Pop Culture Magick

Taylor Ellwood'sPop Culture Magick can best be seen as a transitional book taking one from the world of fantasy to the real magick that exists behind every doorway and in every shadow of our world. Popular culture may not be popular among many of today's occultists (with the exception of some of the Chaotes), but if Carl Jung was right, and humankind does play out its rite of passage in dreams - or even if Kenneth Grant is right, and literary workmanship is the result of transdimensional communication - popular culture can then be said to have evolved from the archetypal images implanted into our thoughts. It is our ultimate play of inspiration like Shakespeare's portrayal of the Faerie Folk in Neil Gaiman's A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Most of those that get into the occult do so from various other mediums, whether it is comic books, role-playing games, or paranormal television shows. Most also struggle when first entering the occult scene because of the voluminous amounts of texts and practices required to make any real progress. Many give up on the occult not long after due to frustration.

Ellwood's book presents the occult framed by the modern images of popular culture, including those aforementioned comic books and role-playing games. If ever there was a book that eased the transition from fantasy to reality, this would be it. This isn't to say that Pop Culture Magick is a beginner's book. Though Taylor Ellwood tries to keep the mumbo-jumbo down, and makes each and every exercise as simplistic as possible, there are a few assumption made that will force the novice to look elsewhere for additional material. This book, however, was never meant to be the end all. It was specifically meant to show individuals how to incorporate pop culture into there own current occult work, and Ellwood opens up many pathways for the user to accomplish this feat.

The most intriguing chapter of Pop Culture Magick has Ellwood dissecting anime cartoons with a hair-splitting scapel. He manages to inform the reader of all the occult and spiritual dogmatism present in anime, and goes at great length to examine the similarities between Neon Genesis Evangelion and the Kabbalah. Quite fascinating indeed. Pop Culture Magick is a book of ideas. No, scratch that... a book of new ideas; and a refreshing change from the regurgitated techniques and information spilling out of many current publications.

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