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Author Topic: Resources on the Occult?  (Read 841 times)

flame99

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Resources on the Occult?
« on: July 11, 2014, 03:52:19 am »

I've never been particularly superstitious or religious, but I've always had an odd fascination with the occult. I've been wanting to incorporate some aspects of it in a few forum games I'm running, but I can't really find any resources on it. Could any of you point me towards some, particularly alchemy and demonology?
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Empiricist

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Re: Resources on the Occult?
« Reply #1 on: July 11, 2014, 04:00:47 am »

The Ars Goetia could be helpful in demonology for the "attempts to summon supernatural forces using arbitrary symbols and geometric construction" department.

But, that's really about as much as I know, since my interest in the occult doesn't extend any further than "point and laugh".
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Frumple

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Re: Resources on the Occult?
« Reply #2 on: July 11, 2014, 04:01:29 am »

Well, crowley's stuff was vaguely foundational at some point. Book of the Dead is flapping about somewhere. I think there's some old demonology texts still floating around or something... check wikipedia, maybe, for names and whatnot.

Also alchemy, sure. Wikipedia's actually a pretty good resource for that sort of information -- lays out some of the more influential texts and whatnot, many of which are available online in varying forms.
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XXSockXX

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Re: Resources on the Occult?
« Reply #3 on: July 11, 2014, 06:48:34 am »

This site has a big collection of occult texts, they have a section on Alchemy too. For Demonology you should find something under Grimoires or Esoteric.
The Lesser Key of Solomon (includes the already mentioned Goetia) is also there, that's probably the first book on Demonology that comes to mind.

If you just want inspiration for a game, Wikipedia might be a good starting point, you might find actual occult literature less inspiring than it's portrayal in fiction, except for the language maybe, because a lot of it is not really meant to be understood by the uninitiated apparently (have a look at this one).
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Levi

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Re: Resources on the Occult?
« Reply #4 on: July 11, 2014, 02:53:22 pm »

John Dee was a fairly famous occultist during the renaissance.  I found this, but I'm not sure how easy it is to find anything that is useful.

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Sinistar

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Re: Resources on the Occult?
« Reply #5 on: July 11, 2014, 03:02:49 pm »

What about The Emerald Tablets of Thoth?

... I'm actually asking, because I've known about them for quite some time but never even bothered to check if they actually are anything occult related or just some pseudo-religious mumbo-jumbo. Or something else entirelly.

Hmmm, checking wikipedia, there's also thing called just Emerald Tablet.
Not quite sure from quick glance if directly related, but this one is Hermeticism stuff so might interest you afterall.
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