One of the controversies surrounding the coverage of the chaos in Haiti has been the reluctance of mainstream outlets to mention such matters as voodoo and cannibalism in connection with gang violence, as if the influence of the occult and barbaric were somehow anti-black or racist. But it is universal. Ironically, the idea of the "zombie," derived from African word "zonbi," was popularized by William Seabrook, an ex-reporter at the NYT who was a friend of English occultist Aleister Crowley. "Seabrook had a lifelong fascination with the occult, which he witnessed and described firsthand both in Third World countries, as documented in The Magic Island (1929) and Jungle Ways (1930)."
Avante-garde and elite Western thought has long been attracted to the occult. Late Antiquity saw Hermeticism, Gnosticism, and Neoplatonism develop as distinct modes of thought from Christianity. The Renaissance saw the rise of the Kabbalah, Christian Kabbalah, and theosophy. The 17th century saw the development of initiatory societies professing esoteric knowledge, such as Rosicrucianism and Freemasonry, names widely familiar to this day. "Modern Paganism developed within occultism and includes religious movements such as Wicca. Esoteric ideas permeated the counterculture of the 1960s and later cultural tendencies, which led to the New Age phenomenon in the 1970s."
Less well-known is how historical European political movements deliberately used religion and occultism to advance their quest for power. The French Revolution established the cult of the Goddess of Reason. "The Paris Commune, under the leadership of Pierre Chaumette, inaugurated the cult with a ceremony in the cathedral of Notre Dame... after Jean Gobel, the constitutional bishop of the capital, had been induced to abdicate his priesthood. In the cathedral a shrine was erected in honor of Reason and Liberty." A Fête de la Raison was held on 20 Brumaire, Year II, at the cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris, where the old altar was replaced by one to Liberty.
The founders of the Soviet Union actively discussed God Building. "The idea proposed that in place of the abolition of religion, there should be a meta-religious context... which attempted to harness this force for pro-communist aims, both by creating new ritual and symbolism... in a socialist context." The commissars went one better by turning communism itself into a religion. As Reinhold Niebuhr explained in 1931:
Communism is ostensibly a highly scientific and irreligious social philosophy. In reality it is a new religion. Its virtues and its vices are the virtues and vices of religion. The philosophy of communism, which it characterizes as historical materialism, is already developing metaphysical pretensions among its most ardent devotees which go beyond the realm of pure science and partake of the attributes of religious world views. Furthermore, even where these pretensions are lacking, the allegedly scientific and historical conclusions at which communism arrives are held with such tenacity, and issue so unfailingly in dogma which must not be questioned, that they areout of the realm of science, where tentatively must remain a virtue and experimentalism is basic to all method.
The Nazis were not far behind Stalin in the field of religion. Much of the Third Reich's pagan-racial ideology, certainly its symbolism, came from the occult. There was actually an SS castle, Wewelsburg, where Himmler presided over strange rites, with "twelve pedestals in the castle vault, and twelve spokes in the Black Sun, a symbol in the floor that represented the twelve SS 'knights.'" "Castle Wolfenstein" and Indiana Jones' "Raiders of the Lost Ark" had some basis in fact.
The 21st century has done little to banish the esoteric, even from Hollywood. According to Wikipedia, "Scientology is in part derived from, and shares elements with, a number of esoteric or occult systems... Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard claimed to have had a near-death experience in 1938 that inspired him to write Excalibur, an unpublished manuscript based on the revelations from the experience. In 1945–46, Hubbard was involved with and defrauded Jack Parsons, an American rocketry pioneer who was also a devoted Thelemite and member of the Agape Lodge of Aleister Crowley's magical order, Ordo Templi Orientis, in Pasadena, California."
Religious belief systems are still battling over the destiny of humanity—not Christian Nationalists but Effective Altruists. Politico writes, "As Washington grapples with the rise of artificial intelligence, a small army of adherents to 'effective altruism' has descended on the nation’s capital and is dominating how the White House, Congress and think tanks approach the technology."
The Silicon Valley-based movement is backed by tech billionaires and began as a rationalist approach to solving human suffering. But some observers say it has morphed into a cult obsessed with the coming AI doomsday.
The most ardent advocates of effective altruism, or EA, believe researchers are only months or years away from building an AI superintelligence able to outsmart the world’s collective efforts to control it. Through either its own volition or via terrorists seeking to develop deadly bioweapons, such an AI could wipe out humanity, they say. And some, including noted EA thinker Eliezer Yudkowsky, believe even a nuclear holocaust would be preferable to an unchecked AI future...
...As scores of tech-funded EAs spread across key policy nodes in Washington, they’re triggering a culture clash — landing in the city’s incremental, detail-oriented culture with a fervor more akin to religious converts than policy professionals.
Although a Pew Research survey concluded that religion is declining in influence in America, current cultural trends suggest that occult belief systems have never been more influential. The idea of a universal secret tradition lives on in our belief in the Illuminati, Deep State, or criminal High Table. Nor have the claims of "higher knowledge" to possess "wisdom that is superior to other interpretations of cosmos and history" that serves as a "master key for answering all questions of humankind" faded. The Haitians may have their zombies, but the West has their Woke.
As Kissinger pointed out, conquerors and prophets have always marched out of the pages of history to menace the world. The principle difference between the two is the time scale of their messages. Conquerors live the lifespan of empires, while prophets exist on the scale of civilizations. As Putin demonstrates, we still have conquerors. The trick is to understand that we, not just the voodoo Haitians, still have prophets.
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