On the occult: a personal impression of mine has been that opinion on the
occult has been polarized. Either it is utterly evil demon worship - this
coming from puritan protestants, especially if they reside in the United
States, but from other christians as well - or that it is completely good,
but it is reserved for a mental or spiritual elite; those who demonise it
are mental or spiritual peasants. My impression is that upon the
Christianization of Europe, much pre-christian knowledge went underground,
being studied by those few who were both educated and brave enough to go
against the Church. These people were unfortunately joined by evil people,
who would have been shunned in any society regardless if christian or
pagan. Through deceit and misinterpretation and twisting of pre-christian
traditional thought, they took over occultism and the spiritual and maybe
even physical descendants of these people are in power to this day. Some of
the global false elite that leads us keep practicing twisted pagan
practices, combined with what could even be worship of evil entities. What
happens is that the elite is accused of practicing paganism, thus giving
the impression that pre-christian europeans did the same things that the
global elite is doing today. This is FALSE.

Mind that not all that is deemed as occultism is bad, however keep out a
cautious eye. Many former pagans I know have fallen for degenerate,
anti-Traditional paths such as LaVeyan Satanism and so on. If you are in
doubt, check out the less "occult" sources, such as the primary ones, or
studies done from Evola or Dumezil.