How Not to Be An Armchair Occultist

“I’m finding it very hard to stick to a magickal “regimen”. I feel as if I’m becoming more and more of an armchair occultist with every video I watch not really sure how to start although I have a lot of knowledge. I guess there’s a lot of self doubt holding me back…”

After watching one of my recent videos, a viewer commented they have much knowledge but struggle to practice, becoming an armchair magician. Recognizing their case is not unique, I decided to address the issue and hopefully help. The tools I’ll share can be used for but are not limited to magick. They can help with any meaningful change.

Banishing the Banishings

Since magick is the goal, this is where we should start. Considering the comment, the person seems to have focused on banishings for a while. If so, change all lesser banishing rituals for their invoking counterparts. Based on personal and others’ experiences, excess banishings can have detrimental effects on introverts, which are many occultists.

This includes apathy, such as no zest for life, accomplishment, doing practical work and exploring new methods, encapsulating oneself, etc. If any of that resonates, adopt the Operant Model, which helps with not being armchair occultist And for that, check my content and cheat sheet on it.

Having a Purpose

The purpose of magick is to increase the probability of something happening. Not having such a purpose defeats the purpose of Magick, turning one into an armchair occultist. Given that, reflect on your life. Acknowledge the areas needing urgent improvement, and begin working with the ruling forces as best and regularly as possible.

Formulating charges of intent and engaging correspondences won’t be an issue if having much knowledge. Yet, knowledge doesn’t equal results.

Knowledge ≠ Results

Regardie said that (paraphrasing) reading does (very) little to help one realize one’s divine nature…”

Like coding, content creation, entrepreneurship, bodybuilding, etc, magick is highly active and practical. Thinking you’ll get results by reading is like thinking you’ll become a coder or creator by (merely) reading about it. Or that you’ll build ahead turning physique by (only) reading books on training and nutrition.

The Method of Science

Reading without doing is Chessed without Geburah; it leads to mental obesity, and thus being an armchair occultist. The mentioned five are highly scientific. The sole way to improve with each is by doing and practicing testing your results relentlessly. Everything else is superstition, hypothesis, or philosophizing at best.

For magick, this includes being mindful of how the effects translate into your life, learning to avail of/direct them with charges of intent, and being a proper vessel. Plus, sticking to something requires getting good dopamine from making progress.

Habits

A daily magickal practice is a habit like any other. Simple as it is, having one requires building one. To do so, start small with what people like James Clear and BJ Fogg define as an ‘Atomic/Tiny’ habit. That means starting with something tiny to eventually growing into complete practical operations.

If struggling with training, this can be a daily set of pull-ups, pushups, or merely building the habit of going to the gym. If the struggle is with doing magick, start with a qabalistic cross and a daily declaration of intent given at the same time. Once that becomes non-negotiable, add another component, etc. If you rely on willpower, you lose.

Cue, Craving, Response, Reward

Habits have four aspects: cue, craving, response, and reward. The cue reminds you of the habit, triggering your craving. For magicians, it can be tools or tablets. Or something reminding you to increase the probability of improving your situation. The craving is the desire to do so. The response is practicing, followed by the reward you may devise yourself or find in the fulfillment of staying on track.

Randomness and Freedom

For those arguing habits prevent randomness and freedom, it’s well-known that those without habits have the least freedom. Also, consider Nuit and Binah, providing structure and constraints for Hadit and Chokmah to open new possibilities… and freedom.

Systems

To remain in your life, habits, including daily spiritual practice, must be part of systems. Hence, one should incorporate them among other daily routines serving a meaningful purpose — an aspect of your True Will. When they don’t, they likely don’t stick.

Systems and routines are essential because they allow us to do what we want without willpower, eliminating risks of being an armchair occultist. A well-set morning routine is the beginning of that for many. So here’s an example for occultists.

• Wake up early enough to catch the first hour of the day’s planet.
• Attach such a habit to a morning cold shower, proper hydration, and tea.
• While this deserves a separate post, I suggest fasting (for as long as possible) and avoiding caffeine during the first hours, unless in green tea, as you have naturally elevated cortisol.
• Do your morning rituals.
• Attach that to a productive mindfulness practice, including meditation, bullet journaling, and writing your daily intentions and priorities.

Eventually, this will become a routine to get you going. Keeping it for long enough develops new neurons. Once that happens, not sticking to it becomes problematic. Think of it as an ‘anchor habit’ bringing structure to your day. Another such is hitting the gym but more on that later.

Identity Change

The key is becoming the person who does the things that you want, i.e., magick. Apparently, that has the proper habits and routines. While starting small is key, magick (itself) can help. That’s bringing the suitable characteristics and personality traits, helping you not be an armchair occultist. So here’s an example:

• Identify which of the higher principles of Chessed and Geburah dominates your personality.
• Bring balance by working with the opposite extensively. This alone has the potential to improve things dramatically. Especially when swapping out the excess banishings for invocations.
• Use the function pillars’ sephiroth to modify your identity, aligning it with your future self.
• Use Saturn to limit indulgence in junk thoughts and emotions.
• Use Jupiter to expand with new habits and fresh ideas.
• Use Mars to eliminate bad habits, addictions, indecisiveness, and doubts.
• Use Mercury to organize the new habits into systems as Chessed emanates Hod.
• Use Venus to reignite your passion for the work.
• Optionally, use a rite with rending the veil before the planets to see if that won’t let them impact your Nephesh more substantially.

Lifestyle

While Magick can increase your chances of moving mountains, it won’t do much in and of itself. Let alone make up for a poor lifestyle and habits. The lack of excitement and motivation for the work may be rooted in insufficient energy. Usually, that’s caused by an energy-sapping lifestyle. If any of the following is part of your sphere of being, then I suggest starting by eliminating it:

• Eating junk;
• Not exercising
• Struggling with hunger and obesity;
• Watching Porn and fapping
• Abusing drugs and alcohol.
• Gossiping and indulging in social media.

These rob energy, suffocating your ambition to accomplish anything, including practicing daily. Eradicating self-destructive habits requires what Gurdjieff defines as ‘superhuman’ efforts. It is an enormous magickal accomplishment many should start with.

It goes hand-in-hand with getting in shape. Both are very cathartic and spiritual, letting you transcend your older self. They are the philosopher’s stone in action, but only those who have done them can recognize that.

They are also very magickal, providing concrete evidence of causing changes to occur in conformity with your will. Plus, a daily spiritual practice is a piece of cake for those eating right and training daily.

A New Stage

Magick entered your life at some stage, serving its purpose and hopefully providing value, not entertainment. While some people want it in theirs forever, others don’t. A typical example is when an adept reaches Philosophus (4=7) at GD-based orders. Based on my research, such individuals often want to do something completely different. To those feeling similarly, I suggest Victor Frankl’s Logotherapy.

‘Ask yourself at every moment, is this necessary?’

Unlike psychoanalysis, focusing on the past, Logotherapy looks into the future. It helps you determine the most appropriate expression of your True Will or Ikigai (from now on). After figuring that out, you can decide if Magick is essential to it, following Marcus Aurelius’ advice:

The goal isn’t doing Magick or Self-Improvement for the sake of it but to utilize those as tools to help with your life purpose, whatever that may be. But that’s just my opinion. Let me know if you agree.