Jan Kjellin reviewed Occulture by Carl Abrahamsson
Scratching the surface
2 stars
I wouldn't go as far as to call out Abrahamsson as a charlatan, but this collection of lectures and articles explains very little or virtually nothing about those unseen forces mentioned (promised?) in the title. Nor does he go in-depth in any of those texts. It'a a mere scratching on the surface, an obscured invitation ("DO YOU WANT TO KNOW MORE?" of sorts to apply for a membership that will provide to you the Truth - if you can handle it. ("YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!").
I have friends in deep rabbit holes who would love this book for it's mix of talks on individual spiritual growth paired with the occational dog whistles about contemp(t)orary, woke society.
That said; some of Abrahamssons main points about the creative force of opposites and his mentions of magic/magick as a term for the unmeasurable, invisible (occult) aspects of existence do resonate with me. …
I wouldn't go as far as to call out Abrahamsson as a charlatan, but this collection of lectures and articles explains very little or virtually nothing about those unseen forces mentioned (promised?) in the title. Nor does he go in-depth in any of those texts. It'a a mere scratching on the surface, an obscured invitation ("DO YOU WANT TO KNOW MORE?" of sorts to apply for a membership that will provide to you the Truth - if you can handle it. ("YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!").
I have friends in deep rabbit holes who would love this book for it's mix of talks on individual spiritual growth paired with the occational dog whistles about contemp(t)orary, woke society.
That said; some of Abrahamssons main points about the creative force of opposites and his mentions of magic/magick as a term for the unmeasurable, invisible (occult) aspects of existence do resonate with me. In a rationalist society, these occult aspects are - when discovered - forcibly transmuted into rational entities, thus losing all or most of their value. Or as Abrahamsson puts it, turn into "mere outer construction work" or "reading of a (cosmic) manual" (p 225).
Being a teacher, I se a possibility to interpret these occult aspects as forms of "applied experience" and magic as the process of a holistic, didactic analysis in the vein of Wolfgang Klafki (perhaps as preparation for the ritual of teaching - but that might be stretching it a bit).
Looking forward to experimenting further with this idea.