Pop Culture Magick (Paperback)

~ (Author), Storm Constantine (Editor)
Key Phrases: mah jong, occult comics, pop culture entity, Taylor Ellwood, Final Fantasy, Star Trek (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Have you ever watched a television show, or read a book and been inspired to work magick based on what you've seen or read? If you have, you're not alone in thinking that. More and more people are discovering that the modern mythology of pop culture has answers for their spirituality and approach to magick. Pop culture is the mythology of our times, offering us a universe full of new gods, stories, practical magickal techniques and a lot more! It is a reflection of the need for magick to change and evolve with the times. With Pop Culture Magick you can take the cartoon characters of today and make them into the elder gods of tomorrow. In this book you will learn how to: Create Pop Culture godforms and entities Invoke yourself into a godform or a person Integrate pop culture into existing magickal paradigms Charge sigils by playing video games And much, much more! --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

From the Back Cover

Pop Culture Magick is about a new approach to doing magick. The author recognize that in this day and age the truly flexible magician is the magician who adapts with the times and as such Pop Culture Magick is a reflection of the need for magick to adapt to the times. Ideas for practical magick can come from many unusual sources and Pop Culture Magick is about opening the mind of the magician to the idea that pop culture is one such source.

In this book you will learn:

" How to create pop culture god forms and entities
" How to invoke yourself into a godform
" How to create practical techniques based off of TV shows, comics, and other forms of pop culture media
" How to charge your sigils by playing video games
" How to create your own system of magick based off of fantasy books, TV shows, or any other form of pop culture media.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Immanion Press/Megalithica Books (September 15, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1904853072
• ISBN-13: 978-1904853077
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,290,399 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good 301 book, December 29, 2006

By	J. E. Landrum "aka Daven" (Nashville, TN) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

19 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Magick for Geeks, July 19, 2006

By	Uriah Z. Maynard "Uriah Uriah Uriah" (Montpelier, VT USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I don't have anything against Taylor. I'm sure he's a really nice guy who gets some very interesting experiences out of his magickal practice. This book has a fantastic cover and title (one quite similar to Grant Morrison's fantastic article in Disinformation's Book of Lies), and as shallow as it may sound, I bought my copy largely on that basis. Somehow I thought it would have some manner of useful information for my attempts to create magickal entities through pop media, the process of fame and cultural meme generation via magick, or some sort of insight into why these pop culture heroes gain the power they do. Be forewarned, reader. This book has very little to offer in that regard.

You might argue that I shouldn't review a book poorly because it fails to meet my abnormally high expectations. The problem is that this book can be effectively summed up in a nice 5000 word in-depth article, and doesn't need 150 pages AT ALL. We invest magickal power in celebrity, and Star Wars is for Americans as The Odyssey was for the ancient Greeks-- a story that helps us define our reality. Thus, you can worship Buffy just as effectively as you can worship Neptune, and achieve equally potent results. Well DUH!

In other words, not only is the book overly long for the contributions it makes to the Art, but I personally consider it to be fairly obvious to anyone with any understanding of magickal theory. I'm by no means any sort of Grand Magus or Enlightened Being; I'm just another traveller along the path. Perhaps I'm just missing the point. We all already knew that most people in this culture worship the gods Money, Sex, and Television, and that you can do good magick by working with those memes. Do we really need to spend $12 to learn that you can also worship the lesser gods of Cher and Magic: The Gathering?

Now that I've torn down the book, I'd like to add something back to the pile. I gave this book two stars instead of one for a reason: I have friends who I would heartily recommend the book to. I am not someone who gains great personal meaning from Pop Culture. I'll watch Anime and enjoy it. I like shows like Star Trek and Firefly. I think Cowboy Bebop is some of the best television ever to be aired. I'm a great lover of art of all kinds. I like to play Dungeons and Dragons every once in a while. But that's the distinction-- I am a consumer of Pop Culture and never a fan. I'm not geek enough to use this book properly.

This is a book that would be perfect for anyone who dresses up and goes to cons (conventions for you geekspeak illiterates). I have quite a few friends and acquaintances who I would point in this direction if they ever mentioned an interest in 'real magic'. They are classic geeks, and proud of it. I think they could get a lot out of this book, and really open up their world by following the exercises given.

However, I see no compelling reason to use Pop iconography in my practice. I like the history attached to the old gods. I like the past sacrifices and celebrations made in their names. I enjoy the process of researching the ancient beliefs, and I enjoy creating appropriate modern ceremonies to call on them. I think they add an element of seriousness and old power to my work. If Ganesha doesn't do it for you he doesn't do it for you-- go with what you respond to above all else.

I'm not particularly even a stickler for the ancient stuff myself. I like Jungian Archetypes. Probablistic physics has a special place in my heart-- it made it possible for my scientific mind to shut up long enough to comprehend the world of imagination and myth as something real. I groove on the concept that our decisions are made before we ever arrive on this planet just as easily as I believe that the universe readily bends to the demands of the Will. But why should I give Star Trek any more power by worshipping it?

What I'm saying is that I'm damn well not gonna engage in fanboy geekfests as part of my spiritual practice, and so this book is useless to me. If you already geek out pretty heavily, then this book could help you get more out of the whole thing. In my experience, fans are often as messed up and ineffectual people as some of the most tripped out megalomaniacs you could ever find in organized magickal groups, but whatever floats your boat-- it's not really any worse, for all that.

13 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting, Insightful, and Pioneering, April 23, 2005

By	Steven Savage "Steve Savage" (California) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.