I discuss how game creation can teach us principles of magic that can be applied to pop culture magic workings as well as magical workings in general. I also share a couple of ideas on how to use game creation to construct magical workings that are executed when a game is played.
Why you don't want to be an archetype
I find it fascinating when a person overly identifies with a role they’ve taken on in their lives or profession. Part of the fascination is based off my pop culture studies, where I’ve noted how the persona in pop culture takes on a life of its own. The person who makes up the base identity of the persona is overshadowed by the persona and the attention and energy directed toward it by the people who are interested in the persona.
However this isn’t the only way that identity can be eclipsed by a persona. Identity can also be eclipsed by taking on an archetypal identity and overly associating with it. While there can be a lot of value in working with a given archetype, because of the patterning that the archetype provides, there can also be a limitation involved when you overly associate your identity with the archetype.
When I apply this awareness to my own life I consider that while I practice magic and write books (among other activities) overly associating with the role of magician or author would be very limiting. There are times to take on those roles because they serve a specific purpose and put me into a specific identity, but inhabiting that identity all the time would prevent me from experiencing the richness of my life.
Consider your own life and the archetypal roles you take on. How do those roles serve you? How do they limit you? Do you want to inhabit that role or is something you can outgrow and let go of?
For a long time I have identified myself as a magical experimenter. It’s been a good role to play, but as I continue to walk my life path, I also think about what other roles I might step into as well as what value might be discovered in the process. I will always experiment with magic, but it’s not the only purpose of my life. When I recognized that I was able to step into other roles and let go of some of the attachment I’ve previously held with the magical experimenter role.
We ought to consider carefully who we become as it relates to the archetypes we connect with. Each archetype has a purpose, but we also have purpose beyond the archetype. Getting curious about the overall purpose of your life and being can be just as empowering as any other role you might take on.
The latest podcast interviews I've been on
I have been getting interviewed a lot lately, both solo, and with my magical mate Joanna Brook and I thought I would share them.
I was interviewed twice by Chaos Vibrations. In the first interview we discuss living a magical life and in the second interview we talk about my newest book Scrying the Divine.
Joanna and I were interviewed by Vic Hyland about creativity, divine inspiration, poetry and cutup magick.
Joanna and I were also interviewed by the Knights of the Nephilim about mediumship, spirit work and magick.
Can social media become an expression of magical workings
When I recently asked my Facebook group what questions they had about social media magic, because of a book I’m getting ready to write on the topic, it didn’t surprise me that some of the questions I received were skeptical ones that questioned if social media could even be used as a medium for magical work. I understand why that question is asked, because the prevalent image and associations of magic are all based around traditional perspectives of how magic ought to work, with traditional tools that don’t really touch on modern technology and using it for magical purposes.
Yet nonetheless modern technology has been used in conjunction with magic and is being used with magical workings in order to get results, by myself and many other people, because the simple fact is magic isn’t limited to a specific toolset or way of doing things. Those limitations are human imposed and say more about how we limit our understanding of magic and how it can be practiced and what can be done with it. If we recognize the limitation as self-imposed then we can let go of it and start exploring how to adapt social media or anything else toward magical work.
Ragnarok and the nature of avatars
I recently binge watched seasons 1 and 2 of Ragnarok. It’s a modern retelling of the Norse myths, but what I found most interesting about the show is how they explored the giants and gods in the modern story. The giants are running the town and eternally cycling from young to old, while the gods end up end up manifesting as avatars that are woken up in order to fight the giants, but what’s interesting is that what is implied is that any person could become a god if they were activated.
It’s a pop culture rendition of the Norse myths and as always I find the pop culture retellings to be fascinating, because in a way a pop culture retelling is also an avatar of a mythology that has been activated to help perpetuate that mythology. Whether the pop culture is a TV show, video game, book, or comic, or some other form of media, when it calls attention to the original mythology, while also doing a retelling of the mythology in a different context, it perpetuates the mythology. This is part of the power of pop culture. It takes old stories and makes them new again.
Algorithms and magic
I recently finished reading The Creativity Code by Marcus Du Sautoy (Affiliate link). What really fascinated me about this book was the in depth exploration of algorithms, which essentially are code that is used to predict behavior. A basic example of this can include visiting a website and then later seeing an ad for that site on your Facebook. When you visit a site, if that site has a Facebook pixel, then when you are on Facebook, you get ads from that site because by visiting that site you’ve indicated interest in what is on that site. Amazon employs algorithms on its site for similar purposes, using your behavior to predict what you are likely to buy.
You’re probably wondering what if anything this has to do with magic. Reading that book and learning more about algorithms got me to thinking about how you might design a magical working to be self-improving or to be behavior based, depending on what you or the focus of the magical working did. In general I treat my magical workings like programming code, because I don’t see a magical working as just a strict execution of the working, but rather as an organic, evolving working that can change, depending on the variables that come into play. Applying an algorithmic perspective could take this even further.
Social Media Sigil Technique
In my recent interview with Soviet Mercedes, one of the topics we ended up talking about was a social media sigil technique based off using hashtags. Soviet Mercedes inspired this idea for me, because of how she uses hashtags on her FB posts, especially one in particular: #meetmeatthebank. I’ve recently started adding this hashtag to my daily gratitude posts as well as any other posts oriented around wealth magic.
This particular hashtag embodies the concept of wealth magic, because the bank, in one form or another, is where your wealth goes. Whether it’s a physical bank, or a metaphorical one or the bank of your body and the health you have, to meet at the bank is to also meet in the place of your wealth. It’s also where you show your receipts, because those receipts validate what you bring to the bank and what in turn the bank provides you. Note: This is my interpretation of #Meetmeatthebank and not necessarily how Soviet Mercedes would define it.
Why pop culture magic works
I always find it interesting when critics of pop culture magic make the arguments that pop culture magic either can’t work or if it does work, the results aren’t as good as other systems of magic. I wonder why they make those criticisms, especially when its clear that for the most part they haven’t actually tried pop culture magic, and therefore don’t have any qualified experience to critique pop culture magic. The conclusion I’ve come to is that such critics attack pop culture magic because they feel threatened by the idea that pop culture magic my supplant their practice of magic. As a result, they feel the need to try and take pop culture magic down.
When I first started writing articles and later my first book Pop Culture Magick, I was on the receiving of similar criticisms. I was told I was reinventing the wheel and that pop culture magic wasn’t real magic. Nevertheless I continued writing articles and books and giving talks on the topic, because I knew there were other people practicing pop culture magic and I also had tangible results from using pop culture magic. And over the years I have heard from people who read my books and articles and told me how they didn’t feel so alone and realized that pop culture magic could be a viable path of magic, one where viable systems of magic could be developed and used.
Can you still practice pop culture magic if the pop culture has been cancelled?
The other day in the Pop Culture Magick Facebook group I asked the question: “Can you still practice pop culture magic if the pop culture has been cancelled?” I used the recent example of J. K . Rowlings and her comments on the Trans community as an example where someone might practice pop culture magic, but have an issue with what the creator of that pop culture said or did. could that person still work with the pop culture itself.
If you click the link above, you’ll get to see the responses to my question from the community. There were answers all across the spectrum on this issue and I feel like all of them were well considered. But here, I thought I would share my own answers to this question.
Two examples of pop culture spirits I'm working with
I’m currently engaged in three pop culture magic workings. I’m going to share two of those workings now, because it’s a good example of how working with two different pop cultures can be effective, under the right circumstances. The two workings are focused on the same goal. Each working is an evocation of a pop culture spirit that’s been chosen for strategic purposes. The pop culture spirits I’m working with are Grand Admiral Thrawn from Star Wars and Sam Bridges Porter from Death Stranding.
I’m working with Grand Admiral Thrawn because of his strategic genius and his ability to apply unconventional thinking toward solving situations. Thrawn has an appreciation of art, and uses the study of art to understand other cultures and the way those cultures behave. Thrawn also puts his community first. He doesn’t act from selfish ambition, but rather from a focus on trying to figure out how best to serve his community and put the community welfare first.
A pop culture magic pathworking with stranger things
In this video I'm doing a pop culture pathworking with stranger things. I'll share how I've set up the pathworking and then we'll actually do it. Feel free to join along
Get the how pop culture magic work series at https://www.magicalexperiments.com/pop-culture-magic-series
Get the Magic of Art at https://www.magicalexperiments.com/how-magic-works-series
Get free ebooks at https://www.magicalexperiments.com/free-books
Pathworking and pop culture magic
I define what pathworking is and share what you want to consider when putting one together. I also share an example of a pop culture pathworking I’m developing
How to pick your pop culture for pop culture magic
I’ve recently started playing a game called in Inquisitor-Martyr, set in the Warhammer 40k universe, which a is a dystopic universe where humanity has access to advanced technology, but also a medieval mindset about technology. At the same time, humanity is beset by various alien menaces and the forces of chaos. I enjoy the game, but I would never create a pop culture magic working or system based off the Warhammer universe.
In this article, I want to share some thoughts on how to pick your pop culture for pop culture magic and also demonstrate why a viable option for pop culture magic may not be ideal, for other reasons. At the same time I’m going to compare and contrast the 40k universe with that of Kingdom Hearts (for purposes of pop culture magic), which is on the opposite end of the spectrum when it comes to pop culture based off fantasy.