yeah.. its kind of complicated. its something i started calling a “motivational complex” because you have lots of people and actors that arent actually united by time space or worldview that an outside observer sees as a unified force because of their harmonious motivations [..]
im printing some stuff at my spot so i will slowly elaborate.
so basically you get artists who just think the demonic imagery and stuff is cool but theyre not really sure why and havent ever really thought about it. then you get ones who think its cool for purely aesthetic reasons. then ones who think the demonica is cool.
then within the subset of people who are actually “into” the worldview there is a full spectrum from “just kind of likes it” to “has intensely studied it and is a practitioner”. but they all form a unified front in pushing the imagery and aesthetic which carries the worldview.
this is one example of “the locusts have no king yet they advance together in ranks” (who said it). people drawn to evil dont need have a leader or cohesive plan to form a unified anti-theological front. so, thats whats happening with demonic imagery in culture imo.
it then gets more complicated because the people who are drawn to it “for no reason” then form their own subsets. for example their are artists and people who hate beauty, which then turns them against art that glorifies the human spirit and god. but they may not understand that.
basically i could go on but yeah you get what i call a motivational complex where its a variety of people all united working towards a goal but, they arent actually united by anything except their own motivations that, coincidentally or not, sync up.
in terms of studying this, its one of those topics where u have to get the puzzle pieces and put them together yourself. youre not going to get a “good” book that explains the varying branches of the occult practices tree that isnt pro whatever its describing, thats how it works
main branches there are golden dawn and crowley, “classic” i.e pre golden dawn occult, then chaos magic i.e peter carol id say would be good nodes to hit, that would really be a solid foundation that covers the roots of everything flowering in popular magic stuff imo.
otherwise its really a mix of looking at shamanism, theology, art history, semiotics, and putting the pieces together yourself. thats just how it is. orthodoxy and the religion of the future is one of the rare titles resting where all this overlaps.
i will give everyone interested a jump start and just tell you that almost everyone casually or seriously into “magic” stuff today is basically doing 80% chaos magic with 20% golden dawn, although lots of them that just got a book at urban outfitters are obviously unaware of this
thats just my take which im sure is not universal. thats just what ive seen and picked up in the field and from taking a birds eye view.
