The Art of imitating fiction in occultism,and occultism in fiction.Aka.That's how they do it in the movies!

Twenty-first century fiction has taken quite a magical turn. The top-grossing films of today feature wizards, hobbits, vampires,werewolves and even our old buddy Batman. Fantasy series of the Magical bent have been crazy successful both on the bestseller lists at home and abroad. You can't throw a dead cat without hitting a witch on television these days.And this is bleeding back into the Occult world as well,a Loop of culture that is feeding itself in ways that we will feel for many generations to come.And it's not just books and movies,World of Warcraft has over a million players each day, from all over the world casting spells and summoning demons. Oscar Wilde once wrote  "Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life"and this is far more true now then ever before,and I think it is a wonderful advancement.When Superman becomes a Archetype (and I believe he already has)magicians and witches will invoke him for his power,strength,and might,Evoke him to save cats from trees and old ladies from muggers.


The Swiss psychoanalyst Carl Jung, in Symbols of Transformation, distinguishes between “two kinds
of thinking”: “directed thinking” and “fantasy thinking.” Directed thinking is logical, linear, consciously driven—the mode of scientific rationality. Fantasy thinking is deassociative, nonlinear, unconsciously driven—the mode of dreams. Jung argues that both of these forms of thinking are valuable and necessary, but that modernity has skewed the balance between the two. As he put it, “We have become rich in knowledge, but poor in wisdom. The centre of gravity of our interest has switched over to the materialistic side, whereas the ancients preferred a mode of thought nearer to the
fantastic type.” This is Magical thinking at it's finest deassociative, nonlinear, unconsciously driven. Or as A.Spare put it 

“Darken your room, shut the door, empty your mind. Yet you are still in
great company - the Numen and your Genius with all their media, and your
host of elementals and ghosts of your dead loves — are there! They need no light by which to see, no words to speak, no motive to enact except through your own purely formed desire.”
― Austin Osman Spare, The Logomachy of Zos 

Contemporary fantasy,reclaims myth in its own right; it explicitly embraces Magical
thinking, without recourse to scientific reason. The relative prestige and prominence of
the SF genre in the twentieth century reflects an era which felt compelled to recast mythic
fantasy thinking in the garb of rationality. The twenty-first century Magician,Left Hand Path or Right,have started to take steps that suggest this disavowal is increasingly unnecessary, and that the popular culture of our era can now embrace the value of magic without shame,and work with any spirit they choose...even Batman! 

 (See Taylor Ellwood and his work with pop culture magic for a much more in-depth view on this subject) 

Sources :Austin Osman Spare, The Logomachy of Zos,

The Magical Turn in Postmodern Culture - SCMS 2013 by Ted Friedman

 

Copyright 2015 Vincent Piazza