Shana Maria Verghis finds out what makes the occult such a point of attraction
One online dictionary describes the word occult as an adjective:
1. Of, relating to, or dealing with supernatural influences.
2. Beyond the realm of human comprehension; inscrutable.
3. Available to initiate; secret: occult lore. Synonyms at mysterious.
4. Hidden from view; concealed.
I was recently chatting with an artist who published an 800-page book filled with dramatic illustrations that had been partially inspired by his time among the aghoris.
He didn’t wish to get into ritual details. But I am aware some are very dark — like sitting on corpses in graveyards and conjuring energies. There are sound reasons for these peculiar rituals, which are ultimately aimed at the transcendence of the soul. However, human beings are fallible and easily drawn to anything they think will make them superhuman. Sadly when they do get phenomenal powers, by whatever means there is a tendency to do more harm than good because of ego. Take the World Wars. Or the one’s going on. How come our supreme leaders offer poor examples of good behaviour. So humanity in general suffers.
It is not without good reason then, that only a few are purview to pure knowledge of the occult, which in its most simple level, concerns feeding of ego, then transcending it.
If you do your tapas with enough discipline you will be able to transmigrate, walk on water, control the elements. Basically, you will become a master shaman, who possesses extreme powers or siddhis. But there is a flip side to this coin.
Say your focus energy developed after thousands of hours of meditation on a flippant whimsy. For instance, you wish a certain horse wins at the tracks. Or you are sitting in Kathmandu and suddenly develop a fancy for French food. Therefore you teleport to a restaurant in Paris. It’s fun, but all the grace developed over years vanishes, and adds to karmic baggage. Unless you are a highly evolved yogi. Parzen Mithali, who dabbled in Tantra for a long time explained there is a fundamental science behind the dark arts and it relates to the human psyche. “Humans are put on earth to experience a wide arc of situations and dramas, in which their role is only that of an actor or actress. So we are all given plots to follow in our own private drama.”
Tantrics believe this means one is to enjoy the abundance Earth provides in all its manifestations — food, sex, political power, material goods. The twist is that Nature follows several rules, including one of Newton’s laws of Motions. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. So you can have a field day with everything mentioned above. But there will be consequences. Try telling that to smokers!
So when the ‘hidden’ in occult comes to light, we find the Philosopher’s Stone, Fountain of Youth, Alchemist’s gold. Our senses and passions deceive us into thinking them actual treasures.
But what they really are, are just metaphors for the soul.
Sometimes the mind is bestial. Sometimes its crooked and deceitful. But the soul is eternally pure. Uncontaminated. And when one transcends oneself experientially, one realises you get only so much pleasure from walking on water. And there’s the wider ocean of the Universe around. A much more interesting place to explore. Then you realise there is no dark side really. It’s only the part that hasn’t yet been touched by light of awareness.