Hello Everyone. I’m Kalakal, your community moderator. I’d like to introduce myself and talk about my spiritual journey. I was raised catholic in Latin America, but my mother always had a penchant for the occult and the new age. I grew up with a mixture of Christian sacraments and UFO and occult magazines all over my home. My mom is also an artist, and would make large paintings of stonehenge and occult, almost neolithic symbols. During my senior year in high school, I had my existential crisis after reading The Stranger by Albert Camus. I was a reluctant atheist for a little, and set out to find some form of spiritual truth in the world. I landed in a Buddhist temple about a year later, while I was in community college. I’d go to the temple religiously, and got a pretty nice community going. I transferred schools to another city to get my Bachelors, and there was no temple around, so I only had the internet to guide me. I ended up in the Western Esoteric tradition sphere when it was just a couple of channels. I’ve since switched to full Western Esotericism, partly because being a Buddhist did not feel genuine to me, and partly because the occult West felt so weird and interesting. I was really into Gnosticism for a while, and listened to Terence McKenna for hours on end. I just called myself an occultist for a long while, and was mainly interested in occult philosophy, like Pseudo-Dionysus, Meister Eckhart, Plotinus, Marcilio Ficino, etc. But I did not really practice anything concrete. I just learned the philosophy of it. Last year, however, I made a conversion to Hellenic Paganism and set up an altar at home. I’ve begun a practice and my goal is to create a system of practical theurgy based on Hellenic Neoplatonism. I want a pious life full of contact with the sacred. I’m currently reading the Iamblichean curriculum and doing almost-daily rituals at my altar. Next, I will be doing theurgical practices aimed at purifying my body and spirit. In my travels through the online occult landscape, I’ve encountered lot’s of discord servers, youtube channels, and subreddits that are full of conspiracy theories, right wing ideologues, and pretty blatant racism and sexism. I know that the ancient world was a brutal place and the people practicing the faith I converted to would not be “politically correct” at all. But from reading pagan scripture and Platonic dialogues, my intuition is that a “true” modern paganism needs to stand against injustice and the forces aimed at separating and exploiting people. That’s why I’ve taken the chance to start this community, where people are free to share their practices, grow together, and find an open community. So if you are a pagan in search of an online home, welcome. I’m glad you’re here. I’m glad we get to share some space together and learn from each other.

Lot’s of blessings.