Magick, Occult, Esotericism

[Witness]

I hope this thread doesn't violate the rule about religious content. I don't actually believe that the practice of magick (the spelling is different for a reason I'll explain bellow) is restricted in any way by one's religious background.

As a physics student, it might seem a bit weird at first sight that I'm actually interested in this kind of stuff but the connection is very deep as both satisfy my curiosity about what we call universe/man/creation etc in different ways. To those not familiar with the subject the term magic raises a lot of controversy (not without reason of course) so for this thread I used the specific term Magick (in contrast to the practice of mundane ''magic'' tricks and optical illusions etc.). And here's a definition too by a well known British occultist Aleister Crowley: ''Magick is the Science and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity with Will.''

So what are your guys views on this topic? Is anyone of you interested as an individual to concepts such as Hermeticism, Qabbalah, Astral Vampyrism, Thelema, Left Hand Path, Theosophy etc? Maybe some of you are or have been members of esoteric fraternities and want to share your experience?

(I realise some might get emotional over this subject so please always use arguement and reason before posting, if the moderators feel this topic violates any rules feel free to delete it  )

[Hingatao]

I've always been somewhat interested in the subject as a whole as well as witchcraft and sorcery, although I'm not sure if they're even remotely related in any way. I have to admit I've never done any kind of in-depth research into any of it.

[Witness]

All those terms aren't that clear theoretically because of their nature. Trying to depict personal experience with the use of words will never be done accurately enough and will always lead to confusion and misinterpretation. However, the words witchcraft and sorcery for most people still have the meaning they did back in the Middle Ages. When used among esoteric circles though they usually refer to neopagan/wiccan movements and practitioners.

I'm not an expert too, I have only studied a few well known books and done little and pretty basic practical solitary experiments and that's why I'm asking for others' input too.

[leighmundo40]

My partner is a Pagan and is interested in all those kind of things, books coming out the ying yang! odd glass jars with things written on them etc etc.

I can't say that I understand any of it. I like having my tarot cards read and when we first met, we did this spell to get an ex leave me alone, nothing harmful!

[Baldstu]

From what little I know about  Paganism it sounds very similar  to Buddhism  , they meditate  , they chant  and  visualise  , conduct a range of rituals  which do have some similarities  to  Tibetan Buddhism . , I wish all our  Pagan  brothers  a wonderful Samhain .

[Witness]

Are you a Buddhist? I'm not into Neo-Paganism at all so I can't say for sure. What I can say for sure though is that many Western esoteric movements borrow many concepts from Buddhism like the Samsara and the different planes you reach while ascending mentally. They also practice the exact same meditation techniques.