What first got you into occultism?

[Floonth1]

I was introduced by a Pagan friend as a teenager.

 

[Phillian]

With consciousness, I think it was around my pre-teen years, when a friend of mine, who loves fantasy, paranormal romances, and folklore, began exploring books about Wicca due to a few books they were reading at the time, and I, by association and curiosity, started to read more on the topic and other pagan religions, folklore, and divination methods. A curiosity that has kept to this day, but in different ways than back then.

 

[zgp3]

Feeling powerless and stuck in my early 20s after repeated attempts of asserting my individuality (current; circa ‘26)

 

[highwizard]

I was introduced to it by my mentor who happened to be a witch and I picked it up for myself. I was in a relatively good place, not desperate, but was fine tuning my life. This was in my 30s. It's probably a good thing that I had the mundane part of my life in order before dabbling in magic.

 

[Aeternus]

I got into the occult in my pre-teen years. Interest was very deep into astrology (Western / Tropical in particular), then due to mental impact in the year 2023, I had a little run which I thankfully closed with Satanism and LHP as I found the path not suitable for me, 2024 and to this date and towards more years hopefully I will continue my path of being a Unitarian Universalist and studying all sorts of spiritual practices.

I must admit that interest in the occult runs in the family as well. My grandma gave me some very old books about basic European and Chinese Astrology and my mom bought me a Bonsai tree with crystals for each chakra and also stones for Reiki, Energy working etc.

 

[BasicWizBiz]

Ever since I was young I had an interest in it but never actively pursued it. In high school I converted to Catholicism after my grandma died since I needed answers to reality's questions and felt I had to find them outside of myself. But about 5-6 years later, I realized it wasn't for me since it wasn't getting me any closer to the divine so I started trying occult stuff. I had a pretty remarkable experience during a meditation session where I went somewhere in my head while still in control of my body and hearing things around me and after that, I realized there was something special here that wasn't present in organized religion and I've been trying to learn more about it ever since.

 

[embitca]

I grew up in Boston and we were reading The Crucible in school and about the Salem Witch Trials in general. Also, from visiting Salem with my dad or on school trips. I became obsessed with the idea of REAL WITCHES!

 

[nyx396]

I was looking to escape a very toxic environment as a kid.

 

[Robert Ramsay]

I was always interested in the paranormal, and when I started to investigate seriously, I discovered that most paranormal powers are subcategories of magic.

 

[PalmerEldritch]

I was possessed. I don't mean like in The Exorcist, but it was still weird enough for me to realize the paranormal is real.

 

[Eldros]

I guess the unknown, the mystery, the unclear meaning of some rites. And why not films like The Ninth Gate (1999) or The Omen (1976).
Also loved many of the occult episodes from The X-Files.
By the way, I've seen recently a movie called The First Omen (2024), which is actually a prequel to The Omen from 1976 - directed by Richard Donner.

 

[hollowglasd]

i was given a tarot deck as a young teen from my mother.
the rest they say is history......

 

[Jonathan Strange]

I always felt different. (Realized recently that I have C-PTSD). Never had friends and felt that reading was a good escape, so when I was a teenager I read The Invisibles. I just started to have access to the internet and that led me to the rabbit hole that brought me here.

 

[illuminatiomanabit]

Call me old fashioned but I was brought to the occult by reading Robert Anton Wilson and LSD.

 

[dcwilson]

My first occult book was "The Black Arts" by Cavendish, and it didn't sound too "black" to me at all, just stuff some people didn't like. I moved on to Christianity, but I left it after Calvary Chapel allegedly started burning books. I moved after being in the service and found another fellowship which I couldn't relate to anymore. I needed something else! I felt that an employment company gave me the short shrift because of being in the service at the wrong time, so I put together an altar, some ersatz tools, and did a spell, and it worked! Their building burned down the next day! I was disenchanted with what turned out to be Fundamentalist Christianity, so I picked up a "Circle Network News" and found a Neo-Pagan church that was closer to me - the "Church of All Worlds "- and started reading about Neo-Paganism and magick and started practicing it again.

 

[pointwithinacircle]

Interestingly, it was Vacation Bible School and becoming a Christian at age 9 that opened up the occult world to me. I had what I can only describe as a burning bush experience, I was lifted up out of my body and bathed in a brilliant light. Things never looked the same to me after that. I understood the world in a different way. Of course that meant that I could see through the evangelical Christianity that I was being offered that day. But that guy sure knew how to raise the kundalini.

 

[qwzxas]

I had an interest in conspiracies and aliens. After doing a deep dive on aliens I soon moved on to other videos of people decoding symbols in advertisements and that quickly led to videos on the occult.

 

[catpottery]

4chan and weird Youtube videos mostly. Drifting away from Christianity helped greatly in pondering alternative perspectives in my youth. I most potently remember posts about astral projection and Hemi-Sync serving as my primary gateways (har) into the concepts of magick and thus wizardry.

 

[Soror Epihania]

Despair over the state of the world and modernity's dearth of meaning and depth. I had been in denial about my fascination with occult symbology, the Devil, and the morbid since at least my mid-teens. I was already dabbling in tarot after making friends with some queer witchy folks as I was coming out as a transsexual woman. I moved from the suburbs to the city trying to get distance from my hometown, found a job I liked and was generally feeling alright about life. A few months passed and the honeymoon period of these changes ended. The floor fell out from under me and I was forced to confront the despair and trauma that was lying underneath the surface of my social self. A couple of days before the Winter Solstice of '21 I intuited that Lilith was calling out to me. I got an idea from an internet blog to write a letter, smear it with my blood, and burn it as a means of making contact. I wrote a letter offering devotion in exchange for guidance and protection. I waited until dusk on the Solstice, went to a wooded area in a local park, laboriously cut my finger with a too-dull pocket knife and set it aflame with my pocket lighter. Immediately I felt a dark, feminine presence manifest near me. I took that as a success and began a devotional practice centered on Her while I began studying the occult. Months went by as I treated my little rituals at night as an indulgence in psychodrama to try and find direction in life.
It took me awhile to find my footing as I gradually recognized deeper things were happening as a result of my worship. The world as I experienced it suddenly started feeling much thinner and synchronicities and visionary experiences abounded. I was steeped in Black Metal and Satanism at the time and was quite Anti-cosmic in my outlook. Gnosticism was a big point of interest, I read the Nag Hammadi texts which triggered some profound insights that started to really shake up my microcosm. I found the work of Austin Osman Spare who's ecstatic prose was helpful in bypassing my overactive analytical mind. About a year after my initial offering I found Traditional Witchcraft through the work of Andrew Chumbley and that's when things really started taking off. From there it's mostly been a matter of backtracking from contemporary sources to historical antecedents, alchemy, grimoires, PGM, Neoplatonism, the usual suspects. Through the work I've overcome a lot of the pain and fear I was holding and have a new lease on life. I feel much more joyous, strong, and vital, as well far more compassionate, patient, and focused than I did at the beginning. The work's far from done, but I'm proud of where the journey has taken me.

 

[Pneuma_Purifier]

When I was five years old, I had been left alone in my parents' house because I was sleeping, and suddenly a girl appeared inside the house. She began slowly trying to catch me, and I immediately felt her presence was evil. Somehow, I knew that if she touched me, I would die.

I ran for about five minutes, in and out of the house, trying to escape. At one point I hid behind a piece of furniture in the living room, and I could see her feet approaching. Just as she was about to reach me, my mother arrived and the girl vanished in the exact spot where she had first appeared.

I believe she was either the ghost of a girl or an evil entity. Since then, I’ve been interested in occultism.