Mysticism is the practice of attaining specific altered states of consciousness that have religious or spiritual significance.
Meditation and prayer are often used for mysticism.
Neoplatonic mysticism and Jewish mysticism are highly influential in Western occult tradition.
Neoplatonism influenced Gnosticism and Hermeticism.
Hermeticism influenced goetia, which includes Western ceremonial necromancy.
Neoplatonism also influenced Jewish Kabbalah, which inspired Christian Cabala, which in turn inspired Hermetic Qabalah.
Outside of esotericism, there is also Christian contemplation, such as theoria and hesychasm.
Due to the focus on achieving specific altered states of consciousness, mysticism is tied to suggestibility.
Highly suggestible individuals can achieve mystical states quickly.
People who lack suggestibility might never have any mystical experiences, regardless of effort.
Sympathetic magic is the idea that objects which resemble each other can affect each other.
It also includes "contagion" which is the idea that you can take on the qualities of an object by coming into contact with it.
Hermetic symbolism and correspondences are closely tied to sympathetic magic.
Goetia began to take on Hermetic trappings over time, although it was originally a Hellenic mesopagan practice.
This heavily influenced the Western grimoiric tradition's approach to necromancy.
This form of magic is often thought of as a form of proto-science that lacks an internal corrective mechanism.
As such, it's commonly associated with mistaking correlation with causation.
Complex rituals might be developed through intergenerational "Skinner boxes," leading to folk magic and superstition.
Jung posited that sympathetic magic is not superstitious, but instead relies on the manifestation of meaningful coincidences.
This manifestation of meaningful coincidences through non-causal means is called "synchronicity."
Achieving synchronicity is the main goal in nearly all practical magick.
Divination is a wide umbrella term for a variety of practices aimed at obtaining knowledge.
Fortune telling is a form of divination that is used to predict the future.
Divination tends to have connotations of occult science, folk practice, spirituality, magic, or religion.
Nonetheless, some forms of divination have been found to have scientific basis, such as cloud watching.
Divination, like sympathetic magic, is concerned with the correlation of events.
However, rather than causing a correlated event, divination is used to reveal the correlation.
This is why divination is sometimes used for introducing magic to new practitioners.
Astrology is one of the most common forms of divination and is closely tied to Western Hermetic tradition.
Necromancy is a form of divination where information is gained from communicating with the spirits of the discarnate dead.
For the sake of necromancy, magick is sometimes used for the invocation, evocation, and exorcism of spirits.
Mediums are often said to be able to communicate with spirits that are already present, which requires little to no magick.
The spirit model proposes that magick and its effects are due to the intercession of spirits.
Divination can be explained as spirits imparting their own wisdom and predictions onto the mage.
Synchronicity can be explained by spirits intervening in the world on one's behalf.
Mysticism can be understood as revelations from or states of union with spirit beings.
Energy can be thought of as simply contagion from (or the presence of) spirits, rather than a thing in and of itself.
The spirit model is not only the major one in necromancy, but also the historically dominant one throughout Western occultism.
Angels, demons, names of God, jinn, elementals, celestials, and intelligences are all types of spirits common in Western magic.
People who specialize in communicating with spirits are often called shamans in anthropology, although this is a borrowed word.
In Spiritualism, these specialists are known as psychic mediums.
Rationalism often proposed Cartesian mind-body dualism, including the survival of the discarnate mind after death.
Historically, many rationalists and scientists believed in spirits due to this.
This might be surprising given that modern rationalists tend to be skeptics of the supernatural.
The energy model proposes that magick and its effects are due to the manipulation of metaphysical forces.
"Energy" is a word that is used a lot in occultism, magick, and New Age spirituality.
It tends to mean something a little different to everyone.
The basic concept of "energy" is somewhat comparable to electromagnetism.
"Energy" can be channeled and stored like electricity.
Like magnetism, "energy" can be considered to be an invisible field or force that permeates all things.
A change in one place can cause a change in a seemingly disconnected one, through the invisible ripples of energy.
In Mesmerism, "animal magnetism" is said to be due to a "Mesmeric fluid," and this closely mirrors what we call "energy."
Energy can also be tied to vitalism, pneuma, qi, orgone energy, and many other similar ideas.
The energy model tends to treat spirits and gods as personified forces whose energy can be channeled by the mage.
Blessings and enchantments are often understood as imbuing a particular object with a certain energy.
Purification rituals can be understood as the removal of unwanted energy.
Under this model, divination is due to perceiving or observing the subtle fluxuations of energy that have not yet manifested.
The energy model is dominant in practices like astrology and feng shui.
It is also used in many visualization exercises, which are often included in more modern occult rituals like the Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram.
It might surprise one to learn that energy is a relatively recent addition to Western occultism, despite its prolific use in 19th century occultism.
The psychological model proposes that magick and its effects can be explained through psychological mechanisms.
This includes hypnosis, suggestion, Jungian archetypes, psychodrama, placebo, Baader-Meinhoff, magical thinking, confabulation, etc.
The psychological model can be understood purely through the lens of metaphysical naturalism, within accepted scientific consensus.
The psychological model can also include a Platonic or metaphysical approach to the Jungian collective unconscious.
Spirits and gods are all thoughtforms and Jungian archetypes under the psychological model.
The distinction between these two is mostly an intellectual argument about metaphysics.
Naturalistically, synchronicity has been argued to be a product of apophenia, Baader-Meinhoff, and the Near-Enough Fallacy.
Divination can be thought of as a way of bringing one's subconscious intuitions to light, without any supernatural mechanisms.
Energy work can be understood as projecting one's mood onto particular objects and places in order to build a specified psychological association with them.
Visualization and active imagination exercises are useful for suggestion and placebo. They are even used in some scientific contexts.
Platonically, Jungian archetypes can be considered ideal forms that causally affect the physical world through manifestation.
The realm of forms can be equated with the Jungian collective unconscious, allowing one to access the realm of forms through the subconscious.
The associations and thoughtforms created in energy work can enter the collective unconscious, becoming a part of shared, intersubjective reality.
Neoplatonism, as mentioned, has been highly influential in Western esotericism and mysticism, so it tends to be the common occult approach.
For most of Western history, psychology and spirituality were considered closely connected.
This is because words like "spirit," "psyche," and "mind" were used interchangeably; they were seen as identical.
In that sense, the psychological model historically overlaps heavily with the spirit model, although they are now more distinct.
Notice that all three of the above models have had their place throughout occult history and at different times.
Even if you can use one model to explain the others, many practitioners comfortably jump between these three models.
Others might stick to only one model, sometimes moving from one to another as experience and study changes their perspective.
A traditional Western occult approach would be a blend of the psychological model and the spirit model, under Neoplatonism.
Nonetheless, each model has its own explanations for imitation, contagion, synchronicity, and divination.
This is why they can be considered to be three separate models of magick, and why someone can easily adhere to only one model.
As magic often relies on the manipulation of supernatural forces, it tends to be closely tied to religious and spiritual beliefs about the supernatural.
This means that specific magical systems or approaches to magic are far more diverse than this simple four-model approach.
Neoplatonism is a monist philosophy, similar to materialism and naturalism.
Unlike materialism and naturalism, Neoplatonism hypothesizes that the substance of everything is mind rather than matter.
Physical matter, therefore, is somewhat of an illusion.
Matter is the manifestation of higher, purely psychic forms.
Everything is therefore tied to the One, which is the mind that everything exists within.
If we can see past the illusion of division, we can dig under our minds and find the One at the root.
The material world itself is often thought to be formed by a Demiurge.
The Demiurge is a figure who is lesser than the One and responsible for creating and maintaining the material world from the world of forms.
The Gnostic Demiurge was either a malicious or deeply delusional figure.
In Gnosticism, the Demiurge is demonized as responsible for the separation of humanity from the One, keeping us shackled to material bodies in order to enslave us.
However, not all Neoplatonic inspired worldviews demonized the Demiurge.
The Demiurge is frequently thought of as a neutral or even benevolent figure with a natural place in the cosmic order.
Human separation from the One can be thought of as the One trying to know and/or replicate itself.
Thus, humans need to experience the material world in order to grow and learn, perhaps through multiple reincarnations.
This includes engaging in mysticism for the sake of experiencing spiritual transformations and receiving divinatory revelations.
In Jewish Kabbalah, the Demiurge is sometimes identified with Metatron, Sandalphon, or Yhwh, with Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh or Ain Soph being the One.
In Enochian magic, Choronzon is often identified with the Demiurge, which influences some interpretations of Hermetic Qabalah.
As Choronzon, the Demiurge plays a role similar to Mara by maintaining the illusion that the individual is somehow separate from the whole.
Growing beyond Choronzon thus requires that one experience ego death and mystical union with the One to remember their unity and interconnectedness with all things.
Neoplatonic groups such as the Gnostic Sethians had long made complex divisions between the world and the One.
These were thought of as layers, not dissimilar to the planes in Theosophy or the concept of multiple Heavens.
Hermeticism studied the Heavens through astrology.
The lowest plane in Hermeticism is the land itself, represented by elemental earth.
After that comes fire, which can transition earth into air.
Then there is air underneath a domed firmament.
Finally, there is the watery aether separating our planet from the Heavens.
The classical planets were thought to glide along the boundaries of the Heavens.
From lowest Heaven to highest, there is Luna, Venus, Mercury, Solus, Mars, Jupiter, and finally Saturn.
After Saturn there are the stars of the Zodiac, in order these are:
Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, and finally Pisces.
Beyond the fixed stars behind the Zodiac is the Perpetuum Mobile, which is a sphere that rotates the stars.
Beyond the Perpetuum Mobile is the Empyrean, which is the domain of the One.
The Empyrean was often identified with Heaven by Christian and Muslim Hermeticists.
Solus and Luna were often identified as the cosmic Father and Mother, or the Heavenly Father and Holy Spirit, respectively.
This was inspired by the Daoist concept of Yin and Yang and the Pythagorean concept of the dyad.
This pairing would later be dechristianized to form the basis of the Neopagan religion, Wicca.
As Hermeticism elaborated on Neoplatonic cosmogy, Agrippa elaborated on Christian Hermeticism.
Under Agrippa, the Empyrean is indeed Heaven and the above cosmogony is broadly accurate.
Agrippa made additional divisions that applied to the elements and the planets.
These divisions include the corresponding name of God, the ruling archangel, the ruling angel (or intelligence), the physical manifestation, and the demon (or spirit) associated with each.
Each division was further "down" on a divine hierarchy, further from the One.
Demons here were not malevolent so much as they were worldly and furthest from the One in emanation, thus also the least perfect and whole.
Demons were thought to be the closest spirits to the earth and thus capable of quicker results, so long as they were kept in balance with the corresponding angels and godforms.
Agrippa detailed names and correspondences for each of these Hermetic figures in his 3 Books on Occult Philosophy.
This included Pythagorean correspondences, leading to magic numbers, leading to grids, leading to sigils.
Since Hebrew has no vowels and uses letters for numbers, these magic numbers could be turned into the names of spirits using gematria.
This creates an incredibly complicated and interwoven system of sympathetic magic.
Agrippa believed that one could create sigils for human spirits, too, in order to evoke them in the same manner one evokes angels and demons.
Hermetic correspondences could be used in conjunction with "Interpretatio Graeca" and "Interpretatio Romana" to link all European polytheistic pantheons together.
This would later allow for a resurgence of Neopaganism out of occultism through Thelema and Wicca, filling in gaps created by Christian iconoclasm.
In a sense, because we are all manifestations of the One and connected to the One, we can all attain union with the One.
This is the Magnum Opus in Neoplatonism, Gnosticism, and Hermeticism.
Through esoteric gnosis or direct experience of the divine, you can climb the cosmic ladder to reach the One.
The precise details on how this is achieved differ greatly from text to text, from Plotinus to Zosimos to Basil Valentine to the Golden Dawn.
Nonetheless, this is what is called "spiritual alchemy," a concept imported to the West through the Daoist concept of "Neidan."
As a magician, one takes the position of God in their microcosm, and is thus able to command archangels to command angels to command demons, etc.
This is the explanation for synchronicity; our world is the lowest manifestation of thought.
Through alchemy, we regain awareness of our oneness with all things starting at the lowest and working our way to the highest.
In doing so, we become more and more like God.
Under sympathetic magic, the more one thing resembles another, the stronger the influence on one another.
Thus, the more like God one becomes, the more powerful of a mage one becomes.
This is why ritual purity and moral constancy are stressed in older grimoires as absolutely necessary for the best effects.
Next to Hermetic Qabalah and the Pseudo-Masonic organizational structure, the Book of Abramelin was a central element in the 19th century occult movement.
It is a specific grimoire of Judeo-Christian Hermetic ceremonial magic that describes a single lengthy ritual.
It begins with a series of elaborate purifications to draw one as close to God as possible before the work begins.
Then, it calls upon godforms and angels to summon demons in order to bind them, beginning with demons associated with the cardinal directions and thus the 4 elements.
This is its own cosmic ladder, as binding these demons allows one to bring order to one's microcosm; it prevents the demons from interfering with the mage.
With the demons bound, the mage enters a state of extreme ritual purification, allowing them to interact with their Higher Guardian Angel.
There are many ideas about what the HGA is, but fundamentally the HGA is the intercessor between the magician's microcosmic phaneron and macrocosmic reality.
The HGA thus serves a Mercurial or Shamanic role as a messenger between the Platonic realm of forms and the illusory world of matter.
Everyone has their own unique HGA, which the Left-Hand Path would later identify with the Higher Self as merely an extension of one's own Spirit.
The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and thus mainstream Rosicrucianism, was constructed around this ritual.
The idea is to contact the HGA to align oneself with God's plan or Will for you, as the plan is created by a maximally benevolent and wise being.
From this occult religion of Rosicrucianism, Thelema spawned, and from Thelema came Typhonianism, LaVeyan Satanism, Discordianism, Setianism, Draconianism, and many others.
The Satanic Bible written by Anton LaVey is organized according to the demonic hierarchy from the Book of Abramelin and adopts Thelema's identification of Satan with the pantheistic Demiurge.
Thelema, like Wicca, dechristianized Hermeticism by replacing angels and godforms in Hermetic Qabalah with their corresponding pagan deities.
Thelema would go on to develop a less demanding ritual for reaching the HGA called Liber Samekh, after their founder, Aleister Crowley, underwent the Abramelin ritual.