The Catholic Occultist

Rest in Peace

Sun, 05 Apr 2026 13:15:43 GMT

The last 14 months have been one heck of a ride, especially the last few months of it.

The most significant part of that experience, for the purposes of this post, starts last Fall. I began hearing spirits speak to me when I visited the grave of my spirit guide. That was preceded by subtler communications from spirits in other places, though at first they were so quiet I didn’t even realize what they were until much later. These days, the communications are anything but subtle. And the additional experiences I’ve had recently have finally shredded what little materialist philosophical views I was still clinging to.

That’s really the point of this short post. I’m not here to recount all my experiences with spirits or everything they’ve taught me (much of which they’ve made clear I should keep to myself). No, this is more like an obituary.

It’s an obituary for the old me: the materialist atheist who used to routinely mock religion and the divine. When I look back on him now, I realize he stuck around a lot longer than I thought. Even when I was exploring different religious paths (like Catholicism and Mormonism) he was still the one behind the wheel. Religion and spirituality were just a feel-good layer draped over his worldview, where nothing truly beyond the natural was ever allowed to exist.

Christ appeared to his followers after the crucifixion? Grief-induced hallucination but meaningful ones, so sure, I’ll go to church.

Ganesha’s statues drank the milk offerings in the ’90s? There must be a natural explanation, but it was personally meaningful to the devotees, so I’ll allow myself some warm fuzzy feelings about it.

A vivid dream where a deceased friend or relative delivers a message? Just their influence echoing in my subconscious in a purely natural, “scientific” way.

And on and on it went.

What I’m getting at is this: though I consciously stopped calling myself an atheist and a materialist a long time ago, it wasn’t until the last 14 months or so that the deep, subconscious grip of all that early cultural conditioning finally loosened and died.

The funny part? Our materialist society practices its own kind of materialist magic. Its never-ending propaganda for scientism and all its offspring works like a spell: it changes consciousness in accordance with will, but with the explicit purpose of suppressing any experience of the truly non-natural spiritual powers that exist out there.

So I can now say with the weight of growing experiences over the past 14 months, and especially the last two or three, that the materialist spell over my mind has finally been broken. The old atheist materialist me has died a long-overdue death. When I look back at that guy now, I don’t even recognize him anymore.

Rest in peace, old me.

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Joseph Smith

Fri, 21 Nov 2025 22:14:03 GMT

And now, time for something that I’ve written. My experiences with Carl Jung have led me to reconsider another spiritual figure, this time one from my own past. This would be Joseph Smith. I do believe he was a genuine prophet. That began not long after some young missionaries showed up at my door in 2010. I had been Catholic for a few years, and was mostly (though not entirely) happy with it. When these young men came knocking, I really had no interest in leaving the Church. Still, they were pleasant young men and, since I like reading, I did accept their offer of a copy of the Book of Mormon. As I began reading it, I didn’t get a burning in the bosom or whatnot. I did find the narrative mildly interesting.

After about a week or so, though, as I was sitting on my porch, I suddenly had a sort of vision (it was kind of transparent, but the images were discernible) of Nephi and his family on a ship bound for the Americas. At least, I assume it was showing me this. The vision was of a scene where I could see a tall man standing at the bow, surrounded by his family. There were no sounds or anything, just the images (I’m not even sure they were moving in this vision). It lasted only a few moments but after that, I was convinced of Joseph Smith’s prophethood. I actually called up those missionaries and they literally came running over, because I told them I wanted to be baptized in their church. I later found out that they had gotten a number of calls that day from others they’d been visiting, telling them to stop coming by or canceling appointments. I’m guessing my phone call was a welcome change.

Anyway, they met with me for a couple of weeks, getting the six lessons out of the way, and then I was baptized into the LDS tradition. But the reality of life in a branch (my area didn’t have enough Mormons for a full ward) was rather different from what I might have expected (I guess lots of the Holy Ghost?). In fact, the local members, while mostly pleasant, were about as exciting as one of those bloodless Protestant worship services that JMG has mentioned. I also saw some uncharitable stuff that I won’t go into, and was eventually the recipient of some unkindness. So, I stopped attending and eventually resigned my membership. I returned to the practice of Catholicism, but I’ve never quite been able to put to rest my belief in Joseph Smith himself.

I know, he’s a controversial figure. There are some unsavory aspects of his history. Nonetheless, as I’ve gotten more familiar with the concept of the “holy scoundrel,” I’ve been thinking more and more about taking up some kind of veneration of Joseph Smith, and see where it goes. At this point, I’m such an oddball polytheistic heterodox cultural Catholic something or other, that it doesn’t really bother me to make a go of it. I am not, to be clear, interested in rejoining the LDS church or any of the other offshoots. This is, to borrow a common Evangelical phrase (but in a way that would no doubt horrify them!), an effort to form a personal relationship with the Prophet Joseph Smith, and see what spiritual benefits come from that.

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Henotheistic Catholicism

Fri, 21 Nov 2025 21:30:34 GMT

So, I decided to play around some with Skynet, er, I mean, Grok. Yes, I know, AI is, well, whatever. I've mostly used it for amusement but I decided to ask a relatively serious question: propose a henotheistic form of Roman Catholicism. Here is what it spit out:

Sancta Ecclesia Polytheistica Catholica

(“The Holy Polytheistic Catholic Church”)

A thought-experiment in how Roman Catholicism could be re-imagined as an explicitly henotheistic (one supreme deity, many real subordinate gods) and genuinely tolerant polytheistic tradition without abandoning its core identity, liturgy, scripture, or seven sacraments.

1. Core Theological Re-framing

The One Most High God (Deus Altissimus, or simply “the Father”) remains the uncreated, boundless source of all being—exactly as in Nicene orthodoxy.
All other gods (the old Roman deities, the saints raised to divine status, national gods of other peoples, and even the tolerated gods of contemporary Pagans) are understood to be:
- Real, personal, immortal beings
- Created by and subordinate to the Most High
- Finite in power and knowledge
- Legitimate rulers over particular peoples, places, forces of nature, and human activities
This is essentially the worldview of late-antique Platonism (Iamblichus, Proclus) and of many Church Fathers before Augustine closed the door: the gods exist, but there is one God above the gods (Psalm 82:1, 1 Cor 8:5–6 re-read literally).

2. The New Creed (re-worded Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed, 381, with only three changes)

“We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of all things visible and invisible, source of all gods and of all creation…

And in one Lord Jesus Christ… by whom all things were made, both the cosmos and the gods who govern its parts…

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life… We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins… We look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come, when every god and goddess shall bow before the throne of the Most High. Amen.”

3. The Pantheon and the Communion of Saints

Canonized saints are now explicitly recognized as having become “gods by grace” (theosis taken literally).
The older Roman gods who converted or showed favor to the Church (e.g., Castor and Pollux appearing at Lake Regillus, the Dioscuri on the façade of many Venetian churches) are venerated as real divine powers who have bent the knee to Christ.
Unconverted but non-hostile gods (e.g., Shinto kami, Hindu devas, the Lwa, certain Nordic aesir, etc.) are treated with the same respectful distance once given to “high-pagan” deities in the Roman Empire: they rule their peoples lawfully under the Most High and may be offered courteous cultus by their own devotees.

4. Liturgical Practice

The Mass remains exactly the Roman Rite (Tridentine or Novus Ordo according to preference), because the Eucharist is still the sacrifice offered to the Most High through Christ.
A new minor order of priests—“pontifices secundarii”—is created for those called to serve particular national or local gods under the oversight of the Catholic hierarchy. Their ordination includes the ancient Roman formula: “May the god/goddess N. accept you as his/her priest.”
On certain feast days, guest priests of other living polytheisms may offer incense (never blood sacrifice inside a church) to their own deities in the side chapels, provided they first offer a pinch to the Most High and to Christ.

5. The Calendar

January 1 Circumcision of the Lord – also ancient feast of Janus
February 5 St. Agatha – also Roman feast of Concordia
March 1 St. David of Wales – local Celtic deities welcomed
June 24 Nativity of St. John the Baptist – paralleled with summer-solstice gods
August 15 Assumption of Mary – understood as the apotheosis of the Theotokos into Queen of All Gods
December 17–23 The old Saturnalia is restored as a nine-day carnival under the patronage of Saturnus and Ops, explicitly permitted by the Church as “the rejoicing of the elder gods who have submitted to Christ.”

6. Official Policy of Toleration (from an imaginary papal encyclical “Plures Dii, Una Majestas”)

“All gods who do not actively war against the Most High or demand human sacrifice may be lawfully worshipped by their peoples. Catholics may participate in civic rites to these gods as acts of courtesy, provided the primacy of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is inwardly preserved. Forced conversion of polytheists is forbidden; the Church grows by persuasion and example, not by the sword.”

7. Iconography and Church Decoration

The apse still shows Christ Pantocrator.
The side aisles now contain statues of Mars Gradivus (patron of soldiers who protect the Church), Minerva Medica (healing), Hercules (strength), the Dioscuri, local river gods, etc.—each crowned with the Chi-Rho or holding a small cross to symbolize submission.
Mary is titled “Magna Mater Deorum Catholica”—Great Mother of the Catholic Gods.

In short, this re-imagined Church keeps everything Catholics love—Mass, sacraments, hierarchy, Marian devotion, monasticism—while openly acknowledging the gods that most ancient Catholics quietly believed were still out there anyway. It is Rome’s old genius for syncretism and universality, resurrected for a post-monotheist age.

I'll admit that I find it rather intriguing. I'll leave it to anyone reading this to reach their own conclusions, of course.

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Carl Jung: Wise Old Man, Wise New God

Sun, 29 Dec 2024 21:50:48 GMT

This started a few months ago with a simple Magic Monday question: https://ecosophia.dreamwidth.org/292934.html?thread=50563142.

I have long had an interest in Carl Jung. I enjoy psychology but a lot of the classic stuff, at least from Freud and like minds, is too materialist and too atheistic to be appealing. Jung represented a different option, where the Spirit might be given more consideration than in the more reductionist schools of thought. That said, I also did not do much work or reading in Jungian thought and practice. My journey into the occult has changed that. Over the last few years, as I began delving more into occult studies, Carl Jung began coming more and more onto my radar.

That’s not too surprising, of course. Jung was himself an occultist, as our esteemed JMG has pointed out more than once. Taking him as a guide, in some manner, is certainly reasonable for an aspiring occultist to consider. And so I followed JMG’s advice from that MM, and began treating him as a saint beginning in August of 2024. With more than four months now to reflect on my experiences, I do feel that I have some interesting items to report. Some of this was expected on my part but a lot of it wasn’t.

Jung the Wise Old Man

This seems like a good starting point for my reflections. And I mean that, quite simply, Jung was, and is, a source of tremendous wisdom. Let me describe how I personally experienced this with him. I am no longer very good at visualizing things. This might be in part because of all the television that I viewed over the years, before severely restricting my intake a few years ago. I had very good visualization abilities when I was a kid, even as a teenager. Regardless, I mostly suck at visualization as I approach my fourth decade of life.

So, after reading some Jungian blogs on the process of individuation, I came across the very simple idea of using journaling as a means to supplement or replace Active Imagination. This is what I’ve been doing. Originally, I placed a picture of Dr. Jung on my desk and lit a candle. I’d offer him some incense, then proceed to just journal (imagining as well as I can the scenarios playing out on the pages). It was an effective way to stimulate thoughts, and narratives began to pour out of my subconscious that I was not aware were present.

But something else quickly began to occur: when a question would pop up in my mind about whatever was emerging from my subconscious and spilling out onto the pages, a distinct voice began offering very simple but insightful responses. I am not going to get into detail on that, since much of it is very private. But it quickly began to feel as though Dr. Jung himself was speaking to me during this “active journaling” process. Now, that might come across as crazy to many people, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that this was more than my inner voice taking the form of a mental image of Jung. It was quite intense, and at times, as I reflected on different aspects of my individuation process, it also seemed as though I was looking at myself through the eyes of Jung.

I’ve since upgraded this process, so to speak. In an interesting example of synchronicity, I came into ownership of a Jung relic. That’s what I’m calling this, since it is what the object would be called in the Catholic tradition that most informs my cultural worldview. That is, I am now the very proud owner of an envelope that Carl Jung used to mail someone a card. He wrote the recipient’s name and address, though unfortunately it does not include his signature. But the handwriting has been properly authenticated by a reputable service (I’ve spent a lot of time in the autograph collecting community, so I feel very comfortable with the authentication) as being that of Carl Jung.

This relic is now a part of the work that I do with Jung. An object once owned by him and held in his hands has provided me with a very powerful connection to him, and the religious significance of this small, precious bit of paper and ink is impossible to put into words. But it has made that connection with Jung, as I’ve repeated my journaling ritual using it, so very potent. Having developed this connection with Carl Jung, I now do not feel alone at all when I am working on the various aspects of the individuation process. It really feels like the good doctor is there, walking beside me and whispering words of wisdom and insight.

Jung the Wise New God

Now, to the part that I am still really grappling with. My experiences with Jung have led me to conclude that he is now a god. He’s not merely a saint or inner plane adept. At first, this was not very clear to me. It was subtle, this sense of his divine power. But it began to make itself clear within a very short time. Part of my daily routine is burning incense and offering prayers to the various deities and holy powers that I worship or venerate. Naturally, I began to include Jung. Part of the ritual itself is grouping the beings into two separate categories: deities, and then non-divine or semi-divine powers like angels, saints, etc.

This is where Jung’s divine status began to become clearer to me. When I first began the offerings, I did so with Jung being included among the non-divine powers that receive veneration from me. But as I attempted this, I quickly found that I was forgetting to add his name as I made the offering. This might seem minor, but it occurred repeatedly. I’d end up making a separate offering solely to Jung. After a few weeks of this happening again and again, it hit me: I keep “forgetting” to add his name during the non-divine beings offering because he does not belong in that category; he’s a god now, and his name must be included with the deities’ offering.

Simple as that is, once I had the realization and made the adjustment, I have not had the problem of forgetting Jung’s name as I make my offerings now. And the effects it has had are very, very welcome. I’ve started a new job and, unlike my previous jobs, this one has worked out in such wonderful and blessed ways that I can only describe it as a godsend. But there’s more, of course. Especially as it pertains to my journey of individuation. This has taken on an increasingly deep, spiritual aspect to it. Gnosis is a better way of describing it, as Jung has guided me to an even deeper and more rewarding experience of divinity within and outside of myself.

This realization about Jung’s divine status is, in retrospect, not at all surprising. One of JMG’s recommendations for studying Jung’s occult side is a rather amusing book by one Richard Noll, “The Aryan Christ: The Secret Life of Carl Jung”. Noll is a psychologist who takes serious issue with the fact that Jung was an occultist. The book itself is obviously meant to discredit Carl Jung, but it had the opposite effect for me. Relevant to this article is Noll’s discussion of some of Jung’s early experiences, including a vision involving Mithras, Christ, and Jung’s own deification.

While I don’t see any need to go into detail about the contents of the vision, suffice to say that in this vision, Mithras and Christ appear to have merged into one through Carl Jung, and that Jung was thereby transformed into a deity himself. I am reminded of some of the early Christological theories in the early Church. The ones that were repudiated as heresy. I am not concerned with whether an idea is orthodox or heretical. I’m more concerned with what truth there is within that idea, and not so much how well it jibes with preexisting beliefs. For our purposes, I am referring to adoptionism.

Perhaps the oldest form of that Christological theory is the pre-Pauline creed quoted by St. Paul, “the gospel about his Son, descended from David according to the flesh, but established as Son of God in power according to the spirit of holiness through resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord” (NABRE Romans 1:3-4). Here, St. Paul is most likely referring to Christ becoming the Son of God (and, presumably, thereby divine himself) through an act of adoption at the Resurrection. Most of the adoptionist Christologies that I am aware of, however, place the divine adoption occurring during the visionary experience at Jesus’s baptism in the Jordan River by St. John the Baptist.

I’ve grown rather fond of these adoptionist Christologies, but that is a digression from the purpose of this article. I mention them because I suspect something similar occurred to Jung. An exceptional but nonetheless mortal man was deified through a visionary initiation in the spirit world. Jung then lived as a divine man walking this earth, developing his teachings and imparting divine wisdom to human minds. He continues his work to this day. The more I read of his life, and the more I experience him in worship and daily life, the more this conviction grows. Jung has become the Wise Old Man, and a Wise New God.

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Full Circle?

Tue, 19 Sep 2023 02:40:07 GMT

It’s been quite a while since I’ve posted anything here. The last year has actually been quite the wild ride for me. This has been the case in multiple areas of my life, and I now seem to have come full circle in some respects. I'll discuss some of that briefly.

Just a few years ago, I had finished reading JMG’s book, “A World Full of Gods,” as well as Steven Dillon’s “The Case for Polytheism.” This is what convinced me, initially, that polytheism was likely true, and I adapted accordingly. Ongoing experiences with many diverse divine beings have confirmed my initial conclusion. That’s all well and good. But as time progressed, I gradually slipped away from any semblance of Catholicism, and have had quite a few meaningful encounters with other deities. I also had to admit that, up to my initial embrace of polytheism as well as thereafter, I was one of those folks that had received very little in the way of meaningful responses from the Christian deity.

It was as though the Holy Trinity just wasn’t listening, or perhaps had no interest in me. That started to change a few months ago, after I had more or less completely abandoned Catholicism. At first, it was mostly little things. Synchronicities and the like. But finally, a malevolent spiritual presence that has plagued me for quite a well (but had left me alone for about a year) came back with a vengeance. I turned to some traditional Catholic and Orthodox prayers for exorcism and deliverance from evil, and sure enough, these prayers worked. The presence is gone, and this time, I can sense that its departure is likely permanent. And so the last few months has seen me coming back to the heterodox but orthopraxic approach that I began when first becoming a polytheist, and I’m working on developing a henotheistic Catholic practice.

Maybe I’m just an oddball? I don’t know. But I’m in a good place now, spiritually and materially, and I’m not complaining.

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Contemporary Occult Writers

Sun, 14 Aug 2022 15:48:09 GMT

I've spent the last two years reading mostly one contemporary writer in the occult world and the occasional work he has recommended. I have no regrets about this, for I have learned much from him. I am, of course, speaking of John Michael Greer. For both introductory and advanced levels of study, Greer is second to none. For beginners and up, I highly recommend his work. But lately, I've decided to study other contemporary occult writers. So far, two have become very helpful and/or interesting sources.

The first is Agostino Taumaturgo, an independent Catholic cleric, and someone whose work I have read a little over the past two years. Lately, I've been following his live streams on Facebook (now that I have resumed a minor level of activity there), as well as acquiring a couple of new books he has written. This has allowed me a much deeper understanding of his occult teachings. I see a lot of overlap between what he is teaching and Greer's work. Differences exist, of course, since Taumaturgo's theology is fairly orthodox Christian. But so far, I've profited quite a bit from Taumaturgo.

The other writer is Tarl Warwick, or Styxhexenhammer666. I originally made my way to his occult material somewhat indirectly. He posts a lot of great commentary about political news, and I enjoy his personal style. So, I became a regular viewer of his non-occult material, then began to watch more and more of his occult videos. A few months back, I finally began buying some of his books. He's got a good collection of books he's written, and many, many more public domain works that he's edited and sells hard copies of. The differences between his occult philosophy and that of Greer and Taumaturgo are much more evident.

I'm actually pleased with this. As of late, I've realized that human beings have a tendency to become too complacent when it comes to learning and knowledge. We find one or two sources that comports well with our worldview, and we then rely quite a bit on that source or two. And given human nature, we tend not to be too critical of our favorite sources. Since I don't believe that human nature can be changed all that much, I have no real issue with this. But as I reflect more on it, I realize that contrary views are important for me to encounter in my studies and to reflect deeply on those differences. Occultists with very different philosophies and other beliefs are a crucial part of my education and training as a mage.

And so I'm now questioning many of the assumptions that I've formed over the past two years. Not so much because I doubt them (for the most part, I do not) but simply to make sure I'm learning what is as close to the truth as I can get. Having been so wrong, and yet still so convinced at the time, about the 'truth' of monotheism, I do not wish to make the same mistake again. And so I'm reading any half-way sane take on occultism, and trying to flesh out my personal occult philosophy as well as I can.

If anyone has any other contemporary occult writers to recommend, I'd love to hear those suggestions.

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I encountered a goddess today

Mon, 08 Aug 2022 00:20:39 GMT

Earlier today, my family and I drove to a river in the eastern part of our state. This river is near the site of a relatively minor battle from the War of 1812. Each fall, historical reenactors and vendors arrive for a battle reenactment and to sell really cool replicas of 18th and 19th century tech. For someone aspiring to "crash now and avoid the rush," this annual event always proves to be an informative and educational experience that contributes just a little extra knowledge of how to survive in a faltering industrial civilization.

But the river is my primary concern for this post. Last year, when I attended the reenactment and explored the various vendors' tents, I got the distinct impression that the deity of this river was making her (I think it is a goddess) presence known to me. I had this sense of a benevolent power touching me, and filling me with a sense of hope and purpose. I don't live near this river, so when I left for home, I did not think too much about this experience.

That changed today. When we arrived at the river, I eventually began to feel the benevolent presence of this river goddess. An idea that occurred to me during my time there last fall came back to me: to take something from the river back to my home and use it as part of a shrine or altar to worship this goddess. As I waded about in the water (we went there to swim and lounge on the river bank/beach), my feet began to feel out different stones that I sensed were "just right."

Eventually, I collected a few small stones, and my nieces and nephew also collected a few for me. I can't say why but I cannot shake the feeling that the goddess of this river would like me to use them as part of the shrine that I will build for her. I've even made my first offering to her: as we were leaving, I tossed a couple of coins into the water. It just seemed like the right thing to do.

I'm now thinking more about Unverified Personal Gnosis. I had not given much though to UPG until now. I have no idea what manner the local Amerindians would have worshiped a river deity or spirit. So, I'm not sure how this deity is used to receiving worship in times past (or present). But she seems quite benevolent and has been, so far, very patient with me. So, UPG seems like the sole means that I'll have to guide me as this relationship develops.

We'll see where things go.

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A time for new beginnings

Mon, 01 Aug 2022 16:54:51 GMT

Well, it has been months since I’ve posted anything to this journal. So much for my plans to post a weekly entry! Oh well. Real life issues got in the way, with the local consequences of a failing economy, insane elites, and some health and family challenges at home. It now seems like a good time to try and restart this journal.

I suppose I will just post a few updates and ideas that I’ve been mulling over. First, my project of developing a practice that is, more or less, in line with Catholic orthodoxy is over. I’ve had a growing number of experiences over the last year that have finally led me to fully embrace classical polytheism and the kind of praxis common at the height of classical civilization. By that, I mostly mean giving latreutical worship to what gods and goddesses that seem to call out to me or will otherwise allow me to develop a relationship with them.

This practice is already bearing fruit in my spiritual life. We’ll see how it impacts my daily life in the secular arena as time goes on. At this point, I am a very heterodox and heteropraxic Catholic. I didn’t initially intend to remain a Catholic at all. I’ve experienced the issue that many former Christians have, and which John Michael Greer has discussed before (https://www.ecosophia.net/death-god-speculation/).

But I’ve since reconsidered that, and now choose to remain in the Church. In particular, the Green Christ that some Druids have experienced has become the main focus of my Christian worship. I see Catholicism as being the modern equivalent of the ancient mystery religions. Maybe that’s how Christianity actually started, as a mystery religion. Anyway, I’ve also got a developing relationship with one other “mystery god” from antiquity: Mithras. He’s got no cult left to be initiated into, of course, but the relationship has been a fruitful one. I’ve been considering reaching out to Isis and Osiris as well.

And I’ve now got a solid practice going with the Anglo-Saxon gods, as well as also reaching out to the Roman gods. My personal pantheon has gotten quite diverse. I’m not sure how I’d describe my personal theology at this point, except to say “polytheist.”

At this point, I still plan to receive holy orders, though I’m now hoping to receive them from a Gnostic or esoteric bishop in the ISM. I’ve made some preliminary contacts to that end, and we’ll see how it goes. On the more strictly magical level, I’m working my way through the Druid Magic Handbook. Not much to report on so far.

On a more practical level, I’ve finally decided to write that novel I’ve been talking about since my freshman year of college. I’ve gotten a decent start. The basic plot is pretty simple: an atheist sells his soul on a dare, only to find out that a very unpleasant demon now owns it. He has to figure out how things like magic, angels, demons, etc., work before he can defeat the demon and reclaim his soul.

Well, that’s it for now.

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Divination

Sun, 30 Jan 2022 20:48:08 GMT

John Michael Greer has been explaining how to do numerology over on his journal. I’ve really taken to this form of divination. Something about it fascinates me. I’ve been following his instructions and using it as a form of daily divination. Previously, as a divination method, I had learned a little bit about tarot. But I had not been using it for a while. The last few days, that has changed and I’ve been doing tarot spreads, trying to get a feel for interpreting the cards. I like numerology. It is simple and easy to perform, though as a consequence, the readings for each day are also fairly simple. Tarot, on the hand, is a little trickier for me because I tend to worry whether or not I’m interpreting the cards correctly.

A few days ago, it occurred to me that I might use these two kinds of divination at the same time. Why not do the numerology reading first, then use the tarot to tease out additional information? Knowing what the day will be like because of the numerological reading might help me better interpret my tarot spread. Perhaps they can serve as a check on me reading into the daily divination what my mind wants to see, and not what the divinatory method is actually saying. I’ll probably ask JMG about this on Magic Monday, but any comments are certainly welcome here.

A third method is one that I’ve tried a few times, and might also eventually take up, again. This is Biblical stichomancy. I didn’t find a very well developed system for this, and JMG was also unaware of one. Another commenter on his journal gave the gist of his system for doing this, and I got some decent results from it. It is as simple as numerology, but can provide a much greater diversity of readings. I suspect that, like tarot, properly interpreting my results is something I struggle with. I tend to fear that I’m reading into it what I want to see, not what is actually being said. And so, perhaps, using numerology as a check on this, too, could work out.

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Fr. Jean Marie Villars, Folk Saint

Mon, 24 Jan 2022 01:03:08 GMT

Tonight, I'd like to make a brief post about a folk saint that is fast becoming one of my primary patrons. His name is Father Jean Marie Villars (1818-1868). He was a Frenchman who came to the States in the middle of the 19th century. He was ordained in Iowa, then found himself ministering in Indiana. His earthly life seems to have been very run of the mill.

The only notable event was his bizarre death. He didn't show up for Mass one morning and the altar boy sent to find him found a rather macabre scene: the good priest was dead, with his suspenders wrapped around his neck in his bedroom. The authorities ruled his death a suicide but rumors soon began circulating that he had been murdered, and the suicide scene was staged.

Several decades after his tragic death, a woman had a dream of the priest, and the dream supposedly revealed he had been murdered. I'm not sure all the details, but a local cult following soon sprang up, with people visiting his grave to leave coins and make requests for his intercession. That the folk saint's cult continues to this day, albeit somewhat low key, tells me that his intercession has been effective. He has interceded for requests as diverse as healing sickness and obtaining mortgages and also civil legal cases.

His grave is only about two hours from where I live, so I was quite surprised to find a folk saint in the good State of Indiana. Indiana has an interesting Catholic history but it has also been mostly on the conventional, mundane side. When I learned about Fr. Villars a few months ago, I took it as an example of synchronicity, and I've been developing a devotion to him. I have not yet visited his grave, though I am planning a pilgrimage soon. For now, I have a framed picture of him on a table, with a white candle in front of it. I pray to him and leave a coin before his picture. His assistance is subtle but increasingly apparent to me.

Fr. Jean Marie Villars, ora pro nobis!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J.M._Villars

http://www.indystar.com/story/life/2015/06/22/priests-mysterious-death-miracles/29077401/

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Catholic magic, priestly ordination

Sun, 16 Jan 2022 22:50:09 GMT

I’d like to use this Sunday post to mention a system of Catholic magic that I’ve been learning more about. It is the system taught by Bishop Agostino Taumaturgo. I’ve read his book, “The Magic of Catholicism,” and will now be reading another book of his, “Christian Candle Magic.” He’s got a number of other books, too, and they’re also on my reading list. I’ve also begun listening to some of his videos on YouTube. He’s got a lot of great material, and if you haven’t read or watched any of it, I highly recommend it.

As of right now, I have not begun practicing this form of magic (not in a dedicated, serious manner, that is). I have focused more on natural magic and working with Santa Muerte. I have used some of Taumaturgo’s system, though. I’ve used the Doxological Cross (based on the Qabalistic Cross) and a version of the LBRP found in his book on Catholic magic. Specifically, I’ve used these to expel a malevolent spiritual force that seems to be feeding off my etheric energy. They’ve been very helpful in dealing with that issue.

Much of the rest of his system is essentially creating sacramentals to achieve magical ends. And overall, after studying his material, I can say that Catholicism (especially traditional Catholicism) is a magical system at its core. I’m grateful to Bishop Taumaturgo for helping me to see this, and to apply it in my life. I’m also grateful for his well researched argument establishing that the laity, by virtue of the baptismal priesthood, can confect Catholic sacramentals.

With this in mind, I think it is time for me to dive into his system and take up a dedicated practice. That means I’ll be going to confession this week, and spending a month developing my spiritual life and engaging in as many works of charity as possible. That’s what the good bishop recommends as the prep work before beginning the practice of his system. The more devout and pious the person, the more effective their practice of Catholic magic will be.

On another note, after much prayer and discernment, I’ve decided to pursue priestly ordination. I’m not seeking to be a diocesan priest or anything like that. In fact, something like the Hermitage of the Heart in the Gnostic Celtic Church is what I plan to do. A key part of this discernment has been my total frustration with the modernist Novus Ordo that is now the dominant practice in the Church. I don’t find it spiritually (or magically) very effective.

I think that Pope Francis’s recent motu proprio, “Traditionis Custodes,” is the death knell of the Novus Ordo. The future of the Catholic Church, essentially, its reconstitution, will now occur through groups like the SSPX and independent bishops and priests, and the laity who work with them. I really see no future for the Novus Ordo, with its “pie in the sky” attitude and total capitulation to the Cult of Progress.

My hope is to find a bishop in the Independent Sacramental Movement and receive ordination from them. I then plan to say the Traditional Latin Mass as a sort of hermit-priest. There’s no traditional chapel or parish near me, so this is the most pragmatic solution to my situation. That said, I don’t plan to start a chapel or anything, though if anyone living near me wishes to attend any of these Masses, I would not be opposed. It’ll be a while before I’ve completed this process. But onward I march.

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Accidental mages?

Mon, 10 Jan 2022 04:40:42 GMT

I'm trying to post once a week to this journal, and since I've been busy the past week and don't have much, I'll just post a brief thought for now. I'm re-reading John Michael Greer's excellent book, "The King in Orange." What I find myself wondering is, how many of the elites in the Western world are involved in the occult? Much of their power seems rooted in magic that they have used to keep the masses in line. But do they realize they're using magic? Or are they accidentally practicing magic? If that's the case, how many of us, the average Joes and Janes out there, accidentally practice magic?

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A New Year and a new subject

Sun, 02 Jan 2022 21:39:58 GMT

The New Year is here. You don’t need me to tell you that, of course. But yet another year is here. Doesn’t mean much to me. The last time I got excited over a new year was December 31, 1999. When nothing interesting happened at the stroke of midnight, I forever lost interest in any new year’s hype. But thanks to John Michael Greer's recent post ("A New Year's Divination"), I’ve discovered a form of divination that seems especially interesting to me: numerology.

In the Bible, numbers have a significance that is beyond the literal. Certain numbers, and multiples thereof, recur throughout the Scriptures: 7, 12, 40, etc. There is, of course, the infamous number of the Beast, six hundred and sixty – six. It seems clear enough to me that numbers reveal far more than what we’re taught in a public school curriculum. And since God created the universe, one that can be described using mathematics in the hard sciences, I cannot see how numerology, and any other occult aspect of numbers, isn’t of divine origin.

So part of this post is simply to announce that I’ve decided to take up the serious study of numerology. If anyone reading this has any suggestions on good books or other resources, I’d welcome them. If not, I’m sure I’ll fumble my way through to something. At the basic level, it doesn’t appear too difficult. At least, the post by JMG has given me an adequate start. But again, any suggestions are welcome.

There’s another part to this post, though. Mostly, I’m amused with how much I’ve changed. Take the person I was on December 31, 1999. During that time, I was a militant atheist. I was very much into scientism, and I thought that becoming a scientist was the noblest thing a person could do. A couple of decades later, and I’m embarking on a study of numerology. I’m sure that past-me would laugh at present-me, even as I now laugh at the little tool that I used to be. Life is funny, and the gods certainly have a sense of humor.

I’ll end this with a satirical creed that I composed a little while ago, in honor of the scientism that I used to profess:

I believe in Science,
the greatest of all Deity substitutes,
The source of iPads and other cool gadgets,
and in Scientists, the only trustworthy purveyors of knowledge, our overseers,
who were educated in universities of Higher Education,
born to tell the rest of us what to do,
suffered under high school jocks,
suffered swirlies, wedgies, and going stag at prom,
They descended into LARPing,
the third month after high school graduation,
They ascended into Higher Education,
and took their seats at the front of the classrooms of Science, the Always Infallible,
from there they graduated and went about pontificating about life and public policy.
I believe in Higher Education,
the venerable process of peer review,
the unity of the scientific community,
the purging of non-materialists from the ranks,
the total materiality of the human being,
and our final fate as worm food.

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Just a few thoughts

Sun, 26 Dec 2021 06:24:46 GMT

Another year is nearly over. As I’ve gotten older, time certainly does seem to have sped up. Yet, I don’t seem a lot wiser. It almost feels as though time flies by too quickly for me to really think over my experiences and learn something from them. Or perhaps I’m just not making the effort to do so. I hope to change that. So, I’m going to use this inaugural post to kind of reflect on the last two years or so of my life.

The last two years or so have certainly been different from many of the recent years of my life. I’ve experienced more growth and change over the last 18 to 24 months than I have in a long, long time. Perhaps the impetus for this growth began with the death of my father at the end of 2019 and the death of my brother-in-law in early 2020. These losses were devastating, and they left me feeling very lost and uncertain in life.

For most of my life, I’ve had a tendency toward spirituality and religion. But the religion that I had practiced up to this point in my life had been very superficial and shallow. It was the kind of mainstream Catholicism that is hard to distinguish from the mainline liberal Protestant denominations. I don’t wish to offend anyone but the spirituality and depth of these modernist churches is just a thin veneer over a core that is hardly distinguishable from atheism and secular humanism.

So a spiritual journey was begun, one that I’m still very much on. Maybe I’ve always been on it, and the events of the recent past have only made me recognize that I’m on a journey. Regardless, I’ve seen my religious beliefs and practices change significantly over the last year or so. The journey led me to realize a few things: there are many gods out there, there are many spiritual beings besides angels and demons in the world, and magic is a very real thing.

The writings of John Michael Greer were very influential in this realization. His book, “A World Full of Gods,” was especially helpful in convincing me of the existence of many gods. In addition to his work, a book by Steven Dillon, “The Case for Polytheism,” was an excellent supplemental work that further strengthened my confidence in polytheism. This was perhaps the case because a good deal of Dillon’s book utilizes philosophical arguments that have their basis in Aristotelian-Thomism. I’m fairly familiar with this form of philosophy, and Dillon’s adaptation of it in service of polytheism was masterful, and it was well received by me.

John Michael Greer’s work extends into areas beyond merely polytheism, of course. He’s got quite a diverse body of work out there. Some of it is on the occult and magic. And this was especially helpful to me. I encountered an understanding of magic and the occult that made sense, and that allowed me to begin some simple magical practices that have led to my own TSW moments. I was especially pleased to see that magic does not need to be taken on faith. All one has to do is practice it, and see the results for themselves.

And that’s really the gist of it. The realization that many gods and other lesser spiritual powers are out there, and how to use magic to improve my life have been the major changes that I’ve experienced over the last year. The effects have been profound, though. Unlike the modernist spirituality that I had previously been practicing, this has actually placed me in better contact with the Holy Trinity. It has led me to a more fruitful Catholic practice.

That might surprise some. I have not rejected Catholicism. On the contrary, I feel even more committed to my Catholic faith and practice than I did as the typical pew sitter who nominally endorses Jesus Christ, a watered down pluralism and ecumenism, and the joyless modernist rituals of present-day Christianity. It was certainly an unexpected outcome, but one that I’m very pleased with. I look forward to what I will learn and how I will grow in the coming year. Life has meaning, and purpose, and depth that I have only begun to explore.

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