(September 16, 2019 at 8:50 pm)mordant Wrote: This is similar to hermeticism ("as above, so below", The Secret, etc) where you "create your own reality". The only difference is that hermeticism is more about thinking your way to the life you want and magick involves slathering a lot of ritual on top of that.
Both of those things boil down to getting your way via some formula.
Come to it ... how is Christianity or any other more "conventional" religion any different? Only the details change. You are still using your asserted brand of right-thinking, right-acting, and depending on your persuasion and personal leanings, ritual and community to get what you want or hope for in life.
Well, almost every philosophy for life espouses being a good person, even in the occult. Outside of some organizations like the Order of the Nine Angles, which is a "Satanic" organization (which is ironic because they barely follow any of the principles of Satanism) which promote Nazism and other deplorable ideas, most occult practices even support being a generally good person.
In that way, Christianity isn't much different than the occult. Which would make sense if some of the claims of Christianity being a copy of certain forms of Paganism were true, though I've heard that those claims are quite unfounded.
If you're frightened of dying, and you're holding on, you'll see devils tearing your life away. But if you've made your peace, then the devils are really angels, freeing you from the Earth.
