Customer Reviews

Pop Culture Magick

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I'll admit that when I first heard of this book, I was really skeptical. When it was published, I didn't know Taylor, and I remember the calls that he was a sellout, a poser and an idiot. That a book based on popular culture and especially the "Buffy Summoning" was just a stupid, fluffy concept. I refrained from commenting because I hadn't read the book, but to me it sounded interesting since at its core, Chaos magick uses the same concept.

Now I've read this book and I think it deserves an honored place next to "Oven Ready Chaos". For those of you who aren't familiar with that book, it is considered to be a seminal work of Chaos Magick.

I will state this from the outset, this is not a book for a novice magickian. It is a book that it dense with information and it makes HUGE assumptions as to the reader's experience level and knowledge. This is a text that pretty much requires that the reader be very familiar with their own magickal system and that they have multiple years of experience casting spells and manifesting their desires.

Taylor takes the reader from that starting point and begins showing them how their magickal works can be even better by using pop icons in their workings. The primary concept in this book is that if magick is affected by the amount of people believing in it, then it can be made even MORE effective by using symbols and icons that masses of people ALREADY believe in, like Pop Culture icons. Using a figure like Wolverine from the X-Men for the cynical Ronin figure in a working for warriors would be even more effective since Wolverine himself has such a fan following and their belief has already charged the idea of Wolverine that you will be using. Heck, to listen to many scholars this is exactly how the Gods were created, a pop culture icon given enough power and belief so that it goes really good.

He explores this concept as well as the benefits and pitfalls of working with this kind of energy. He also shares some personal works and examples throughout. Just about every mass media method of communication is listed, with a few exceptions. While television, music and movies are all put together in one chapter, it is still noted that it is possible to work with those entities coming from that media outlet. I think I also just realized why he gives those such a brief treatment; the fact that icons coming from those outlets pass by in a flash and by the time one really learns the icon well enough to work with it, the attention of the culture as a whole has moved on to other things.

There are some things I had a problem with, and it is not the material itself.

His delivery is pretty dry throughout. This is partly because of his background in academia, which tends not to like descriptive and imagination stirring phrases. The tone, while sounding arrogant, actually isn't. It is the tone one generally has when they are very experienced in an aspect of life and is trying to transmit that professional competence to an audience.

The anime part of the book, where he is taking specific anime series and using them to illustrate his point, uses series that are popular, but may not be known to the reader. One example of this is he goes into great detail comparing the anime series Neon Genesis Evangelion to the Kaballah (which honestly I believe it is based on in the first place). Throughout that section he makes a basic assumption that the reader is as familiar with the series as he is, so he doesn't explain things to those who may not know what happens in the series. Readers would have to watch the entire series and the movie just to make sense of that section of the book. He does this again and again in the video game section as well, and you can see hints of it in other areas. So while the concepts are solid magickal work, these sections I feel could lose the reader.

I'm going to give this book 4 stars out of 5 ultimately. The somewhat limited appeal, the assumption of knowledge in the latter chapters and the tone conspired to reduce the score from the 4 1/2 I wanted to give it. But still, this is a HUGELY needed work, and anyone who is involved in the Esoteric, Magick, Discordianism, Pop Culture, Chaos workings or even standard Ceremonial magickians or Witches would be well advised to read this book, if for no other reason than to understand this important core concept.

I know I'll be recommending it to many many others. Taylor, my hat is off to you my friend. Well done.

The first thing you notice in reading it is the book is remarkably tame and sane. The author, who can calmly discuss how pop culture characters are in a way like new gods or comic book layouts can give you magickal ideas, does so in simple, sane, and academic style. It has the feel of a straightforward, unpretentious lecture more than anything else.

The book has three major concepts in it:
1) The idea that belief empowers popular culture figures and this belief provides power.
2) A modern occultist can find inspiration in popular culture.
3) Occultism is usless if you just talk theory.

The book goes through various kinds of popular culture, looking at specific and general ideas the author has derived from them, exploring the practices the author has done himself, and giving exercises and suggestions for people who are curious. To the author, whatever resonates with someone has occult potential.

What is presented is therefore a mixture of actual application by the author, suggestions for the reader, and an exploration of useful ideas and concepts. This is a hands-on book that sets up basic theory, then jumps right into activity. The author, in short, encourages you to get out there and get to work.

Between the occult advise, there are also some fascinating insights on Pop Culture, media, and more. There's no small amount of psychology and sociology in the book, and some interesting concepts about Pop Culture are introduced.

Its hard to rate this book as there's nothing I've quite seen like it. So I give it a 5 for the mixture of sanity and truly thinking outside of the box.

Taylor Ellwood's Pop Culture Magick can best be seen as a transitional book taking one from the world of fantasy to the real magick that exists behind every doorway and in every shadow of our world. Popular culture may not be popular among many of today's occultists (with the exception of some of the Chaotes), but if Carl Jung was right, and humankind does play out its rite of passage in dreams - or even if Kenneth Grant is right, and literary workmanship is the result of transdimensional communication - popular culture can then be said to have evolved from the archetypal images implanted into our thoughts. It is our ultimate play of inspiration like Shakespeare's portrayal of the Faerie Folk in Neil Gaiman's A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Most of those that get into the occult do so from various other mediums, whether it is comic books, role-playing games, or paranormal television shows. Most also struggle when first entering the occult scene because of the voluminous amounts of texts and practices required to make any real progress. Many give up on the occult not long after due to frustration.

Ellwood's book presents the occult framed by the modern images of popular culture, including those aforementioned comic books and role-playing games. If ever there was a book that eased the transition from fantasy to reality, this would be it.

This isn't to say that Pop Culture Magick is a beginner's book. Though Taylor Ellwood tries to keep the mumbo-jumbo down, and makes each and every exercise as simplistic as possible, there are a few assumption made that will force the novice to look elsewhere for additional material. This book, however, was never meant to be the end all. It was specifically meant to show individuals how to incorporate pop culture into there own current occult work, and Ellwood opens up many pathways for the user to accomplish this feat.

The most intriguing chapter of Pop Culture Magick has Ellwood dissecting anime cartoons with a hair-splitting scapel. He manages to inform the reader of all the occult and spiritual dogmatism present in anime, and goes at great length to examine the similarities between Neon Genesis Evangelion and the Kabbalah. Quite fascinating indeed.

Pop Culture Magick is a book of ideas. No, scratch that... a book of new ideas; and a refreshing change from the regurgitated techniques and information spilling out of many current publications.

It is said that there is nothing new under the sun. This is certainly true for most magickal / esoteric texts which merely rehash pioneering writings. They may look fresh and exciting at first glance, but at the end of the day, they are a part of the homogenized mainsteam.

While many people in the magickal community will begin their training in a particular tradition, there will always be those who will incorporate experimentation. But how many of the experimenters actually take the effort to see how far the rabbit hole goes, and whether it opens into a magickal wonderland?

By definition, there can be no cutting edge in contemporary magick. A cutting edge can be precisely defined. Those blazing a path in contemporary magick utilize a fluid approach.

I consider Taylor to be one of those brave individuals on the vanguard of modern magick. His approach is very different to mine and I certainly don't agree with everything he says. But that is the very point of his writing - to challenge and inspire. In this regard, Taylor's book succeeds admirably.

There are many high energy opportunities for practicing unorthodox magick, such as tapping into sporting events, sci-fi conferences, and the fan base of various music and movie stars. Following Taylor's lead, I envisage many budding young magickians never letting another such opportunity slide.

I have had practical experience working within a number of magical systems including QBL, Chaos Magick, Natural Magick and Neo Kemetic Egyptian Magick. Within my own magical/spiritual exploration, as well as reading within magical topics, I have encountered a number of self styled gurus or traditionalists who have been rather dogmatic about "the right way" to do magick. Taylor Ellwood does none of these things but instead of introduces the reader to a world of new possibilities.

I thought his book and the concepts within it were creative, fun, astute and encouraged the reader to explore new ways of working with a very potent energy force.
I think his pointing out the link between the power of collective belief and attention, and the new forms of energy archetypes visible and accessible in pop culture because of this, is important to consider given they have so much impact on peoples lives and development in non magickal ways anyway.

Pop culture magick is not linked to any spiritual or religious ideation, as many other systems of magick are. Its flexibility and changeability herald a new paradigm within magick (similarly to chaos magick). I thought the lack of moral or ethical focus within the system puts the emphasis on self responsibility and accountability on the individual which I applaud, although undoubtedly it is both a strength and a weakness of the system.

My personal experience with magick that falls within the Pop culture genre has had powerful and noticeable effects in my life and I will certainly be experimenting more with it in the future.

Overall I found Pop Culture Magick to be an unconventional and inspiring book and well worth reading for people who are not scared of original thought and creativity.

I read this book from cover to cover and really enjoyed it. It has a very unique perspective and the exercises were a great touch for people who want to actually try some of the things in the book. I like how Mr. Ellwood incorporated modern day icons or personas into magical workings. That will be fantastic for the person who has trouble associating with past historical deities and who wish to use something, someone they are more familiar and comfortable with.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. You can use Pokemon characters as points of focus for ritual if you really want. Taylor Ellwood's new book Pop Culture Magick explores this concept in a lot more depth., examining ways that we can use contemporary icons in place of deities from ancient times. Undoubtedly, some people will be offended by this concept. For that reason, I think that this book would be most beneficial for those people that are quite far along in their personal spiritual path, and have come to realize that the public images of Britney Spears, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Captain Kirk are clearly egregors; Constructs worshipped on a daily basis and on a much larger scale than Isis or Dagda or Thor (unless you're talking about the Thor from Marvel Comics). In this books the author forces us to face the truth of that, and it is a truth that many people may not be ready or willing to accept.
It is clear that the author has studied a lot of the different genres in detail, because there are an incredible number of references from Advanced Dungeons & Dragons to Star Trek. If the book has a failing, then this is it, because in much the same manner as Pop Culture itself, Ellwood bombards us with characters and personas from Anime, Video games, modern music and even TV commercials. Personally, I would like to see an in depth analysis of just one particular area, then maybe a cross reference table of the major archetypes that I can refer to as needed. Perhaps, in the next volume.
For those readers that can get past the obvious paradox of not wanting to accept pop culture idols as actual idols, Ellwood includes several useful pathworking exercises, suggestions for franchies to use as a base pantheon (Star Wars, Dragonball Z etc) and also shows us how to set up a Pop Culture Altar.
The meat of the book is in the first 161 pages, followed by the seven appendices that provide a lot of useful reference information. It is a relatively quick read, although it will take longer if you pause to do the exercises at the end f each chapter.
All in all, I enjoyed this book. I don't think I am ready to set up an altar to Arthur Dent in the hope that he can provide me with the Question to the Answer of Life, The Universe and Everything (the answer being `42'). But the book has certainly given me food for thought and discussion. In the final analysis, that is really what matters...

While I was a little unsure of this book at first I kept and open mind until I read through the book, and it was worth it. I really enjoyed reading this book. It takes an interesting look at working with pop culture entities in a constructive way through ritual. Regardless of if gods are actual beings or simply archetypes of some sort; for some people its hard develop a connection with a classical god or goddess. The use of pop culture magick is an interesting alternative in that respect. Even if someone is comfortable with working with ancient god and goddess, pop culture magick is still an engaging way to work through rituals and magick. Pop culture magick may not before everyone, but the same is true for other forms of magick. An interesting book to read.

Pop Culture Magick, like pop culture itself, is right on the edge of the known and the unknown, an explosive idea which only the few (at first) may really understand, let alone let bring into their lives. Most magicians tend to dig the hidden mysteries passed down to us from such epic masters as Crowley and Dion Fortune (just to name a couple), but in so doing ignore the great storehouse of magickal energy available that has been built into various pop culture icons. This book seeks to explore that storehouse and to give us clues and working advice as to how to do it for ourselves. And why not?

Very readable, friendly, and practical, Pop Culture Magick is a real find. It explores how magick works, how we can tap into it, and how movies, books, television shows, even advertising can be used to create dynamic entities for magickal exploration and ritual. After all, hundreds if not thousands if not millions of (unsuspecting) people have freely poured their attention and energy and emotion into fictional characters and universes...why not make our own good use of that rather than just allowing the engines of corporate commercialism use it to sell a few more million hamburgers or shiny new cars?

Any metaphor can work if we are emotionally attached to it, or can make ourselves emotionally attached. And pop culture is all around us, just raring to go and already etched into our psyches. It is ever evolving, just as magick is ever evolving, though we can use our ancient techniques to tune into it. It can work, because we believe it can work.

Just as any religion can work, even those based off of fiction. Which is what this book also delves into--the fantasy stories of Storm Constantine and how you can base a spiritual/magickal path off of them. Shades of Robert Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land, anyone? Certainly, this is right in line with how the Church of All Worlds came into existence. Which proves the author's point, that what we call fiction or mere entertainments can come to mean more than that if we are willing and able to work with them, if there is enough emotional umph behind them, and our minds are not closed to the range of possibility.

This is a book I didn't know I'd been waiting for until I found it. I can't hardly wait for a sequel!

This book was not too great. I enjoyed small sections of the book, but all in all I wish I had not spent the money to purchase it.
If you subtract all the appendixes and worksheet/exercises, the book is a whopping 50! <-- pages less the length listed. I feel a little deceived by the total page count.