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Occult revivals occur
when the social, economic or intellectual
status quo is
disturbed by the unexpected. Affluence combined
with the collapse
of the Roman state religion caused one revival.
The rediscovery
of classical knowledge in the Renaissance brought
about another.
Dissatisfaction with catholic hellfire
christianity
spawned spiritualism, theosophy, the Golden Dawn and
Crowley. In
our own time anti-semitism, affluence, drugs and
oriental ideas
spawned another outburst.
Occult revivals
are stimulated by economics and by the availability,
rather than
the creation of ideas. Roman culture was subject to a
huge influx
of ideas, cults and philosophies from conquered peoples.
Written material
surviving from this synthesis appeared again
as hermetics
in the Renaissance. The revivals of the late
nineteenth century
and the nineteen-sixties owe much to the
availability
of scientific ideas and oriental philosophies. It is
probably more
useful then, to look for impending changes in the
general situation
rather than within the occult itself if we want
to second guess
the next revival. The period between one revival
and the next
is shortening rapidly and we are probably due for
another around
the turn of the century, give or take a decade.
I`d like to
try and identify some of the factors which may help
shape it.
Firstly the
millennium. Christianity is unfortunately not yet
completely extinguished
and humanity will have to cope with a
rising tide
of apocalypse mania as the calendrical millennium draws
closer. Right
wing christian fundamentalists in America may even be
in a political
position to inaugurate a real Armageddon by then.
I hope that
whatever courage and imagination there is in the occult
is put to good
use in undermining this sort od idiocy. Those
occultists who
do jump on the millennial bandwagon have only
disaster or
ridicule to look forward to.
Economics has
a powerful effect on the occult climate. A fairly
rapid increase
in affluence will often provoke a revival as leisure
time becomes
available and some minds turn to higher things.
Conversely,
a decline in living conditions will sometimes make
people seek
what they have lost, or a substitute, by occult means.
Boom propelled
revivals are usually much more fun than slump
propelled upsurges.
In this country, any increment in occultism
arising from
socio-economic desperation, is likely to be some
species of neo-nazi
mystic nationalism. As with millennium madness,
the greater
honour will, in the long run, go to those occultists who
oppose such
nonsense. However, the metaphysical fallout from the
sixties may
yet carry us through to the next boom revival and these
problems may
not yet arise.
It seems unlikely
that anthropology or archaeology will be able to
make fresh ideas
available for cannibalization by the occult in the
next revival.
Computerized libraries, satellite photography and
global communication
systems leave few stones unturned. There seems
little chance
lost ancient manuscripts, magical tribes or forgotten
occult civilizations
coming to light nowadays. So it is to science
itself that
I think we should turn for fresh ammunition.
There are already
discernable strains of space mysticism in some
quarters of
the occult. Questions about the reality or otherwise of
supposed visits
by aliens should not distract us from recognizing
that UFO-mania
itself is a mystico-religious phenomena. The
UFO-ologist
wants to personally receive wisdom for the whole of
humanity from
some superhuman being. Seeking angels in space suits
is to repeat
humanity`s perennial mistake, pretending to look
outside for
what is really inside ourselves.
Quantum physics
has been quietly undermining the whole basis of
mechanistic
cause and effect type science for nearly sixty years. It
has been said
that if you are not shocked by the implications of
quantum physics
then you have not understood it. This may be
perfectly true
for the scientist but for the magician, quantum
physics provides
elegant confirmation of many of his theories. A
quantitative
approach to quantum physics is beyond all but the best
mathematician.
Many of the principles are enshrined in equations for
which we have
few verbal or visual analogies. Because of this very
few laymen or
philosophers have been able to appreciate what has
been going on.
Briefly in qualitative
terms, we now have hard experimental evidence
which strongly
implies that physical process are, at root, acausal;
they just happen
out of themselves and that consciousness, or at
least the decisions
of the observer, can modify or control what
happens. Secondly
it would seem that pure information can travel
anywhere instantaneously
and perhaps persists indefinitely,
providing there
is some sort of affinity, or magical link as we
would call it,
between that which emits and that which receives.
Very few liberties
need to be taken with quantum physics to fit in
virtually the
whole of parapsychology. It remains to be seen if
quantum physics
can be presented in sufficiently accessible form to
provoke another
occult revival.
A quantum based
revival would effectively demolish the spirit
hypothesis.
A "spirit" would have to be recognized as nothing more
than the information
that a phenomenon emitted about itself when it
existed physically.
Anything else would have to be put down to the
creativity of
the observer`s subconsciousness. Thus the "tree-ness"
of a tree or
the quality of a thought is just an extension of the
object itself
on the plane of non-local information. If you talk to
Egyptian gods
your subconsciousness is, at best, simply animating
the general
personality characteristics of the gods projected by
their worshippers
millennia ago. Spirits cannot be gaseous
vertebrates
with powers of independent discursive thought. On the
practical level
quantum physics implies that the medium of magic is
not some sort
of nebulous psychic energy or force, it is simply a
transfer of
information. Magical healing or attack is accomplished
by long range
telepathic suggestion not by astral bandages or
thunderbolts.
The quantum paradigm forces a re-examination of
reincarnation.
There is no reason why anybody should not be able to
tap the memories
of any historical person. Conversely we can all
look forward
to fragments of our ideas and personalities manifesting
in other people
in the future.
Telekinesis and
related phenomena can be accommodated within the
quantum paradigm
if we allow intent to expand upon the small degree
of fundamental
uncertainty, or more properly indeterminacy, in the
position and
momentum of any object. Prophecy is always the most
doubtful of
the magical arts although short term prediction or
precognition
can often be impressive. The quantum model allows for
this providing
the operator later observes the precognised event.
Such apparent
nonsense as astrology and homeopathy begin to make
more sense in
a quantum paradigm which suggests that expectation can
have real effects
via what one might call a magical level. This is
quite over and
above the purely psychological effects of expectation
that materialists
usually invoke to explain away these things.
I`ve heard the
quantum occult paradigm described as Big Bang
Mysticism and
Electro Gnosis. I rather like this, for it implies
that the universe
is being viewed as a self-created magical organism
and that magic
itself is a technology we can potentially master
because it is
a part of the nature of ordinary reality. Of course,
what is missing
in this scheme are the pseudo certainties of belief
in gods and
higher powers or even a benign cosmic mind. It throws us
back on our
own powers and ingenuities, but isn`t this what the best
occultism has
always been about anyway ?
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