For years, I have written at length about the dangers of far-right entryism in occulture and how reactionary and even fascistic elements creep into spiritual communities under the guise of esoteric lore.

But lately, another question has emerged from the shadows: is there also a far-left problem in occulture? Recent events suggest to me that yes, something is amiss on that end of the spectrum as well. In the past few months, I’ve observed vocal denouncements of “woke cults” within the occult community, coming from people who once occupied very different positions. These cases aren’t about isolated cranks; they reflect a broader trend of backlash against progressive activism in metaphysical circles.

Before anyone panics, let me clarify: this isn’t a “both sides” equivocation claiming the far-left is just as bad as the far-right.

The threats are different in nature. Far-right infiltration often entails organised hate, bigotry, and authoritarian ideology sneaking into our spiritual spaces – a phenomenon I’ve extensively documented and fought against. The far-left issue, on the other hand, is more insidious in a softer way: a kind of purity policing and aggressive orthodoxy that can alienate and fracture communities from within.

Let’s explore two recent examples (with names withheld, as this is about trends, not individuals) that illustrate this emerging problem, and then consider what truth they hold, and how we might move forward constructively.

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The first case that grabbed my attention was a male ceremonial magician from Australia, a relatively obscure YouTuber with a modest following until very recently. His fortunes changed overnight when a well-known UFO/UAP whistleblower in mainstream media quoted him or referenced his work. Suddenly, this magician’s audience ballooned, granting him a platform many occult content creators dream of.

What did he do with this newfound megaphone? Almost immediately, he launched into a tirade about how he “finally understood” the world: according to him, the far-left was a cult in thrall to literal demons.

In his telling, progressive social movements were not just misguided – they were actively evil, a malicious force compelling society (and especially cis-het men like himself) to “submit” to dark supernatural powers. This individual claimed that, as a result of seeing the left as a demon-worshipping cult, he realised that the demons he once casually worked with in ceremonial magick are, in fact, objectively malevolent entities. It’s a dramatic heel-turn for someone steeped in occult practice, effectively mixing Infowars-style culture war rhetoric with Goetic demonology. The irony is palpable: after being boosted by a UFO whistleblower’s credence, he pivoted to whistleblowing about an alleged leftist-demon conspiracy.

Around the same time, another familiar figure from the occult Instagram sphere resurfaced in my feed, someone I hadn’t heard from since 2020. She was one of the original “boss babe” witches, known for glossy self-help occultism and hashtag empowerment.

Back then, her content was all positivity and entrepreneur-friendly witchcraft branding. Now, she has dramatically rebranded herself as a champion of conservatism, loudly proclaiming that she was “canceled” for defying the tyranny of wokeness. She insists that because she dared to question certain progressive talking points, the “woke mob” ruined her reputation, and thus she’s bravely become a right-wing sorceress, so to speak.

However, the facts behind her narrative tell a less flattering tale. In truth, her fall from grace had a lot to do with her own words: she went on public tirades claiming, for example, that “Palestine supported Hitler,” among other historically ignorant and inflammatory remarks. She liberally slanders social justice movements and conflates any support for Palestinian human rights with Nazism. Such gross mischaracterisations understandably drew ire from her peers. Yet in her mind, she is the victim – a lone witch persecuted by a hyper-liberal orthodoxy. By recasting herself as a martyr who “stood against woke culture,” she has found a new audience in reactionary circles eager to embrace an ex-woke witch.

These two cases – an occultist man equating leftists with demons, and an influencer witch recasting bigotry as brave dissent – are extreme, almost cartoonish, examples of occult figures swinging hard against the left. I wish I could say they were isolated anomalies, but they tap into a larger sentiment I’ve observed brewing over the last couple of years.

There is a backlash mentality taking root in some corners of occulture, where any progressive or inclusivist effort is painted as oppressive brainwashing, and those espousing such views portray themselves as renegades for “seeing through the illusion.” It’s the conspirituality horseshoe theory in action: where new-agers or magicians meet culture warriors, sharing a common enemy in “the woke.”

To understand the full picture, we need to step back and distinguish between two problems that are often falsely conflated.

On one side is the ongoing menace of far-right entryism in occult and pagan circles. This is something I have been militant about calling out, often to my own personal cost. Reactionary groups – from neo-fascists to ethnonationalists – have repeatedly tried (and sometimes managed) to infiltrate occult communities, orders, and publishing houses. They exploit the subcultural nature of occulture, hoping to blend in with the edgy, the esoteric, the outsider ethos, all the while introducing racist or authoritarian ideas under an arcane cover.

I’ve written elsewhere about how I noticed ultra-reactionary and outright fascistic elements creeping into my own corner of occulture, and I sounded the alarm despite backlash. Indeed, calling out these tendencies earned me years of anonymous defamation, slander, and libel from their defenders, a badge of honour I’ll gladly wear if it means exposing fascist sympathies. There is no question in my mind (or in documented reality) that the far-right has continually attempted to use occult subcultures as a recruitment pool or at least a propaganda outlet. From supposedly spiritual authors spouting transphobic or Islamophobic screeds, to occult publishers suddenly churning out ultra-Zionist, anti-immigrant rants, we’ve seen this happen. And we know the consequences: communities fractured, vulnerable seekers preyed upon, hate cloaked in the language of hermetic truth.

So what about the far-left? Unlike the far-right, we’re not usually talking about organised groups trying to infiltrate occult circles, and despite what some might believe, there’s no Antifa coven trying to covertly run the local tarot meetup.

The “far-left problem” is more about internal dynamics: call it dogmatic intolerance, purity tests, cancel culture, or simply bad behaviour wearing a halo of righteousness. These are the tendencies of some left-leaning occultists to police every word and thought, ever ready to pounce on those who don’t articulate the correct ideology with perfect precision.

I’ve seen progressive occult forums descend into flame wars over minor semantic disagreements, with people who are ostensibly on the same side viciously attacking each other for not being “woke enough.” In pagan and witch communities, there have been witch hunts (pun intended) for perceived heretics of inclusivity, sometimes based on genuine issues like calling out racism or sexism (which is valid), but other times based on extremely niche points of contention where no amount of apology or clarification will satisfy the self-appointed ideologues.

To be clear, I consider myself on the left. I value social justice, inclusion, and equality; these principles are, in fact, deeply compatible with an occult worldview that recognises the divine spark in all individuals. But I’ve also personally experienced the far left’s capacity for cannibalising its own. There’s a subset of leftist occultists (again, radical types, not the majority) who will not hesitate to brand someone like me as an enemy for the smallest deviation in speech or thought.

I have literally been called a “misogynist” by certain detractors on the left, not because I espoused anything remotely anti-women, but because I did not perform my allyship in the exact expected manner. Perhaps I failed some obscure litmus test – a particular turn of phrase, or not immediately condemning a person they dislike, and suddenly, in their mind, I’m a covert woman-hater.

The first time it happened, I was stunned. Here I was, someone who has vehemently supported feminist and queer causes in our community, being vilified as if I were a MAGA-touting incel. It would be almost comical if it weren’t so damaging.

What I have been noticing is that in occult and pagan circles, some on the far left can exhibit the same unforgiving zeal as the far right when someone offends their orthodoxy. If you say something a radical leftist doesn’t like, they can be “just as bad as the white supremacists” in how swiftly they ostracise you. I’ve felt that sting myself. In these cases, the content of the creed is opposite (inclusivity vs. exclusivity), but the method of enforcement is eerily similar: conform or be cast out.

Another issue is how some far-left rhetoric in occulture starts to mirror the very things we all claim to hate. For example, a strain of thought has emerged that certain spiritual practices or symbols are off-limits to people of particular backgrounds – a kind of rigid cultural gatekeeping. While cultural sensitivity is important (nobody should be appropriating sacred traditions irresponsibly), the extreme arguments sometimes veer into race essentialism. The idea that, say, dreadlocks or runes belong to one race and are sacrilegious for another to touch: this is not a progressive idea when taken to that extreme; it’s a rehashed segregationist idea in trendy new clothes. And indeed, it wasn’t the far-right promoting that notion; it was the far-left. This is what I mean when I talk about leftist intolerance harming our occulture: it can become so militant in its pursuit of purity or justice that it ends up reinforcing the paradigms of hate and separation that we were trying to transcend.

Moreover, all this infighting and policing carries a very practical cost: it bogs down our spiritual work in incessant politics. When one faction of occultists is Sieg-Heiling to the Kabbalah and another faction is cancelling people for forgetting the correct use of pronouns, who is left actually exploring the Mysteries? Who is building the community of seekers? I have felt this frustration keenly. It seems we can’t hold a Thelemic gathering or a witchy meetup these days without some political litmus test creeping in. Don’t get me wrong here. Values do matter, and I am not advocating for some false neutrality that tolerates hate. But I am lamenting how even well-meaning political vigilance sometimes devolves into a circular firing squad. In the end, the far-right threat remains ever-present, and now the far-left’s overzealous responses are splintering our ranks from within. It’s a double whammy that leaves our occultural community weakened and disheartened.

Given the above, is there any truth to the narrative pushed by those ex-occultists now decrying the “woke cult”?

The uncomfortable answer is: Yes, there is a kernel of truth, but it’s often exaggerated and exploited. My own experience confirms that some on the left can be dogmatic to a fault. They can indeed create a hostile, almost cult-like atmosphere where you’re constantly afraid of misspeaking.

This climate of fear and performative virtue can drive sane people away. It can even drive them straight into the arms of the right-wing, who are eagerly waiting to say, “See? The left are insane, come join us where you can speak freely.” I believe this is exactly what happened to the two individuals I described earlier. They felt (rightly or wrongly) persecuted or stifled in left-leaning occult circles, and thus swung to the opposite pole, finding validation among conservatives who welcomed their testimonies as proof of “woke tyranny.”

However, acknowledging the left’s overreach does not mean buying into the backlash narrative wholesale. It’s important to distinguish honest critique from self-serving revisionism. Many who cry “I was canceled by the woke mob!” conveniently omit why they were called out in the first place. In the case of our rebranded conservative witch, her complaints about being ostracised leave out the reality that she was spouting abhorrent rhetoric (equating pro-Palestinian sentiment with Nazism, etc.). Criticism and consequences in such cases are not persecution; they are the community’s natural immune response to bigotry. Likewise, the Australian magician who now claims the left is demonically evil was not exactly an innocent victim either; he chose to escalate a culture-war narrative to boost his profile.

From where I stand, the far-left problem in occulture is real in the sense that it creates unnecessary division and bitterness. It turns potential allies into enemies over matters of ideological purity or style. It sometimes prioritises symbolic gestures over substance and demands absolute conformity on complex social issues, even when reasonable people might have nuanced differences. This rigid mindset does resemble a kind of cultishness, albeit without a central leader; it’s more of a decentralised dogma. And yes, it can be toxic.

Yet, I will die on the hill that this problem, as real as it is, pales in comparison to the damage the far-right has done and will do if left unchecked. Far-left zealotry might hurt feelings, ruin reputations, or drive people away from movements; far-right infiltration can destroy lives and undermine the very foundations of inclusive community. We should keep some perspective: being mobbed on Twitter for using the wrong term is painful, but it is not the same as, say, a neo-fascist order using an occult bookstore as a recruitment ground for violent extremism.

In other words, both deserve our attention, but one is an existential threat to occulture (fascism), while the other is an internal dysfunction that hinders our unity.

I suspect the truth is that many of the loudest “anti-woke” occult figures are engaging in a form of opportunism. They take legitimate criticisms of left-wing overreach and blow them up into a grand conspiracy, all to justify their own slide into reactionary ideology. It’s a classic playbook: “I didn’t leave the left, the left left me!” Sometimes that’s how it genuinely feels; other times it’s a convenient excuse to abandon progressive values that were never deeply held to begin with. Our boss-babe-turned-conservative might genuinely feel wronged, but she’s also clearly revelling in the attention (and likely financial support) that comes from pandering to the right. Similarly, the magician railing about demonic leftists likely enjoys his new audience and the drama of playing prophet against the “cult.”

So yes, there’s truth that the left side of occulture has issues, and I’ve lived through them. But the narrative that it’s an all-powerful cult controlling everything is hyperbole. It’s a narrative conveniently used by those who have axes to grind or money to make by switching sides. As an insider who has been critical of both the far right and the far left in these circles, I feel sadness above all. Sad that progressive ideals, which should make our community better – like respect for all genders, sexualities, and cultures – sometimes devolve into rigid codes of conduct and public shamings. Sad that instead of resolving these issues internally with compassion, we drive people to such frustration that they’ll join forces with bigots out of spite. Sad, but not hopeless.

After years of wading through these toxic swamps, what’s left of a path forward? How do we face down the increasingly explicit far-right infiltration and the brittle righteousness of the far-left without forfeiting what first drew us to the occult in the first place – the mystery, the sovereignty, the flame?

If there is still a way out, it must begin with remembering why any of us walked into the dark woods of the esoteric at all. We came for truth beyond consensus, for meaning that could not be handed down by institutions or algorithms. We came to listen to spirits, not algorithms. That impulse, fragile and half-forgotten, is still alive. It’s what makes the current disillusionment all the more painful – because so many of us truly believed these spiritual spaces could be something better than the hollow culture wars outside.

And yet here we are, mirroring the very systems we sought to escape: purges, in-groups, doctrinal compliance, passive-aggressive social rituals masquerading as moral awakening. Our would-be liberatory movements now whisper the language of control. And while we sharpen our ideological knives against each other, the actual fascists are laughing and walking straight through the door, unchallenged, often even invited by those burnt out on the left’s perceived sanctimony.

I used to believe we could fight back by staying rooted in shared values, and that compassion, nuance, and accountability could coexist. I wanted to believe that by refusing to give in to either side’s authoritarianism, we could stake out a middle space where integrity and spirit could thrive. I still want to believe it. But I can’t pretend I’m not weary. I’ve seen too many good people devoured by both sides. I’ve watched friends abandon the spiritual path not because they lost faith in the gods or their practice, but because the communities around them became unbearable battlegrounds of status and shame.

And yes, I know that even writing this will land me in someone’s crosshairs. Again. I can already hear the inevitable accusations forming: that I’m centrist, that I’m enabling fascism by critiquing the left, that I’m secretly conservative, or worse, that I’m just bitter. I’ve heard it all before. I’ll hear it again. There is no immunity, no perfect stance that makes you untouchable. Every time I try to speak clearly, to carve out room for critical thought, I feel the jaws tightening on both sides.

But I say it anyway. Because maybe, just maybe, someone out there still cares. Maybe someone else is quietly struggling, watching this all unfold, wondering if they’re the only one feeling the rot. You’re not. The rot is real. The dream is slipping.

Whether it’s already too late, I don’t know. What I do know is this: if we cannot learn to hold contradiction, to make space for difference without annihilation, then the occult revival we’ve all cherished will end not with a bang, but with a bitter, petty sigh. And whatever we once hoped to build in the ashes of the old world will be indistinguishable from the ruins we claimed to transcend.

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