Occult literature is quite unlike any other literary genre. While it seeks to be precise, like science, and devoted, like theology, and uplifting, like fiction, and filled with nuances, like poetry, it yet transcends these other literary genres. A truly occult book only touches such forms, but is by itself something else.
What, then, is it?
To answer that, we must think about what occultism itself is, and what is at the core of being an occultist. One can be a scientist, a theologist, an author or a poet, but all these can be accomplished by one’s lower, personal mind. On the other hand, occultism without a mind rooted in the vision—one’s connection to the Master both within and without, the inspirers from the spiritual realm—is emptier than bad poetry. It is shallow where there should be depth; a husk.
Very little of occultism can be read from the surface only. The surface can show when there is lack of occult understanding, but the opposite is not always similarly possible. A temperament that seeks to analyze intensely will have to break and go through a change before it can actually enter the world of occultism. To use Sanskrit terms: one’s focus on kâma or kâma manas will have to change into that of pure manas: we have to learn to read with our heart more than with our rational mind.
Yet, it is easy to confuse this reading with one’s heart with reading what one wants to see. In case one’s emotions are in focus, one will read things that are instantly rewarding in one way or another. Instead of this, the focus should be in one’s sense of unity, which is, foremost, a vision on the ethical depth dimension opened by the text. This, the elevation in one’s feeling of depth about the being of the secret oneness, should be the one most underlined in the reading of occultism. When this intuition is grasped, it will function as a key to what is left between the lines of an occult text.
Thus, while some peaks of the occult studies are reserved for specialists, its literature can and should also give a glimmer of real fascination for everyone with an open heart. Practical upward striving is possible for everyone and is also expected from every student. And next to this heart of occultism is the ravishment of magic, the sacred connectedness of energy in everything. It is real living poetry of the soul and another form of the Dance of the everpresent Goddess.
Salome 