I see a lot of pearl clutching and handwringing here any time someone mentions occultism or esotericism in general. I want to help bring some Light to a topic that has been purposely kept in the Dark. Let's explore what occultism is and how it plays a role in society and every day life.
First, we must understand what the word occult means: something that has been hidden. That's it. Not scary, or dark, or harmful. Just hidden. If it has been hidden from society and used by the ultra rich and powerful, one must wonder why it was hidden. It doesn't take too much of a leap of logic to postulate that it's a tool kept secret so that those in power can remain in power over those that don't possess the tool. Think about how if only 1% of the population had access to the use of electricity. How much of an advantage would they have over everyone else? And just like any tool, you can use it for good, or for evil. You can use a hammer to build a house or commit a murder.
In Trump's book "The Way to the Top," he credits much of his success to his Kabbalah teacher. Yes, even President Trump uses Kabbalistic practices. The Kabbalah is just a road map of how to optimize your own mental abilities by focusing on improving your own self.
I used to be one of those folks that considered myself to be an atheist and looked down on mainstream religion as uninformed, but my study of the esoteric has given me a new perspective and understanding of the Bible. It's really not saying anything different.
You will find the principles of Hermticism in every religion throughout the ages. Have you heard the verse "As you hold true on earth, so shall I hold to be true in heaven"? How is that any different than "As above, so below. As within, so without"? That's the hermetic principle of correspondence.
And how about prayer? You are focusing your will and intent on a particular desired outcome. And since "God helps those that help themselves," you are taking the will, the care, and the action to create your reality. That's mentalism and manifestation.
The holy union of the masculine and feminine to create life (the most beautiful creation of all) is the principle of duality and the principle of gender.
The deciding factor of whether or not someone is doing something nefarious with their occult practices is always the INTENT applied to them. So whenever you hear or see the word occult or esoteric, do yourself a favor and look at the bigger picture surrounding what's going on rather than automatically assuming that it's evil.
The words of God call it divination and command against it.
Acts 16 KJV 16 And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying: 17 The same followed Paul and us, and cried, saying, These men are the servants of the most high God, which shew unto us the way of salvation. 18 And this did she many days. But Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out the same hour.
A lot of demonic possession in the bible, it must continue to this day.
We just don't have the ability to see it as well.
We’ve been numbed/blinded to reality.
Our “highly educated and modern minds” are too “intelligent” to believe in such antiquated fables.
I have talked to a few people in person and online,that have had their lives destroyed,by playing around with this shit.
It's becoming more apparent to people as they see so many others freak out, behave bizarrely, etc. Before they would have just said, that dude is crazy. Now, at least some people are realizing it's actually demonic activity.
YOU may not have the ability to see it. I've seen it many times.
I was speaking for society as a group. And also saying we can't see it as well as Jesus and paul....
Soothsaying (AKA scrying) is one specific practice that you don't have to get anywhere near. I have never once scryed.
Exactly, the Bible is quite clear on this. Furthermore, Old Testament Law orders witches and necromancers to be executed. While I don't think America needs to implement the death penalty for that, it goes to show just how seriously God treats this matter and how dangerous such practices are.
I don't think it's harmful to read about esoteric/occult material, but you have to be extremely careful and discerning. Read about it so that you can recognize it and avoid it.
I second the no thanks.
The Bible specifically warns against most occult practices which is where I have an issue with them. Gnostic, hermetic, what have you all seems to diverge from God's instructions.
I never said you should start performing rituals. But when one understands the spell being cast, it no longer has any effect over you. Know your enemy as yourself.
Oh I agree completely with you there.
When I pray I don’t demand. I ask and plead. The father knows best. Esoteric teachings are like anything else. Some use it for self gain and evil, others use it for good. Sadly more evil than good. We are not gods, but with tremendous faith in our lord we can move mountains.
When you focus your intent during meditation, you don't demand either.
*You Manifest
No we do not. Only one has the power to create. Anything else outside of him is not creation only manipulation or illusion.
Manifesting is not creation out of thin air pal. Nor is it a guaranteed thing. Manifestation is focusing intention.....just like prayer. You pray to alter your life. Same shit. Except I dont need a pedo-priest to absolve me.
"God helps those who helps themselves" is not Biblical. Joel 2:32 and Romans 10:13 says For "everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved."
Jesus prayed in Luke 22, "not my will, but yours, be done."
God the Father is calling us to submit to Him as the One True High King. Statements like "As above, so below" are direct corruptions of what Jesus said. It is literally a representive phrase of the Baphomet and Shiva. Satan uses the same lie again and again. Read the Bible book by book and you will not be deceived. Really take in God's overall message across the Old and New Testament. When we think we know better than God we lose and are turned over to a reprobate mind and destruction.
Do not be deceived by the "good magic" deception of freemasonry, wiccan, satanism, gnosticism, kabbalism, etc that has pervaded our culture. True power and GOOD is from YHWH, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit alone. Trust in Him for deliverance. God WINS.
Matthew 12:26
And if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself; how shall then his kingdom stand?
Revelation 22
14 Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. 15 For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.
"As above, so below" is the lie Satan told Eve in the Garden of "you will be like God." Notice the focus, Heaven -> Earth power transfer.
Jesus says in the Lord's prayer, "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven."
God's will, not ours. The power remains with Him. We ask as a child asks a Father, not to kill the Father and take his place.
“God helps those who…” not biblical…
Was going to say the same.
Get thee behind me, Satan
The actual definition of "occult" is "hidden".
First, "God helps those who help themselves" is not in scripture. It's a saying, like any saying. Second, the "Hermetic principle of correspondence" may mimic the scripture, much does, but the scripture did not come from it. Order and authorship matter. Third, prayer is not a focusing of my intent. Prayer is communication with a real, living, personal God that I know and who has made himself known to me....not one of the thousands of demons those who talk about manifesting eventually mention they have interacted with. You aren't bringing light to darkness, you are bringing darkness to light. I am someone who has know God for a very long time, to be clear Jesus Christ, the father, and the Holy Spirit- the God of the Holy Bible. I also am interested in improving my mindset and outcomes. However, much of the resources I find eventually lead to a person who is (when you dig into their content enough) communing with "beings" at different levels of consciousness while they empty their mind and, being unsaved and gullible, invite in demonic activity. Occultism opens a door to demonic attachment and possession. The scripture is our ultimate authority. Not Trump. We are Christians. We are not here for feelings. Time and again, had it not been for knowing God's Word and hearing from His Spirit, I would have been lead down a lovely lane.... decorated to be lovely so I wouldn't see that at the end of that lane was harm. God is God. He is not a formula. Edit: punctuation. Edit again: I highly recommend "Keep the Pigs Out" by Don Dickerman. He also has a resource of all of the names and functions of demons he has collected during his time in ministry. They all have certain roles and occultism is a huge doorway for them to gain access to an individual. Watch your doorways- always.
no thanks
Ditto.
The meaning of words changes. You are technically correct, just like a chemist who says that there is no such thing as an inorganic vegetable. But millions of people who don't care about classroom chemistry have recognized organic as a natural, chemical-free and essentially honest way of reaping God's harvest.
Focus more on the communication, less on the words that can shift.
To further your own argument, "chemistry" came from the word alchemist, or practitioners of alchemy. Alchemy is all symbolism using hermetic principles to achieve transmutation. Transmutation is the ability to take something negative and turn it into something positive. Thus the allegory of turning lead into gold.
Learn the origins of the words to understand their true meaning, and it will give you much more insight into what their communication means. Especially with those that OCCULT their true intentions.
Chemistry and alchemy both come from the Greek word khemeia, meaning to alloy metals. Alchemy's original intent was to literally turn lead into gold, stumbling into the foundations of modern chemistry in the effort. Yes there was some esoteric elements to alchemy, especially since it was strongly influenced by ancient Greek philosophy. However, this esoteric element has been vastly overemphasized by modern day esoteric enthusiasts, who reinterpreted turning lead into gold as some hidden spiritual truth when there is little indication that this was the alchemist's intent.
Antoine Faivre, Wouter J. Hanegraaff. Western esotericism and the science of religion. 1995.
So glad you mentioned trump and Kabbalah..i looked at this myself..as I look at everything...people so quick to put evil label on something they don't understand or have never seen.
To everyone down voting this comment, take the time like UK did and actually look up the information first.
Meanings change over time. Right now it isn't good.
It was intentionally made to look not good by people like Aleister Crowley, Jack Parsons, and Anton LaVey.
I'm going to need a source on Trump using Kabbalah. He's America First, not Israel First; a conservative Christian, not an esoteric Jew.
The part about stuff being bound on earth being also bound in heaven has been massively misinterpreted. Looking through the context in Matthew 16 and 18 (the two chapters where this phrase appears) reveals that the true meaning is this: "you can preach that something is lawful or unlawful with confidence because God has already decreed the thing to be lawful or unlawful". In layman's terms: preach the Bible accurately and you will be accurately expressing the will of God.
My recommendation would be to spend more time reading the Bible and letting it interpret itself, and not reading what cultists think the Bible says.
I gave you the source. I told you exactly what book he wrote it in. Do some of your own leg work. I reference the Bible constantly during my study of esoteric gnosticism.
And a little history for you: Christianity was an occulted religion up until emperor Constantine merged it with Mithraism to unite Rome under one religion. You know the Jesus fish symbol? One christian would draw half of it in the dirt, then if the other competed it, they knew they were among friends and could discuss Christianity without fear of persecution.
Had to look up what Mithraism is, but a cursory glance at its history doesn't show Emperor Constantine influencing it at all. In fact, what I've read indicates that Christianity rivaled then persecuted this practice in the third and fourth centuries.
Lastly, the fact that Christians used fish iconography or other codes to recognize each other and avoid persecution does not in any way make them a cult. It does not imply any esoteric or occult beliefs whatsoever. I'm curious to hear what your definitions of cult, occult, and esoteric are.
Well, that quote formatting didn't come out the way I though it would. My mistake.
I never said Christianity was a cult. I said it was an OCCULT religion. I already provided the definition of occult. It means hidden.
And Mithraism absolutely influenced Christianity. When Constantine rewrote the Bible, he changed the day of rest from Saturday (the Sabbath still recognized by Jews to this day) to Sunday. That was to make it more attractive for Mithraists to convert since their day of rest was already Sunday. This is merely one example.
There is a massive difference between being hidden because you want an exclusive members only club to do rituals and being hidden because the government will execute you for being a Christian. Just because occult means hidden doesn’t mean that everything hidden is occult. Also, by that definition the hermetic principles, Tarot cards, palm reading, and astrology are not occult, when it is generally accepted that they are.
The book of Acts records the early church meeting on Sundays while the Apostles were still around. Mithraism had nothing to do with it. All you’re doing is showing that you haven’t read the Bible.
You’re twisting definitions and redefining history to justify your study of the occult and justify blending it with your version of Christianity. If you want to study the occult or esoteric stuff that’s fine, but don’t call it Christianity. No Christian outside of the misguided New Agers would condone the practices or teachings you’re endorsing.
The mystery religions went underground when Christianity became the prominent religion to avoid persecution. Are you seriously trying to argue that hermetics or Gnostics have never been persecuted? Have you never heard of the multiple inquisitions? Burning "witches" at the stake? Friday October 13th, 1307 (where the superstition comes from)? Hundreds of years of crusades? Quit trying to ignore the parts of history that are inconvenient for you.
Hence why I said that by your literalist definition (occult=hidden) those practices ARE not occult, despite the fact that by the more common connotation they ARE occult due to the fact that they are not orthodox teachings of Christianity. Note the use of the present tense, not the past tense.
You still have not addressed the fundamental issue that “occult” practices and beliefs like Hermetics, Kabbalah, and Gnosticism are completely incompatible with the Bible. Or Christianity in general for that matter. At best, they are the false doctrines of misguided men. At worst, they are vectors for demonic influence. Pretending otherwise only puts your own mental/spiritual health at risk.
My entire original post is my argument that it's not incompatible with the Bible.
Based. A good outside-the-box viewpoint. You'll be attacked by the box-dwellers for it.
Wait. Because we don’t agree with your view we are box dwellers?
Ahahhahahaaaa…
Blatant manipulation tactic. Nice try.
Oh... damn.. you sure told me. Whatever helps you sleep at night when your mind starts to question the nature of reality.
Yawn…
And what do you christians call us who are open Occultists??? Go head....use your judgements......Or is it becuz ur false sense of righteousness you are allowed to.
Lost and condemned to death. Just like we were before we accepted Jesus paying for our sins so we could be reconciled with God and receive the free gift of eternal life.
Yes, savior who saves from what savior will do if you don't accept the saving... sounds like government to me.
The consequences of our sin is death. We choose sin through our free will. God is a righteous God. He does not compromise his righteousness, and he also did not make us robots. To give us the ability to truly love, he had to provide us the choice of free will... including the ability to sin and reject Him. But He also made a way for us to be reconciled to Him, and that is ot of ourselves. We could never earn it. Christ, crucified, made way for us. The bible says we are now clothed with the righteousness of Christ, and this is a free gift to all who repent, believe, and accept Him as their Lord and Savior. It's the best deal in the history of the world and comes with so many blessings, including peace. Grace is unmerited favor. None of us earned it.
Great reply! Mine was not going to be near so nice.
T/u for the teachable moment. 😊
I fully anticipated the attacks and judgement with every word I typed.
And the gangs all here.. so predictable... so controlled. They don't even see it. They can't shed that one last control. It defines them. It is fear in its most primal form. Afraid to step outside the box for fear of physical consequences in the non-physical. I was them once. I pity them. They know not what they do.
Like it or not it is part of all the ancient stories.
Well said.
The tree of life and the 12 nodes within it, as used in the Kabbalah is the very definition of idolatry. Each node has attributes you are to meditate on. In other words it's a representation of something in the heavenlies.
Yet in the 10 commandments we have this verse from Exodus 20: 4 4 “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them;"
That's the idolatry commandment and that's exactly what the Kabbalah teaches. So you start off with an occultic pagan practice and you end up in a bad place in the end.
In that case, you should probably take the cross off your wall and your neck.
It's hardly the same. I know what the practices are for the Kabbalah and so called western mysticism. It is the definition of idolatry. You focus on the image and the representation and it's sundry "meanings".
The Hebrews did not worship the ark of the covenant even though it was designed around Gods throne. Only the priests saw it, once a year.
The cross is a simple reminder of Jesus' sacrifice for our salvation. The catholics, unfortunately hung on to idolatrous images and even removed that commandment against it, from the Bible.
So maybe a catholic would be OK with this. I am uncomfortable with it.
God created all things to serve His purpose, including the occult and evil beings.
Without evil beings, there are no trials to prove the good men to be good.
There are no good men.
Can you elaborate on this? I don't understand thinking that no man on earth is good.
In this instance, Jesus is speaking to someone who had called Him good. (Mark 10:17-18) Jesus asks why the man had called Him good, saying that nobody is good, only God in heaven is good.
It helps to understand that during Jesus' ministry on earth, Jesus put Himself on par with God and asserted His deity. That was a stone-able offense back in His days on earth. He could have been killed for making such a bold claim. Jesus said no man is good, only God in heaven is good. It was a way of making the man think and realize what and whom He was. Only God is good, and yet, He is good. That's because He is God Himself. God the Son.
As humans, we may look at someone and think, he is a good man. And he very well may be just that, in human terms. But we are all sinners and fall short of the glory of God. So when compared to God's standard, none of us measure up or compare to God. We are all imperfect, whereas God is perfect. In fact, that is what the word sin means. It means to 'miss the mark (bullseye).' To be less than perfect. Only God is perfect. Only God is good.
From the King James Bible
"But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:8
What does commendeth mean? Here is the definition of commend from Dictionary.com
*to present, mention, or praise as worthy of confidence, notice, kindness, etc.; recommend:
to commend a friend to another; to commend an applicant for employment. to entrust; give in charge; deliver with confidence:
I commend my child to your care.
to cite or name with approval or special praise:
to commend a soldier for bravery.
Feudal Law. to place (oneself or one's land) under another's protection so as to become his vassal.
Archaic. to recommend (a person) to the kind remembrance of another.*
So even though we are sinners and fall short of His glory, God thought enough of us and loved us enough that He wanted us to be reconciled to Him. He provided that path through Jesus and His sacrifice on the cross. Because of that grace, even lowly, imperfect sinners can have an actual, real and true relationship with the God who spoke our universe into existence. It's a beautiful and amazing thing and I hope you don't miss out on that opportunity, fren. Let me know if you want to know more. Blessings to you.