We welcome today’s contribution from Sef Salem, an occultist and sorcerer based in the South West of England, and a member and friend to several magical orders. He is Co-Founder of the ritual group Societas Astris and Director of The Visible College, a not-for-profit organisation hosting events in the UK. You can learn more about the events he facilitates at thelemic-symposium.co.uk and occult-conference.co.uk.
What are we to do when the signal of occult and pagan discourse is lost in the noise of the digital age? With the rise of echo chambers, outrage-manufacturing polemicists, and bad-faith actors pushing messages of division and discord, I suggest we consider the value of in-person connection to maintain our community bonds in a trying time.
This year marks the 40th Anniversary of The International Thelemic Symposium, a UK event running since 1986 in Oxford, and it stands as a testament to the power of in-person events to bring people together from varied and frequently combative strands of occultism and paganism.
For those not familiar with Thelema, it is a philosophy and/or religion developed by Aleister Crowley after his received text Liber AL vel Legis, or The Book of the Law (1904). At its core, it is a system grounded in the individual finding and pursuing their Will, which could be described as a way-of-going in accordance with the universe. Utopian and non-discriminatory, the text includes such verses as “Every man and every woman is a star”, “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law” and “Love is the law, love under will.”
Crowley expanded upon the text in commentary and supplementary works, and then wove it and other received texts into the occult orders he managed such as Ordo Templi Orientis (OTO) and the A∴A∴ Following Crowley’s death, Thelema had many claimant groups and off-shoots, influencing traditions including Wicca, English Qabalah, and the Illuminates of Thanateros (IOT), and to this day there are many different factions seeking to promote their perspective on the works of Crowley and those who followed him within the current.
That is why on 11th October 1986 something miraculous happened: all of these groups were invited to a one hundred and eleventh birthday party for Crowley (born 12th October 1875) in Oxford to celebrate not just the similarities but also the differences of those who practiced, studied, or were interested in Thelema. Hosted by the Oxford Golden Dawn Occult Society and spearheaded by Mogg Morgan, author and owner of Mandrake of Oxford Publishing, the event brought a huge number of Thelemites together, and in that space and the events that followed, an admixture of now-famous occultists met and spoke and made friends across sectarian boundaries. Jake Stratton-Kent, David Rankine, Genesis P-Orridge, Julian Vayne, Lionel Snell, Mike Magee, Ray Sherwin, Frater UD, Michael Staley and many more were participants in the early years, when attendees swapped phone numbers and addresses in the pre-internet age.
Aleister Crowley. Image publicity material for The Rites of Eleusis in 1910. Public Domain
I myself had my start at conference events in the UK, first meet-ups and moots for WiccaUK, the Awakening Conference in Manchester in 2005, and then going to events such as the Grimoire Gathering in Clun, the Pleasuredome in Brighton, and the Glastonbury Occult Conference from 2011. The accessibility of learning and meeting authors and speakers both within and without formal orders amazed me, and in 2013 I took on the Glastonbury event, running it from 2014-18, then stepping back in to help the committee from 2023 alongside my work to facilitate a reimagined Thelemic Symposium for 2024 alongside Mogg Morgan. I’ve been lucky enough to speak at Pagan Federation events, PanDaemonium, and even the Occulture retreat – all through connections I have made in person by attending, participating, and engaging with others.
I feel incredibly privileged to have grown up and come of age in the pagan and occult scene in Manchester, because it had a huge variety of practitioners from all paths and traditions. You could walk into a moot and meet members of OTO, IOT, the Order of Bards, Ovates, and Druids, practitioners of Santeria or Traditional Witchcraft, and a panoply of eclectic witches and magicians who had their own relationships with spirits and deities too numerous to attempt to describe. If you had a question, it could be answered; and if you wanted an argument, it was always available! However, you would have to argue with respect and justify your position, because that’s how face-to-face discourse works.
In the 25 years since, I’m sure many of us will have seen the disintegration of that polite discourse through the medium of the internet and social media. Everything is outrage, everything is bait, nearly everything is AI-generated. Even when you find a good Facebook group or sub-Reddit, there are bots and brigading and those with the loudest voices shouting down calm, respectful opinions. There is too much noise for the signal to break through, and while I am an advocate of technology in general, social media is no longer doing more good than harm.
From that first event in 2005, I could see the importance of being able to meet individuals from all paths and share practice and challenge worldviews, mine included, and I have learned and developed astronomically through this simple human-to-human connection. We are not built to live in tiny boxes staring at glass screens and buying into the disgust and outrage of others. We are built to connect with people, understand each other, and find common ground. This is why I have spent over a decade organising, facilitating, and hosting in-person events, supporting others with lectures, workshops, and rituals, and trying to attend as many as possible.
Thelema Symbol – Unicursal Hexagram
I believe in “finding the others”; I believe in the wonder of people, and the magick inherent in every human being, and the opportunity to become something miraculous. It’s only possible to see that, to connect to that, and to lift each other up when we organise ourselves into networks, and that is becoming almost impossible online. There is fantastic work being undertaken to make in-person events accessible online, and the technology that allows wholly online conferences to take place is a boon for those who are unable to attend, but we still need to meet others on an interpersonal level on the physical plane.
The Thelemic community is not the only path in occulture and paganism which could benefit from some ecumenical interaction, I’m sure, but seeing those from all the different strands of my tradition come together, meet each other, and realise that we have so much to share with each other, is pure magick. A true and honest experience of meeting those across the spectrum of practice and teachings who might have come from differing places or views, but all end up together and share in an event to learn, to speak, to participate, and to celebrate.
The noise melts away, and the signal is revealed. We find ourselves without the bluster and bravado of internet anonymity and truly connect with those also seeking a spiritual path. It is enlightening, it is electrifying, and it is sorely needed in the digital age. In the years to come, it may be more important than ever to exchange addresses and know where to find each other, so I hope to see you at an event one day where we can co-create and collaboratively move occulture forward. Together.
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