Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Pagan
When a Mainstream Writer Sees the Bad Guys Using Magic

When a Mainstream Writer Sees the Bad Guys Using Magic

Last updated on: May 29, 2022 at 3:00 am by John Beckett

When a Mainstream Writer Sees the Bad Guys Using Magic 2022-05-25T14:21:12-06:00 John Beckett

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

I haven’t talked much about Tower Time lately. I taught a class on Navigating Tower Time early last year, but since then the term seems to have fallen out of use. One reason is that we’re overwhelmed with troubles in the ordinary world and most of us don’t have much time left to acknowledge Otherworldly problems. Another reason is that much of the Tower Time talk was a prophecy – a warning that sudden, unpleasant, and irreversible change was coming.

Sadly, that prophecy has been fulfilled… though perhaps it’s better to say it’s being fulfilled. We’re in a Long Descent and we’re nowhere near the bottom yet.

Those of us of a magical and spiritual persuasion can, I think, be forgiven for losing sight of the magical and spiritual aspects of Tower Time. Or at least I hope we can. When you’re trying to stay alive in the worst pandemic in a century, deal with the worst inflation in 40 years, and fight to retain fundamental rights, it’s easy to forget there are magical elements to this trend.

And some of those magical elements are being used against us.

I hadn’t heard of Dave Troy until last week when Cat Heath shared a couple of pieces by him on Twitter. Troy calls himself a “Researcher, Technologist, and Investor” who does a podcast and a newsletter. He’s not a Pagan or a magician – he describes himself as “a lapsed Catholic, regular guy who just studies how things work.”

I encourage you to read his essay Going Dark: Why Nothing Makes Sense. It’s not easily summarized, but here’s a key quote:

The “normal” world that we’ve inhabited since the end of World War II — one filled with institutions, the rule of law, compromise, business reality, elections and politics, fragile though it is — has been gradually and then suddenly supplanted by a world governed by the exercise of raw power.

And also:

We need to understand why things no longer make sense. It’s because we’re explicitly and increasingly leaving the realm of the sensible and rational and delving into a darker realm of raw power.

Then go read this Twitter roll-up he wrote in response to some questions he received:

What we are really suffering is a deficit of imagination. The practices of esotericism tend to expand imagination, which create leverage over those with less of it. We need to invest here if we expect to fight back.

If a lapsed Catholic with no interest in magic and the occult can see what’s going on, it should be obvious to those of us with more experience in this area.

We ignore it at our peril – especially the “deficit of imagination.”

Some magic requires nothing Otherworldly

I adopted a three-fold theory of magic when I first got started and I’ve kept it ever since, because I haven’t found anything that does a better job of explaining how and why magic works. Magic is part intercession of Gods and spirits, part manipulation of unseen forces, and part psychological programming.

That third part – psychological programming – is entirely naturalistic. It requires no supernatural or Otherworldly influences in order to work. When I first realized this, a lot of things made sense – especially advertising. I’ve sometimes referred to “the evil sorcerers of Madison Avenue” – those who use the principles of psychology to manipulate people’s thoughts and feelings to persuade them to buy what they’re selling.

When I was very young (late elementary or early middle school) a cigarette ad in a magazine caught my attention. It showed a powerboat going across a beautiful lake, carrying four young, attractive people, who were all smiling and holding cigarettes. Something clicked in my mind: what the hell did anything in that ad have to do with cigarettes? Nothing. The purpose of the ad was to associate their brand of cigarettes with young, healthy, beautiful, rich people, sending the message “buy our cigarettes and you can be like this too!”

We just finished the primary runoffs in Texas. Numerous Republicans ran TV ads calling their opponents “liberals” – as though there are any liberals in the Republican party (there aren’t enough liberals in the Democratic party, but that’s another rant for another time). That the accusation is untrue isn’t important. Their goal is to associate their opponents with something Republican primary voters don’t like, so they’ll vote for the “true conservatives.”

You don’t have to brew potions or draw and charge sigils to work magic.

Thoughts and words can become reality

Sometimes psychological programming blends into the manipulation of unseen forces. The “power of positive thinking” of the last century is the “manifestation” of this century. And while I frequently complain about people who use The Law of Attraction to victim-blame others or to short-circuit their own magic, the process of visualization and the technique of hypersigils works.

A quote often attributed to Nazi Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels says that if you repeat a lie often enough and loudly enough, people begin to believe it’s true. And if you believe it’s true, then you start to act as though it’s true. And if enough people act as though it’s true, it becomes true – in effect if not in fact.

When people make blatantly false statements, whether about the 2020 election, or Replacement Theory, or anything else, they’re telling a story. They believe the theme of the story even if they know the facts of the story aren’t true. If enough people resonate with the theme, they act as though it was true, whether it is or it isn’t.

And before long you have people storming the Capitol.

The currents of magic are growing stronger

Another part of Tower Time I haven’t talked about much lately is an increase in what I call the currents of magic. Metaphorically, think of magic as a river. You can put a water wheel in the river and use the energy of the flow to turn a gristmill or generate electricity or do other work – you can tap the current. If the river is running low and slow, you can only do a little with it. But if it’s running high and fast, you can do a lot more.

The currents of magic are running a lot faster these days. Beyond that, the Veil Between the Worlds is far thinner than it was a decade ago (I know some of you don’t like the concept of the Veil, but it’s not a literal veil. “The Veil” is a metaphor for the boundary between this world and the Otherworld). Otherworldly magic has an easier time getting through to this world.

I covered my thoughts on this in more detail in the Tower Time course, and while ultimately it’s all speculation, it’s informed speculation, and it matches the experience and the thinking of numerous other experienced magical practitioners.

The point is that this isn’t just a matter of the political pendulum swinging the wrong way or the rise of some skilled propagandists. In addition to all of that, the magical environment is considerably stronger, meaning that average magic users can get above-average results, and skilled magic users can get amazing results.

Whether the magic user is working magic for good or for ill.

Voting is necessary but not sufficient

This is the world we live in. This is the environment in which we work. You don’t have to like it. You just have to deal with it.

How are you going to deal with it?

Voting is necessary but not sufficient. If a handful of people hadn’t insisted on keeping their hands clean and voted for Hillary instead, then Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett wouldn’t be on the Supreme Court and reproductive rights would be safe. If people cared as much about who their State Representative is as they care about who the President is, we wouldn’t have so many oppressive laws coming out of the states.

We need better political stories. I love good policy, but policy is for wonks. The vast majority of people don’t vote based on who has the better policy – they vote for who has the better story.

Voting – particularly in any one election – only goes so far. We didn’t get into this political situation in a year – or in four years – and we won’t get out of it quickly either. Voting is necessary but not sufficient.

Use your magic!

If the other side is using magic, and the currents of magic are getting stronger, why wouldn’t we use magic too?

I hope people who accept the reality of magic are already working magic. But sometimes we get caught up in the mainstream world and we forget we have tools available to us that others don’t. If you don’t have a regular magical practice I suggest you start one now. I do something at every full moon – that helps keep my skills sharp for when I have a case that falls under “whenever you have need of anything.”

In particular, I encourage you to work magic to protect yourself, your family (however you define it), and your community. In addition to generic shielding and warding, work magic to put you and yours in a situation (geographic, financial, physical, political, spiritual) where you can be safe and where you can prosper.

I strongly endorse the method taught by Jason Miller: set a goal, create a plan that doesn’t require magic to work, then use magic to enhance the odds that it will work.

That begins with setting a target for your magic. Honestly, working magic is easy – figuring out what to work magic for is hard. This post may help.

Do we need large, coordinated magical workings? They can’t hurt, but magic works best when it’s very narrowly and specifically targeted, and that’s hard to do with large numbers of people with differing ideas and priorities. I’d rather see something like Operation Cone of Power, with small groups doing their own things toward common goals.

Just use your magic.

Tell better stories

Target setting is easier if you have a context for it – if you have a story.

What’s your story? What role do you play in it? Perhaps most importantly, who’s writing it?

It’s very easy to get caught up in other people’s stories and think we have no agency in our lives. The truth is that those with more money and power have an easier time controlling their own lives than those without it. But the rest of us are not powerless – particularly those of us who understand magic and how to use it.

Tell your own story. Don’t let others define you – insist on defining yourself, and your goals, and the methods you’ll use to reach them.

And then when you get to a better place, work to build a society that’s more fair and just for everyone. Don’t just tell your own personal story, tell better stories about society at large. Make good art.

Ronald Reagan talked about “morning in America” and made people feel good about themselves, and about him. That gave him the power to remake America in way that some liked but that was disastrous in the long term. Donald Trump said it was midnight in America and “only I can save you.” Enough people believed it to put him into power.

Tell better stories.

My story

I’m a Druid and a priest, not a political consultant. I don’t know what stories we need to tell to help shift power to people who will support democracy and not fascist authoritarianism. I can only tell my story.

My story is the one that acknowledges that many different Gods call many different people to worship and work with Them in many different ways. And so we practice our own religion, respect other people’s religions, and never try to force ours on others.

My story is the one that acknowledges that humans were not placed on the Earth, we grew out of the Earth. And so the Earth is our mother, and we must treat her and all her creatures with respect and reverence.

My story is the one that emphasizes the virtues of hospitality and reciprocity. And so we care for those in need, and we give as we receive.

There are many different ways to do these things. This is a story, not a policy proposal. We have to elect people who can turn stories into policy. But we’ve tried selling policy and it doesn’t work. We’re getting beat by people who are selling stories about making America great again, and then trying to turn the clock back to 1950.

If you’re waiting on a savior, you’re going to be disappointed

The concept of a savior is not exclusive to Christianity. It’s a comforting thought. But most times, waiting on a savior is a recipe for disaster.

Those who want to take the country back a hundred years have been patient and persistent and they’re winning. They’re not just working the political process, they’re working magic as well.

We need to work our own magic: for ourselves, our community, and our common society.

Previous Post

May 25, 2022

Reason and Religion Go Hand in Hand – Especially Paganism

Next Post

June 2, 2022 Thoughts and Prayers: You’re Doing It Wrong

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Books Community CUUPS Druidry Foundations and Context Gods and Goddesses Magic Myth Nature Ritual Spiritual Practice Theology Travel Uncategorized Videos

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

How many days between resurrection and Pentecost?

Select your answer to see how you score.

30 days 50 days 60 days 40 days