Devolution in the Occult – From Kenneth Grant to Modern Occult Amnesia
It was very quiet Samhain here, where we instead chose to focus on a local ritual and our private practice which continues to expand in depth. This year I have not felt particularly social because I have found that focusing on the more closed aspects have borne the most fruit.
Recently I have had a rare chance to relax and actually hit the books again so to speak from an Occult perspective. The series I’ve decided to dive back into again and go over thoroughly is none other than the Typhonian Trilogies by Kenneth Grant, which are thankfully still being published by Starfire Publishing.
This has been a rather illuminating experience; I first read these books when I was in my very early 20’s, and simply on reflection I did not have the required magickal grounding to truly understand them or their impact.
Nightside of Eden, Kenneth Grant, Starfire Publishing
Looking back on these works fifteen or so years later, what I have gotten from these works have only increased, in particular so far Nightside of Eden. Truly, Grants work was ground-breaking – as the first person to fully formulate a contemporary western left hand path (and outside Primal Craft, in my opinion the most pure inheriting from earlier magical roots) as well as the first to properly analyse the dark side of the Tree of Life. In many ways, he went beyond Crowley – who made reference to the Qliphoth and related daemonic entities (like Choronzon), but did not publish a complete book detailing the entire Tree of Death.
For those not familiar with Grant, he was a British occultist and writer best known for expanding and reinterpreting the work of Aleister Crowley, blazing the way for something truly new. A student of Crowley’s, Gerald Gardner’s associate, and briefly head of the O.T.O.’s British branch to name but a few things, Grant developed a distinctive, highly imaginative system that blended Thelemic magic with influences from Tantra, Western esotericism, Afro-Caribbean traditions, and cosmic horror. His major contribution was the Typhonian Trilogies, a series of books exploring themes of “spectral” realities, the Nightside of the Tree of Life, and the idea that occult forces interact with the human psyche in ways stranger and more complex than occultists of the time detailed.
He went on to found the Typhonian order, what was originally the New Isis Lodge later became the Typhonian Ordo Templi Orientis (TOTO), which Grant founded to develop these ideas. It is still in existence today as simply the Typhonian Order and emphasizes visionary, trance-based, and dream-based exploration of occult realms, particularly those associated with the ancient Egyptian goddess Typhon/Typhon-Set symbolism and the Nightside of the Kabbalistic Tree. Although controversial within the broader Thelemic world, Grant’s Typhonian tradition remains influential among practitioners interested in the more surreal, psychological, and cosmic dimensions of occultism. Whilst this is a simplification in many areas, it will have to suffice for this article.
As this out of the way, I was rather shocked when I went online to look into what others thought of these seminal works and this great occultist. Not only does it appear that the majority of people have forgotten Grants contribution to the Western Left Hand Path and Occultism in general, but rather the vast majority of conversation seems to be of a disparaging nature. One ‘standout contribution’ goes as follows:
‘Frankly, I think Grant is crazy as hell / mad as a hatter. He is sex obsessed and his Gemetria is whack. He distorts numbers and names to fit his own ideas. Everything is apparently a symbol of Set. He perverts the symbols of occultism for his own philosophy. His work just has an aura of perversity to me.’ – Nau7ik
I choose this particular example because its rather illustrative of the kind of rot we see in the modern occult ‘sphere’ ( I refuse to call it a community at this stage, and doubt that really ever applied ). These are big words from an anonymous nobody with no skin in the game, contrasted against Grant who is recognised as stand out author and occultist who pathed the way for people such as Thomas Karlsson amongst others in the latter 20th century and beyond to engage closely the Tree of Death. Whatever the reader personally thinks of those authors, no one can doubt that without Grant, one can easily posit their work may never have come to fruition.
Kenneth Grant
The position above shows a profound ignorance of material that came before; The comment that Grant was sex obsessed alone shows a complete lack of underlying magickal training and comprehension, and certainly of Grants specific tantric background and training. The return of the sexual magickal current is absolutely fundamental to the remeshing of witchcraft and ceremonial magic – something that has been illuminated by our own Primal Current amongst others. It is almost as if the reader has had an encounter with the uncomfortable and baulked, in fear, as the Abyss looks back. In that way, Grant definetly succeeded; for walking the branches of The Tree of Night and crossing the Abyss is certainly not meant to be a comfortable affair. The irony of the Abyss being the pass-me-not of Knowledge is certainly expressed here.
What is left of the critique fails to understand the symbolic language at play, and one wonders how much credence we can give to someone who does not understand Gematria (never mind it appears, spell it correctly). Grants Gematria is used as vehicle for gnosis, not a simple dull tool, but to draw syncretic, meaningful connections using the language available in the tradition he was trained. His nonlinear, almost dreamlike associations combine to saturate each sentence with heavy, cohesive meaning that seems to drip from the page. In fact his body of work is so dense, many of those who later cherry picked from his books (often without attribution, another painful way that we forget our forebears) missed out certain very key elements of his work which went far beyond simply revealing the structure and makeup of what he describes as ‘Universe B’.
One of the constant criticisms of Grant is his focus on extra-terrestrial intelligences – those that lie beyond what Grant would call the ‘Trans Plutonic Power Zones’. Putting aside the disturbing premonitory drawings of Crowley of the spirit LAM (which predates UFOLOGY by decades), it is clear that Grant is talking about beings from the Outside of the Tree. Seen in contrast to our own tradition, it is clear Grant and others he talks extensively about were indeed knocking on a forbidden door, that which others could not see and which at that point, they were not quite granted the keys to access. This gives credence to why Grant is obsessed with these entities and attempts to establish two way communication.
At this point this post could be simply seen as a rant against one very poor take, so I need to take a moment to reiterate I am using this as an example – for it is reflective of a common attitude held by so called modern occultists. They can no longer be bothered to analyse a work in depth – to seek its merits, as well as its weaknesses. To engage with it at a deep level and actually analyse it. In our modern era everyone wants an easily digestible spirituality – something which is completely at odds with the inherent necessity of the innate challenge, paradox, and obscurity in genuine occult paths. Historically, practitioners often were not even allowed to engage with certain texts until initiated precisely because it required the mindset to be instilled so that they could be effectively understood and integrated. Now, people want it delivered in the span of a single webpage.
One of the most overlooked aspects of genuine occult practice is the requirement for patient study, that builds on foundational knowledge over a period of time. An intellectual and spiritual stamina that stands in stark contrast to the culture of immediacy that now dominates esoteric discourse. The older occult authors, including Grant, assumed without question that the reader would spend years grappling with symbolic density, ambiguity, and the deliberately circuitous nature of initiatory texts. This was not done to obscure knowledge for elitism’s sake, but because certain currents simply cannot be digested in a single reading or through the lens of casual curiosity (see the closing statement of this post for Grants own take). They require repeated exposure, contemplation, and gradual internalisation. The modern seeker, conditioned by rapid-fire media and constant novelty, often lacks the patience required for this slow alchemy of understanding. As a result, the deeper strata of meaning within these works are dismissed as “confusing,” “mad,” or “overly abstract,” when in reality they are structured to reveal themselves in layers corresponding to the reader’s level of attainment. The mysteries have always operated this way. The text changes because the practitioner changes. Without this willingness to return, reflect, and wrestle with complexity, the doors that authors like Grant painstakingly opened remain shut, no matter how widely available the books become. Rereading this text myself after many years, I understand things with a new level of clarity.
Kenneth and Steffi Grant
The unfortunately reality today however is everything is expected to be delivered and consumed instantly (or near such). We live in a social structure where all information needs to be summarised and compressed into neat little paragraphs, or worse, into fifteen second long shorts shoved out as fast as possible by the likes of TikTok and Youtube. You simply cannot properly teach or explore theurgic, magickal concepts in such a format. Any attempt to crush complicated, occult philosophy into tiny matchbox sized videos will at best miss out critical pieces of information, or at worst, come out heavily mangled, misleading, and flat out incorrect.
As an example of informational rot, I recently saw a short on Facebook of all places, erroneously ascribing the Akashic Records to the lower Sephira on the Tree of Life. Anyone with experience and understanding of the Abyss and its role in the evolutionary history of Mankind, or even an inkling into what Grant would call the ‘Trans Plutonic Power Zones’, would know why this is decidedly, incorrect. But when it is said in such a self assured way, it is likely to believed as objective fact.
For clarity – if we were to map the Theosophical concept onto the Kabbalistic Tree (an imperfect but sometimes done comparison), the Akashic Records correlate more closely to Da’ath (as the gateway to transpersonal knowledge), the threshold of the Supernal Triad. An argument could be made even Ain–Ain Sof–Ain Sof Aur itself if one interprets the Records metaphysically rather than clairvoyantly. Our own tradition has other contenders. But that all aside:
They are emphatically NOT located in Yesod, Hod, or Netzach or their nightside equivalents which are the lower spheres tied to the psyche, astral imagery, and intellect. The Akashic Records, by definition, belong to the domain of transpersonal memory, which is precisely the kind of knowledge that cannot descend intact “below the Veil.” This alone makes the “lower spheres of the tree = Akashic Records” claim entirely incoherent.
Accuracy, sacrificed at the Altar of Ego by people who at best, make outlandish claims out of ignorance or worse, believe that there is no true, objective occult reality and resulting misinformation is a real concern. That things can be made up on the fly for views, clicks, and attention with an added purpose of sucking up money via Patreon accounts is a deeply disappointing use of the technology we have inherited from the likes of Sir Tim Berners-Lee who sacrificed profit to give us this gift of worldwide connection.
This is only going to be more of a problem as we now find ourselves truly in the Age of AI Slop. The problem with the proliferation of this nonsensical content will ensure these inaccuracies are surfaced over genuine information and regurgitated as gospel – new seekers will therefore not only be dealing with the manually produced misinformation, but also the discordant, schizophrenic AI content which will only further take them away from the true source. The algorithm selects those who can get attention, not those who put out accurate information – it lacks any and all discernment. I call this ‘Content Occultism’, for it concerns itself only with volume and not quality.
The irony is in a few decades, I believe this state of affairs will likely force people to return to trusted sources in hard print, and further validate the teaching practices of the traditional, initiatory mystery schools. Certainly, those genuinely seeking the Mysteries would be better served turning their attention to understanding the works of their predecessors – the Crowleys, Grants, Chumbleys, Gardners, Valientes and Williamsons to name a few and immerse themselves in the roots of the western magickal tradition, and keep well away from the mass generated informational noise. These are the people we should be discussing – the people who we should never forget, whilst we work within our own tradition. This is not a call to mix, match, and dilute our own practice. However we must know and understand our roots and place them in the context of our occult history.
It also shows we should show serious discretion with which current contributors in the Occult sphere we let influence our practice, for effectively they act as teachers in remote. A rotten tree will always bear rotten fruit. But by comparing what is, to what was, we can make much more informed decisions. The fact the world forgets people like Grant, whilst shovelling mud down the throats of those looking for genuine answers is a true travesty.
Furthermore, this does lead me into a bit of a prediction – I believe we are going to eventually come back full circle. The cults of the mystery traditions will again be the bastion of protecting the hidden secrets – because it will be the only place to find genuine, uncorrupted information. The book is going to win over the digital soup, and people will inevitably abandon the unreliable digital chorus and head back to the page, to truly delve deep into underlying metaphysical reality. This way, the undiluted knowledge can be accessed.
A special note I’d like to add in here is in regards to Steffi Grant, who was a prolific artist and occultist in her own right who was truly able to embody and enflesh the unknown. She was living proof that a machine can never put to paper the matters of the soul with the same heart as that of a spiritually awakened artist, and it was with great sadness I learned she had passed away some years ago.
He Shall Come, by Steffi Grant
On that note, I will sound off with the words of Kenneth himself, as he details the Mysteries in the Authors Foreword of Nightside of Eden:
”The keys of practical occultism, whether of Mysticism or of Magick, may be apprehended intellectually by the study of books, but it is on the inner planes alone that their effective workings may be revealed. Unless the requisite contacts on the inner planes are established in the manner, no amount of reading will disclose ‘secrets’ that are literally indecipherable and therefore truly occult. The safeguards are both automatic and fool-proof.‘ – Authors Forward, Nightside of Eden
~S~
The Luciferian Revolution 
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