Spatial Occultism: Placement and Spaces of Occult Ritual Practice Within Pop Culture

Popular culture frequently depicts occult activities in spaces such as basements, forests, cemeteries, hospitals, and schools, and these depictions share common visual features. Some creators draw on historical occultism, but often they amplify certain features for aesthetic appeal. This aesthetic influence extends into real-world occult practice, particularly in Chaos Magick, where the boundary between fiction and reality is deliberately blurred. The chapter categorizes ritual spaces in popular culture and compares them with those used by contemporary occultists, analyzing their mutual influence.

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Abstract

Occult topics, often connected with paranormal and supernatural phenomena, have been resonating through pop-cultural visual depictions for some time. A noteworthy feature is the imagination of the spaces in which occult activities are conducted or play a significant role within the story - this ranges from dark basements, forests, and cemeteries to hospitals and schools. While often varying in their location, a closer analysis reveals common features which artists and writers tend to associate with the occult. Some creators are indeed influenced by the history of occultism, but on many occasions the artist simply amplifies certain "occult" features to increase aesthetic appeal. This appeal has a strong effect on the non-fictional world, where such features are likely to be integrated into contemporary occult practice. Especially in the branch of magic known as Chaos Magick, the line between fiction and non-fiction is consciously blurred. Here the circle of art imitating life and life imitating art is completed. This chapter examines these features, creating categories of ritual spaces depicted in popular culture, and comparing them with those of modern occultists, in an attempt to analyze how they mutually interact.