Nags quick start reading list for the #secular #occultist
I'm Nagaram and I'm an #Atheist Occultist. I believe there is power in all sorts of magic, but its more practical than super natural.
Magic, gods, and the occult is a good psychological tool to help us navigate life both in a material and mental way.
The basis for my understanding of Secular Occultism is with
"Atomic Habits" -James Clear
This is the foundational text in my pseudo religion because it explains the psychological aspect of habit building and how this let's us slowly build to a better self. Importantly I'm tying the concept of affirmations to the magical conception of it and even intentions. I'm also looking at Habit Catalysts as Magic Rituals in that ritual magic helps us stay on task with our grander plans by being an easy habit we can build into a proper habit stack that ultimately culminates in our magic working.
From here I see the reading list as a choose your own adventure. So long as you understand that nearly all magic you will ever learn about is simply an affirmation with an aesthetic, there really isn't a wrong choice.
But for me I know what influenced me down this path.
"Pathways to Bliss" -The Joseph Campbell foundation
Another secular read. This book was about myth and legends as tools for self help. Characters to emulate and foils to avoid. It helps me maintain the mindset that truth in myth is less important than moral lessons. We can still use these stories from ancient oral traditions to the new testament, to the flying spaghetti monster as our new gods. As long as they symbolize something important to you then you can and should use them in your practice.
"Grimoire for the apprentice wizard" -Oberon Zell-Ravenheart
Oberon is a character, but important. I said earlier that secular occultism is affirmations with an aesthetic. Oberon is a wealth of aesthetic and easily approachable rituals with which you should try (other than the invisibility spell. I'm pretty sure he says you can use that to be naked in public and I don't recommend that.)
"Women and Non-binary people"
Is often
"Women and people I consider women."
You don't hate honeydew.
You hate the butchered honeydew served in fruit cups.
Okay so I decided that I don't NEED more storage yet, but I am trying to miniaturize my server cluster.
I have purchased several mini PCs to replace my SFF Optiplexs.
Then I'm going to try installing Proxmox 9 and migrating my VMs. If not, I do not mind just rebuilding everything again, but I've never done a migration and I want to learn.
I once wrote a paper on how the Kardashians and the British Royals have the same role in society in that they both provide both a symbol of prosperity and a societal gossip mill that keeps us all distracted but otherwise united.
It's a pretty interesting phenomenon humans have in that we follow people seemingly more successful than us to either learn how to get there or perform small talk on the scandals necessary to exist in high culture.
Like even the micro system of mastodon seems to do it. Big accounts are often followed for being fun or for having public relationships with other users. You follow them because you like seeing the positive space and healthy banter between mutuals. Or they start this way and then they have some scandal and now they're still big but only so that gossip addicted Nosy Nancy gets her fill.
I'm no Freud. I also partake in all such activities. It's why I love following problematic individuals. I don't like giving them lip service on anything, but I like to see what weirdness is happening.
I live for the drama, but I hate to gossip.
I'm not following you back instantly because I'm a bot, I am doing it because I'm ignoring an assignment that's do.
I don't think I've done an #introduction before despite having been here for a few years now.
My name is Nagaram or Nags. I am kinda 30. #tech nerd #history nerd #philosophy nerd and I will talk ad nauseum about #religion and my weird #atheist stances. Such as thinking #magick and the #occult is cool!
I work #IT so I mostly talk about that and my #homelab like my blog thinkstoomuch.net
I'm also an annoying leftist! I will post about my #gun ownership and #firearms training with anyone who's interested.
DMs open. Email is open too if you wanna chat, vent, or call me names. All valid!
Nagaram