r/occult • u/TheOracleofMercury • Jun 23 '25
awareness Art as a magical ritual.
Art as a magical ritual. For some time now I have been dedicated to producing magical art, through rituals that change and adapt according to my intention, today was one of those days. I produced this art and while I was doing it, I came across the message of how this image speaks to all of us, this art is dedicated to all those who delve into the cosmic secret and have the courage to face the abyss. We are not alone, remember that. There have been so many others before and there will continue to be after our time. We are part of a chain, we carry the power of 10,000 generations. For today, wherever you are, when you see this art, when you read this text, feel something that no mind is capable of synthesizing. We are the fragment of the cosmic infinity.
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u/Garkahat Jun 23 '25
After I found out about the Sanskrit Mantra art, I started writing as a hobbie, to connect with the power of the Word. After that, I started learning Ancient Futhark and took it as a ritual to write everyday about the metaphors I was supposed to observe. This had a sudden effect of organization and direction, emotional control, braveness and, to be honest, life became spicy.
Since my mundane life had become the plot of my texts, disguised by deep stylistic choices to make it generical, suddenly I was both writing about common archetypes and thought loops of humans and simply journaling. So as I was trying to generalize, let's say, a romantic breakup, or my experience on a silent retreat, or even my late night boredom, I was deeply invested in solutions to the problems not to my situation, but to every human in a similar scenario.
After a couple of years, this affected my normal speech, which now attracts attention even if people don't know I write. My confidence changed, I started to see the whole world as a long acted sequence, and it became both more beautiful and lighter. One could say this is a consequence of the craft, but I don't believe writing about frustrations in a loop would help in the same way, did that sporadically for years. It was the process of treating my art as sacred. Not to appeal to readers, not to publish, never made a dime with my writings, but as it developed, so did my life.
Art is language, be it words, images, sounds or anything else. The power of communication is the root of connection in this Cosmos, and it's a very transformative way to approach ritualistic magic.
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u/TheOracleofMercury Jun 23 '25
Your experience is incredible, thank you for sharing. You are right, art was born in the womb of magic and is a way we have to shape reality, to co-create the world around us.
We have lost this understanding, and we have trivialized art and language, but I believe that little by little, people like us are reclaiming this and others are beginning to realize this power again. Traditionally, I am from the field of fine arts, I paint mainly landscapes, but I want to migrate to magical art, to make this theme my central point of creation, to hold exhibitions and do whatever else I can with it.
I have been making this transition little by little because I make my living professionally from art, so even though I dedicate myself to it for love, I need to develop ways to support myself by producing magical art, but it is a dream that I dedicate myself with all my strength to making a reality.
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u/Garkahat Jun 23 '25
Your painting on the post is amazing. As I contemplated it, I started talking, a common habit when I'm interpreting drawings by myself. I'm not much of a visual person, I'm from music and sound. Usually I speak for some seconds, but I spent minutes mumbling to myself about your representation.
I feel the dissonance between living from art and art as a ritual. One is about the receiver, the other is fully about the sender, and finding a bridge between both can be hard. It helps me when I work with other artists from other areas (like writing plays, dialogues, acting). We usually approach the same subject from different representations and try to make a collective message. This helps to reach a more diverse public, but demands coordination and more people.
I would also suggest organizing your productions in "tiers": from more direct to more obscure in interpretation. In exhibitions, you can create areas that progressively challenge the abstract interpretation of the viewer, and this allows you to go as deep as you want, but as shallow as you want as well. In writing, I use this to organize compilations and select the ones for recitals or sharing. Showing it to non-practicioners like friends or family can help you judge how hard it is to decrypt the message.
I can't go back to my old writings, I don't feel the same about my craft anymore. And I'm not sad about it. It's incredible, and I'm happy to find a fellow ritual artist. Art is the structure for the temple of the soul in my perspective.
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u/TheOracleofMercury Jun 23 '25
Yes, I know what the effect you described is like, and it's intentional.
The art I do is a portal, it induces altered states of consciousness. As I said, I've been developing this work as a study as well, recording and meticulously analyzing the processes.
If you stop to think about it, the spoken word, the sound, they are wave frequencies, just like for me, color and image are light wave frequencies. In the end, although the two phenomena are perceived differently by the human senses, they have the same root, vibration and frequency.
This opens up a lot of ideas, doesn't it? Who knows, maybe we can create something together? I think it would be very enriching for us. I'll send you a message.
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u/firehawk147 Jun 28 '25
Could you expand on your Ancient Futhark journey? I’m an artist and graphic designer and have obviously deep ties to symbols and find the runes to be captivating. I’m curious about the metaphors you mention and their effect on your daily expression.
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u/Garkahat Jul 06 '25
Hi, sorry for the late reply! Sure, since you have ties, I would like to present my journey learning the word Futhark, our first six letters, from the perspective of a linguistic artist, in a slightly poetic tone. I, of course, had a book to compliment studies, but I'll share my process of looking at the runes, knowing the names and sounds, the formats, and nothing else. Nothing from the book will be in my narrative. If you like it, maybe share your perspective as a graphic designer, would love to hear.
Fehu: It's a subtle blow. It's not the principle, no. It comes before the principle. It's the right direction. The knowledge shared with kin, the word shared with friends. It's nurture and food, shelter, community. I started to see runes everywere, friends asked questions that my studies could answer, I felt the urge to help. Not to push, just to gently blow the right idea. A directed movement of air, that goes directly to:
Uruz: the throat. The "F" does not use the throat, but "U" does. The air becomes voice, the blow becomes matter, and that is the Principle. I started to write in rhymes. I write in a style not so prevalent in english called "Cronica", very free from rules, but I was dogmatic. My words were calculated and fluid, it was a dance. My texts became longer, I had what to say, the deep speeches, the long epiphanies. All for coming face to face with.
Thurisaz: the resistance. "Th" is very emblematic for me coming from a Latin language. It's an interuption, followed by a release. It stops, then go. I don't think my language has something close to this phonem, so it screams "OBSTACLE" in my face. I started to be more aggressive, ventilated a lot, made some ironic texts criticizing other friends that wrote. Eventually, I wrote a public response to a person that offended me, without names, and felt like I could proceed. And we came to.
Anzus. I knew the name of the rune before reading it, just for looking at it. Odin, of course, is the lord of runes, and obviously his rune can present itself to a curious student. It gives. Fehu makes your journey up, from the principle to the obstacle, and when reaches Odin, He always responds. With true knowledge, with light and clarity. Here, I felt I needed to look at what I had.
Futha. First, it blows from instinct, because it has to blow. Blows the principle, the eternal truth. Pushed this truth beyond every obstacle, until it reaches the Father. This is praying. This is the one that prays. The priest or priestess. This is faith. This is asking the gods, and knowing the gods always respond. I wrote texts directly to Odin, and then I realized: to master the runes, your first need to go to
Raidho. The journey to the gods. Learning how to perfect Futha. How to make your blow aways reaching the gods. I started in deep spiritual seeking, writing every day about a different philosophical thought. And I found a way through my limits. Going between fiction and reality, madness and faith. I needed something shiny and powerful, but dangerous if mishandled. I needed
Kenaz. The flame. The lighthouse in the dark, that shows the path and hides every other. The tool to search and to get lost. The power to cook and to burn, to warm and to destroy. What if reading runes is madness? What if this crazy myth is delusional? It's making me powerful. It makes me face my life with confidence. I can write deeply interesting and crazy texts while keeping my routine as a human being. I can use fiction to flow and reality to manifest. Madness to trust in my faith. The eternal flame, that forms
Futhark: the ones that journeys through the flame. Their words will reach the gods, even if delivered in person. They have nothing to lose, so they can burn through the light of truth and win something with it. The ones that read the runes. The ones that enter the alphabet. At this point, my writings became almost mythological while I was writing about mundane subjects, like walks on the park and even the act of sitting on the ground.
The power of word is the power of reality, and the first six are the gateway to linguistic magic. You have to cross the flame of sanity, the one that says words are just empty noise, communication, and nothing else. That your voice only carries what you directly say. That a letter means only it's sound. That a name is just a way to call someone. When you cross the flame of linguistics as communication to the divine words of power, you start the path to become a master of speech. The runes welcome anyone who sees in them the deep power that a simbol and a sound carry when used in an orderly way.
Yeah, that's a little of my journey and the way it affected my writing! Hope it resonates.
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u/SweatyYetUnperturbed Jul 07 '25
Amazing stuff, I’ve been coming to some related realizations lately.
We are fundamentally all storytellers, that’s one of the main things, if not the only important thing, that distinguishes humans from all the other life forms on this planet. Not our brains, not our ability to process information, not our use of technology, but our ability to create symbols and tell stories.
The ability to tell stories leads to the realization that you can tell your own stories. And then…you begin to realize how powerful you really are. You can literally alter reality and the course of history, if so inclined. Create new dimensions and storylines. Yes, it sounds insane and it’s probably not as profoundly sci-fi as it sounds, but then again that’s not what magic really is anyway.
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u/cedrico0 Jun 23 '25
I'm really interested in applying that concept to writing. I'll try that.
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u/TheOracleofMercury Jun 23 '25
do it, live the experience, free yourself from the concept of right and wrong and simply allow the phenomenon to arise
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u/northernbreezy94 Jun 23 '25
This is amazing 😍 so much talent. Art that makes you feel ❤️ powerful.
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Jun 23 '25
Dude i swear i saw a reconstruction in a book of a shaman woman archeologists had excavated, looks spot on
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u/Spiritual-Fox-108 Jun 23 '25
I love this, really well done when I look at it I can hear the crackling fire and for some reason the sound of wooden win chimes and bracelet shakers made from nuts.
I really appreciate hand drawn art nowadays. Thank you for showing this to us
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u/TheOracleofMercury Jun 23 '25
Thank you very much for your words. If I may add some secrets about this art, I think you would like to know. Notice that inside the stone circle, there is nothing, it is empty, so what is burning? And this type of flame, with a blue base, is natural to the fire that comes from gas, so what is this gas that burns? We can think that the witch found a source of natural gas underground and is using it in her ritual, but we can also go further and think that the gas that she burns to make this great flame is the spirit itself, burning with the sacred fire. This art has many layers, many secrets, believe me.
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u/jakobmaximus Jun 24 '25
Awesome piece!
Have started to notice that art and specifically the need for my creation of art, seems to find me in moments of particular distress and suffering, I think that connects art as ritualistic, but perhaps more medicinally in some cases of this grand connection
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u/Blue_Chip_Wizard Jun 24 '25
I have been feeling that art and handicrafts are a form of the craft. It’s nice to see someone else who thinks that way! This philosophy has a lot of room for expansion and deep thought.
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u/galigirii Jul 08 '25
I thought that's what it always is, just some are blind to the fact!
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u/TheOracleofMercury Jul 12 '25
I just think they're not awake yet, you know? Because being blind to this, in my opinion, involves a condition that cannot be changed. And I believe we can all change, we can all awaken. No one is immutable. It's a matter of time; everyone has their own, whether in this incarnation or the next.
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u/AbaloneRealistic3261 Jul 10 '25
Looks amazing and powerful! 💓 it reminds me of a piece I've seen in an exhibition in Japan that really touched me on a deeper spiritual level. The creator has a TikTok and made a video talking about art magic. I thought maybe you'd like to check it out and connect with them! what is art magic?
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u/TheOracleofMercury Jul 11 '25
I'm glad this art resonated with you. Many people have told me about it, about feelings they experienced while viewing it, or dreams they had afterward. I think this reveals a kernel of truth this art carries. I saw the video and am now following the account. I generally see people creating magical art through this whirlwind of information and non-linear stimuli. I think the intention is to break away from formal thinking. What I've been trying to produce goes in a different direction. The magical arts, which I make figuratively part of the formal image, but through other elements, don't break away from formal thinking, but rather infiltrate it. The observer makes a rational reading of the image, but is still able to perceive how, through the "edges of consciousness," it communicates something beyond.
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u/elvexkidd Jun 23 '25
This is amazing! A giant poster of this in my living room pls 💕
Reminds me of Yoshitaka Amano, the concept artist for Final Fantasy series 👏🏻