On Expertise
I know a young child that likes to explain how things work. If this child knows why something works they will repeat that, but if they don’t know they will invent an explanation and swear it’s true. It’s cute and endearing to listen to a small child do this, but if you spend any time in Occult groups on social media you’re going to find a lot of adults doing the equivalent.
Every day someone will ask a question and receive many answers. However among those answers they’re likely to find unfounded opinions, people repeating something someone else said (often generative AI answers), and folks just making things up. Throw in some bad history and conspiracy theories and you get the idea.
This is a reminder that not everyone’s view is worth equal consideration. If you had a negative reaction from that statement, think about a child explaining how rockets go to the moon and now think about a rocket scientist explaining it.
Now let’s bring this discussion back to magic and the occult. There seems to be an unofficial hierarchy of authority in occult communities and for some reason it seems to elevate authors to the top. I am an author and I appreciate other occult authors, but occult books can be a mixed bag. Surely everyone who is a serious practitioner of magic can think of several authors whose work is best avoided entirely. Some of those authors are quite popular and well-known. Popularity favors scandalous notoriety over good content.
Additionally, being able to competently perform magic doesn’t mean that the person has the correct understanding of the principles involved. The occult is, by definition, the study of the unseen and it is very hard to study unseen things.
My advice on expertise is to view everything you read with some skepticism when you are starting out, and if you really want to achieve competence you must practice. It is not enough to just read. Make sure the things you practice support the goals you are trying to achieve. If you are looking for knowledge and understanding of the universe, you will want to work on your spirit communication so you can discuss that with beings that have a larger perspective. If you want to directly improve your life with practical magic try this spell for solar blessings or purchase a Practical Occult class that matches the area of your life you’d like to improve. Good luck on your journey!
Author: Alison Chicosky
Alison Chicosky is a scholar and practitioner of a variety of forms of thaumaturgy with a focus on results-based magic. While especially interested in both Solomonic magic and the Graeco-Egyptian magic of the Greek Magical Papyri, she is also well versed in soul-flight and psychic magic of various kinds. The founder and force behind Practical Occult (www.practicaloccult.com), she strives to provide pentacles and other enchanted items drawn from a broad background of rigorously studied ancient arts, leveraging the systems of the past for practical modern use.