Atheist Occultism

There is an obvious contradiction in being both an Atheist and an Occultist. How can I believe and practice Magick and Religious rituals if I do not believe in the powers that I am acting as if I am controlling? What gives me the right to disrespect these practices and traditions? Simple, it’s fun and I do not worry about gods or demons smiting me.

That is of course the short version. There’s a longer version of course. There are two main ideas that keep me practicing. The main idea is concepts like Habit Triggers and Manifestation.

How does this work?

For years I have believed there is a psychological kick that powers spells and rituals because of how they are presented. In Chaos Magick it is often stated that your spells should only manifest things that are reasonably within your normal powers to manifest. You cannot use magick to cast a fireball or to even win you the lottery. No you have to already be working towards or about to work towards whatever goal you intend to complete before starting the spell.
    For instance, my first ritual was to manifest a job at a really cool library. I wrote my intentions and burned them at my altar. This was something I had already worked hard on a resume and had gone through several rounds of interviews before I cast a spell. Now, what happened materially that I as an Atheist would be attracted to doing this more often? Well, it calmed my nerves. It was just some psychological release that made me acknowledge that everything was out of my hands and not to worry about it any more. That is how I imagine it is felt by the average believing practitioner too!
    Only recently has that phenomenon been secularized for me in that James Clear effectively described this feeling in “Atomic Habits”. He recognized the psychological benefits of manifesting citing studies where people were told to say out loud what habit they wanted to maintain and recorded the success rates of those test subjects. Turns out, saying out loud you want to exercise everyday increases the chances that you actually will. Similarly, Clear’s method works for study habits and job trainings. Things that will slowly, habitually, increase your employability and make your goals easier to obtain. Materially, I see no difference in this study’s methods and what I did (except mine looked way cooler).

I also use magick rituals as a habit trigger to stay focused on certain tasks. Again, something I’ve done for years without being able to explain it well, but in “Atomic Habits” James clear talks about habit stacking. The idea is to get into the habit of doing something easy and then immediately working on something more intensive. So the example he gives in the book is putting on gym clothes. You put on gym clothes every day to then get you motivated to actually go to the gym.
    In my case it’s burning candles and incense. When Jay and I need to work, I burn a red candle with Vanilla incense. When we’re having a date night in I burn a pink candle and a rose incense. Relaxation time is when we burn just a yankee candle or an incense we’ve never tried. The incense is to create a mental stimulation that works a bit faster than a visual one (and it masks the neighbor’s weed smells which helps a ton!) and the candle acts as a timer. The chakra candles I buy are rather thin, imagine a glorified birthday candle, so they only burn for an hour to an hour and a half. Which is a great amount of time to focus on writing or coding without having a hard stop. Jay prefers alarms so they don’t have to watch a clock, I prefer candles because I don’t have to watch a clock and if it runs out and I’m still working, I won’t try to stop.

How do I get into Magick rituals as an Atheist?

Super easy here, if you see a ritual or a rite or a spell being done and you like the aesthetic, just do that.

I do not fear any god or demon as I don’t believe in them. So if I “dabble in things I don’t understand” it doesn’t matter as none of this is real. I’ll admit the power of manipulating my own psyche to do things I already wanted to do more consistently does feel like magic. I’m sure it’s some neuroscience/psychology thing I don’t know about because that’s not really my focus, and I haven’t felt compelled to explain it beyond that as I don’t really like researching why god/magick/demons don’t exist (Thats honestly just a belief question which I don’t have to answer).
    I have personally done Goetia, Chaos Magick, European Alchemy, and recreated things Oberron Zell- Ravenloft has talked about (honestly, no idea what Oberron’s base system is. Wikipedia says it’s his own “Church of All Worlds”). I try to avoid “appropriating” from certain marginalized cultures just because it makes me feel gross. Like I’ve done smudging, but it feels gross to do a native American ritual. My rule of thumb is if you can find the supplies in a Wal-Mart or a local new age store, feel free to do whatever.
    The important thing to remember when you start practicing magick and witchcraft as an atheist is to not pretend you’re an authority. I don’t want any bad blood with the occult crowd, not because I think they can do anything with magick (I don’t), but because they’re generally really cool and welcoming people. I have never felt uncomfortable in a coven or a Neo Pagan temple. I have never been harassed by witches for not following their religious code. I want to be an ally with a real occultist believer because they deserve my respect and communal protection.