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Pop Culture Magic, An Introductory
Aug. 20th, 2019 04:11 pm(This essay was written as a lecture for the discord server, Witching Willow, as an introductory to the topic of pop culture magic.)
Let’s start this off with a simple question. What is pop culture? The simplest answer is provided by the site dictionary.com states that pop culture, standing for popular culture, is “cultural activities or commercial products reflecting, suited to, or aimed at the tastes of the general masses of people”. However, John Storey argues in Cultural Theory and Popular Culture: An Introduction that popular culture is something that can be defined in a variety of conflicting ways by different people across different contexts.
There’s a certain amount of energy invested each waking moment by almost everyone in our world – occultist, practitioner, mage, witch, or not – in pop culture. The media presents itself in ways to everyone with the resources to consume it, usually with a purpose in financial, political, or attention gain. There’s a practice that many occultists turn their noses up at, however, in making use of that energy we all put into the popular culture around us for self-betterment, gain, and other such magical purposes and practices.
Ironically, there’s a sense of counter-culture to it. Pop culture is presented for many purposes, from making money to – for the conspiracy theorists both mild and wild – government control over the people. Pop culture icons in celebrities, fiction, and media come and go, and change often. It dominates our world in a lot of ways, and therefore can be considered a force of its own worth picking by the watchful eye of a magician.
There’s many ways to use pop culture in your magic. Some use it subtly in ways of music-based rituals or more modern images driving a meditation. Others model spells and rituals after what they hear in their favourite songs or see on tv. And some go so far as to create and/or call on entities who originate from pop culture and media, seeking their magic, learning from them, and at times even worshiping them as Gods on par with those of ancient mythology. Some practitioners hold a philosophy that as pop culture changes and leads cultures with it, the investment borders on religious itself. Some may look to Michael Jackson with the adoration and love ancient Greeks held for their Gods.
For the purpose of today, we will hold a fair bit of focus on the fictional side of it, which can be more or less of fiction depending on who you speak to. Pop culture magic resembles more of a genre of beliefs and magical practices rather than one concise system. In this sense, practitioners will have many varying philosophies, beliefs, and methodologies behind their practices. These can all be as diverse as the individualism within each and every practitioner, just as many have different approaches to magic and the occult in general. Different practitioners will have different ways to utilize pop culture, and different reasons for doing so.
Divination, spellwork, and ritual work can take a lot of influence from fiction. See a spell idea on tv you wish to write and perform for an outcome, you can try that. Wish to base your element work on a system of elemental practices similar to that in Avatar: The Last Airbender, Pokemon, or whichever source you find has lore on the subject? That’s something else you can do. Many fantasy, sci-fi, and other stories, games, shows, movies, and media may display systems of magic within their lore worth drawing inspiration from.
Many deck makers may create cartomancy decks tailored to be fan work of different sources, and these may hold different levels of significance to a user. Two practitioners who use the same Pokemon or Dragon Age tarot deck may read it differently – one viewing it as the same system but with more fun images, and another reading using the characters on the cards to assist in finding each card’s meaning or involvement in the interpretation of the reading. The amount of weight an image of pop culture has to a practitioner is a very personal thing, and no single person can say how much or how little of that should be involved in your practice.
Diving in a bit deeper, we meet those who work directly with entities who originate from pop culture, be this from fiction, celebrities, and the media around them. Just as there are so many views towards what pop culture magic is, there are even more views on what the entities are, where they come from, why they’re here, and why or how one should contact them.
In my personal experience and belief, these entities are created in the same way as any other deity or spirit from classical mythology: through the belief, thought and invested energy of their followers and those who invest in or create their stories, for whatever purpose. But that’s my personal belief, looking at it from the perspective of chaos magic, deity creation, and god forms. Others may believe in theories such as the Multiverse, or the inherent belief of these entities to exist whether or not their stories exist in our world. Beyond this, the ways and reasons a person may contact or be contacted by these deities varies. Some may outright worship them as another would a god of their religion, and others may not view them as to be worshiped, but worked with for the purposes such as learning and magical influence.
There’s even those who are connected to their entities to the point where it is their religion, worshiping them as one would a mythological deity, and can refer to themselves as pop culture pagans. This is more of a devotional approach to working with these entities. These people may practice pop culture magic, but are not always practicing such. Just as not all pagans are witches or magic practitioners, not all pop culture pagans will practice pop culture magic. It’s more like a venn diagram with overlap, rather than either being a subset of one another. Whether or not the devotional or religious approach to working with pop culture in a spiritual sense is beneficial is entirely up to the practitioner. Any pop culture practitioner may view themselves as a pop culture witch, a pop culture magician, a pop culture pagan, something else entirely, or any combination of those. Because of this, I’ve avoided the claim that pop culture paganism is a part of pop culture magic, or the other way around. Though there is much overlap, they are not logically the same.
As a practitioner myself, I work with my patron deity, Giratina from the Pokemon franchise. I view Giratina as it has told me it views itself, a mass creation through the investment, thought, and energy devoted by at least a couple million fans. I do not worship my patron, however seek its guidance and knowledge that have been collected by these millions of thoughts which formed it. I also work with, from the same franchise, Dialga, Palkia, and Lunala. Each has their own skills and fields of knowledge, and each brings something new and important to the table of my life in turn for the respect, offerings, and energy put back into them through this practice. Mutual benefit, I’d say.
When asked about the subject in the server I manage for pop culture practitioners – Pop Culture Magic Central – varied responses were received, even respectfully disagreeing with one another. One member emphasized “I think I’d just like to share that in my experience, pop culture witchcraft is less about the actual entity existing, and more about a connection to what that entity stands for. Alternatively, it is also very thoughtform focused”. Another member spoke up to disagree in the discussion, stating “I would rather emphasize that pop culture witchcraft and paganism are as broad of categories as the fandoms and cultures they draw from. None of my entities are thoughtforms, and my own practice is heavily dependent on the entities themselves”.
Further Readings:
1. The Pop Culture Grimoire and Pop Culture Magic 2.0 by Taylor Ellwood
2. A Look at Pop Culture Magic by Heather Green - https://wildhunt.org/2015/07/a-look-at-pop-culture-magick.html
3. What is Pop Culture Magic? by Taylor Ellwood - https://witchesandpagans.com/pagan-studies-blogs/magical-transformations/what-is-pop-culture-magic.html
4. Pop Culture Witchcraft, Chaos and the Left-Hand Path by Jasper Jacobs - https://mechanicalwitch.tumblr.com/post/185946522860/pop-culture-witchcraft-chaos-and-the-left-hand
Citations:
Storey, J. (2018). Cultural theory and popular culture: An introduction. Routledge.
Ellwood, T. (2004). Pop culture magic: An exploration of modern magic. Stafford: Immanion Press.
Ellwood, T. (n.d.). What is Pop Culture Paganism? Retrieved from https://witchesandpagans.com/pagan-studies-blogs/magical-transformations/what-is-pop-culture-paganism.html
Let’s start this off with a simple question. What is pop culture? The simplest answer is provided by the site dictionary.com states that pop culture, standing for popular culture, is “cultural activities or commercial products reflecting, suited to, or aimed at the tastes of the general masses of people”. However, John Storey argues in Cultural Theory and Popular Culture: An Introduction that popular culture is something that can be defined in a variety of conflicting ways by different people across different contexts.
There’s a certain amount of energy invested each waking moment by almost everyone in our world – occultist, practitioner, mage, witch, or not – in pop culture. The media presents itself in ways to everyone with the resources to consume it, usually with a purpose in financial, political, or attention gain. There’s a practice that many occultists turn their noses up at, however, in making use of that energy we all put into the popular culture around us for self-betterment, gain, and other such magical purposes and practices.
Ironically, there’s a sense of counter-culture to it. Pop culture is presented for many purposes, from making money to – for the conspiracy theorists both mild and wild – government control over the people. Pop culture icons in celebrities, fiction, and media come and go, and change often. It dominates our world in a lot of ways, and therefore can be considered a force of its own worth picking by the watchful eye of a magician.
There’s many ways to use pop culture in your magic. Some use it subtly in ways of music-based rituals or more modern images driving a meditation. Others model spells and rituals after what they hear in their favourite songs or see on tv. And some go so far as to create and/or call on entities who originate from pop culture and media, seeking their magic, learning from them, and at times even worshiping them as Gods on par with those of ancient mythology. Some practitioners hold a philosophy that as pop culture changes and leads cultures with it, the investment borders on religious itself. Some may look to Michael Jackson with the adoration and love ancient Greeks held for their Gods.
For the purpose of today, we will hold a fair bit of focus on the fictional side of it, which can be more or less of fiction depending on who you speak to. Pop culture magic resembles more of a genre of beliefs and magical practices rather than one concise system. In this sense, practitioners will have many varying philosophies, beliefs, and methodologies behind their practices. These can all be as diverse as the individualism within each and every practitioner, just as many have different approaches to magic and the occult in general. Different practitioners will have different ways to utilize pop culture, and different reasons for doing so.
Divination, spellwork, and ritual work can take a lot of influence from fiction. See a spell idea on tv you wish to write and perform for an outcome, you can try that. Wish to base your element work on a system of elemental practices similar to that in Avatar: The Last Airbender, Pokemon, or whichever source you find has lore on the subject? That’s something else you can do. Many fantasy, sci-fi, and other stories, games, shows, movies, and media may display systems of magic within their lore worth drawing inspiration from.
Many deck makers may create cartomancy decks tailored to be fan work of different sources, and these may hold different levels of significance to a user. Two practitioners who use the same Pokemon or Dragon Age tarot deck may read it differently – one viewing it as the same system but with more fun images, and another reading using the characters on the cards to assist in finding each card’s meaning or involvement in the interpretation of the reading. The amount of weight an image of pop culture has to a practitioner is a very personal thing, and no single person can say how much or how little of that should be involved in your practice.
Diving in a bit deeper, we meet those who work directly with entities who originate from pop culture, be this from fiction, celebrities, and the media around them. Just as there are so many views towards what pop culture magic is, there are even more views on what the entities are, where they come from, why they’re here, and why or how one should contact them.
In my personal experience and belief, these entities are created in the same way as any other deity or spirit from classical mythology: through the belief, thought and invested energy of their followers and those who invest in or create their stories, for whatever purpose. But that’s my personal belief, looking at it from the perspective of chaos magic, deity creation, and god forms. Others may believe in theories such as the Multiverse, or the inherent belief of these entities to exist whether or not their stories exist in our world. Beyond this, the ways and reasons a person may contact or be contacted by these deities varies. Some may outright worship them as another would a god of their religion, and others may not view them as to be worshiped, but worked with for the purposes such as learning and magical influence.
There’s even those who are connected to their entities to the point where it is their religion, worshiping them as one would a mythological deity, and can refer to themselves as pop culture pagans. This is more of a devotional approach to working with these entities. These people may practice pop culture magic, but are not always practicing such. Just as not all pagans are witches or magic practitioners, not all pop culture pagans will practice pop culture magic. It’s more like a venn diagram with overlap, rather than either being a subset of one another. Whether or not the devotional or religious approach to working with pop culture in a spiritual sense is beneficial is entirely up to the practitioner. Any pop culture practitioner may view themselves as a pop culture witch, a pop culture magician, a pop culture pagan, something else entirely, or any combination of those. Because of this, I’ve avoided the claim that pop culture paganism is a part of pop culture magic, or the other way around. Though there is much overlap, they are not logically the same.
As a practitioner myself, I work with my patron deity, Giratina from the Pokemon franchise. I view Giratina as it has told me it views itself, a mass creation through the investment, thought, and energy devoted by at least a couple million fans. I do not worship my patron, however seek its guidance and knowledge that have been collected by these millions of thoughts which formed it. I also work with, from the same franchise, Dialga, Palkia, and Lunala. Each has their own skills and fields of knowledge, and each brings something new and important to the table of my life in turn for the respect, offerings, and energy put back into them through this practice. Mutual benefit, I’d say.
When asked about the subject in the server I manage for pop culture practitioners – Pop Culture Magic Central – varied responses were received, even respectfully disagreeing with one another. One member emphasized “I think I’d just like to share that in my experience, pop culture witchcraft is less about the actual entity existing, and more about a connection to what that entity stands for. Alternatively, it is also very thoughtform focused”. Another member spoke up to disagree in the discussion, stating “I would rather emphasize that pop culture witchcraft and paganism are as broad of categories as the fandoms and cultures they draw from. None of my entities are thoughtforms, and my own practice is heavily dependent on the entities themselves”.
Further Readings:
1. The Pop Culture Grimoire and Pop Culture Magic 2.0 by Taylor Ellwood
2. A Look at Pop Culture Magic by Heather Green - https://wildhunt.org/2015/07/a-look-at-pop-culture-magick.html
3. What is Pop Culture Magic? by Taylor Ellwood - https://witchesandpagans.com/pagan-studies-blogs/magical-transformations/what-is-pop-culture-magic.html
4. Pop Culture Witchcraft, Chaos and the Left-Hand Path by Jasper Jacobs - https://mechanicalwitch.tumblr.com/post/185946522860/pop-culture-witchcraft-chaos-and-the-left-hand
Citations:
Storey, J. (2018). Cultural theory and popular culture: An introduction. Routledge.
Ellwood, T. (2004). Pop culture magic: An exploration of modern magic. Stafford: Immanion Press.
Ellwood, T. (n.d.). What is Pop Culture Paganism? Retrieved from https://witchesandpagans.com/pagan-studies-blogs/magical-transformations/what-is-pop-culture-paganism.html
