This blog post has been lingering in the back of my mind for some time now. Every time someone bitches about the “occult or LHP community”, or every time someone PMs me to tell me who’s stabbing who in the back within the “occult or LHP community”, I think about making this post. Or when I get the emails warning me to avoid the latest shit-stirrer starting drama in the “occult or LHP community”. Sadly, when I look at the general occulture, and even sub-groups of the occulture – I see a toxic wasteland that is poison to magicians and to magical creators.
There are cliques [obviously]. There are serious students [obviously]. There are people who lurk and keep their noses clean. There are smaller, actual communities in the larger occulture, but they don’t include the whole of the occult, or the whole of LHP practitioners. Because there are also a lot of shit-stirrers and trolls. There are attention whores. There are people who get along with no one. There are people whose only goal is to trash or tear down anyone they disagree with because they’re jealous, or pissed off, or have a shitty life or whatever. I see a lot of things in the general occulture and oftentimes, “community” isn’t one of them.
Community actually means: “A unified body of individuals.” Which means you actually have to be united in something. There are definitely many smaller united groups within the occulture, but don’t fool yourself into believing there is such thing as the “occult community” or the “LHP community”.
In order for there to be a community on such a general scale, people would need to set aside their egos and hurt feelings. Their one true ways and their need for attention. It would require setting aside petty squabbles and jealousies. In order for this to happen it would require every occultist to actually do the self-work and self-analysis magical practice demands. It would require every occultist to be open-minded about ideas and practices they don’t agree with and to not feel threatened by other people’s ideas and beliefs. It would require leaders and authors in the occulture to collaborate instead of tear each other down. [As an aside here, a lot of authors, leaders, and makers actually do collaborate and kudos to those who do. It shows they’re strong enough to not feel threatened by different ideas or techniques, and that they understand that a rising tide lifts all boats.]
The lack of actual community is nothing new. It was like this almost 40 years ago, back in the 1980’s when I showed up to my first generalized “occult” thing all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, and I have no doubt it will still be like this when I’m dead and gone 40-50 years from now.
So seriously — forgive me when I roll my eyes as I’m reading my inbox full of “Occult Police” Reports [which is another rant for another time] that always talk about this alleged “community” that we have. Forgive me if I don’t feel like I belong to this community that some people seem to think exists.
Believe me when I tell you there is no actual, cohesive “occult community” or “LHP community”. Only Zuul.
(And yes, I realize the joke may be lost on some of the younger practitioners, but I figured those of you who “get it” would have a good chuckle.)
Good observations from an experienced occultist. Sadly, small and petty minds seem to only find some “worth” in life when they think they are tearing others down (to their level).
Even the prophet of the Christians, “J.C.”, seemed to see this more clearly than most do these days. (ha) -=–> “If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand ?”
All hail Zuul, and anyone who isn’t with us is against us.
Am I being a gatekeeper?
More drama than HBO in these so-called “communities.” I dialed down my access to a lot of the crap the younger folks are using (TikTok, or as they call it, witchtok) because it’s just a bunch of people throwing fuel on dumpster fires.