I was minding my business
Lifting some lead off
The roof of the Holy Name church
It was worthwhile living a laughable life
To set my eyes on the blistering sight
Of a Vicar in a tutu
He's not strange
He just wants to live his life this way

A scanty bit of a thing
With a decorative ring
That wouldn't cover the head of a goose
As Rose collects the money in a canister
Who comes sliding down the bannister ?
The Vicar in a tutu
He's not strange
He just wants to live his life this way

The monkish monsignor
With a head full of plaster
Said : "My man, get your vile soul dry-cleaned"
As Rose counts the money in the canister
As natural as rain
He dances again
My God!
The Vicar in a tutu
Oh yeah
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Oh...
The Vicar in a tutu
Oh yeah
Oh...

The next day in the pulpit
With freedom and ease
Combatting ignorance, dust, and disease
As Rose counts the money in the canister
As natural as rain
He dances again and again and again

In the fabric of a tutu
Any man could get used to
And I am the living sign
And I'm a living sign
I am a living sign
I'm a living sign
I am a living sign
I'm a living sign
Sign
I am a living sign

Vicar in a tutu , a song by, The Smiths

What people refer to as occult now is the original religion, distorted for years by believers. The 'heathens' would not let go of their traditions and so they were incorporated into the new religion and modified, rebranded. The entrance to the temple faces the west so you have to turn your back on the sun. The gods of old become the saints of today. Pursuit of the metaphysical is a distraction from the goal of maintaining control and productivity because the Rational Mind can see the inconsistencies of religion, and so the Lulus are kept in their Reactive Mind by the threat of being punished for all their secret disobedience.

The fact of design need not imply a designer. That which is by design has a purpose, a goal. Pursuit of a goal requires awareness and feedback to refine the skillfulness of that pursuit. We are here to make choices. There is no God.

It seems illogical to say that there is a design but no designer. A design by definition is something that has been designed, and therefore requires a designer.

I do not accept any form of design as far as the universe, this world or the beings on it are concerned. It is all the result of random chance and of course there is no god, that is a man made concept suitable for the deluded!

Cult: a system of religious veneration and devotion directed toward a particular figure or object.
Occult: supernatural, mystical, or magical beliefs, practices, or phenomena.
Religion: the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God or gods.

I still say they are all related to the same type of delusion.

I quite agree, but religion, as such, is a harmless activity for those involved. Indeed, many religions raise money for the poor and needy in society, or for cancer research, so although the belief itself is a delusion, some of their activities are of benefit for the needy.

A cult on the other hand is devotion towards a leader, and quite often those sucked into the cult are unable to just change their minds and leave of their own free will. At least a member of a religion can (genereally) change their mind and worship in another church. Christians convert to Islam and vice versa, with little problem (in most cases). If you're in a cult there is no way you can just say, "This isn't for me, so I think I'll go back" (to wherever you were before you joined).

Then arguably by definition, that is very similar to an 'oath'
Certain people have to make certain oaths
And there is a penalty for breaking them
So perhaps to some degree that's it in a nutshell
The occult requires an oath, which amongst other things, requires you to say nothing unless it's to somebody else from your coven, handshake gang , cult
But most big religious leaders have surely taken this oath too
So in that respect, the 2 things are no different
It's all very 'Orweillian' '1984' 'hand in glove' .... To me at least

But hey, that sounds paranoid, strangely that's what they say about people that hear voices

It really all is very double Jedi / reverse phantasma isn't it

No wonder I prefer animals to humans

Let ya in on a secret...
Humans ARE animals.


I agree (on the surface).

However, there are religions you can't leave without penalty and there may be cults you can leave without penalty.

Therer are many religions that are harmful to others (kill the infidels, kill the heathens, burn the witch).
There are some cults that are beneficial to others (foundations, charity drives, scholarships).
In the states, there are motorcycle gangs that do charity drives for the less fortunate (just one example).

Most religions are devotion towards a leader, that leader is usually some supernatural being with powers beyond reality. Cult leaders are often people that convince others they are in contact with some force or being with powers beyond reality. Religious leaders will convince people they have a special connection with that supernatural being as well.

For the most part (there are exceptions) all three; cult, occult and religion are the same thing.
The only exceptions are the cults that are not connected to supernatural, mystical, or magical beliefs, practices, or phenomena. These cults are often refered to as foundations, gangs or assemblies (devotion directed toward a particular figure or object or ideal).

At least, that's how I see it.

Good job R2, my nickname is bdbdbdbd. Ok it like why would one want to use these ideas. I could trance for answers but was guided to just live hopefully and make each connection good. Like a spider creating a web. It's all about you. Inside and what you create with those you connect with.

Tweaky

Things become a cult when the people following them become fanatics. Nazis were a political party before they became fanatical about it. The same goes for the Progressive leftists and other political activists nowadays. You have fanatical Muslims murdering people along with other religious groups who have fanatics doing the same. Most all terrorist that are in a group today fall under occult.

There's lots of people trying to label others to cancel them. The media pushes fear and hate mongering. With the internet there's people who trash the language. So of cause it's a mess.

A fan, or fanatic, sometimes also termed aficionado or supporter, is a person who is enthusiastically devoted to something or somebody.
Fanaticism is a favorable choice.
Being a choice, your devotion can change.
There are usually no repercussions from a change in fandom.

Changes in cult devotion, occult devotion and religious devotion usually result in repercussions. While they often start out as fanatic, enthusiastic devotion has a controlling affect which twists it from being 'choice' into an 'obligation' or a 'command'.

The word Occult simply means "hidden". It is not synonymous with evil or odd. The word "religion" comes from the word "religo" which means to bind together (as in congregation). The reason occult is hidden is that it was persecuted by the RCC in the 15th century. It remains to this day a pseudoscience.

The occult and religion are out of step and are opposite ends of the spectrum. So to ask whether anything such as Wicca, Satanism, Astrology, Tarot can be a religion is missing the point. The main differences is that religion is always based on a set of beliefs. Everything else is a way at looking at the world and trying to make sense of things in it. Occult cannot have beliefs because nothing was written down and different people believe different things about it. They believe these things because of what they claim it DOES for them in their life.

All religions are a stupid answer to a stupid question

It sills sounds remarkably like religion to me
How do you know, nothing was written down about it
I'm unsure, if that is rrue
Beliefs, and a way of looking at the world and trying to make sense of it... Sounds remarkably similar
And because it's written down, people can't have different beliefs about it... Clearly your new here
And religion has nothing hidden you say??!!
Do occultists never congregate?
If not, how would you know?
Mmmmkay