Delving Strange Depths: For as long as history and writing have existed in relation to human knowledge, so too has there been secret and exotic knowledge obscured from common sensibilities. At times this knowledge is secret because it is considered something ‘beyond’ the mundane, the ‘occult’, or something that is hidden within, the ‘esoteric’. Since the occult is typically hidden from most, and is considered strange or dangerous by the mainstream, studying the community who learns of the occult is difficult. In studying this community though it may be possible to alleviate their need for secrecy, by creating safe spaces for their studies and fostering public interest through research into occult scholars as an information community their needs can be provided for. This paper analyses current literature on this community and adjacent ones, such as academics and Pagan religious practitioners. It highlights weaknesses in the literature, and provides avenues of new research.

Aidan Pyke was born in Ashland Oregon to a thriving punk community and art collective. With high arts and punk lifestyle cultivating his young mind, and a brief two year stint in Atwater Village, Los Angeles, he graduated high school in 2015 and immediately endeavored himself into the local work force for a couple of years. Dissatisfied with, yet informed by the plights of inventory work and other similar blue collar work, he enrolled into community college in 2017 at Rogue Community College. He would transfer to the University of Oregon in 2019, and graduate in 2022 with a double major in Philosophy and Psychology. In 2024 he would enroll into San Jose State University’s Library and Information Science Master’s program, where he currently resides academically.

Aidan lives in Eugene Oregon, he enjoys museums, art galleries, and used bookstores. He plays puzzle games, reads profusely, and loves tabletop role-playing games.