When I find a fellow occultist, on or offline, who is willing to share some of their accumulated knowledge I am always wary of what is in it for them. Indeed, if I was a young and impressionable seeker who had simply stumbled across The Accelerated Chaote at random I would be asking the very same things of this Old Fox as well. Personally I have nothing to hide, no skeletons in my closet or scarlet women under the floorboards. Like most people who have made it to middle age there are mistakes in my past, errors of judgement that I still regret and roads not travelled. But they have little bearing on my work here, nor could any of those scars be considered a driving force for my writing either. No, my position is far more nuanced than simply reminiscing for a wider audience.

As a memetic sorcerer my mistrusting and godless views on magick and spirituality, while perhaps not exactly unique, have generated a lot of negativity from even supposedly open minded Pagans and occultists on more that one occasion. Some of this has bordered on outright hostility and left me with no choice but to move on from whatever muddy backyard they were mindlessly splashing around in to find my own path towards enlightenment alone. I have been shouted down, belittled, ignored and ultimately blacklisted based on my belief structure, even when the original myths support my heretical viewpoint. And in all honesty I really do not care as much as these words would make it seem.

I have paid in low key infamy for the right to argue my case and defend whatever position I have chosen to champion on a given day, and for my general desire to transcend outdated concepts and ideas as well. It is not that I enjoy causing friction, far from it in fact. I am neither cosmic joker nor champion of Loki, though I do respect those who are dedicated enough to the hustle to claim those titles for themselves. No, I just let the facts take me where they may is all, and undue respect for the feelings of others be damned. Mine is the endless whoosh of acceleration while still trying to find the seatbelt, and there is comfort in leaving those who would judge you for your honesty coughing up dust in the glare of your taillights.

You see I stand against both censorship and hypocrisy in all its forms. With regards to the state that the magickal world is in at the moment my admittedly inflammatory accusations regarding those occult groups, organisations and publishers who try to pull the illusion of control over our already reality blinkered eyes seem more than valid. Yes, we who claim an interest in the unseen world are indeed besieged by the more rabidly fundamentalist skeptics, ridiculed by the mainstream press and ignored by sheepish masses who would not know magick if it turned the beer to blood in front of their pig like snouts. But while emotive, this is old news.

We are ostracised by the religious and damned by the scientists, yet despite all those who would attack us from without, I argue that it is betrayal from within that is truly holding us all back. Because at what point did the vast, uninitiated majority allow a few notable occult and Pagan organisations divide up the very concept of alternative spirituality by their own decree? And when did modern sorcerers become so reliant upon a small retinue of bland esoteric publishers that we will happily buy whatever outdated and fluffy rubbish they churn out from their hundred monkey typing pool as if it were timeless wisdom? How could we have let those in positions of perceived power belittle the concept of personal gnosis to the point that is is now considered an unverified insult?

Mine was the turn of the Millennium occultism that was typified by the personal website, the forum and BBS board archive. People actually talked about magick instead of having it shouted at them by the same seven or so authors over and over again like we do now. And they did not feel the need to pay through the nose for the privilege either. Ideas were tried out, mistakes made, experiences shared and communities formed from the ashes of ritual bonfires still warm against the sunset. It was never about following in the footsteps of others, purchasing a monthly subscription or tugging the forelock to ascended masters by virtue of their position in some nebulous hierarchy either.

I foresee a new occult dark age on the horizon now, but not in the way you likely think. We are not going to be driven underground again, not when there is so much money to make in the fringes of the spiritual sphere. No, this is far more insidious a future, one where palatable and socially acceptable love and light magick will be the only option. Dogma, hierarchy, lesson plans and cookie cutter experiences. Safe, marketable and increasingly infested with an advertiser friendly sheen of Protestant Christian biases so as to keep in lockstep with the wider Western culture. Commodified and brainwashed, the younger witch or sorcerer will soon have no clue that there was once a bleeding edge of experience to begin with.

So ultimately we are led back to the question of what I gain from sharing my insights here. In truth all I want is to infest reality with my damned ideas, and use them to draw a ritual circle around the little bit of memetic land that I have earned through the flick of the pen. My writing is my legacy, and if it inspires others to do the same then all the better. Now is the time to push for authenticity in the face of an increasingly bland narrative. Submit your unverified personal gnosis for publication. Keep trying to see print no matter how much you are rejected, and if all else fails release it yourself. Every magickian who dies without sharing their insights should be damned to the void, because the grassroots conversations we have around our sorcery now are more important than ever.