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Occult Explosion 2.0

01:00 / 09.03.04

I read this book recently, the Occult Explosion by Nat Freedland, published in the early 70's, talks about the rise in occultism in the mainstream culture. He put together a record with the same title which I have had for years, interview with Anton Lavey, some tracks by this Black Sabbath rip off Black Widow, and some other stuff.

It got me thinking, is there another occult explosion going on right now? It seems like it kind of died out in the late 70's, started up with some new ageism in the late 80's, then in the 90's turned into this aliens thing, and now it seems to be turning back around to straight up magick. Maybe people have been really into it this whole time and I just missed it. And if I am right, what can we attribute this to? Harry Potter? Invisibles? Disinfo? Barbelith? A general dissatisfaction of the world around us? The internet easily distributing information?

Does anyone else feel it?

02:44 / 09.03.04

Not to mention Buffy, Angel, Charmed, Lord of the Rings, The Matrix (techno-magick)... magick does seem to be in the spotlight these days.

But it also seems like it's fading. Most of the stuff I mentioned is over and done with. Very thing now seems to be more "Reality" centered.

03:07 / 09.03.04

Very thing now seems to be more "Reality" centered.

Yeah, but isnt there a reality show on the sci fi channel that features a voodoo priestess?

06:22 / 09.03.04

I live in a conservative town of 8,000 people. In a week, I'm attending an occult book discussion group at the local witchcraft shop. Yeah, I think that there is an occult explosion. Now as to why, my personal belief is that it has to do with the uncertainty of life, in a society where change is occuring at an increasingly frantic pace. There's a great hunger for spiritual growth, but young people aren't trusting the "authorities". Not only that, society is becoming increasingly regulated, and magickal practice represents and offers power and freedom. Push one aspect and it's opposite will certainly push back in a society that allows it to do that. I also think that people are having more trouble relating to the explaination that the many confusing events in their lives are the mystery of an all-controlling deity, and need to have a practice that meshes in with science, as well as providing a spiritual dimension to their lives. Part of it is due to the fact, of course, that the cat is simply out of the bag.

Shanghai Quasar

12:00 / 09.03.04

There seem to be a fair share of artists (in all mediums) who are interested in it, or influenced by those who are, so that is reflected back on society. Art is basically magical, so that really isn't much of a shocker, is it?

It's really the whole aesthetic principle when it comes to the mainstream dumpings. Magic(k) is cool, doing things with your mind is cool, putting hexes on people is hip. There are movies and shows put out every year or few years with some sort of flashy magic involved. It's mostly fantasy and a lot is tossed in for the look, maybe some of it is the genuine magical article. Some kids pick up on it and maintain interest, some magicians pick up on pop culture and peel away at it.

As to the SF Channel show, you're talking about "Mad Mad House"? They just kind of grabbed at 'weird' sub-cultures for that one. The Vampire, the Witch, the Voodoo Priestess, the Modern Primitive, the Naturalist (Nudist).

That said, Barbelith is a strange little cave filled with weirdos. What're you asking us for?

12:52 / 09.03.04

After millenias of monotheism and enforced socialisation of strange megamaniac corporate religions people are finding themselves attracted to modern currents that run parallel with future physics, it's the current "geist" of the present. Nowadays anybody can practice and experiment whatever belief tools they can for spiritual developments. I suppose it's a question of aeonics or cycles or upwards spirals. The strange and the wyrd are fleshing out. Can't stand "Charmed" though - it just does not rock the boat. Has anybody checked out the Taylor Ellwood article "How To Invoke Buffy" - think it's in the archive of the American New Witch Magazine (if that's its correct name!?), now that's cool. Using self-made collages as opposed to mass produced items!!

12:55 / 09.03.04

I think that the raised interest in reality also raises interest in the limits (if there are any) to reality. This is obviously close to magic, of course. I also think that we are part of new wave of romanticism (as opposed to rationalism in the 19th century). But not the good old romanticism, but rather a postmodern romanticism where we don't look back and try to recreate a mythic past, but rather create our own mythic reality.

How's that for a theory?

(Being an professional artist, I can only concur with the notion that art is the same thing as magic.)

15:18 / 29.03.04

I would definitely agree were in a post modern romantic age. A lot of my work is concerned with creating a new mythos as opposed to relying upon older traditions, which lack the context that I think many people want and need in their magickal workings. Nice meeting all of you. Taylor

17:11 / 29.03.04

I attribute it to the Internet. Free information means all things once dark, spooky, and hard to come by are a google search away. Simply put, its just easier to get into now than ever.

18:03 / 29.03.04

I think there is some sort of an occult explosion going on.
despite popular oipinions about 2012 being a hoax, I believe the revolution/explosion to lead up to a consciousness change around that date.
of course it might be just me and my limited contact to the world

but it does seem that people around me are picking up interest in "magick", which to me is somehow merging with new agelideas, techno-magick and yoga and what ever else out there that has connections to "discovery of self", perception of reality, etc

yes the internet is definitely a key player. besides being a great medium for spreading information, the internet transforms its users. we gain(ed) a new view of the world and of reality. its sort of an evolutionary step, especially for kids who grow up online, the physical aspect of our existence loses importance and automatically suggests that there is a tangible spiritual life going on.

there is more and more pop culture/media that promotes and introduces magickal elements in books, comics, music.
It seems that the way Alan Moore or Tool present there art is more along the lines of an occult explosion, than lets say Black Sabbath in the 70ies or the Beatles.
Stuff these days is much more upfront, saying "TRY ME!" rather than just hinting at it.
the disinfo books are obviously the extreme of that....

also, I do think there is some sort of a psychadelic revolution going along with that, for example salvia being purchased at headshops and online by many youngsters. we didnt have that in the 60ies. i also read somewhere that LSD is much more present in the 90ies than in the 60ies and 70ies (despite the media misrepresentation of the crazy 60ies...)

Bard: One-Man Humaton Hoedown

20:14 / 29.03.04

Not just the internet, but the "old" occult arts and sciences are these days being presented in mediums where are more palatable to the younger generations. While some of us (::raises hand:: ) don't mind trudging through the Corpus Hermeticum in search of knowledge, some of us (::raises hand again:: ) also find it in a more entertaining, easier to read manner in stuff like Alan Moore's "Promethea" (dear god...another year and I'll be a Twenty-Something...sweet jeebus).

It goes beyond that. Occult society has become much more main stream, and not just fluffy Wiccans. I attended Toronto Pagan Pride Day this summer, and not only did I encounter an entourage of fluffy Wiccan highschool students who had driven down for the event, I met some very serious mystics practicing everything from voudoun to Native Canadian stuff (I still remained the only chaos magician and Hermetic there, though).

While Charmed, Buffy, Angel, and the like have brought the occult to the front in television, I don't know exactly how much they've helped. Though Willow DID coin a phrase that several people I know use for "fluffy" Wiccans and the like ("...a bunch've 'wanna-blessed-bes'"). Of course, there's also literature like Harry Potter, which I would say certainly deserves some degree of credit.

22:04 / 29.03.04

I thinks shows like Buffy, Charmed etc have made the occult more accessible in the sense that they have raised awareness of it. One downside of it though is that people do have hollywood ideas of what magick is about. So shows like that are a two-edged sword, helping and hindering at the same time.

Now pop culture is definitely viable for doing magick. it gives us fresh perspectives and contexts to approach magick. I've done a lot of work with pop culture, from video games, to pop television icons, to using anime and comics and I have found that a lot of people find the approaches more accessible. For instance for a local collage pagan group that I attend (the only chaos magickian there) I did a Harry Potter Ostara ritual...I and the peopel there seemed to have found it highly useful because HP is read a lot and the energy is vibrant

22:25 / 29.03.04

It's interesting to compare today with the late Victorian era. Both of these are fin-de-sicle societies where technology seems to moving too fast for many to cope with. Both have seen empire beginning to feel threatened, and scuffles erupting in far flung corners of the globe. And both have seen a rise in Romantiscism and Horror in fiction, an interest in magic, and a terrible fear of other people, especially what they might be doing to your children.

We haven't come far, really.

16:01 / 30.03.04

A strange little cave filled with weirdos...Sure, why not?

I don't know if there's an occult explosion--I think all of the weirdos can now hook up VERY easily via the internet, and the huge number of websites, online magazines, message boards etc. Personally, I love it.

Before the internet (yes, I remember) it was virtually (I mean really) impossible to find other like-minded people. I think I met one in the mid-80s, and another in 1992. Most people are not the least bit interested in magick, but I can't remember not being interested in it. Two more years, and I'll no longer be a thirty-something (thank god)!

Personally, it is my belief that the entire magickal community is made up of people who think too damn much, and as a result, are not comfortable with consensus reality. Thus, the strange little cave...

fnord

13:45 / 28.04.04

ABC’s "Wolf Files" just had a piece on "pop magick" curses.

Excerpt:
In the contemporary curse market, hexes come with return and exchange policies. Many sites take credit cards, and if you send a lock of hair, they'll build you the perfect voodoo doll.
And if you fear you're the victim of a curse, they'll lift that naughty hex just as fast as you can whip out a credit card.
Of course, if you're rich and famous, you can pay six-figure retainers to your personal shaman, like Michael Jackson reportedly did.
You'd think that having a brother in the White House would be a source of security, but first brother Neil Bush complained through a lawyer last year that his estranged wife, Sharon, was pulling out his hair as part of a plot to cast an evil spell.

So there's definitely something afoot.

14:35 / 28.04.04

Wild! So the Bushes are connected with the occult - between the Skull & Bones Society for W. and Neil's wife, we knew it all along...

18:31 / 28.04.04

There does seem to be a lot of "occultism" in the popular media these days, but in some ways it also seems like the least "occult"-friendly period that I have personally lived through.

In my "prime" (late 80s/early 90s), bands like PTV and Coil were hugely popular in my crowd and everyone was either directly involved in or influenced by groups like the OTO, IOT, EOD and so on. Nowadays, the new generation of "kids" in the "scene" seem to be actually hostile to all of that and to any idea of life that alternates from a strict physics and brain chemistry (but they tend to be anti-drugs, too) viewpoint of Life, the Universe and Everything. Maybe this is just a local thing, though.

19:52 / 28.04.04

Well ever since Marilyn Manson lifted off I noticed that young goths and metalheads would squat the floor at Waterstones reading themselves bite-sized digests from the occult sections. More of it...