magic, online!

Reality as we understand it is a phenomenon of social structures, language, and shared processes for engaging with the world. Digital media is remaking all of these in such a way that media consumption more and more resembles the act of playing an alternate reality game.

But of the two worlds I’ve been witnessing, I am becoming convinced that the emerging weird world being claimed by lorecraft, with tarot cards and literal magical thinking in the mix, is actually more real, and has been all along.

The worlds we now inhabit are digitized realms incapable by their nature and design of generating a broadly shared experience of reality.

The Internet and its extensions become a realm of imaginings, visions and fictionings of self. As we traverse the clarinet (the web available to us), we start seeing the digital ether littered with new species. Sure, for many these might be aesthetics, TikTok trends or waves of escapism. However, with individuals creating, embodying and manifesting... See more

There is something which unites magic and applied science while separating both from the wisdom of earlier ages. For the wise men of old the cardinal problem had been how to conform the soul to reality, and the solution had been knowledge, self-discipline, and virtue. For magic and applied science alike the problem is how to subdue reality to the w... See more