Yeah, it’s true. I call myself an occultist. In fact, I call myself a magician. I am very interested in magic, and in magical practices. I have a wand and about 15 tarot decks, some of which I’ve designed myself. I regularly do magical workings and spells.
What might interest you the most about this is that I’m also a firm believer in scientific materialism. I do not think that a return to widespread magical thinking is good for the world. IF you require evidence of this, please look out your window into a world filled with anti-vaxxers, people who want you to put jade eggs in your vaginas, and a world in which objective truth seems to have lost all meaning.
I believe in science, in proof, and in rationalism. I think it is 100 percent the only way humanity is going to survive.
But I also don’t believe that, as a species, we should put all our eggs in one basket. So I practice magic anyway. I believe magic is a way of allowing the human mind to observe itself, and to access information and advice we keep in our brains, but are, for one reason or another keeping locked away.
When I summon and speak to a “spirit” or a “god” I am just allowing myself to access a part of myself that can speak to me free of ego.
In essence, I think magic is an act of focused imagining, and a natural part of a writer’s toolkit.
I don’t believe in the objective reality of anything that happens to me when I’m doing magic. But I keep doing it. Once in a very rare while something happens I’m at a loss to explain (shrug)
I also think that magic is something we all do to one extent or another. And perhaps, one day, I’ll write a column about everyday magic by non-magicians.
But, the long and the short of it is, yes, I’m an occultist. No, I ‘m not crazy and/or evil. I’m just a mild sort of interested kook. I’m happy to talk about it, but I rarely do.