Flake

General term for someone who is “off in the ozone”. This term is, of course, in common usage in the mainstream community, but in occult circles it has the added connotation that the person so described:

• has done little or no research in the field they claim to be practicing – e.g., a Thelemite not having read Magick in Theory and Practice or any other of Crowley’s books, or a Wiccan not knowing the Charge of the Goddess;
• may be actively hostile to research or knowledge in general – e.g., the folks who continue to believe Margaret Murray’s “Great Golden Age of Matriarchy” theories and refuse to look at any more recent anthropological or archæological findings, or those who adamantly accept their own past-life memories or other “revealed truths” in preference to attested historical knowledge about past events.

As in mainstream usage, the word “flake” also has a strong component of “will believe anything, no matter how ludicrous”. This may explain why New Agers are thought of as extremely flaky, and Wiccans only a bit less so, while Chaotes may be described by a variety of pejorative terms, but “flake” is rarely one of them. New Agers often seem to believe absolutely anything, as long as it costs them at least US$300 to do so, and Wiccans often seem to believe anything that supports matriarchy, while Chaotes never seem to believe anything at all – even the existence of the demonic beings they summon with such apparent regularity.

A fluff-bunny is basically someone who is both a flake and a white-lighter simultaneously – but the traits do often go together.