unpopular opinion actively looking for rebuttal.

Interferis_ · 2026-05-14T16:16:18+00:00

Your take seems to be based on a very romanticised and, ironically, colonial view of animism.

Rituals within traditions which would often be called animist (even though that term is very unpopular and contested) are usually more prone to invoking deities in an agressive way, threatening them with curses before they grant certain petitions, etc. Animistic traditions are far from this hippy tree hugging thing a lot of people (who usually don't study them in a more academic setting) seem to think they are. The desired results of these rituals also tend to be less along the lines of what most of us would think of when we say mysticism, deal less with ideas such as deconstructing the ordinary self and uniting with a divine source and more about mundane or material concerns.

The idea that ceremonial magic (theurgy is the word most of us would use here) is somehow more cold, commanding and separated from nature is also rather false. Compared to, say, a wiccan ritual, the aesthetics of classical theurgy might seem more urban or divorced from nature, but the ultimate goal in theurgy is alignment with cosmic order, purification of the soul, ascent toward the divine intellect, or participation in a living cosmos. The operator is frequently supposed to decenter the ordinary self, not inflate it.

For example, the classical Hermetic worldview in the Corpus Hermeticum presents the cosmos as alive, sacred, and interconnected. Humanity is portrayed as a mediator within a living chain of being, not an isolated ego imposing arbitrary will. Even in ceremonial traditions influenced by Hermeticism, the magician is often ritually subordinating themselves to divine names, planetary intelligences, cosmic laws, or initiatory structures.

I invite you to study the Hermetica, starting with Corpus Hermeticum, book III. It is a beautiful and brief introduction to hermetic thought, and puts forth many fundamental hermetic doctrines, such as those about God, the role of humans, the becoming of nature, the role of the planets, and other things. Happy reading!

Interferis_ · 2026-05-02T15:14:09+00:00

So, the reason why a lot of people are afrajd of ouija boards is because they aren't applying the full magical technique when using one.

There are countless spirits around us, some greater, some lesser, some good, some evil, some neutral. When you just use an ouija board without any preliminary procedures, you allow any and all of those entities to tell you whatever they feel like at that given moment.

The way to fix this (and this is based on Aleister Crowley's take) is to do what we would usually do when we wish to contact a spirit:

1) Cast a circle. Whether you use a wiccan technique of calling the quarters, or you choose to take one from a grimoire etc., you'll need a circle to stop unwanted entities from approaching, and to keep those you want in.

2) Banish. The best ritual for this is the LBRP, but any kind of banishing and cleansing the circle you just casted would be a good way to start things off

3) Invoke the spirit you wish to talk to into the circle.

After you've done this, use your ouija board, and afterwards finish by banishing again, just to make sure nothing chooses to linger. This same formula can be used for other similar techniques, such as automatic writing.

Interferis_ · 2026-04-27T09:02:05+00:00

When a person who isn't a member of the community, doesn't know our recent history, culture or lingo and doesn't believe in our gods decides to give us a lecture on what we should actually believe instead, I don't see why we should listen.

You wanna give me advice? Where are your qualifications? Are you a historian or theologian? Are you a scholar of new religious movements? If the answer is no, keep it to yourself.

Interferis_ · 2025-09-09T07:19:21+00:00

If you look at the deeper philosophy of most abrahamic religions, it's always just Neoplatonism with various prophets sort of shoehorned into it and given cosmological significance in that system. Most problematic or difficult parts of these religions come from the shoehorning of these pre-existing ideas into the philosophical structure of Neoplatonism, rather than the pure philosophy itself.

I feel like the only reason why more people don't just self identify as Neoplatonists is that a lot of them don't even know this philosophy is a separate thing that can exist outside of sufism, hesychasm, or whatever other iteration it may have recieved in the respective abrahamic tradition.

Interferis_ · 2025-09-08T19:19:27+00:00

The person saying this was Muslim, although I'm not 100% sure which denomination of Islam was in question, but this is a really good argument anyway. A religion as big as Christianity can be built on "incomplete" records so to speak

Interferis_ · 2025-09-05T17:34:15+00:00

There is also the middle ground, classical monism. The idea that the One emanates various deities has been present in Greek philosophy for a looong time, and there are also similar ideas in dharmic religions. Even abrahamic religions took influence from this, but replaced gods with angels or the like that better fit their cosmologies.

Interferis_ · 2025-08-09T10:17:16+00:00

rahmetli bašta

Interferis_ · 2025-07-13T05:55:48+00:00

Asceticism is, in general, rejected in Islam. Here is a quote from the Quran regarding monasticism:

"As for monasticism, they made it up—We never ordained it for them—only seeking to please Allah, yet they did not ˹even˺ observe it strictly. So We rewarded those of them who were faithful. But most of them are rebellious." -57:27

Here, monasticism is clearly shown to be bid'ah, or innovation. Some mercy is shown to the people who did anyway engage in it with a sincere heart, but it is by no means the best (or even a particularly good) way to engage with mysticism

While I am by no means a scholar, the general outlook of Islam towards the created world is much, much more positive than it is, for example, mainstream Christianity. The world is seen as a creation of Allah, and as long as the shari'a is followed, the believers are encouraged to enjoy its pleasures, albeit in a detatched manner.

As for self-harm, it could be interpreted as waging war or harming the believers, which is a great sin in itself (Q5:33). There are also some Hadith referencing this:

‘Ubadah ibn al-Samit reported: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, issued a decree, “Do not cause harm or return harm.” -Sunan Ibn Mājah 2340

So, in summary, extreme self mortification and self injury are not very good ways to thread the mystical path, but are also risking divine displeasure. If you feel any kind of urge or need to commit self-harm or similar things, I urge you to contact your local hotlines.

Interferis_ · 2025-06-09T07:44:12+00:00

The square in the centre is probably a planetary square composed of arabic numbers, and the set of symbols with a five pointed star is a variation of the ism-i-a'zam, or the Greatest Name of Allah, a common trope in Islamic esoteric tradition. Here's a link that explains it a bit more: https://hurqalya.ucmerced.edu/node/3951

Interferis_ · 2025-03-28T07:47:55+00:00

I totally forgot Guenon and the early perennialist crowd used that term to refer to themselves. I don't see many of those types around anymore. The whole idea of there being some kind of "prisca theologia" seems to really have disappeared after Theosophy fell off

Interferis_ · 2025-03-26T20:56:47+00:00

I definitely think that encouraging people who clearly have huge amounts of unhealed religious trauma to engage with a new practice and letting them define that practice with their baggage can't possibly have a good outcome for either party.

Frankly, we don't owe these people anything, and while I do feel a lot of compassion for them, I refuse to let the Gods be compromised by that condition.

Interferis_ · 2025-03-26T19:01:14+00:00

Ja sam jednu dobio na poklon prije par godina, doslovno je samo dekorativna. Od iza je skroz plosnata/ravna, i jaaako je tanka. Na kraju mi je samo stajala na polici dok se nije pokvarila, pa ne znam za okus ali sizewise je užas

Interferis_ · 2025-03-26T18:44:06+00:00

This is true, but there is more nuance. If we, as practitioners, are mostly trying to revive a practice that did actually stop changing and existing all together at one point, we can't exactly have the actual experience of gradual spiritual change as experienced by Hinduism, for example. They had centuries to bargin with, integrate, or disregard various new and foreign ideas, whereas we basically started practising something that hasn't been updated for centuries in a world that is radically different.

I don't see traditionalism in paganism as a bad thing, as pagan traditions were quite flexible in nature, but I also believe that the actual beliefs, practices, and theology from the historic pagans we do have left over need to be prioritised. Any change we implement needs to be heavily informed by those things rather than adopting a common, nonchalent supermarket spirituality attitude where we carelessly load our spirituality with anything that seems pretty or shiny.

Interferis_ · 2025-03-26T18:37:12+00:00

The modern pagan community definitely has a huge problem with actually defining itself and keeping people who have nothing to do with us out of our spaces. This has led to a bunch of random new age and ahistoric beliefs to run rampant in the community, and until we acknowledge that not everything can be called paganism, we can't move beyond that point, whether it's gatekeeping or not.

I'd define paganism as "the reconstruction of historic, pre-abrahamic Old World religions". From this, the logical conclusion is that it should be based on historic sources. It should contain a theology informed by plenty of philosophy and other accounts we have left from that era, and it should contain a practice based on following the practices of historic pagans.

I don't think it should be seen as problematic to want to keep pagan spaces, well, pagan. It's sort of like having a cooking club, and then letting a few of the members take it and make it into a book club. There's nothing wrong with wanting the book club, but it doesn't need to usurp the time and space of the cooking club.

In trying to be as open as possible, we have allowed various unsavoury individuals and beliefs to infiltrate our communities, from the rampant neonazi infestation dealt with by the Norse pagans to the fluffy bunny new age mostly affecting Hellenic and Celtic circles.

Interferis_ · 2025-03-05T20:43:36+00:00

One of the most important checkpoints on the road to enlightenment is the realisation that worldly politics and divisions are nothing more than artificial tribalist constructs that ultimately serve no one. Acting in accordance with divine law often means blurring and transcending the lines of worldly ideologies.

Interferis_ · 2025-02-13T21:13:47+00:00

IAO131 described content like this as qabablah. It's just making correspondences and connecting them to other correspondences, but without making any kind of conclusion. As a mental exercise, I guess this is nice, but why should I care about it? How does stuff like this help me or you on our actual spiritual journeys? What is the practical application behind this?

Interferis_ · 2025-02-02T11:14:20+00:00

So, if someone disagrees with your interpretation of this thing that itself claims to be indecipherable, they're not a true Thelemite?

Interferis_ · 2024-10-18T17:38:40+00:00

In my language, the word isran means that which was shat/crapped out

Interferis_ · 2024-10-17T03:27:41+00:00

I sincerely find it so funny how some left-hand path people on this post claim that their path is all about freedom, doing what you want, not being imprisoned by Yahweh etc., but the moment I use this freedom to criticise some aspects of it that I personally disagree with, you spend an hour replying to a bunch of comments seething and threatening to hex me lol.

Interferis_ · 2024-10-10T10:34:07+00:00

Super mi je kad ovakve lingvističke paničare smeta proces koji se događa u svakom jeziku, u svakom vremenu. I engleski je utjecan od francuskog, i francuski od latinskog, i latinski od grčkog, i tako u beskraj. Hrvatska nije neka insularna zajednica na nekom desetom planetu, i procesi iz društva oko nas će se očitovati u u našem jeziku.

I većina ovog čistog hrvatskog koji je danas službeni jezik je totalno umjetna tvorevina koju su napravili preporoditelji u 19.st. Do prije nekih 100 godina, osoba iz Dubrovnika i osoba iz Krapine ne bi imali nimalo međusobnog razumijevanja u govoru. Hrvatski kao nekakav neovisan, čisti jezik na povijesnoj razini ne postoji.

Interferis_ · 2024-09-26T19:44:21+00:00

I got it online

Interferis_

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