Reading Wednesday

[sabotabby]

Just finished: The End of This World: Climate Justice in So-Called Canada by Angele Alook, Emily Eaton, David Gray-Donald, Joël Laforest, Crystal Lameman and Bronwen Tucker. Yup, loved this. 100% my thing. Might buy a copy to reference. It's the kind of book that includes a section called "But How Will We Pay For It?"

Currently reading: New Moon Magic: 13 Anti-Capitalist Tools for Resistance and Re-Enchantment by Risa Dickens and Amy Torok. I'm kind of a hardcore atheist and non-woo person but. Lately I...haven't been? We can talk at some point about the reasons for that. Anyway, I was at a teacher thing and saw someone reading this and thought hey, research. And it's pretty great so far. Each chapter goes through a different astrological sign, talks about a theme (e.g., needles, potions, writing), tells a few stories about historical or contemporary witches or other powerful women related to that theme, and includes a ritual and incantation that you would do during the new moon for that sign. It's delightfully minimally woo—the authors don't claim magic is real, just that it's useful.

For a very simple example, if you're trying to make a decision, and you flip a coin, the results of that coin toss will not be the right decision. But how you react to that decision—with relief, disappointment, and so on—will help you make that decision.

It's also obviously focused towards activism, and the rituals are meant to help focus you so that you can do practical, real-world things. It's pretty non-judgmental about what those things should be.

The lengthy segment on Buffy St. Marie has not aged well, unfortunately.

Anyway, I'm almost done and finding it very useful, both for the intended research purposes and uh I actually might try some of this stuff??? like it's not as incompatible with my own belief system as I would assume.

Moby Dick by Herman Melville. After the incredible Sperm Chapter and the incredible Whale Dick Raincoat Chapter, we're back to normal stuff, albeit some of the most stunning prose imaginable. Ishmael almost burns the ship down and there's a touch of the unnecessary racism, but we also have lines like "Smells like the left wing of the day of judgment"  and "once ignited, the whale supplies his own fuel and burns by his own body," which is just *chef's kiss*.

Comments

[greylock]

But How Will We Pay For It??????
Fuck me, I hate that argument.

It's delightfully minimally woo—the authors don't claim magic is real, just that it's useful.

Is it pattern recognition?

Smells like the left wing of the day of judgment"

Petricor?
That's what I hope for.

"once ignited, the whale supplies his own fuel and burns by his own body,"

And here we see Melville, somehow, predicting the world's first viral video.

[sabotabby]

Well, they actually believe in magic. But they have good arguments for why you can do magic anyway even if you don't believe in it, which is a thing that is useful for me.

I think petrichor smells lovely; this is not that smell.

I put on my robe and wizard hat

[greylock]

I suspect the term magic is a little different to what I am thinking.

I am team petrichor.

Re: I put on my robe and wizard hat

[sabotabby]

If magic had a precise definition, it wouldn't be magic. :)

Re: I put on my robe and wizard hat

[greylock]

I see you have never played D&D. :P

[dissectionist]

I’m an atheist who owns multiple packs of tarot cards. It’s not that I believe that they give me any sort of spiritual guidance; it’s just another tool that my subconscious can use to draw insights from the symbolism. That the card arrangement is random doesn’t change anything, because my brain can find a way to interpret anything in light of the current situations.

So yeah, I get it. Just because something comes from a woo background doesn’t automatically mean it can’t be repurposed for non-woo use.

[sabotabby]

I only have the one Tarot deck but I like Tarot a lot for exactly that reason. It's a good way to turn your messy thoughts into a coherent narrative that you can do something about. Which is transformative whether you believe in the supernatural or not.

[frandroid]

Just a little bit of woo, for fun. :) I like the coin toss thing, that gives a good idea...

Also holy shitballs, that's amazing prose.

[sabotabby]

I know right? It's like. I adore beautiful prose. I can objectively understand that there are people who do not care about this, or bounce off the prose, but I feel like I read books for different reasons than they do.

[ioplokon]

Some woo stuff can be interesting or use. I don't think you can ever really get around how essentialist astrology is, tho.

[sabotabby]

So I ran into a cool argument (maybe on DW) that suggested that astrology makes sense based on the fact that animals behave differently during different times of the year, and stars are also different at different times of the year, and it makes sense to connect the two if you're observing nature. And then to extrapolate from that the idea that if you're born at a different time of the year, your behaviour may be different.

It doesn't mean it's right, but it follows a certain logic.

[ioplokon]

If you like. Personally I value self determination more (it's not infinitely possible but I think it's worth carving out some space for it).

[kore]

For a very simple example, if you're trying to make a decision, and you flip a coin, the results of that coin toss will not be the right decision. But how you react to that decision—with relief, disappointment, and so on—will help you make that decision.

Ha, my (non woowooo) therapist taught me that! Not using a coin, but visualizing the results and how that makes you feel.

[sabotabby]

Mine does too, but the coin way seems easier if it's a two-way decision.

Of course it's possible that both options will fill you with anxiety and dread...

[rdi]

I'm going have to read Moby-Dick one of these days, just based on your posts about it

[sabotabby]

JOIN US

[moon_custafer]

Are you aware of cryptotheism, over on Tumblr? They're working on a history of occultism, which includes stuff like "trying to explain what the alchemists of different eras were *actually* trying to do," and "hating on Jung for making all this harder to research by retroactively throwing a bunch of his theories at it." Separate from this, they're also writing SF. Also they're hilarious.

[sabotabby]

They sound cool! I'm barely active on Tumblr though.

[vass]

I like Dion Fortune's definition of magic, "the art of changing consciousness at will." There's enough room in there for what I want from it, without needing to get out of sight of the path of consensus reality.

[sabotabby]

That works.