitude of facets that
construct the occult. Through the use of translations, transformations, and substitutions,
the occult can be re-situated and re-embodied. In what I call the expression of movements,
the occult can be made to re-appear in a myriad of forms. These ideas are best
illustrated in an example: According to authors, Ruck, Staples, Celdran, and
Hoffman,
“A drawing of the 15th century Frater
Vincentius Koffsky, a monk of the Danzig order of preachers, depicted himself
draining the sacred blood directly from the wound of a Christ crucified as a
Tree of Life, with an alchemical oven shown as a temple in the background,
marked with the symbols for male-iron, female-copper, and an encircled dot,
which is the sign for the final goal, the elixir of drinkable gold, and also a
common motif for a mushroom cap; the oven-temple itself also resembles a cluster
of fungal caps. The inscription reads: “Now learn naturally and artfully, to
draw from this Catholic medicinal fountain of the living water and the oil of
joy” (34).
This beautifully described drawing has all the earmarks of
occult thought. For example, a quick list might include: a Frater, sacred
blood, Tree of Life, alchemy, symbol, Male/Female, entheogenics, the
inscription, the occult process. But we can calculate other movements such
as Catholicism, the fate of the Danzig preachers, the occult in the 15th century,
the fate of the drawing, the process of creating the drawing i.e. instruments
used to create, and so on. If we centralize the drawing and
construct this set of mediations around it in a network, we can use a model of
substitution and translation to glean the many meanings in the
drawing. I say multiple meanings because the drawing can be re-situated in any
number of ways based upon mediations and in doing so, take on any ontological
status. It becomes re-created infinitely and enjoys autonomous existence. The
drawing then is created and re-created just as in Feyerabend’s ‘paradigm of
appearances’ or Goodman’s world-making. It is an entity made real and given
meaning through the examination of movements and mediations.
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