Gandalf's Mac and the Technopagan Agenda

Grinding.be has a fantastic blog about the usage of Magic to describe and interact with new techonological metaphors. It's what I would call a "must read". It's something that I have been very passionate about, and actually something that I am currently making a comic book about. So...yeah. Read that shit.

"Which brings me back ’round to magick. These “archaic” systems of thought have very detailed methodologies for incorporating and manipulating systems of information that extend beyond the traditional notions of the body or physical existence. Many of these systems understand the importance of the Idea and how these phantom things can heal or hurt.

Technology has brought us back to magickal thinking because magickal thinking has working maps of the empherial and invisible human experience that are just now being made visible to all via leaps in information technology."

Something I jotted into my notes the other week:
"Future is Magic.
Magic is Past
Future is Past"

It's very simple, but I think in that lies the basis for how we will evolve out of the coming eschaton event.

Hope and the Apocalypse

One of the side problems of the total history world we are moving into, where all history is prescient is that we develop a certain jadedness to problems which in the past we were able to deal with by summoning a kind of belief necessary to overcome them.

The specific instance of this I'm interested in dealing with today is the perception of apocalyptic literature and prophecy in the modern era. In the past, apocalyptic literature typically arose during times of great societal stress, generally around certain year types, but not always(side point, it's interesting the correlation between time which is for all intents and purposes man created, and the chronal aspects of apocalyptic prophecies--you always need a date, if only because we wrongly assume all aspects are moving in concert according to our own perceptions of time, when they are as incongruous as the planets (time for a plant is diffrent than time for a human, as is time on Venus is different than time on mars (time is diffrent for someone who has lived longer and whose perspective of time is as a much more fleeting thing, than someone experiencing it for the first time and for whom it must feel interminable)). Many people wrongly dismiss Apocalyptic art as being doom, and in that being bereft of hope and not serving any real purpose for them.

However, the function of Apocalyptic art is oftentimes completely about hope. An end point prescribes value for the individual on the now. If you think that you have ten days left to live, then those ten days become very valuable, and the things you do in them take on an increased importance to you--whereas if you have an interminable amount of time left, then those moments may not feel valued at all.

But why do we need this value? We need it as a survival mechanism. Because there are times in human history, that money, food, shelter, and quality of life are all very much on the wane. And during those times the only thing we can value is our time, and the possibility of our pain ending. In those times, doom becomes hope. The notion that everything will be washed away and a new beginning will be attained is very appealing to those in duress. Apocalyptic writing like dystopian writing is as much a reflection of it's time as it is a projection into the future.

The problem arises, that because of postmodernism, the internet, and the overflood of information, the ability of the human mind to respond effectively to apocalyptic art has been severely compromised. It becomes a boy crying wolf situation. And what happens in that story, which is significant, is that eventually a wolf does come, and the boy is crying wolf, but nobody is listening.

You see this more and more as a response to issues that require people to sacrifice for the greter survival of the species. Such as the American response to global warming, which has been a grumble at best and at worst a willful denial of the oncoming crushing reality. Global warming is seen by many as the new Y2K bug. And this is a direct result of the past knowledge that the post information society has instinctively absorbed into it's sub-consciousness.

The worry I'm expressing here, is that our basic instinct to be wowed by the sublimity of apocalyptic vision has been sufficiently beat into the ground, such that we are in fact heading for a coming apocalypse, that is more likely than ever, because we are lacking in our normal ways to adapt and change to the on-rushing eschaton.

Actually, worry probably isn't the right word. Because I do think the event that does happen is going to result in an evolution of the species. So it may be correct to lens this jadedness as yet another aspect of our general evolution to the eschaton event. Like, very plant following the sun over the horizon.

Infomancy and the Coming Ragnarok

This is a word I discovered today that is one of those things that describes a sensation I've felt for some time now. So it's with a great deal of happiness I present:

Infomancy! Defined here as:

"n. 1.The field of magic related to the conjuring of information from the chaos of the universe. 2.The collection of terms, queries, and actions related to the retrieval of information from arcane sources."

See it in practice here.

Basically it's a description of a phenomena I've seen on message boards for years. You shoot out an inquiry into the internet. Pretty much anything. If you charge the intent enough that it's interesting to the will of the collective information, you will get a drove of experts flocking to your fired questions, tripping over one another to answer your previously innane query.

In the instance above it was about the pinging of information regarding japanese robots. But it can really be anything. It really is the basis of how a search engine even works. You put out the coded information for what you want into the little search box, and it comes out the other end in useful or arcane information that you can apply outside of the internet or turn around and redistributed back into it. There's a frictive force at work here of ideas gyrating off of one another constantly generating new realities and factoids because of it.

It's almost it's own kind of alchemey. In the purest form, a true infomancer is just looking for elements of information to combine into a coherent gnosis which will allow them to break the bonds of the world of information around them.

I've talked often about the eschaton of 2012, and the theories of the mayans, and the norse, that the world will end, but come out in a new way that is changed. But I'm starting to think what we will experience is a loop back around. A lot of the concepts that we are seeing on the internet seem to correspond with earlier ideas and methods for villages and early groups of people. In all seriousness, the most important books you can read on understanding the internet and the coming(existing) world are ones based in concepts that we thought were long dead. Metaphors of shamanism, the village, black plague--the internet has already kicked off the next age of human life, and some of the former patterns are playing out in a predictable and usable way.

Our future is going to be shaped by the collision of magic and technology, and the resulting friction will usher us into a new sublime. But I don't really know if the two are just going to fuse, or repel. Judging some of the current metaphors I'm seeing though, I think some sort of fusion is at place. Or at worst a co-opting.

At any rate, this is a great quote:

" Where’s my flying car, you ask? You’re driving it right now."

You Can Squeeze Water from a Mayan Relic: Or get an Internet Connection Off It

Here's one for the water folks out there:
"Thirsty Southern California cities are turning to water-rich farmers on the eastern edge of Riverside County for additional supplies to make up for the ongoing drought and other restrictions on the life-sustaining resource.

Starting this summer, farmers in the Palo Verde Valley along the Colorado River will forgo planting crops on nearly 26,000 acres, the most land yet under a little-known fallowing agreement with Metropolitan Water District. The pact will double the amount now being sent to MWD and its 18 million urban customers. In exchange, MWD will pay the farmers $16.8 million each year for 115,000 acre-feet of water -- almost 37.5 billion gallons."

You don't think we'll be killing each other over water in a few years? Think again. People want to talk about the oil crisis. The water crisis is what's going to do people in. Yeah it sucks not being able to drive to work, but imagine not being able to get a clean glass of water for a few days?

Stinky butt town for sure!
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Here's an interesting bit of news courtesy of cnn.com:
"One in five respondents to a new survey in the journal Nature say they've used drugs to boost their brain power."

I'm not good at math, but I do wonder how this number corresponds to the percentages given across various religions when it comes to how many people are going up to level 9? Because you figure this percentage of people are also probably going to most likely to upload their consciousness as that possibility continues to open. And then hosanna be the king, fullfilled prophecy!
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Apparently in Russia they have Mayan gods just milling around....can you subconsciously be immaneatizing the eschaton? I mean let's just give those 2012 bastards access to all of that black market uranium, hey? See what happens...

This courtesy of the very fun English Russia blog:

The story of them appearing there starts in 19th century when Academy of St. Petersburg sent a group of explorers to Middle America. They visited through all of Yucatan, collected different things for St. Petersburg’s museums. By the way they noticed and bought a set of Mayan idols from Chichen Itza ruins. Upon the return of expedition smaller objects were placed into museums but nobody has found a good place for those Mayan statues and they were left all by themselves in the back yard, dug into ground.

A few years passed and Soviet Revolution happened, all the museums were messed up, all the buildings were nationalized by Soviets and were used for a totally different purpose then before. In many churches warehouses were founded as the result of total atheism of new Russian authorities, and many museum were turned into something else as a result of ignorance.

So hundred years passed and those 1500 year old Mayan deities stand, abandoned and not worshiped by anyone except accidental Russian teens searching for a place to have a beer outside in some public backyard."

Kitsunetsuki and Cannibalism in the Coming Eschaton

Wikipedia is the greatest thing ever. I used to read encyclopedias all of the time 1st through 3rd grade because I got done with assignments way early, and the teacher would make me just go read encyclopedias, and I always found them captivating, because I just love information that wraps around my wills and desires for that day.

Wikipedia is that sensation, but on crack.

At any rate. Yesterday was look up mythological beast days. And one of the ones I'm very interested in is the japanese fox spirits. Kitsune. Primarily because of their shapeshifting trickster ways. They're almost Loki-esque, but with a cute werewolf bend.

So I came across this:

"Kitsunetsuki (狐憑き or 狐付き; also written kitsune-tsuki) literally means the state of being possessed by a fox. The victim is typically a young woman, whom the fox enters beneath her fingernails or through her breasts.^[26] In some cases, the victims' facial expressions are said to change in such a way that they resemble those of a fox. Japanese tradition holds that fox possession can cause illiterate victims to temporarily gain the ability to read.^[27]

Folklorist Lafcadio Hearn describes the condition in the first volume of his Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan:

"Strange is the madness of those into whom demon foxes enter. Sometimes they run naked shouting through the streets. Sometimes they lie down and froth at the mouth, and yelp as a fox yelps. And on some part of the body of the possessed a moving lump appears under the skin, which seems to have a life of its own. Prick it with a needle, and it glides instantly to another place. By no grasp can it be so tightly compressed by a strong hand that it will not slip from under the fingers. Possessed folk are also said to speak and write languages of which they were totally ignorant prior to possession. They eat only what foxes are believed to like — tofu, aburagé, azukimeshi, etc. — and they eat a great deal, alleging that not they, but the possessing foxes, are hungry.[28

He goes on to note that, once freed from the possession, the victim will never again be able to eat tofu, azukimeshi, or other foods favored by foxes.

Exorcism, often performed at an Inari shrine, may induce a fox to leave its host.^[29]kitsunetsuki were beaten or badly burned in hopes of forcing the fox to leave. Entire families were ostracized by their communities after a member of the family was thought to be possessed.^[28] In the past, when such gentle measures failed or a priest was not available, victims of

In Japan, kitsunetsuki was noted as a disease as early as the Heian period and remained a common diagnosis for mental illness until the early 20th century.^[30][31]ayed by the afflicted individuals. In the late 19th century, Dr. Shunichi Shimamura noted that physical diseases that caused fever were often considered kitsunetsuki.^[32] The belief has lost favor, but stories of fox possession still appear in the tabloid press and popular media. One notable occasion involved allegations that members of the Possession was the explanation for the abnormal behavior displAum Shinrikyo cult had been possessed.^[33]

In medicine, kitsunetsuki is an ethnic psychosis unique to Japanese culture. Those who suffer from the condition believe they are possessed by a fox.^[34] Symptoms include cravings for rice or sweet red beans, listlessness, restlessness, and aversion to eye contact. Kitsunetsuki is similar to but distinct from clinical lycanthropy.^[35]"

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In other news, Ted Turner thinks we will be cannibals in forty years because of Global warming:

"We'll have eight degrees -- we'll be eight degrees hotter in 10 -- not 10, but in 30 or 40 years. And basically none of the crops will grow. Most of the people will have died, and the rest of us will be cannibals."

Buddy, in four years cannibalism will be the least of our problems. Know your eschaton!

At any rate. If the higher ups like Ted Turner are worried, just imagine what you should be. You don't own a solar powered whirligig zombie destroyer. And even if you did, THEY would probably take it away from you.

No. Your best bet in the event the whole world goes cannibal is the dogs. You need to be friendly with a pack of very intimidating and dangerous guard dogs. How else are you going to protect your stolen dragon treasure?!

Which of course brings us back full circle to....Kitsunetsuki.

You can read it all in my forthcoming book: Werewolves vs. Zombies--Survival Tips for The Eschatologically Possessed.

Immanentize the Eschaton

Here is an interesting piece done by one of my favorite blogs about the use of corporate symbols in mind control. If you know anything about sigils, this is an ability that is out there and available to anyone. But the PR companies are the ones who are exploiting it the hardest and the best right now. I think Alan Moore said something about this in an interview, that a lot of the people who we would charge with creation of ideas--like our modern day magicians--they've been co-opted out by those who seek to exploit those talents and abilities for their own personal benefit without any respect to the advancement of the human condition.

I don't think this is something that is done intentionally, on a wholly conscious level. But I do think that when you are in position B or C in society, there are elements in place which make you do X thing. We're at a point in human history, where we have more power at our disposal than ever, but have never been so powerless to use it. The things we have sacrificed to get here, we're paying the bills of. And it's leaving strictures in places like this.

Part of this study showed how people exposed to the Apple Icon versus the IBM one, were prone to be more creative in their usage of the elements around them. Imagine if we were powering people up even more strongly in these respects, without such a hard eye to the bottom line?

And the thing is. This stuff IS doable. This is just crafting symbols and then placing them. Even if people aren't familiar with what the symbols are supposed to mean, this study indicates that they are still influenced. You say something like that, and then look around you at the iconongraphy that is puked all over our eniviroment and wonder just what the hell we've gotten ourselves into.

It reminds me tangentially(or not) of some of the stuff in Don Delillo's Mao II. In particular the bombed out Beirut with the coca-cola signs everywhere.

Forget voting. You're not changing shit with voting. The idea of voting is just some construct you are forced to buy into because of the symbology you're bombarded with on a daily basis.

You want to talk about the concept of civic duty. You're civic duty is to create newer and better symbology and spread it everywhere.

Our foot soldiers are graf writers and bloggers. Have you made a sigil today?