Linguistic Relativity and the Occult
As my work and practice is dedicated to the explanation and portrayal of symbols, I would be unmindful if I didn’t mention a foundational aspect of how I interpret these symbols and occult ideas.
This approach is based on my own personal practices and gnosis. It also serves as a foundation to my moral framing. If this resonates with you, I would highly encourage you to further explore this subject. If It does not, I readily accept this as well.
Linguistic relativity is is a principle suggesting that the structure of a language affects its speakers' world view or cognition and thus people's perceptions are relative to their spoken language.
Occultists strive to give a complex idea a comprehensible form. This is not only done through symbols, but also through the use of words. It is important that as the occultist does this, they understand they describing these ideas based on their own reality. Especially when assigning any moral characteristics. What might be an authentic and genuine ‘truth’ to one individual, will be an aberration to another. Neither occultist is necessarily ‘wrong’ as they each occupy their own realities based on their culture and lived experience. Where the error occurs is when when an occultist assigns their empirical ‘truth’ upon humanity as a whole without taking into account all the different cultures which encapsulate the human experience.
Being aware of linguistic relativity, I will give my own moral framing and personal gnosis on the subject. This is what I feel Carroll meant when he said ‘nothing is true’. He was not stating any ideas or beliefs were necessarily false. He was stating that due to the many layers of relativity, humanity cannot touch truth. Not really. When I feel compelled to explain my ‘perception’ of reality, I always keep the awareness that It is just that... my perception. My morals, are my morals. My trauma, is my trauma. My shadow, is my shadow. My belief, is my belief. My reality, is my reality. I can observe the personal cosmos others have created for themselves and judge whether I want that to be part of my reality. Anytime I receive triggering information, I identify the source of the trigger... then I decide if sitting with new/uncomfortable information will lead to my own individual growth. I discard disempowering ideologies.
I also establish clear boundaries based on this framing. I will truly listen to ideas I find unsettling and practices I would not incorporate, with total acceptance... as long as that acceptance is mutually reciprocated by the other party. Remember, words have power.
