the generosity, warmth, and genuine joy with which people connect people in the worlds of collective imagination, futures work, and civic participation is something very, very different than what exists in ad land. this makes sense for so many reasons, of course. but I was just struck by how remarkable it is. and how much of a difference it makes. ... See more

A short thought - the need for intoxicating visions of a flourishing world

Judging by the result of the US elections earlier this month, the world may need a reminder of the following thought by Simone Weil: “Imaginary evil is romantic and varied; real evil is gloomy, monotonous, barren, boring. Imaginary good is boring; real good is always new, ma... See more

How can we begin to understand magic as a way of becoming radically embedded in our web of relations, rather than as a way of manipulating the elements from a distance?

At heart , magic embraces the power that small solidarity networks have to change the world through changing their own perceptions of reality .

And, for all the criticisms (some fair, some not) I’ve seen levied at this space by non-believers, I’ve seen, with my own eyes, magic being made nearly every day — through refreshed optimism, through hard work done fast, through groups coming together to do what individuals alone cannot.

By community knowledge, I mean beliefs, truths and cures passed down over time.

By solidarity networks, I mean acting with trust, in small self-selecting groups.

By folklore, I mean the ritualistic repetition of the first to build the second.

At its heart, belief magic is a combination of community knowledge + solidarity networks + folklore.

Both then and now, belief magic is ultimately decentralised and community-led (just ask a modern practitioner how they feel about the Magic Circle’s elitism). Just like the homemade pamphlets that circulated and enabled citizens to criticise the monarchy or church, their information channels do not rely on conventional means.

magical knowledge tends to be passed from person to person, rather than disseminated top down.