Occlumency, or the art of shielding the mind, is a branch of mental magic that has fallen into obscurity over the last centuries. Its main purpose is to close the mind of the practitioner - called an Occlumens - off to external intrusion.

Occlumency, if practised correctly, prevents outside influences from affecting and influencing one’s mind, therefore making it a defensive kind of magic by nature. The foreign influences that are warded off through the use of this magic are manifold: an Occlumens may shield themselves against the effects of spells that influence the mind as well as potions of such nature, most notably truth serums, but can also protect their thoughts from sentient influence like the natural abilities used by some magical creatures or magical beings, as well as offensive mind magic, called Legilimency.

Originally, Occlumency is said to have developed from various meditation techniques employed by different cultures all across the globe, making it a branch of magic that is not linked to one specific region or people. This in conclusion, however, also means that there were initially multiple ways to achieve the same effect that over centuries have merged and been incorporated into each other to the point where no independent schools of this branch of mind magic exist any longer.

In its earliest stages, Occlumency was seen as a way to strengthen the mind of an individual, to structure thoughts and emotions with the goal that one might gain control of the innermost workings of their mind. To this day, this remains the base any individual needs to achieve to eventually master the art of Occlumency. An orderly mind is necessary to effectively practice Occlumency, orderly in this case referring to how one interacts with their most base feelings. An Occlumens cannot be ruled by emotion - which is the reason that certain individuals, despite extensive training, remain unable to master this branch of magic. Those people most in touch with their feelings, who are unable to repress them, are unsuitable to become Occlumens.

Detachment and control of one’s emotions are needed to succeed in the first step necessary to master Occlumency, which is the ability to clear one’s mind. The practitioner has to achieve the state of an “empty” mind, where they are able to completely suppress their thoughts, emotions, and memories. This requires mental and emotional discipline as well as the ability to actively compartmentalize one’s life and feelings from their current state of being.

There are different ways to reach this calm state of mind. Many Occlumens prefer to work by visualization, picturing a specific background or scenario that allows them to empty their head: some describe their headspace as a void, empty of any and all thoughts, while others imagine the elements, the sea, the sky, or similar image. Still others focus on sound or physical touch of any kind.

Once a beginner has mastered this first obstacle, they can begin to work on digging deeper and start to consciously reach for their thoughts and emotions. An Occlumens in tune with and aware of their feelings can use this connection to access the memories interwoven with these emotions, allowing them to consciously re-experience, examine and compartmentalize them. This link between memories and emotions means that many Occlumens have an exceptional memory, able to call forth specific events if they have actively chosen to remember them.

Along with their ability to remember certain events will also come the ability to “forget” or even “edit” specific memories. A skilled Occlumens can decide to consciously banish memories or thoughts from their mind, or twist their memories to become different from what they initially were, creating fake memories that can fool offensive mental magic targeting them - truth serums are often ineffective against Occlumens, but their mental defence is also effective against mental magic used by magical creatures or Legilimency, the opposing art to Occlumency that is used to attack the mind of an opponent. Occlumens can be exceptionally skilled liars, and are usually good at resisting the Imperius Curse - though it should be noted that this isn’t necessarily true the other way around: being able to throw off the Imperius doesn’t mean one would make a good Occlumens.

It is said that a mastery of Occlumency offers a resistance to possession and certain other kinds of magic that passively affect the mind, but this has never been proven and remains disputed, as Occlumens remain rare in the present time. Aurors and member of other magical law enforcement agencies are often given basic Occlumency training, but no mastery of the art is required to hold any of these positions.

To this day, Occlumency is often treated with distrust, as practicing Occlumens are many times seen as somebody “who has something to hide” and therefore perceived as shrewd and untrustworthy. This stems from a lack of understanding of what Occlumens are actually capable of, and remains (together with the strong mental and emotional discipline needed to master it, and the few practical applications it actually has) one of the main reasons this type of magic has drifted into obscurity.

*lore by ELaine Pendrast, Magdalena Wickham-Deakin, Collette Simmons