This is just a suggestion of self-advancement newcomers can undergo so they can set themselves a goal. When you don't have a specific path it tends to get odd and very messy so this shall act as a beginner's guide to the occult called "The Sevenfold Path of /fringe/".
I - Neophyte/Aspiring WizardAs a neophyte you need to understand what magic is and how it works. You need to study and do some simple practices before seriously going into the occult. I want you to understand what you're taking up, to make sure you really want to dedicate yourself to our works, and so on. We're not pushing any beliefs on you, you can be whatever you want. /fringe/ is a place where even Satanists and Christians get along and have the same goal of /fringe/ (mentioned later). Suggested reading: Everything in the sticky (>>2), The Kybalion[1], Liber Null & Psychonaut[2], Advanced Magick for Beginners[3], Visual Magick by Jan Fries[4], Introduction to Sorcery[5], Pocket Guide to Chaos Magick[6], and anything you're interested in learning. We here at /fringe/ study and practice Chaos Magick, which is the paradigm of paradigms. We switch beliefs for the benefit of us all, practice those beliefs, shared what worked, and profit. If you don't like reading, well, you aren't worthy of the occult because that's a big part of it. Cast a sigil for reading as your first test :^)
Goals of a neophyte:-Read everything we suggest for you
-Don't be afraid to
>>>/ask/ Smiley a question or drop one off in the question thread (there are no stupid questions!)
-Practice meditation and other occult practices you think you're capable of
-Practice the Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram[7] and make your own banishing ritual
-Participate in things you can. If you don't know, don't bother. If someone asks you something you don't know, simply say "I haven't a fucking clue." because you'll gain more respect that way instead of acting like you know something
-cleanse and activate your chakras
II - Initiate/NoviceAt this stage you should be putting a lot into practice. Doing rituals, practicing visualization, getting started to AP, doing lots of beginner sorcery, and writing essays on your findings. Don't worry if you're not good at this stage, practice makes perfect. Be sure to participate in experiments and be a part of the community, everyone should be apart of the community. Be sure to have a notepad or something and write notes, and copy/paste the important threads into an archive, you never know when we might get shut down. You shouldn't find a sturdy path (like a practice or religion) as of now, just keep studying, practicing, and sharing your findings. Please don't repeat threads.
Goals of the Novice-practice anything you'd like
-do sorcery often
-learn something new that takes a while, such as a form of divination
-post your results
-KEEP ASKING QUESTIONS
-begin with AP, don't worry if you don't get it for a while it takes practice
-start things such as visualization, and other important techniques
III - Adept (First Degree)At this point you should have a steady paradigm, but be sure to remember to switch paradigms often when you feel like it. This could be a full blown religion or something like yoga. Whatever it is, stick to it, trust me on this one. It gets crazy without one and you get less motivated. Now study each paradigm, share your results. You should be able to undergo various practices such as, but not limited to, astral projection, invocation of a deity, gnosis, several sorcery techniques (it doesn't matter whether you fail or succeed, as long as you understand and can do it), self hypnosis (or trance), and other things. You should be a steady poster on /fringe/ and have a lot of threads here. Adepts should also give advice and help Neophytes and Initiates in any way possible.
Goals of the Adept, First Degree-have a steady paradigm, study and practice it, post your results
-keep doing what you've been doing, which is meditation, studying everything, AP, etc
IV - Adept (Second Degree)Once you reach Adept Second Degree you should be able to do a lot of things. Plain and simple. Keep doing our goal.
V - WizardWhile we are all wizards, Neophyte and Adept alike, this rank is when you understand a lot of things. You are able to visualize fine, AP, pyrokinesis/telekinesis or anything you've picked up, gnosis, you should've done a lot of rituals and experienced a lot, posted many threads here, so on. This could take a long time to get to this stage. Don't worry, Neophytes could be better at something than Wizards most of the time. A Wizard should have perfect understanding of many spiritual things, he's seen some shit. This could also be called the Buddha stage or Enlightened Wizard or something, but Wizard is more simple and cool. At this stage you know a LOT, and teach/preach others the way of the occult.
Citations and other shit[1] -
http://www.hermetics.org/pdf/kybalion.pdf[2] -
http://zalbarath666.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/peter-j-carroll-liber-null-psychonaut.pdf[3] -
http://www.krizma-ebooks.com/books/Advanced%20Magick%20for%20Beginners.pdf[4] -
http://lukriss.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/jan-fries-visual-magick.pdf[5] -
http://www.philhine.org.uk/writings/rit_sorceryintro.html[6] -
http://cdn.preterhuman.net/texts/religion.occult.new_age/occult_library/Pocket_Guide_to_Chaos_Magick.pdf[7] -
http://www.wikihow.com/Perform-the-Lesser-Banishing-Ritual-of-the-Pentagram(If I missed anything I want Smiley to add and edit this please)
