The Story Behind My Practice. Using Occultism and Psychology to Heal Trauma

 

There is a quote which has stayed with me forever. I don’t even know who said It 

‘One man’s myth is another man’s religion’

I learned this phrase in my high school world religions class.

I grew up with religious fundamentalism. This was the first time the concept of many truths was introduced to me. In my reality, my religion was the only inescapable truth.

This teacher become my biggest influence. I enrolled in all her classes. World History. World Religions and Art History.

It was through her I fell in love with art and mythology. In all honesty, when anyone speaks of Lilith… I think of her. The wild haired, well travelled, brilliant woman who told me I could be brilliant as well, so long as I worked for It. 

Unfortunately my enthusiasm was lost when I was sent to a religious university. There, I was once again told there was only one truth. I was told gender was divinely assigned. Gender roles were given by God himself. My desires to pursue a career over being a wife and mother were the work of the adversary. 

I tried to fit in. I tried to please God and slowly, I felt my soul die. It took an extremely traumatic event to finally sever ties with my religion altogether. 

With the loss of my faith I lost my entire community. I was casted out. Isolated. Ridiculed and shunned. 

My heartbreak turned to malice… I felt betrayed by the universe at large so I declared there were no gods. I’d always been told there was ‘one truth’ so now I felt nothing was true. With this declaration came a void. An emptiness which did not suit me. Many numb years passed.

I was given some solace through trauma therapy. There, I was given comfort and concrete understanding of the events which happened to me. I was given tools to cope…

But the existential dread still lingered. I didn’t want to believe there was nothing beyond me, but I was also untrusting of anything outside of me.

My mother then gave me a book. I know it is difficult for her that the religious books she raised me on didn’t resonate… but she still brought me a life changing book nonetheless. 

It was Memories, Dreams, and Reflections by Carl Jung. It was through Jung I began to peek around the corners of the universe with curiosity again… It was here I slightly opened the door to magic. Soon after I heard the next quote which will forever stay with me, 

Nothing is true. Everything is permitted.

This time I knew the origin. The author was Peter Carroll. The Magick was ‘Chaos’.

I learned it didn’t matter if a belief was true. It only mattered if it worked. My mind raced to all  the possible beliefs… and as magic tends to go… the pieces began falling into place. 

I remembered where I first felt spiritually alive. It was in high school. It was in all the religions, all the myths, all the stories mankind has told and the pearls of wisdom hidden in art and storytelling. 

I then realized… I was experiencing the collective unconscious. This was my working system. 

The universe and the collective unconscious are massive to say the least… so I narrowed my scope. And I found my practice.

My name is Bren Gyllene. 

I am a lefthand path occultist, artist and writer.

I focus on;

•Trauma informed occultism

•Finding spirituality and inner peace after religious trauma.

•Lefthand Path Spirituality. 

•Using Chaos Magick to break dogmatic thought patterns. 

•Jungian Shadow Work

•Reclaiming and balancing both the ‘Masculine and feminine energies’ for all gender identifications.

•Teaching new practitioners the basics of magic. 

I use art as a whole to tell of these stories and to convey all these themes… so you might find ‘your myth’ which will become your reality.