Unqualified Opinions: Favorite Occultists

[deketemoisont]

I arguably shouldn't have favorite occultists (being unqualified to judge occultism in itself), but I do, given that I began reading occultism through an author I started reading for *entirely* other reasons; so, for each, I'll say whatever they wrote about that wasn't occultism that I considered myself qualified to have an (in this case positive) opinion about. (I should note that for most of them I read their blogs, not books; the only ones by whom I read multiple books each are John Michael Greer, Jason Miller, Don Webb, and Emil Stejnar.)

Despite my utter lack of obviously-metaphysical results thus far, I'll claim the first group actually permanently changed how I think, which I'll present by decreasing importance: (I credit the dude at the list's top with "merely" "I take anything about occultism at all seriously (i.e. I read everyone else in this list because of him)" and "I no longer believe in indefinitely-extended Progress".)

John Michael Greer (authorized copy of previous blog) (Golden Dawn and Mesodruidry; peak oil, ecology, economics, cultural history);
Jason Miller (previous blog) (highly ecletic "sorcery" (meaning aiming both at worldly results and self-refinement); given seriousness about the preceding, his lifestyle advice's pretty consistently good, and his Financial Sorcery got praise from a non-occult personal finance blog);
John R. King IV (Solomonic (yes, evoking demons to *restrain* their influence) magic; consider https://imperialarts.livejournal.com/18341.html );
Don Webb (Setianism, Gurdjieff/Uspensky teachings; his lifestyle advice kinda single-handedly proves the Western "Left-Hand Path" needn't be stupid (however often it is));
Stephen "Edred Thorsson" Flowers (runic magic mostly, some of anything Indo-European non-Christian, some implicit Setianism; Indo-European linguistics, history, and culture);
Michael Kelly (Setianism, runic/Ogham magic; great lifestyle advice and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrGwINjA894 );
Ceisiwr Serith (if one can enter an occultist list with only prayer (yes, including intercessionary); Indo-European cultures and religions);
Emil Stejnar (seems to be the most important living Bardonian mage; since his The Four Elements and Astrology already have a psychological bent IMO, I could get good stuff just out of considering them in that way).

Regarding those next, I'll claim to have gotten information quite worth my time from them, but not having being changed by them in a greater sense. In alphabetical order:

Benebell Wen (tarot, Daoist and Mahayana esotericism; introductions to lots of cultures, art history, occult entrepreneurship);
Christopher Wallis (Shaivite Tantra (only meditation AFAIK); *actual* Indian religious/occult history);
Gordon White (chaos magic, animism; definitely understands propaganda (his profession), I like *some* of his geopolitical commentary);
Ian Corrigan (Neodruidry with Ars Goetia and Afro-American religion influences; non-Christian Indo-European religions);
Ivy Bromius (uses astrology and the Greek Magical Papyri; blogs mostly about how Planning Is Magic, so to say);
Kenaz Filan (lots of Vodou and some runic magic; the most practical/pragmatic religious behavior around, and yes, wholly authentic to its religion);
Patrick Dunn (ancient Greek theurgy, Lenormand divination, "post-modern" magic; post-modernism in a sense that isn't stupid);
Sam Block (Hermeticism, geomancy; cultural/religious/occult history);
"Yogic Engineering" (most ambitious native-Anglophone Bardonian mage around (IMO, the others currently active tend to a lot of moralizing and not much about power, which was clearly something Bardon's work was about); consider https://yogicengineering.com/2015/07/20/a-reading-list-about-reality/ );
"Zev ben Avram" (the book sample and interview should make clear (assuming one's inclined similarly-enough to me, at least) both what his magic is and why he might be worth listening to on other matters; unfortunately there's only the one limited-edition, sold-out book*).

*: if you have any contact with any other part at all of that site, I guarantee you'll become much dumber, don't blame me if you do - Zev himself claims he doesn't agree with most "Left-Hand Path" people, which obviously means the exact astounding idiocy on, e.g. the rest of that site, because IMO his perspective actually has much in common with Setianism, the main non-dumb form of Western LHP (also, the publisher/interviewer making a really stupid question isn't exactly glossed over).

Comments

[jprussell]

Thanks very much for putting this list together! Since getting turned onto occultism outside of the germanic-mostly-reconstructionist end of things by JMG, I've been a bit timid about venturing into the unknown waters of new authors.

If I can be a bit greedy by making a request: it would be wonderful to hear a bit more of your opinions, however "unqualified", on each of these - what they write about is already very helpful, but a sentence or two on what you have found most helpful/interesting and what least would help give some idea of where to start.

As I opened with, though, this is already very helpful, so thank you again,
Jeff

[deketemoisont]

I haven't been timid about reading different occultists - about expressing opinions on them, on the other hand ... knowing about your interest, I'll be sure to write some more later, but I may try to read a whole book by each before I talk about them (not that I'd wait to read all before starting). Thanks!