Generation Hex [Paperback]

Jason Louv (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2005

If the modern world is crumbling, then magic is what’s growing up between the cracks. In Generation Hex, editor Jason Louv assembles a collection of dispatches from the edge—a generation of young adults who are inventing and imagining radically new directions for spirituality and human evolution.

Arising from the magical and occult underground of the early twenty-first century, the authors, artists, thinkers, and magicians assembled in Generation Hex collectively point the way to a future in which fanaticism and dogma have disappeared, in which human beings are free to realize their own destinies, and where the theory and practical applications of magic—the psychic ability of all human beings to engage and participate with the creative energy of the universe itself—-saturate and regenerate this troubled planet.

Through critical essays and practical demonstrations of how a positive interaction with the occult, esoteric, and psychic undercurrents of human life can radically alter one’s existence, the young magicians collected here provide a collective snapshot of a dramatically new way forward for global culture as it emerges from the fringes and into the mainstream, from counterculture to ultraculture.

Generation Hex offers the reader an excursion into the lives and practices of real-life Harry Potters, young men and women who practice real magic, here stripped of its sinister trappings and revealed to be what it truly is—the key to human evolution. Generation Hex provides a blueprint for escaping the suicidal rut of modern life and the radical redesign of the very essence of what it means to be human.

Jason Louv is a New York-based writer and editor. He has spent the last six years researching and practicing magic, being initiated into various questionable secret societies, traveling around the Near East, and learning how to cloud minds. This is his first book.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Generation Hex reasserts the essential place of magic in our interaction with the universe. -- Genesis P-Orridge, cultural engineer

This book kicks major ass! -- Phil Hine, author Condensed Chaos

Your invitation to the party that might just bring the house down. -- Grant Morrison, author The Invisibles and The Filth

From the Publisher

If the modern world is crumbling, then magic is what’s growing up between the cracks. In Generation Hex, editor Jason Louv assembles a collection of dispatches from the edge—a generation of young adults who are inventing and imagining radically new directions for spirituality and human evolution.

Through critical essays and practical demonstrations of how a positive interaction with the magical and psychic undercurrents of human life can radically alter one’s existence, the young magicians collected in Generation Hex provide a collective blueprint for escaping the suicidal rut of modern life.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: The Disinformation Company (September 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1932857206
• ISBN-13: 978-1932857207
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #153,190 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Post-Chaos Magic(k), December 22, 2005

By 

K. J. Walsh "Child Ov Light" (Vic, Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Generation Hex (Paperback)

As a kind of post-chaos magic text this book works well. Stephen Grasso's essays in particular are oustanding, documenting the dynamic progession of someone from within the chaos scene towards something both more pragmatically effective and personally fulfilling.

That being said, there is an equal amount of nonsense in GH. Practically every essay contains a reference to drug use as a magical tool. There's no doubt certain substances have their place in occult works, but if you read this book cold you'd tend to think they were necessary - no thanks!

Jason Louv clearly has some very noble ideals - much required in present occulture - however, there is an obvious question mark over some of the contributors in this text and their ability to inspire the next generation.

All things considered, this is a book that should be part of the contemporary magician's library, if only as a reference point to the real 'movers and shakers' in the selected reading section. Not that there isn't some vibrant magical creatures in this book - there are - but this tends to be balanced by the odd delusionary LSD tract expressing some ill-defined magical endowment.

I seriously look forward to the release of Grasso's forthcoming book.

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Inspiration in difficult times, November 22, 2005

By 

Klinton Finley (Laramie, WY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Generation Hex (Paperback)

If you're looking for a book with a mind shattering new magical paradigm, this is not that book. It is also not a handbook for beginning magicians. This is the book you're looking for if you're a magician in need of fresh inspiration in a bleak and self-destructive society.

If you've established a magical practice but are wondering "OK, I'm a magician, now what?" or feel there's just "something" missing from your practice, this book is for you. If these essays have an overarching theme, it's what it feels like to be a magician.

One of the criticisms leveled at this book is that there is a lack of diversity in voices. I have to agree. Despite many of the contributors saying "I'm not a chaos magician," most of the essays in this book come from a Western, chaos-influenced perspective. The majority of the contributors are male, and all but one lives in North America.

The problem with anthologies is always consistency. There were a few articles that I just did not like. But Stephen Grasso's essays, and Chris Arkenberg's article "My Love War with Fox News" are worth the price of admission on their own.

I'm hesitant to recommend this book to beginners, though I think with some work even the most basic beginner would take something away from this book. I recommend this book to all practicing magicians. Even if you think your practice is fine the way it is, I suspect you'll find something of value in this collection.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars blew my mind, November 5, 2005

By 

K. mckay "ms. k" (new york, new york) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Generation Hex (Paperback)

if you don't know anything about magic, read this book. if you do know a thing or two, read this book. if the whole idea makes you laugh, or freaks you out, please read this book! i have been around these ideas for awhile but reading this actually was the catalyst that inspired me to pick up this path on my own. i like some essays more than others, but all in all, it is a profound, exciting, beautiful collection, that leaves me feeling very hopeful about this generation.