The Occult

I have always been interested in the occult sciences. (Note: occult doesn’t mean voodoo or black magic and stuff. It just means mystic or mysterious sciences.) Being from the East, I have inadvertently on numerous occasions come across these various types of mystic sciences throughout my life in the conversations, discussions, ceremonies, festivities, etc. And on more than one occasions, we would have met a fortune teller sometime or the other in our life.

In our society, arranged marriages are still the norm of the day. And the natal charts are matched for the bride and groom before the big decision is made. There are people who do particular things on particular days because the “time” is auspicious. Many build houses according to the rules of Vaastu. I am sure there are so many more kinds of these mystic branches followed by people of other countries and regions.

The Astrology column in the newspapers or on the internet is perhaps the most read information daily. It is fun to read the daily horoscope and ponder over it if it is good. Don’t we all wonder if our horoscope suggests anything at all about our career, romance, result of an impending exam, a smooth board meeting, stock market results, etc? It is not unrealistic to say that many people begin their day by reading these daily horoscopes.

Needless to say Numerology also has many followers. People are changing their names, adding or deleting alphabets from their names and doing things on particular dates to ensure success in their lives. People also are wearing “birthstones” and other gems to rectify the negative energies surrounding them and to reach their full potential.

Another such field that got me interested was Palmistry. There is so much information on the internet about palmistry. The mounts, minor and major lines, type of hands, fingers, length of phalanges of the fingers, etc, all count in palm reading. The minor lines on the palm are supposedly dynamic. And all aspects of life can be read on the palms! Hmm.. I wonder if the lines on the feet mean anything.


The Chinese are very good at Face Reading. I found so many websites that promise to say more about a person by their facial features. Face reading is considered a complex science, taking the planes, vertices, dimensions of face, marks on the face, etc, into consideration. Supposedly, the moles on the body mean something too, based on their occurence and type and what not!

I was hooked on to all this material for days. I even tried to chart my horoscope by myself! Needless to say, I got it wrong (everything in a horoscope can’t go totally wrong!). I even kept looking for moles and their meanings. I was jubilant when it meant something good and pretty bogged down when it suggested anything negative! These topics have that effect on you, if you let them take over you. (Thankfully, I consider myself to be sane and rational and read all this for purely entertainment purpose.)

The West also has these divination studies such as the Tarot, Cleromancy, Crystal gazing, etc. The Oracles, seers, and the clairvoyants (people who can “see”) are always intimidating! Who knows what they might have gathered about us! The druids were the first people to use the crystal ball for scrying. And obviously being a Harry Potter fan, I was spell- bound by all the magic and the impressive branches of parapsychology (though mostly made up by the author) shown in the movies.

There is this debate from eons whether all this is actually science or superstition, science or magic, etc. Adding to the confusion are so many soothsayers, who are revered, whose predictions have astounded people. There are equal numbers of fake people, if not more, who portray themselves as otherwise to earn their daily bread. Whatever the end result of the debate, if Nostradamus can hold the world’s attention, this is worth giving a thought!