The Pop Culture Grimoire:
A Pop Culture Magic Anthology
Edited by Taylor Ellwood
Stafford, England
The Pop Culture Grimoire
By Taylor Ellwood
© 2008 First edition
Smashwords edition 2010
Smashwords Edition, License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or portions thereof, in any form.
The right of Taylor Ellwood and the individual contributors to be identified as the authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.
Cover Art: Andy Bigwood
Editor: Taylor Ellwood
A Megalithica Books edition published through Smashwords
Megalithica Books is the non-fiction imprint of Immanion Press
http://www.immanion-press.com
info@immanion-press.com
8 Rowley Grove, Stafford ST17 9BJ UK
Contents
Introduction, Taylor Ellwood
Popular Music as Ritual, Lisa McSherry
Death and Captain Jack Harkness, Mary Caelsto
Break On through To the Other Side, Jackie Schmitt
The Alchemy of Bollocks: Turning Pop Culture into Something Useful, Nick Farrell
Neon Genesis Evangelion and the Psycho-Shamanic Journey, Lupa
Pop Culture Goddess: The Worship of Marilyn Monroe Leni Hester
Out of the Wardrobe:Ritual Design for Pop Culture Topics, Elizabeth Barrette
A Revelation of Elvisinian Mysteries, Diana G. Rice
Pokémon Magic: A Modern Guide to the Secret Elemental and Spirit System of Pokémon, Andrieh Vitimus
X-Box, Weed, and Magick, Cameron
Creative Visualization and Pop Culture, Daven
The Critical Value of Magical Thinking, Patrick Dunn
Building Your Pop Culture Toolkit, Vince Stevens, I.S.U.A.G.
When Not Becomes Pop, Michael Szul
World of Willcraft: Sigilbringer’s Metaquest, Jeremy Owen Turner
Pop Goes the Tarot: Experiments with Tarot and Cultural Icons, jaymi elford
The Secret Chiefs Advertise on Late-Night TV, Bill Whitcomb
Deharan Forgiveness and Banishment Ritual, Taylor Ellwood
Introduction
When I wrote Pop Culture Magick in 2003, and had it published in 2004, there wasn’t a lot of available material on the topic. There were some mentions of it in Phil Hine’s books and an article by Grant Morrison, but for the most part it really hadn’t been written about. Since then, pop culture and magic have been discussed on podcasts, written about in new books, and otherwise become an accepted discipline within magic. At the time I wrote Pop Culture Magick, I was told I was reinventing the wheel and met with much skepticism over potential “fluffiness”, and likely trying to put together an anthology would have been much harder. But four or so years later, this anthology represents the work others have done, which is thrilling to see.
What is so essential about integrating pop culture into magic is recognizing the very important concept that the culture we live in shapes us in ways that older cultures cannot shape us, because we don’t live in them. While it can be validly argued that much of pop culture is consumer driven, what is often ignored within that argument is that it is also an expression of (and often commentary on) the values of contemporary culture. Pop culture magic allows us to examine those values and work with them, instead of taking the mentality of longing for a previous age or simpler times. It shows us the diversity of our contemporary culture, even as it remakes the previous cultures into a contemporary context.
In this anthology, there is a broad variety of pop culture magic, from working with Elvis as a god form, to different pop culture tarot interpretations, to how to use pop culture music in ritual, and much more. The diversity of these workings from different magicians is inspiring to read because it represents a diversity of perspectives on what pop culture can be as well as how it can be integrated into magical practices. When we can take a character from a role playing game and adapt it to a belief system such as voodoo, where new deities can be discovered, what we find is innovation as well as recognition of the relevance of pop culture to spirituality and how we manifest that in everyday life. Seeing the diversity of people’s practices, as that diversity applies to pop culture magic is encouraging because it shows that pop culture magic has the necessary flexibility that all spiritual practices should have.
So sit back, relax, and get inspired in your own practice by seeing what others have done and learning what you can do.
Taylor Ellwood
Portland OR
June 2008
Popular Music as Ritual
The idea of music incorporated into ritual is ancient. From the intricate rhythms played upon the body by the Aborigines to the wild instrumentals of the Celts, modern pagans have borrowed many songs to use to enhance their rituals. Music focuses the mind and accesses the unconscious in a medium it can more easily understand than the textual symbols of spoken language, bringing the conscious and unconscious together to more easily direct the will.
What I propose is a new way to use music: not as an adjunct to ritual, but as the ritual itself. With modern technology it is very easy for anyone with a computer to put together a playlist, burn it to a CD, and have it automatically play – freeing the practitioner from having to pay attention to distracting details. An older technology version requires creating a tape and playing it on a machine that automatically ‘turns the tape over’ at the midpoint, but this is an easily ignored pause in the overall flow of the ritual.
I have created ritual music for years now (originally on tapes in the 1980s, now I use CDs) to express my deepest intentions and manifest new creations within my life. Some examples include: celebrating Beltane, enhancing creativity, and letting go of a romantic relationship gone bad. I will be using two examples of ritual music – Beltane Beat and Catharsis to illustrate the process of creating a ritual from music. One note: there is a growing body of pagan-specific music within our community, some of it amazingly powerful. I have deliberately chosen to use that music very little, finding the quirkiness of popular music more to my preference. For those who would prefer not to use popular music I propose a collection of pagan-specific music for ritual use at the end of this article.
My personal preference is for outstanding music with excellent lyrics, but I will settle for adequate music with perfect lyrics in some cases. My partner is nearly the opposite. He barely hears lyrics and for him the music is far more important. Along those lines, there are several genres of music I simply do not like, and that limits some of my musical choices (Broadway musicals, for example). Obviously each practitioner will be drawing upon a unique collection of music as well as a unique outlook of what is and isn’t enjoyed.
Begin with Intent
As with every magickal endeavor, the creator must specify intent for the working. This is different from deciding on a theme, although song themes are the starting place for deciding which are appropriate to use.
I first created Beltane Beat in the late 1980s, and it’s been recreated from the original tape at least twice, with slight modifications to include more recent music and for changes in the desired results. In the 80s I was in single, in college, and interested in attracting healthy sex partners with or without an accompanying relationship. Beltane Beat was originally created simply to celebrate the glorious diverse sexuality of my life and it’s sacredness in service to the life-force of the God/dess and updated songs keep that flavor. If I were to create this collection anew, the focus would be more on the sacredness of sexuality within a monogamous partnership, or perhaps how fun it is to be in love.
Here’s the playlist:
Soraidh Bhuam far chuan is beannachd, Maggie MacInnes
Thing Called Love, Bonnie Raitt
Cathouse, Danielle Dax
Wrap it Up, Romeo Void
Ode to Boy II, Alison Moyet
Stripped, Depeche Mode
Listen, Sophie B Hawkins
I Want Your Hands On Me, Sinead O’ Connor
Sins of the Flesh, Sister Machine Gun
I Need a Man, Eurythmics
Because the Night, Patti Smith Group
Bring Me Some Water, Melissa Etheridge
You Sexy Thing, Tom Tom Club
Sleep Together, Garbage
Sexuality, kd lang
The Sensual World, Kate Bush
As we begin this ritual, imagine that you are looking for a little spice, a spark of that divine, sexual, fire. This ritual cries out for movement; if shared with another that is an added bit of spice. Shake your hips, fling your hair, dress up and go out to show off your beauty.
We open with the incredible Maggie MacInnes and her “Soraidh Bhuam far chuan is beannachd”. Sung in Scottish Gaelic, most listeners are going to find themselves carried along by the sounds rather than the lyrics. The beat is strong, like a heartbeat and it carries us right into a sense of sacred space. Right then, in a quick change of mood, the bass guitar comes in and is quickly joined by the steel guitar of Bonnie Raitt’s “Thing Called Love.” Witty and confident, this is a woman we could become. When she sings “I ain’t no bar of soap/sent in to clean up your reputation” we know exactly what she means and we laugh along with her.
Danielle Dax’s “Cat-house” is another witty song, but much more blunt. With lyrics like: Baby, baby, gonna hunger for your leisure/ gonna polish up your chrome and shine your treasure/ silken bellies and downy thighs/ a little trick with a big surprise/ so stay let me be your pleasure” how could you resist laughing out loud? Romeo Void’s “Wrap it Up” continues the sexy theme (“I’m gonna treat you like the queen you are” – yum!) and the up-beat tempo. As a counterpoint to these simplistic lyrics, however, I followed it with Alison Moyet’s “Ode to Boy” – a much more complicated song of straightforward desire (“I watch his lips caress the glass/ His fingers stroke its stem and pass/ To lift a cigarette at last”).
At this point I feel like singing, and so I turn to Depeche Mode and “Stripped.” I love to really let it out with “Let me see you/ stripped down to the bone” only to soften it for “Let me hear you speaking/ Just for me.” This song also serves as notice that it’s not just sex I want, it’s a lover, someone who will be worthy of my sacred sexuality. The ticking clock at the end of this song merges perfectly into Sophie B Hawkins’ “Listen.” This is a truly sexy song. From its quiet beginning, deliberately building like a Bach Cantata until she wails (literally) and you realize you’ve got a metaphorical orgasm going on in your ears. Interestingly, the beat and tempo started with “Stripped” links into another song, Sinead O’Connor’s “I Want Your Hands on Me.” Bluntly: it’s here because it is perfectly literal. (In later years I would replace it with her “Daddy I’m Fine” for the stronger emphasis on the woman’s strength.)
I’m dancing now, and Sister Machine Gun’s “Sins of the Flesh” flows through my head and into my body. This is early industrial rock with a hard bass line and driving syntho-drum machine. The lyrics are less important than the impact on my body. Annie Lennox steps in right on Chris Randall’s heels with “Hey! Is this my turn? Do you want me to sing now?” and I’m strutting around telling the world that “there’s just one thing/ I’m looking for/ And he don’t wear a dress.” One of the classic anthems of female desire, “I Need a Man” needs no further discussion, nor does Patti Smith’s “Because the Night” (which I much prefer to the Springsteen version, even though she wrote it for him). In a kind of response to Ms. Smith is Melissa’s Etheridge’s “Bring Me Some Water.”
Tom Tom Club’s “You Sexy Thing” is another stroke to the self esteem, and a welcome break after all these women have shared their songs. But it’s back to the women in a big way to hear Shirley Manson wonder if we’d be happier if we “Sleep Together.”
With that, the ritual begins to shift focus from the wilder aspects of Beltane to its more sensual perspective. k.d. lang sings “Sexuality” and the lyrics reveal that it isn’t about sex, but exploration and desire and sharing – all shared in that gorgeous voice. Finally, with the incredibly obvious song title we come to Kate Bush’s “The Sensual World.” The name may be obvious, but the lyrics are an exquisite play on Molly Bloom’s Soliloquy (from James Joyce’s Ulysses):
Mmh, yes,
Then I’d taken the kiss of seedcake back from his mouth
Going deep South, go down, mmh, yes,
Took six big wheels and rolled our bodies
Off of Howth Head and into the flesh, mmh, yes,
He said I was a flower of the mountain, yes,
But now I’ve powers o’er a woman’s body--yes.
Stepping out of the page into the sensual world.
Stepping out...................
To where the water and the earth caress
And the down of a peach says mmh, yes,
Do I look for those millionaires
Like a Machiavellian girl would
When I could wear a sunset? mmh, yes,
And how we’d wished to live in the sensual world
You don’t need words--just one kiss, then another.
Stepping out of the page into the sensual world
Stepping out, off the page, into the sensual world.
And then our arrows of desire rewrite the speech, mmh, yes,
And then he whispered would I, mmh, yes,
Be safe, mmh, yes, from mountain flowers?
And at first with the charm around him, mmh, yes,
He loosened it so if it slipped between my breasts
He’d rescue it, mmh, yes,
And his spark took life in my hand and, mmh, yes,
I said, mmh, yes,
But not yet, mmh, yes,
Mmh, yes.
It’s hard to beat that for turning sexuality to sensuality and so I come to a close.
Beltane Beat is a passionate creation with a single theme expressed in a variety of easily-updated songs. Catharsis is another ritual creation entirely. Created in 2003 as the result of a passionate but ultimately not permanent relationship, its purpose is to take me through the shadow back into the light. I was the one left, I had an extremely difficult time ‘letting go’ and everything I tried to get over him simply was not working (including ‘regular’ ritual work). Almost in desperation, I decided to create a CD expressing all of my pain, love, regret and desire in one place. It would, I hoped, purge me – if only through repetition. I played it every day, sometimes several times a day (on weekends in particular, when I had huge blocks of time with no other distractions) for months. Its efficacy can be measured thusly: I am friends with that person, and my heart no longer aches.
Here’s the playlist:
Jesus Forgive Me (For the Things I’m About Say), Concrete Blonde
Numb, Pink
She Cries Your Name, Beth Orton
Pretty When You Cry, VAST
Drift and Die, Puddle of Mud
Torn, Natalie Imbruglia
Thin Line, Annie Lennox
You Oughta Know, Alanis Morrissette
As Heaven is Wide, Garbage
Numb, Disturbed
The Ubiquitous Mr. Lovegrove, Dead Can Dance
Closer, Nine Inch Nails
Judith, A Perfect Circle
I Fucking Hate You, Godsmack
Schism, Tool
In The End, Linkin Park
Concrete Blonde opens this ritual with Johnette Napolitano’s distinctive voice wailing “Oh h h h Jesus, PLEASE, forgive me/ for the things I’m about to say.” There is a long pause and then the music begins with her singing once again:
I killed you in my mind today
I cut you up, I watched you bleed
I killed you in my heart today
For everything you did to me
The words are like a punch to the gut, a stabbing of the voodoo doll, an exorcism of the pain. She knows exactly how I feel, and her voice pulls the pain out of me into the open where we can look at it.
I murdered you a hundred times
I shot you dead and never cried
I killed you in my mind today
I laughed and watched you die
Screaming at me all on fire
Liar, liar, liar
I buried you with my desire
Liar, liar, liar
I buried you so far below
Liar, liar, liar
I hate to see you go
And in that last line we begin to approach a look at the deeper problems. One piece is: I am not ready to let go. How to cut that cord? Pink’s “Numb” captures how I’m feeling, despite the pain of my emotions, it’s almost the hardest part about this break up:
Like the coldest winter
I am frozen from you
I was weak before now
You’ve made me so numb
I can’t feel much for you anymore
I gave you my all my baby
I’m numb, numb, numb
It’s the line “I gave you my all” that hits me like a gut punch. That’s a deep fear being brought into the light: is there anything left? Without the forest-fire passion is any other relationship worth it? I’ve been burned so deeply, the nerves are truncated, I can no longer feel.
Beth Orton captures my sadness, my longing, in her eloquently poetic “She Cries Your Name.” Listening to her if feel for a moment like some romantic heroine from an old ballad. I remember that women for ages untold have been where I am, felt what I feel, and yet we go on. “She cries your name/ Twelve times again/ She cries your name/ How long can this love remain?” At this point I also remember how much I hate the myth of the romantic.
VAST’s “Pretty When You Cry” is my ironic song – my antidote to the sweet, dreamy, unrealistic words of the previous song. VAST is an artist that my former lover introduced me to, and it was while seeing them in concert that I was first told that he loved me. This song takes that and twists it around and it’s here because it is so twisted, particularly this line: “If you knew how much I love you/ you would run away.” It helps sometimes to go to the dark places and just go as deep as you can before returning.
Puddle of Mud comes along at that point and I suddenly feel compelled to sing aloud. As river ice cracks when the weak sun begins to warm it, so too my voice sounds: cracked and thick with unshed tears and emotion. Its sound was hardly more than a croak. But in doing so, I am reminded of my deepest values: I don’t lie (“I Believe, I Believe, I Believe in the truth, from inside”). This honesty is sacred to me, and yet it is one reason the relationship ended. That shook my faith and now I’m feeling adrift, uprooted.
“Torn” (thank you Ms. Imbruglia) pulls my soul right up and out. Pop it may be, it’s also energy pushing me through, acknowledging my feelings, my situation, but because the music is so, dare I say, upbeat, it clarifies rather than enervates me. Here, the line: “illusion never changed/ into something real” is the gut-clencher. I need to face that – my illusions were never real.
Annie Lennox’s “Thin Line” is another sing-out-loud song and one that describes so perfectly where I am – so easy to fall into hate from the passion I once felt. This song is a tale of the consequences of being taken for granted. It’s worth it to reproduce the lyrics in their entirety here:
It’s a thin line between love and hate
It’s a thin line between love and hate
It’s five o’clock in the morning
And you’re just gettin’ in
A knock upon the door
A voice sweet and low says (who is it?)
She opens up the door
And she lets you in
And never once does she say “where have you been?”
She says “Hold it,
Are you hungry, did you eat yet,
Let me hang up your coat now”
And all the time she’s smiling
Never raises her voice
It’s five o’clock in the morning
And you don’t give it a second thought
It’s a thin line between love and hate
It’s a thin line between love and hate
The sweetest woman in the world
Could be the meanest woman in the world
If you make her be that way
She might be holding something in
That’s really gonna hurt you
One of these fine days
There you are in the hospital
Bandaged from foot to head
In a state of shock
That much from bein’ dead
You didn’t think your woman
Could do something like that to you
You didn’t think she’d got the nerve
Accidents speak louder than words
Louder than words
Louder than words
Louder than words
Come on
Come on, baby, baby
You don’t give a damn about me
Come on baby, baby
You don’t really care about me