┌─╷─┐ ╵┌┼┐╵ polyphanes.smol.pub ╷└┼┘╷ by polyphanes └─╵─┘
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A long while back, I found this discussion prompt on Twitter:
Why do you stay in occultism? We always talk about our origin stories but what about the reason we stay?
Honestly, for me? Because it's fun. I mean, yes, it is fulfilling and gives me direction and encouragement to keep pursuing the higher goals in my life, and I find the methods of esotericism and the occult (in all its many and varied ways, from religious contemplation to nitty-gritty in-the-dirt-and-blood magic) to keep me empowered enough to pursue my life's work, whatever it might be or look like in the end. That's the prim and proper and polite answer, at least—and such an answer, as sensible as it might seem, is like saying that animals have sex to procreate and further their species. Sure, that might be the biological cause, but that's not the individual reason. The reason animals (including humans) have sex is because it feels good.
Likewise, I do magic, religion, spirituality, and esoteric/occult stuff because it feels good to research, to write about, to talk about, to imagine about, and most importantly, to do. And, like, why do anything if it doesn't feel good? This is basically Epicurus' own OG hedonism, not merely seeking pleasure blindly, but with sense and reason in a way that satisfies without penalty.
Besides, the results of doing all this stuff (and the friends I've made along the way, both fleshy and fleshless) aren't anything to thumb my nose at, either. My life has been made more profound by it every day I breathe—and will continue to do so, even long after I stop breathing.