You are in an old stone building. The gloom of the high ceilings and gothic archways broken only by the weak glow of small candles while the sweet smelling smoke of incense drifts past your face. You stay silent in your position near the back of the building, as you have heard many times before that the mysteries of this cult are not to be profaned by the uninitiated. As robed figures move purposefully around an altar decorated with ancient symbols, the murmur of words and chants in some unknown and long-forgotten language reach you. Although you are not a believer, you are awed in spite of yourself. The incense, the flickering candle-light, the images of torture and violent death which adorn the walls: All work upon your subconcious mind and imagination in a way you never thought possible. Suddenly, the faithful stand and approach the altar. To your indescribable horror, you realise you are witnessing scenes of ritual cannibalism.....
What was your reaction to the images hinted at above? Were you on the set of some movie? Present at some Satanic ritual?... In actual fact, that was a description of a traditional Roman Catholic Mass. It was meant to illustrate how easily just phrasing something in a different way can change the entire character of what was described. It also showed that, underneath our social conditioning, recognised or orthodox religion is merely just another esoteric or occult group, using ritual and imagery to invoke an alteration of consciousness, in the hope of achieving understanding of the hidden meaning of the words they have studied.
Occult merely means "hidden" and has nothing to do with the negative connotations our society has burdened it with. Is the above illustration so different from the seeker of knowledge alone in his room chanting ancient prayers to some forgotten God? To the South Pacific Islanders who worship at the wicker effigies of modern planes? To the modern astrologer using computer programs to follow the course of stellar constellations across the years?
The only real difference between the christian faithful, and some of the other seekers is that the christian ultimately believes that after a life of being self-serving and materialistic, in other words... human, providing he has been seen to partake in the rituals on regular basis, some mythological figure will put its hand on his head at the end, forgive him, and give him a pleasant eternity in the company of other poor misunderstood souls.
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