How important is secrecy in witchcraft?

Yeah, lots of the 'look at me and how dark I am aesthetic' in our culture. Just a mirror of social media culture as a whole really. Personally when I see the altar porn, I see someone screaming for validation. I'm not impressed, but who am I right? lol

There were/are reasons for secrecy, most if it was a historical survival thing more than anything else. That's not to say there aren't still valid reasons for not running off at the mouth. Today, you aren't under threat of losing your property, being jailed, killed, or run out of town for being an occultist.

Worst case, your next door neighbor side eyes you. Whoopie do, fuck them. Of course, there are one off stories where people face real deal shit because of the occult, sad story, but those few exceptions don't change the rule. That rule? It isn't a big deal anymore. There aren't the same reasons for the occulting of knowledge. Fuck, you cold give everyone the secrets and they still wouldn't see it, so there is that lol.

Magickally though, Its best to keep yourself divorced of outcome until afterwards. Also, your energy should be spent on the ritual/rite or spell, not worrying about what other people think. Also, unless you can reproduce the outcome of a spell consistently, do you truly have that power? Progress and growth, not arrival.

YMMV on that, mine fucking does.

And hell yeah talk about your shit. Sharing your experiences prompts others to share theirs. You just might find a few who you resonate with and can learn to avoid their past mistakes, widen your lens, learn cool new shit. Use this forum to your advantage. The greats of the occult past never had something this awesome.

Secrecy isn’t that important. Historically it mattered because people would be prosecuted for being a witch. These days, a lot of the photos and videos are for show than necessity. And talking about your work isn’t going to make a spell ineffective. If your spells are impotent, they will be regarding you talking or not talking about it.

I share some of my experiences, but not out of fear that discussing them will hinder my path. It’s mainly because most people would find them unbelievable. So I usually only share with people on similar paths, since they have the lived experience to understand.

Secrecy isn't a requirement for spiritual development at all. BUT... secrecy helps prevent psychic bleed or unnecessary negativity. Staying silent about your workings also helps stop the ego from becoming too dominant. A big question is why are you sharing your work? Is it for egoic reasons? Are you seeking unnecessary positive vibes and feedback, or are you strengthening your magic by connecting with a community?

Many of the 'rules' of the occult are situational gray areas. If you are connected to a community, if you draw strength from friends and family, or if you have a need to be connected with others - and your tribe accepts the practice - your magic will likely be enhanced through those bonds.

If you will be ostracized for your practices, then you must decide the purpose of sharing and weigh the potential consequences. But there definitely isn’t a strict rule about secrecy that matters.

𝕳𝖊𝖑𝖑𝖋𝖎𝖗𝖊 said:

I was told early in my spiritual development that secrecy is extremely important. I'm in some Facebook groups where people show pictures of their spells. I've seen a lot of that on reddit. There are many videos on YouTube of people performing rituals. Why are these people showing all of this stuff when I was told that talking about your spells will make them impotent? Can I talk about my spirtual experiences in this forum without impeding my spirtual development?

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By keeping your workings mostly private, unless to ask questions and stuff to very specific people, you save yourself the ego trip of posting a vid and going "Im so magickal guys." "Look at how spiritual i am". Which is the opposite of being spiritual.

The practical reason for silence (apart from as people say above, avoiding the "ooh look at me") is that until a magical act is complete, it can be interfered with by anyone who interacts with it. You are signal, they are noise.

It's the same with anything you're posted on social media – it will be subjected to public opinion, discussions and criticism. If your self-confidence can deal with the unwanted interference, fine. However, if you're starting to doubt your efforts as a consequence, you might just as well pack it in. It's nobody's business what you do in your private life, and when some people like to bloat their self-importance by posting kitschy altar pics or Goetia sigil tattoos, you're under no obligation to join in.

𝕳𝖊𝖑𝖑𝖋𝖎𝖗𝖊 said:

I was told early in my spiritual development that secrecy is extremely important. I'm in some Facebook groups where people show pictures of their spells. I've seen a lot of that on reddit. There are many videos on YouTube of people performing rituals. Why are these people showing all of this stuff when I was told that talking about your spells will make them impotent? Can I talk about my spirtual experiences in this forum without impeding my spirtual development?

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Hehehe, the videos on YT are not real spells, they are Altar porn as @FireBorn rightly says. They are a theater for you to see. There is good value to them as it will convince your unconscious mind that this is normal and works, which can definitely help your practice, but only to certain extend.

On my YT channel I usually give theory and some meditation videos for listening and focus. Didn't film any ritual yet and I would not film a real ritual anyway, unless I would have intention that would include YT and people watching it. Probably in style of convincing them to Like and Subscribe, lol! Maybe that is what some of those people filming rituals do, making their intent to get more subies, so they can get more money.

You can talk about your spells, theory is not a problem. with practice it would probably be good if you speak about spells that are no longer active and already brought results. And yes, talking about your spiritual experiences is actually helpful for your development, offering you more opinions on the matter, which can be very helpful. I definitely find it useful to share some of my own experiences, when I desire more perspectives on the matter. But share only things that you do not mind being criticized, as that is always a possibility. Be a wise guardian of your own life and secrets. No need to share everything, especially that what you hold dear and do not want to be mocked by any chance.

My brain knows its not as a big deal as it was long ago but it still tends to stay in that secretive mindset for some reason. I know some things I should keep to myself about it. But for some my brain fears practicing it. Maybe I had something happen in a past life or something because the fear of being seen even near this I still feel fear towards.

People are right I think secrecy was just because of how targeted people practicing this was. But necessity is the mother of invention and people came up with interesting ways to avoid getting detected. Still glad its more tolerated nowadays atleast where I'm at.

Some places might still not be tolerant but who knows. The fear still runs within me though for some reason. Its hard to break out of.

Morell said:

Hehehe, the videos on YT are not real spells, they are Altar porn as @FireBorn rightly says. They are a theater for you to see. There is good value to them as it will convince your unconscious mind that this is normal and works, which can definitely help your practice, but only to certain extend.

On my YT channel I usually give theory and some meditation videos for listening and focus. Didn't film any ritual yet and I would not film a real ritual anyway, unless I would have intention that would include YT and people watching it. Probably in style of convincing them to Like and Subscribe, lol! Maybe that is what some of those people filming rituals do, making their intent to get more subies, so they can get more money.

You can talk about your spells, theory is not a problem. with practice it would probably be good if you speak about spells that are no longer active and already brought results. And yes, talking about your spiritual experiences is actually helpful for your development, offering you more opinions on the matter, which can be very helpful. I definitely find it useful to share some of my own experiences, when I desire more perspectives on the matter. But share only things that you do not mind being criticized, as that is always a possibility. Be a wise guardian of your own life and secrets. No need to share everything, especially that what you hold dear and do not want to be mocked by any chance.

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Can you DM me your channel? I would be very intrigued to take a gander. I already look out for your posts on this sight because i value your insightful postings.

HoldAll said:

Goetia sigil tattoos,

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To clarify, of course everybody's free to have any symbol tattooed on their body but I think their excessively frequent display cheapens them and reduces their effectiveness. Look at countries where crucifixes are ubiquitous - people become so jaded that they hardly notice anymore that here's a man who's been cruelly tortured and put to a horribe death; it's just a half-naked guy hanging from the cross-beam of a cross, it's nothing special, where by rights everybody should be deeply shocked. Personal symbols should be precious, not exhibits.

Secrecy is a trope in occult literature. To be silent is one of four angles of hermetic pyramid. True rosicrucian will never say anout his belonging to that order etc. But it is usually connected to opus magnum. So it is rather about not talki g about your own True Will or end-goal of your spiritual path. When other people start commenting it you can go into doubts and that will distract you from your work.

Also as said above, secrecy can be interpet as to be discreet, not to talk about people involved, material that was given you as closes or inner court practice, the best way to keep that secret is not to mention them at all, so no one will be pushing younto spill the tea.

But some things are public or cannbe described and shared with other in other words, or as parable etc. This is why occult is occult at all. It is not because mysteries are so much guarder but because they are hidden in plain sight under mundane things.

Keeping silence shouldn't stop you from talking at all about your experiences (that would be magnificent soil for predators and toxic teachers). It can be good excersise that help you notice what do you want to say, how you wanna say it, to who and for what reason? If you talk a lot about your experiences it may lead you to enjoy more attention you got than work you do. Or it could put you in some external danger or lead to misunderstanding. But as long as did not vowed for staying silent, you can share from time to time with good folks. Sometimes it is must have to channel, digest and embody an expierience.

Just be mindful.

For keeping spoilers from natural realization to prescribed contemplation is a fair reason for intentional secrecy related to spiritual development. Mental exercise that could apply to witchcraft.
Proprietary.
And related to that arr natural realizations from thinking about spiritual models that show knowing of unsaid elements kept secret in volumes as a way to identify flow of thinking and dismiss non sequiturs from a grand scheme.

There are some people you don't ever discuss magick with because their beliefs, their positions, or their professions clash with what you are doing (mainstream religionists and psychiatrists, etc). There are those you never discuss religion or magickal workings with - ever! You already know who some of them are. You have to decide that whether someone has a need to know and whether they'll stay silent or tell potentially hostile people all about it. Sometimes there would be blow-back from friends or colleagues who turned out not to be so friendly at all. Your ego wants to brag to others about your success in doing something or what you know, especially if you're low on the totem of "power". Sometimes a ritual secret that leaks out before its maturity can utterly ruin and spoil what you're doing in the long run because you just had to open your F'n big mouth to the wrong person at the wrong time. Let's say you decided to talk with an elder about making some major changes in his organization, but you know there are influential people who would shoot down what you proposed - like a new "ministry" program or opening a similar group in a foreign country. So, you keep your mouth shut, and when you're doing a newsletter for the group and adverse things happen to you it's hard to have to shut up so you don't get burned further! Perfect love and Perfect Trust are simply naivety in action. One simple working had to be buried in obscurity for 20 years. Trust is earned, not given out to anyone!

Fourth Rule of the Sphinx is Silence. Keep silent, that's all you have to do. It's so easy to want to talk about all your work, but it is really important to keep your mouth shut about it. A friend of mine, before he died as a result of over-ambitious magickal working, reported that once he stopped talking about his magickal work, the results increased exponentially. I believe this personally because I've seen the same thing. It's best to just avoid discussing it with other people, except with other initiates and even then, it's better to say less than more.