Of memes and magick
- Dhruv Badaya
- Feb 7
- 3 min read
As the occult historian Gary Lachman writes in Dark Star Rising, his account of magical tendencies in modern internet culture: ‘for chaos magick the idea of “truth” or “facts” is anathema.’ Whoever shapes the perception of others, in order to get what they desire, is practising magic. Here, magic is effectively denatured, stripped of its supernatural and mystical elements and revealed instead as the mage-like ability to bend the social imaginary to his will. ‘As above, so below’, in this context, refers less to the relationship between, say, plants and planets, than to the relationship between the human psyche and human cultural life. Change one person’s mind - and you might change the world.
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Enter our internet pioneers. Steeped in mid-20th-century counterculture, the futurists, technologists and inventors who would come to shape Silicon Valley culture shared with their Hermetic forebears an optimistic vision of human self-transcendence through technology. Freed of our biological and geographic constraints, and of repressive social expectations, we could make of cyberspace a new libertarian Jerusalem. As early as the 1960s, the futurist Stewart Brand, the publisher of the hippy counterculture bible the Whole Earth Catalog, rhapsodised about how, in the modern world, the ‘realm of intimate, personal power is developing - the power of the individual to conduct his own education, find his own inspiration, shape his own environment,’ concluding that ‘We are as gods and might as well get good at it.’ Early cyber-enthusiasts and futurists - more than a few of whom, from Terence McKenna to Robert Anton Wilson, dabbled in occult, mystic or magical practices - saw in the prospect of cyberspace a new spiritual terrain for self-divinisation. Freed of bodily constraints and geographic limitations, the internet could help us at last achieve the magical dream of transcendence.
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In an article for Wired magazine in 1995, Erik Davis chronicled one ritual, performed by Mark Pesce - the founder of the early programming language known as VRML (virtual reality modelling language) - during an event that was equal parts technopagan ritual and scientific summit. Heavily structured along traditional Hermetic and Rosicrucian lines, the ritual involved four personal computers, taking on the customary role of elemental watchtowers, running a graphical browser that depicted a ‘ritual circle’, pentagrams and all. An observer chanted: ‘May the astral plane be reborn in cyberspace.’ The internet seemed to be a place where humanity could achieve a more democratic and collective magical rebirth. After all, it was a place where, in the absence of our physical bodies and social restrictions - we could exist solely as manifestations of our own will. The early internet became a gathering space for waves of magically inclined cybernauts. Technopagans, Discordians (essentially: worshippers of disorder), neopagans, Wiccans, transhumanists could find each other in cyberspace, shoring up the notion that digital life itself might presage the magician’s eschatological dream of a place where human creativity could shape the landscape of its world….
The internet embodies its early idealistic visions, becoming a 'magical canvas' as Margaret Wertheim describes, where desires and impressions are vividly expressed. It's a realm where people adopt ideal avatars, engage in free social interactions, shape their identities, and are guided by algorithms that tailor content, from news to ads, based on individual desires.
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1. What is the main idea of the passage?
(A) The internet as a modern manifestation of ancient magical and mystical practices.
(B) The transformation of internet culture into a digital form of religious practices.
(C) The evolution of internet culture from technological advances to digital spirituality.
(D) The challenges and consequences of internet privacy and digital identity.
2. The passage suggests all of the following about chaos magick EXCEPT:
(A) Rejection of traditional views of truth and facts.
(B) Maintaining ties with the supernatural and mystical.
(C) Manipulating others' views to meet personal needs.
(D) Shaping social perceptions through personal will.
3. According to the passage, the primary goal of mid-20th-century futurists was to:
(A) Build a new society online, beyond physical limits.
(B) Replicate Hermetic rituals in modern tech settings.
(C) Upgrade tech for magical practices and self-divinisation.
(D) Utilize technology to significantly better human life.
4. The author refers to Erik Davis' article in Wired magazine in order to:
(A) Emphasize early internet's blend of tech and mysticism.
(B) Show the role of virtual reality in modern rituals.
(C) Point out tech community errors about Hermetic traditions.
(D) Critique commercialization of spiritual practices in tech.
Answers: A,B,A,A
Solved it in 12 minutes. Got all of them right. Sharing my viewpoints and logic here.
Answer 1:
Option 1. Correct. The central theme of the passage revolves around the idea that the internet serves as a contemporary platform for age-old magical and mystical practices. This is illustrated by the way cyber-enthusiasts and futurists view and utilize cyberspace to achieve personal transcendence and self-actualization, reflecting ancient magical ambitions in a modern digital context.
Option 2. Incorrect. While the passage does mention the adaptation of certain mystical practices into digital form, it doesn't suggest that internet culture has transformed into a digital version of traditional religious practices as its main idea.
Option 3. Incorrect. Although the passage covers some historical aspects,…