Writing the Occult: Words that Work in the Dark

Words That Work in the Dark

Language has always been more than communication. Across folklore, magic, poetry, and psychology, words were treated as forces. Charms. Invocations. Vows. Things that moved the inner world.

Writing the Occult is a quiet creative gathering exploring language as symbol, pressure, and intention.

The occult is approached here in its older sense: that which works beneath the surface of ordinary awareness.

This is not a lecture and not a typical writing class.

It is an evening of focused making, where we treat writing as a way to touch what is hidden, unnamed, or waiting to take form.

Less performance.
More encounter.

Poets, mystics, and psychologists alike have treated symbolic language as a bridge to deeper layers of experience.
We work in that territory.

Where language becomes alive.

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️ The Session Moves Through:

• a short opening reflection
• guided, private writing sequences
• symbolic prompts drawn from folklore and dream logic
• optional reading aloud without critique
• a quiet closing to let the words remain active

Everything is invitational.
Listening is participation.
Silence is welcome.

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✒️ What You’ll Actually Do

You will write.

Not for polish.
Not for publication.
Not for approval.

You’ll experiment with:

• spell-like phrases
• invocations and refusals
• charged images
• fragments from dreams
• language that feels necessary rather than decorative

Some of it may feel strange.
Some of it may surprise you.

That is part of the work.

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** The Spirit**

This is for people drawn to:

symbolism
folklore
Jungian ideas
poetry
serious approaches to the occult
deep, introvert-friendly concentration

No experience required.
No belief required.

Bring curiosity and a willingness to follow an image into the dark.

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You Might Bring (Optional):

notebook or laptop
️ pen you like
a line of poetry
a symbol or object that feels charged

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About Ghostlights:

Ghostlights creates small spaces for encountering inner life through dreams, symbols, and creative practice.

Some gatherings lean toward ritual.
Others, like this one, lean toward making.

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About the Host:

Led by Dan, writer and photographer with long interests in folklore, Jungian psychology, dreams, and the imaginative life.

Ghostlights exists to make room for depth, attention, and meaningful encounter in a distracted age.