# I'm going to undertake a six-month occult ritual - ask me anything **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 1, 2025, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-going-to-undertake-a-six-month-occult-ritual-ask-me-anything/1016475 "2025-04-01T22:10:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 9
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2025, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-going-to-undertake-a-six-month-occult-ritual-ask-me-anything/1016475/9 "2025-04-01T23:22:17Z")
> [@SuntanLotion](#): > > So you are an atheist but you believe in spirits? I don’t necessarily consider myself an atheist these days. More of a pantheist along the lines of Meher Baba’s cosmology, but I don’t adhere to any specific religion. > [@DocCathode](#): > > First, why would a ritual based in Kabbalah have a start date based on Easter? It says Easter in one of the English translations and Passover in the other. This year, Easter and the last day of Passover fall on the same day. > [@DocCathode](#): > > AIUI the whole point of Kabbalah is true knowledge and experience of the mind of G-d. Why use an “interlocutor”? The Holy Guardian Angel, as I understand it, is basically the same sort of tutelary deity as the daimon in late Greek myth. According to Dr. Justin Sledge, a Youtuber who covers the esoteric, the Abramelin likely originated from a ritual meant to contact an angel called the Sar Torah for the purpose of acquiring eidetic Torah knowledge. > [@DocCathode](#): > > Why not do any of the vast number of secular methods? Something about this way of doing it spoke to me when I learned about it. I can’t quite explain, but the accounts I’ve read from people who have undertaken it say that it’s had a positive effect on their lives. > [@DocCathode](#): > > The qualifications to practice Kabbalah are debatable. But -must be an adult Jew, fluent in Hebrew and learned in the Talmud, must already have personal and moral fortitude. As the author puts it in the text, he taught the pure Kabbalah to his oldest son and this method to his second, since he could only pass the former on to one child a la Isaac giving his blessing to Jacob rather than Esau. As with most writings of this nature there were probably emendations made by a Christian at some point to make it more accessible to a wider audience. > [@DocCathode](#): > > So you’re undertaking a ritual that requires cutting yourself off from the world, but you’ll still be surfing the web? Only for purposes direcrly related to the ritual. The rest of my free time will be spent engaged in my devotions, in studying the Old Testament and other religious texts (I have Jewish Literacy by Telushkin, The Religions of Man by Huston Smith, and God Speaks by Meher Baba to start with, and I intend on reading the entire Bible front to back at least once, which I’ve never done before), and writing about my experience. > [@Alessan](#): > > So you’re going on a spiritual retreat, except you’re doing it at home? Like an ascetic staycation Basically, yes. I see this as a kind of self-guided therapy. --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-going-to-undertake-a-six-month-occult-ritual-ask-me-anything/1016475)._