Terms and Conditions

1. Who we are

Occultum (occultum.co.uk) is run by Andrew Nethercott, a sole trader trading as Occultum and based in the United Kingdom. You can reach us at support@occultum.co.uk. We aim to answer within three working days.

2. What Occultum is

Occultum is an educational website about the history and practice of Western esoteric traditions: lessons drawn from classic public-domain texts, interactive tools such as tarot spreads, planetary hours and sigil making, a private journal, and, for members, two features that use artificial intelligence (the Oracle and the lesson tutor). Everything on the site is offered for education and personal development. It is not medical, legal, financial or psychological advice, and nothing on it predicts the future. Section 9 says more about this.

3. Plans

• Seeker (free). The first lesson of every track and a selection of tools, with or without an account. Nothing to pay.
• Adept membership. Every lesson and tool, journal and progress sync across your devices, and the Oracle and tutor. The price is shown on the membership page and again at checkout (currently £9.99 / month). We may change the price by emailing account holders at least 30 days in advance; a new price applies from your first renewal after that notice, and you can cancel before it takes effect.

4. Your account

• You sign in with a link we email you; there is no password. Keep your email account secure, because anyone who can read your email can sign in as you. Do not forward sign-in links.
• An account is for one person. You are responsible for what is done with it.
• You must be at least 16 to create an account and at least 18 to buy a membership.
• To close your account, email us and we will delete it within 30 days, as described in the Privacy Policy.
• We may suspend or close an account that breaks these terms. Where it is reasonable to do so, we will warn you first.

5. Paying for membership

• Payments are taken by Stripe, our payment provider. We never see your full card details.
• Membership is a monthly subscription. It renews automatically on the same day each month until you cancel. Your next renewal date is shown in the billing portal, reached from your account page.
• The price shown at checkout is the total you pay, including any applicable UK VAT.
• If a renewal payment fails, Stripe will retry it and email you. While a payment is outstanding, access to member features is paused; it resumes as soon as a payment succeeds.
• Promotion codes are subject to the conditions stated when they are offered.

6. Cancelling and refunds

You can cancel at any time from your account page (Manage billing) or by emailing us. Your membership then runs to the end of the period you have already paid for and stops; there are no further charges. If you cancel within 14 days of your first payment we refund that payment in full. The Refund Policy sets this out in detail and forms part of these terms.

7. Using the site fairly

Occultum is for your own personal, non-commercial learning and practice. Please do not:

• share your account or sign-in links, or resell or sublicense access;
• copy, scrape, download in bulk or republish the lessons, tools, data or designs, beyond the short quotations allowed in section 8;
• try to get around membership checks, usage limits or other technical protections;
• send automated or bulk requests to the Oracle or tutor, or use them to produce content that is unlawful, abusive or intended to harm, deceive or control another person;
• interfere with the running or security of the site.

8. Content and ownership

• Our lessons draw on historical texts that are in the public domain in the UK; the Library lists them so you can read the sources yourself. Our own writing, lesson structure, exercises, designs, illustrations, software and tools belong to us or are used under licence, with credits where shown.
• You may quote short extracts of our writing for non-commercial purposes with a link back to the page you took them from.
• Anything you write or set up on the site, such as journal entries, readings you keep, preferences and birth details, remains yours. You allow us to store and process it only so that we can provide the service to you.

9. Divination, the Oracle, the tutor and the practices

• Divination. Tarot, runes, geomancy, astrology, palmistry, tea-leaf reading, the pendulum and similar practices are presented as historical traditions and as aids to reflection. They do not foretell events or reveal facts about other people. Do not make medical, legal, financial, relationship or safety decisions on the strength of a reading.
• The Oracle and the tutor. Their answers are generated by an artificial-intelligence model, not written by a person. They can be mistaken, incomplete or out of character, and they are offered for reflection and study, not as advice. Please do not put other people's private information into them. Each member has a daily allowance of requests, which we may change.
• Practices. Breathwork, meditation, ritual and the other exercises are described for adults in ordinary health. Take them gently, stop if you feel unwell, never practise breathwork in or near water or while driving, and speak to a doctor first if you are pregnant or have a heart, blood-pressure, respiratory or mental-health condition.
• If you are struggling. The site is no substitute for care. If you are in distress, contact your GP or NHS 111, or call Samaritans free on 116 123 at any time. In an emergency call 999.

10. Availability and changes

We work to keep Occultum available and accurate, but we cannot promise it will never be interrupted or free of errors. We may add, change or remove lessons, tools and features, and we may take the site down briefly for maintenance. If we ever withdraw the membership altogether, we will refund the unused part of your current period.

11. Our responsibility to you

• Nothing in these terms limits or excludes our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud, or for anything else that the law does not allow us to limit or exclude, and nothing takes away your legal rights as a consumer.
• Otherwise, we are responsible for loss or damage you suffer that is a foreseeable result of our breaking these terms or failing to use reasonable care and skill. We are not responsible for loss that was not foreseeable, for loss caused by events outside our reasonable control, or for business losses, because the site is for personal use.
• Our total liability to you for any claim is limited to the amount you paid us in the 12 months before the event giving rise to it, or £50 if you have paid nothing.
• We link to other websites, such as the Internet Archive, for your convenience. We are not responsible for their content or availability.

12. Privacy

How we handle personal information, including your email address, journal and preferences, is explained in the Privacy Policy.

13. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms from time to time. If a change matters to you, for example to prices, cancellation or what the membership includes, we will email account holders at least 14 days before it takes effect (30 days for prices). The current version, with its date, is always at occultum.co.uk/terms. If you keep using the site after a change takes effect, the new terms apply; if you do not agree with them, you can cancel as described in section 6.

14. Law and disputes

These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales can deal with any dispute. If you live in Scotland or Northern Ireland you can also bring proceedings there, and you keep the consumer protections of the place where you live. If something goes wrong, please email us first: most problems can be put right quickly, and we will reply within 14 days. Free, independent advice is available from the Citizens Advice consumer service.