Modern Occultist News

  ON THIS DAY IN OCCULT HISTORY January 10 "The Death of Vlad the Impaler" (Affiliate disclosure: Some links on this blog may earn us a small commission at no cost to you. Every bit helps keep the lantern lit.)   Few historical lives have so completely transmuted into myth as   Vlad the Impaler , also known as Vlad III of Wallachia—one of the most infamous and symbolically potent figures in all of occult history Vlad’s death, commemorated on January 10th, did not end his story. It began a far stranger afterlife—one that fused history, terror, folklore, and ultimately, modern occult imagination. A Prince's Ritual of Fear Vlad III ruled Wallachia in an era defined by existential threat. Caught between the expanding Ottoman Empire and the ambitions of Christian Europe, Wallachia survived not by diplomacy, but by dread. Vlad’s preferred method of punishment—impalement—was not random cruelty. It was psychological warfare, staged with deliberate theatricality. Fores...

ON THIS DAY IN OCCULT HISTORY January 9 "The Trial of Joan of Arc"   (Affiliate disclosure: Some links on this blog may earn us a small commission at no cost to you. Every bit helps keep the lantern lit.) Heresy and the Fear of the Sacred Today marks one of the most chilling and symbolically charged moments in occult and mystical history: the trial of Joan of Arc, a young visionary whose spiritual experiences shook both church and crown. In January of 1431, in the city of Rouen, Joan—barely nineteen years old—was brought before an ecclesiastical court determined not to understand her visions, but to extinguish them. What followed was not merely a legal proceeding. It was a ritualized confrontation between institutional authority and unmediated spiritual experience. Unlicensed Mysticism Joan’s crime was not military rebellion alone. It was mystical autonomy. From her early teens, Joan reported hearing voices—those of St. Michael, St. Catherine, and St. Margaret...

  ON THIS DAY IN OCCULT HISTORY January 8: The Birth of S. L. MacGregor Mathers (Affiliate disclosure: Some links on this blog may earn us a small commission at no cost to you. Every bit helps keep the lantern lit.)  On January 8, 1854, Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers was born in Hackney, London—a figure whose influence would quietly, and then explosively, shape the course of Western esotericism. Few individuals did more to organize, synthesize, and transmit occult knowledge into a coherent initiatory system that still echoes through modern magical practice. To understand the revival of ritual magic in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries is, in many ways, to reckon with Mathers. Mathers lived at a moment when the ancient and the modern collided. The Victorian era was marked by rapid scientific advancement, imperial expansion, and a deep anxiety about meaning in a world that seemed to be shedding its metaphysical skin. Into this tension stepped Mathers, offer...

ON THIS DAY IN OCCULT HISTORY January 7: "Old Christmas" or the Death of Magic? (Affiliate disclosure: Some links on this blog may earn us a small commission at no cost to you. Every bit helps keep the lantern lit.) On this day, January 7th—historically called “Old Christmas” and more widely known as the Feast of the Epiphany or Three Kings’ Day —Christians around the world celebrate the moment when the infant Jesus was manifested to the nations in the person of the Magi: the three wise kings who followed a star across the world in welcoming a new king. But was this also the death of high magic's mainstream influence? The Jouney of the Wise Men — A Universal Allegory The Gospel of Matthew  claims that only that “Magi from the East” arrived in Jerusalem, following a mysterious star to find a newborn king, bringing gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh . These Magi are not described as " kings" in scripture, nor is their number fixed at three—the number we...

  (Affiliate disclosure: Some links on this blog may earn us a small commission at no cost to you. Every bit helps keep the lantern lit.) The  Modern Occultist   Interview  #1       Professional  séance medium, Marc Wilke .   As part of our inaugural issue, MODERN OCCULTIST  is honored to welcome three guest contributors into our Circle. Over next few weeks, readers will find exclusive and unexpurgated editions of our candid and illuminating interviews with these esteemed figures. First in our unedited interview series is guest contributor Marc Wilke— E urope’s youngest professional séance medium —a trusted friend and renowned mystic, whose brilliant essay, “Behind the Veil” can be found in our special Techgnosis issue , and whose own website is a rich wealth of spiritual and esoteric services . We sat with Marc to discuss his own spiritual practices and philosophies, as well as crucial advice for those aspiring mystics and ac...