I'm new to this and I have some utterly basic questions.

[exhoudos]

Hello there,

I stumbled on this forum after a long night of reading and talking with my girlfriend about our trip we are taking to Tonopah, NV(We live in Las Vegas). We go to Tonopah for the haunted locations such as where we are staying this time, The Mizpah Hotel. We were discussing bringing a digital recorder in an attempt to record EVP's to help us transcend from paranormal skeptics, to believers. We also decided we should purchase a Ouija board because we are staying in a room known as "The Lady in Red Room". You can read about it if paranormal research is of your interest. At any rate, in searching out a Ouija board on eBay, I discovered a board that was selling for $18,000 dollars, and the seller was located here in Las Vegas. As it turns out, the board was once owned by Aleister Crowley, a person that I am sure many of you know a great deal about(I just learned of him tonight). That being said, my girlfriend knew of him immediately and began telling me how interesting this person is and that I should invest some time to read of his life and writings. Doing what she suggested, led me down into a rabbit hole of information that confuses me, as much as it intrigues me. I had no idea the true meaning behind what it is to be "occult", as I simply knew the literal definition and typical stereotypes attached to those claiming to be occultists. So I go from reading about Crowley to the Golden Dawn and then Thelema and Hermeticism and esotericism, etc. I dont mean to rant on, but I figured Id lay out my entire journey up until this point, as I would like to display how genuinely new I am to this realm of things, and thus receive as genuine a response as possible.

I will state that I am wholly agnostic in my approach to religion, I genuinely despise organized religion by and large. It is delusional and creates barriers in human progression. Religion in my mind and knowledge of the world tends to create zealous lunacy among humankind and society. I do not know enough about the Occult to say whether that offends none of you, a few of you, or a lot of you, but I figured I would be honest about what I believe. I am a person of rationale, yet I find there is so many things left unanswered. I choose to believe that not all things are I as I am told to see them. I choose to believe that there is a world on Earth that most do not see and will never experience in their life. I love science, I am utterly excited at the workings of chemistry and elements of the Earth, I adore nature, the cycle of life, and this beautiful planet. I am awe-stricken by the stars, galaxies, and astrology(though embarrassingly I know little about it).

Anyway, if you read my post up until this point, you know a little about me and therefore may know how to answer my questions(or tell me to leave now and never consider any path or studies of the occult). So that being said, I have a ton of questions and figured this would be the place to start.

First off, do all things occult generally involve "magic"?
Are there certain books, codices, or texts that are valuable in a general understanding of occultism?
How does one find a path or practice of occult for them?
Are there certain groups of occultists to be wary of? (I found David Griffin of the Golden Dawn to be particularly unsettling and shady)
Where do I begin to learn to basics and different paths of occultism?

Sorry for the long post, I wanted to be thorough and honest in my approach to this. Any feedback would be welcome. Thank you.

[EternalReturn]

18,000$ for Crowley's Oujia board? Sounds like a scam to me. Also I haven't read anything good concerning these - only trouble comes from them.

1.First off, do all things occult generally involve "magic"?
2.Are there certain books, codices, or texts that are valuable in a general understanding of occultism?
3.How does one find a path or practice of occult for them?
4.Are there certain groups of occultists to be wary of? (I found David Griffin of the Golden Dawn to be particularly unsettling and shady)
5.Where do I begin to learn to basics and different paths of occultism?

1. Magic is defined as change according to Will. So you could say. Even if something is hidden and it is visible now - it has changed.

2. I would recommend books from Manly P. Hall, he's pretty knowledgeable person concerning this things.

3. You find your way by working on yourself first and foremost - by striving to be a good person, a better person tomorrow than you are today. Gnothi seatuon - know thyself. I would suggest Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethic for a start. And ask yourself before anything, who are you? Give yourself time to answer this question. Don't rush.

4. Yes. Develop some serious critical thinking skills. Question everything. There have been a lot of people with various degree of skill, knowledge and wisdom writing books about occultism, and in conjunction, such is the quality of the books. Don't be shaken by dark themes, they are present in occultism. Ask yourself if that is something you would like to do?

5. Basics depend on what you're looking for, what do you want to achieve, where are you born, what's your current knowledge about life, man, world, and yourself in general, and a lot of other variables. Even if you manage to write it all down and someone has the time to read it, and get to know you, maybe what we recommend wouldn't be for you. I would suggest that you follow your feeling, your interests and start with anything. Strive to better yourself at first - more complex themes and mysteries will be revealed as you work on yourself.

Tl;dr: know thyself, work on yourself, follow your heart.

[RoseRed]

Welcome to the Hidden Paths.

That's all that the word occult really means - hidden. You just found it. Congrats on that! You're in for quite the ride.

Where to begin? Huge question because the subheading topics are so vast. This forum is one of the best libraries of the not so common. Use the search function.

Hello there,

I stumbled on this forum after a long night of reading and talking with my girlfriend about our trip we are taking to Tonopah, NV(We live in Las Vegas). We go to Tonopah for the haunted locations such as where we are staying this time, The Mizpah Hotel. We were discussing bringing a digital recorder in an attempt to record EVP's to help us transcend from paranormal skeptics, to believers. We also decided we should purchase a Ouija board because we are staying in a room known as "The Lady in Red Room". You can read about it if paranormal research is of your interest.
Uummm, that's not a real good idea. You really shouldn't go by what you see on tv. Quite a bit of it is bullshit and can put your ass in a sling.

Dabbling is a really bad idea - worse for some than others - but a really bad idea. You asked for a straight up answer - I like those kind of answers Take a look around and make a decision as to whether you want to pursue these things or not. For some people, stepping onto these paths is a truly Life Changing thing.

At any rate, in searching out a Ouija board on eBay, I discovered a board that was selling for $18,000 dollars, and the seller was located here in Las Vegas. As it turns out, the board was once owned by Aleister Crowley, a person that I am sure many of you know a great deal about(I just learned of him tonight). That being said, my girlfriend knew of him immediately and began telling me how interesting this person is and that I should invest some time to read of his life and writings. Doing what she suggested, led me down into a rabbit hole of information that confuses me, as much as it intrigues me. I had no idea the true meaning behind what it is to be "occult", as I simply knew the literal definition and typical stereotypes attached to those claiming to be occultists. So I go from reading about Crowley to the Golden Dawn and then Thelema and Hermeticism and esotericism, etc. I dont mean to rant on, but I figured Id lay out my entire journey up until this point, as I would like to display how genuinely new I am to this realm of things, and thus receive as genuine a response as possible.

I see that. You got Google-Fu! [thumbup] Good for you.

I will state that I am wholly agnostic in my approach to religion, I genuinely despise organized religion by and large. It is delusional and creates barriers in human progression. Religion in my mind and knowledge of the world tends to create zealous lunacy among humankind and society. I do not know enough about the Occult to say whether that offends none of you, a few of you, or a lot of you, but I figured I would be honest about what I believe.
No offense taken at all. I truly appreciate your Statement of Belief. Now I know where you're coming from. It's a good thing. I agree with some of that.

I am a person of rationale, yet I find there is so many things left unanswered. I choose to believe that not all things are I as I am told to see them. I choose to believe that there is a world on Earth that most do not see and will never experience in their life. I love science, I am utterly excited at the workings of chemistry and elements of the Earth, I adore nature, the cycle of life, and this beautiful planet. I am awe-stricken by the stars, galaxies, and astrology(though embarrassingly I know little about it).
A whole new world is about to open up to you. Search terms: Alchemy and Green Witchcraft. It's up in the right hand corner.

I can't wait to see what other ideas people come up with.

Anyway, if you read my post up until this point, you know a little about me and therefore may know how to answer my questions(or tell me to leave now and never consider any path or studies of the occult). So that being said, I have a ton of questions and figured this would be the place to start.
I answered that above.

We do LOVE to converse around here.

First off, do all things occult generally involve "magic"?
No, but a lot of it does.

Are there certain books, codices, or texts that are valuable in a general understanding of occultism?
Yes, but I don't know them offhand. Other's here do.

How does one find a path or practice of occult for them?
That is such a huge question. Read, talk, ask, feel. Which parts are you drawn to? Have you come across anything that you NEED TO LEARN ABOUT RIGHT NOW! That happens more often than you'd think.

Start with the Basics. Start meditating. I would begin with Breath work. Catch your breath. You need a level head in this. I know it's excitingl

Are there certain groups of occultists to be wary of? (I found David Griffin of the Golden Dawn to be particularly unsettling and shady)
Yes.

Where do I begin to learn to basics and different paths of occultism?
You just began.

Are you more interested in stimulating your brain or working hands on?

Ground and Center. That's an important one.

Sorry for the long post, I wanted to be thorough and honest in my approach to this. Any feedback would be welcome. Thank you.

Please don't be sorry. I think we're going to have some wonderful conversations in the near future.

I really like the thorough and honest. There are some wonderful people here who are all Talented in different ways. I'm looking forward to the conversation.

[Desecrated]

1. First off, do all things occult generally involve "magic"?

2. Are there certain books, codices, or texts that are valuable in a general understanding of occultism?

3. How does one find a path or practice of occult for them?

4. Are there certain groups of occultists to be wary of? (I found David Griffin of the Golden Dawn to be particularly unsettling and shady)

5. Where do I begin to learn to basics and different paths of occultism?

Not really. You can look at it this way. Exoterism is the outer shell of a religion. This is open to everyone, like going to mass in church, anybody can join in.

Esoteric is the inside, you have to have permission to observe it and you usually have to be initiated to perform it.
The priest performing the ceremony for the holy water is such a thing. They don't do it in front of the congregation, and you have to be a priest to perform it.

The occult is then the hidden layer. This is never shown to people outside the church. In christianity this can be the attempt to explain why 'if there is a god, why are there older religions in the world".

Of course there is so much more then christian occultism, but they usually have the same layer system.

2:
Modern Magick by Donald Michael Kraig. This is the very very basic.

Liber Null & Psychonaut by Peter J. Carroll. This is also basic but from a more modern standpoint.

Initiation into Hermetics by Franz Bardon. This is one of the better book about the traditional magick systems. It's not an easy book, but it will save you time.

3. Intuition. Trial and error.
Why do somebody play football instead of baseball. Probably because they like it better, or they are more talented or they just picked what was available.
Keep an open mind and read a lot.

4. Yes. You should always be worried about groups.
Dion Fortune has a book called 'sane occultism', It's a bit old-fashioned, but a lot of it still holds up today.

5. Different people will tell you different answers. I'm a book collector, So I will say books.
Books, documentaries, the internet, meeting people, and of course later on. Practical training.