why does it seem that a vast majority of occult and magical practices

see. here is the deal with that. in our western civilization the catholich church made an effort and did succed to tie personal occultic power to demons and snakes.

and now, when you dream about demons you are automaticly scared of hell and think of them as the bad guys, but in reality they represent personal power and kundalini

>>18274548

So then is Satan not such a bad guy as they make him out to be?

>>18274521
Could it be that possibly these "spirits" are neither bad nor good?

>>18274552
in the east snake represents kundalini, here the snake represents satan. im not a master wizard; i didnt have alot to do with all dem beings so i do not know

muh snake

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>>18274521
Look into Enochian magic, I guess? Though that's also questionable.

(Hell, I'd argue Kelley was a charlatan who was duping Dee and everyone.)

>>18274555
You know, Ive been thinking: mental conviction to ANY one belief can be empowering, but over time the same stimulus becomes boring...

Personally, I made a pact with existence that I would serve mankind and in return I wanted power. Soon, I realized having power is only an illusion and I feel that my soul has been stolen by years of false conviction.

For a time, I had power; but ultimately lost control of myself. Became a slave to evil. Or at least societies conception of that evil.

I'm seeking spiritual reprieve. If one commits to the occult, must you spend your life devoted to it? Is there no inbetween in good and evil? can you balance the missions of Satan and God to empower yourself AND your fellow humans?

>>18274521
that's not necessarily the case. The left handed occult path deals more in that aspect of ritual worship, whereas the right handed path is about finding inner peace between the mind body and spirit.

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>>18274521
The way that we define the words 'occult' and 'magic' necessarily precludes the quality of good spirits. When the means of epistemological interpretation become secretive or inexplicable, then the public cannot account for the risks nor reap the rewards.

>>18274548
That is how we derive the etymology of 'occult'.

>>18274552
The original usage is more like a description for chronic mental or physiological illness as it compounds in society.

>>18274555
The reason we have this kind of translation problem is because of Iranian nationalism internationally manifest as modern Zoroastrianism. Thereby do we also derive the etymology of 'magic': but it technically denotes science abrogated by plagiarism.

>>18274563
The books of Enoch laid the foundation between different ethical systems in the east or west of the old world.
>>18274586
>I would serve ... I wanted power

When you make a pact with yourself, you should try very hard to not be contradictory in any context.

>>18274607
>>18274607

Contradiction... constant contradiction. Obsession with dichotomy.

I've always idololized math, trying to balance out equations, isolate variables, try and make sense of things. Maybe because i fear what I don't understand.

Le'chatliers principle... all systems tend to equilibrium.

Personally, I feel I am in a constant state of disequilibrium. Any tips on how to adjust to today's world? Any old adages?

>>18274521
The ones that focus on channeling good spirits are called “religions” instead, OP

>>18274521
Because the evil is tempting and thus people fall for it. Why else is the elite worshipping moloch when if they would work for humanity instead they could easily create a paradise for everyone in about5 years making it a better place for everyone inclusing themselves. But that would mean they are losing influence, power and their prestige (which doesnt really matter even when everyone has it equally well). But they fell for the powermeme and now are obsessed/posessed by it and cant let go

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>>18274646
Study philosophy and rhetoric to balance your skills.

You sound like you have had too much tutelage in differential equations and not enough in matrix algebra.

Whenever I felt like you describe, I memorized poetry or the declaration of independence. I know from experience that chemical engineering can be stressfully terse, and the remedy is to appreciate beauty in abstract.

>>18274521
>why does it seem that a vast majority of occult and magical practices focus on channeling bad/malevolent spirits rather than good ones?

Because you are not particularly well-informed. That's why.

Several reasons:

1. Because people like quick results with little effort, and those are more easily obtained with "evil" spirits ie. spirits which are parasitic in nature are more likely to provide a result up front regardless of who's asking, because it allows them to attach (either formally or otherwise) to the individual and feed off of them to perpetuate their own existence.

2. Because the Western world has a specific idea of what magic is and what it entails informed by Judeo-Christian morality and worldviews, wherein the label of "magic" is more likely to be applied to working with "dark" spirits (and spirits involved in practices labelled magic are more likely to be perceived as dark - see the conversion of Middle Eastern pagan deities into European grimoire demons), while working with other spirits is more likely to be categorized as something else.

Exodus is a good example - Moses and the Egyptian priests both convert their staffs into snakes, but while Moses is a holy man because he is Jewish and therefore portrayed as working for and being empowered by God, the Egyptians are pagans and so their work is defined as "sorcery," despite it being the exact same phenomenon.

3. Because of the above, people who are attracted to Western magic often have certain ideas of what magic is and looks like, and so it becomes something of a self fulfilling prophecy. There's no "need" to work with demons, but it fulfills the Faustian archetype people have in mind when they think of "magic," so they do it.

If you look outside of Western society, you see a far more balanced view, where what is translated as "magic" is worked by a wide variety of practitioners with a wide variety of goals and locations on the moral spectrum.

>>18274691
>where what is translated as "magic" is worked by a wide variety of practitioners with a wide variety of goals and locations on the moral spectrum.
can you give some examples?

>>18274667
helpful post

>>18274702

Accurate, too.

>>18274699

I'll use Daoism as an example, since that's where my main area of interest in Asia is. Under that broad label (or even more broadly, just the label of "Chinese Magic") there's an entire spectrum of practices, from rituals worked by priests and monks to invoke positive spirits for spiritual evolution, healing and protection, or to exorcise negative spirits, to more "neutral" shamanic style practices, which involve working as a medium of communication between the community and the spirits of the natural environment (what we'd call elementals) to ensure the most ideal relationship between humanity and the spirits which surround them and to induce effects which are beneficial to the practitioner and the community (weather magic being one example), as well as heavenly beings and spirits of the dead, to more traditional "black magic/sorcery," where spirits of a malevolent nature are utilized to produce generally selfish results.

There are also schools of martial arts which train the martial artist to induce temporary or permanent spiritual possession in order to increase their abilities or to allow them access to styles they otherwise don't possess knowledge of, and of course practices which allow their opponents to counter these techniques.

On top of that there are a wide array of practices which wouldn't translate as "magic" (the distinction generally being, from the Chinese perspective, that "magic" involves forces/entities external to the practitioner, anything worked purely by their own energy and consciousness wouldn't qualify) but which still induce effects which might be deemed "magical" by Western society. Systems of meditation to cultivate internal energy (Qi) for health, spiritual evolution and the development of "psychic" or martial power, practices like Feng Shui and astrology which allow the practitioner to understand the flow of environmental energies and align themselves with them for beneficial results, etc etc.

>>18274723

Of course the same exists to various degrees in most of Asia, and to a lesser extent in "traditional" societies in Africa and Central/South America. And the flip side is that much of modern China is "Westernized," so most of these practices are underground and more difficult to find than they once were, but they're there, and they make "Western magic" look rather banal and pointless by comparison.

>>18274730
>they make "Western magic" look rather banal and pointless by comparison.

lel

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>>18274586
Humanity doesn't need people like you and I to solve their problems. They're perfectly capable of figuring it out on their own. Perhaps serving humanity is just a selfish desire of your own. And if it wasn't all that fulfilling, then why keep at it? Perhaps letting people serve themselves is the best thing for them, and the best service you can render to humanity is just to let them be, and focus on your own life.

Perhaps this is the action that will give you power, and it's time to quit feeling guilty for other people's mistakes. Quit intercepting their karma. How are they supposed to learn, if people like you and I keep blocking them from the feedback of their own interactions with the universe? Or else I misunderstood what your own post was about, and projected my own feelings onto your words.

That's the solution I arrived at though, after going through some similar frustrations.

>>18274521
entities are just like people, some are good, some are bad, some are neutral. If you approach the occult with a religious mindset you're gonna have a bad time.