i’m fascinated by the idea you mentioned of applying occult reading techniques to non-occult literature, do you have any good examples of that/can you write one?
Remember how a bunch of people thought the BBC Sherlock show was going to end with gay sex? That’s what happens when you apply esoteric analysis techniques to something not built for it.
It’s a similar analytical toolkit to the people who say shit like “If you add up the values of the letters of JOE BIDEN it equals 666.”
A humorous example would be an article I read about supposed esoteric symbology in My Immortal. The fanfiction. Because the thing is, it actually does kinda have an esoteric reading. It’s based on Harry Potter, which uses a lot of names and terminology from European occultism. It kinda accidentally stumbles it’s way into recreating a bizarro version of the Chymical Wedding. But, it’s clearly not intended to be read that way.
Whereas Alice in Wonderland actually does have several hidden puzzles and codes in it’s text. Carroll damn near has characters say “I fucking love hiding puzzles everywhere.”
That’s the tricky bit. Sometimes it can be tough determine when you’re on the right track, or you’re grasping at straws. This is made even more complicated by the fact that a lot of modern occult authors intentionally add misleading threads, intended to lead the uninitiated in circles.