Megapolisomancy: A New Science of Cities, by Thibaut de Castries, edited by Raymond Stantz, with an introduction by Egon Spengler, April Foolday Publishing, 2020. Cover design by Peter Venkman, info: academia.com.

Megapolisomancy Revealed

In 1978 Fritz Leiber published “Our Lady of Darkness” which was received as a horror fantasy novel. The story unfolds around Leiber’s fictional hero, Franz Westen, who encounters the mysterious occult technology called Megapolisomancy – the ‘new science’, magic, and prophecy of super-cities created by Thibaut de Castries.   Westen has found an old journal of (the real author) Clark Ashton Smith attached to a ‘gracelessly printed’ tome entitled ‘Megapolisomancy’.   

The story oft references M. R. James’ ghost stories with quotes and symbolism, and Leiber himself noted that the story started out as a ‘short Jamesian horror story and just grew’.   As the story unfolds, HP Lovecraft, Ambrose Bierce, Dashiell Hammett, Jack London, and the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn – all real entities – are also invoked in the swirling tale about the strange occult science.

In Leiber’s story, the history of de Castries is revealed as such: de Castries arrived in San Francisco in 1900, when electricity, skyscrapers, radio, radioactivity, Egyptian discoveries, psychologies of Freud and Jung, and occult theosophies and Orders were being promulgated around the world.  De Castries gathered various acolytes to him and founded his own Hermetic Order of the Onyx Dusk, whose mission was violent revolution against super cities, and his perceived enemies.  

Our new super cities, de Castries felt, had grown out of control and caused paranormal and paramental entities to come into being – entities that inevitably drained and harmed us: their clueless creators.  Megapolisomantic operations were set to bring our large buildings down to rubble, to inflict paramentals on the enslaved humans to drive them further mad, and ultimately drive all human presence from such cities.  De Castries died in 1929, prior to the stock market crash which ‘would have been a comfort to him because it would have confirmed his theories that because of the self-abuse of megacities, the world was going to hell in a handbasket’.

In the time of de Castries, urbanization was just tipping over the 50% mark in the U.S, and megacities were just an idea but a fast looming threat on the horizon.   A century later, urbanization is the norm, at over 80% in the US, and the rise of the megacity has proven to be relentless, unstoppable.  For this reason, it’s worth a closer look at the city magic fantastically described by Leiber.  

Let us first contrast our world versus de Castries’ world of new urbanization.  The reams of paper, coal, electrical wiring & smog, once feared by de Castries, has been mitigated demonstrably as our communication networks have become wireless and environmental actions put in place.  Yet the steel and concrete behemoths remain and have multiplied, and the electric, gas, and oil lines that fuel our cities have been knit under the earth, out of sight.  We are still fighting to realize and solve of the deathly impact we are having on our earth’s ability to sustain human life, resistant as we seem to be to that fact.   

We have discovered new mathematics and physics to explain our universe, build and code the machines that serve us, even begin our first steps toward creating artificial intelligence.  We even seek immortality through merging ourselves with machines or possibly moving off the earth to survive in space, if our cities become too congested or our earth too diseased by our cities.   Everything we take in – from our food to the very ideas that populate our thoughts based on our media – has been edited for our pleasure – food is manufactured to be bigger and tastier than natural, media reports deliver messages that have built-in conclusions to ease us from the pain of thinking.   At the same time, we have begun to more widely acknowledge consciousness in other beings – a benefit of our networking: comparing notes and making better observations of the world around us.  But if we think critically, we can see the limitations of fast food, fast media, and fast connections and perhaps alter our interaction with them to utilize their benefits without being overcome.

The magician can focus on maneuvering more adeptly within their environment safely and productively, or exert their will on the multitude of issues that inhibit their Life and Initiation.  One’s Work might fall in to creating a safer more sustainable environment for Life to thrive; or for education and critical thinking to cut through to allow the Black Flame to spark potential others.

Back to the story.  Once de Castries decided cities could not be destroyed, he sought to utilize Megapolisomancy to control and protect from the paramentals and paranatural entities birthed by our cities.  They are the byproducts of the raw materials and the sludged, drained thoughts and neuroses of the madness that descended upon the inhabitants of such mega cities.   Today’s cities paranatural entities might be described as memetic forces, the drain of health from physically unhealthy surroundings, the unhealthy foods and habitual activities.  The paramentals might be the impulses to retract from the world completely and stay in our silos, the doubt and fear causing constant adverts, the crushing ‘everyone else’ mentality that is our struggle to shrug off.

We have observed a ‘command to look’ in nature, stemming from our evolutionary wisdom built into our reptilian brains, but we need to utilize a learned ‘unnatural command to look’ to stoke the Black Flame of consciousness and evolution of self.    By doing so we can promote critical thinking in ourselves and others, and make our surroundings and our network useful forces rather than debilitating ones.  Control your environment and input, lest it control you.

For these reasons, study of Megapolisomancy is in order – to be met not with trepidation and terror over ‘paranaturals’ and ‘paramentals’ but to establish a useful understanding to learn about them, use them for us and against our own stasis and the unrelenting World of Horrors that consumes and grows without thinking.   These ‘para-things’ and ‘citystuff’ exist because of the global ‘us’, and we can regain control of them to further our personal and societal evolution rather than let them bleed us dry.

Leiber alluded to Megapolisomancy in snippets and suggestion, but I have drawn the following operations/methods from the novel.  Excerpts from the novel are below for finer review.

1)      Usage of ‘weighted’ structures  - weighted in scale and importance

2)      Identifying and marking sites of future interest (for potential structures, activities)

3)      Protections against the paranatural/paramental entities: the Star (pentagram), abstract designs, and silver.

4)      Vector geometry in targeting a person/area

5)      Usage of elements (earth, fluid, gas, and fire)

6)      Usage of Balance to achieve the execution of an operation; or banishment of the paranatural/paramental entities (The latter comes from a blend of the mathematical and musical/artistic.

7)      Usage of one physical and mental Focal point in an operation

Other Links on Our Lady of Darkness & Megapolisomancy

Talking about Ritual Magic: Our Lady of Darkness & Megapolisomancy

Our Lady of Darkness: A Jamesian Classic

Magia Loci – Magical Operations

There are four areas of focus for Magia Loci operations: The Self, Connection with Others, Changing the Past, and Shaping the Future.

1)      The Self

We are greatly affected by our physical environment – the shape, structure, and angles of it, the density and color palette of items within, the ‘feeling’ of protection or openness, the smells and sounds and tangible feel of it.  All physical signals contribute to our subjective and unconscious response.   Emotional states and physical energy are affected, subtly or overtly.  Physically feeling safe, for example, makes one relaxed, susceptible to taking in new ideas; feeling physically on edge can make one feel alert, excited, inspired, or distracted.  

Studies in design, architecture, and behavioral sciences can shed light on why and how they affect us.  So can self-study.  We can utilize this knowledge for magical work – to aid in your self-transformation, or to seduce or deflect yourself/others to or from a location. 

Magia Loci operations on the Self include:  

·         Awareness - simply becoming aware of the subtle and overt effects of areas you travel through and inhabit throughout the day can lead you to a better understand of their effect on you.  Are there certain routes, rooms, areas you tend to favor, or avoid?  Bring awareness to all physical aspects as well as the memories and emotions that come up as you do so.  

·         Set Dressing – make changes to the areas you traverse and inhabit to increase or decrease their effect.  As simple as painting your room, rearranging furniture, or adding a plant –but doing this mindfully, with intent, to create a space conducive to your Work and to evoke a particular effect from others that benefit you – can be complex.  

·         Battery – For those places that jolt and inspire you, utilize them as a magical battery. Visit them ritualistically and it will deepen your connection with the space and amp up the effects.

·         4D Crossroads  – cognitive architecture studies say humans feel soothed by crossroads because they help us orient ourselves in space to more easily plan our path, and help us calculate escape routes, should danger fall upon us.  Adding another dimension – time – to physical locations provides initiatory context to examine our transformations.  4D Crossroads – the intersection with a place over time - provide a source of reflection, insight, self knowledge, and may act as a good Working spot for Self Creation.  

·         Resource Appropriation – think about what your city has to offer that could be useful to you - as a Quality.  Overlooked resources are things we don’t necessarily need or care for at the moment, but can be easily put to use with some magical effort.  For example, NYC is constantly under construction.  One passes construction sites several times a day, so much so that they are ubiquitous, and ignored.  The ‘quality’ or ‘resource’ of the concept of construction can be put to use to what YOU have going on ‘under construction’ at the moment (writing assignment, diet or exercise plan, financial plan).  By being aware of the resource, you may gain awareness of the process, openness to the people doing it, perhaps discussions with them, which can lead to insights and resources you didn’t realize you could use, or need.  

 2)      Connection with Others (to aid your endeavors)

One of the areas of study of Magia Loci is on the transformative, evolutionary effect our living together in larger groups.   Our ability to communicate ideas easily amongst each other, and our ability to work flexibly together to adapt to crisis, is what sets us apart from other species.  These tools may have contributed to – or been the effect of - our human consciousness. Our human heroes are those that are great at communication or adaptability – those are prized human values.  

But magicians may often seek personal, isolate work, or identify as antinomian.  Separating from the group is critical to the work of the Self, to disentangle its ideas and values from ours, to trace back when, where, and from whom, exactly we got certain ideas in our head. 

But few are satisfied living a hermit life forever.  It’s fair to say we Need to cultivate our isolate self, but do we Desire others, or do we Need them as human beings?  As magicians seeking self transformation?   From an initiatory standpoint, we want to find others to learn from, share with, and teach what we know.  We want, as Leary said – to find the Others.

Magia Loci operations regarding others include:

·         Beacon – So how do we find the Others?  Start with visiting spaces and attend events that you can imagine that people you are seeking may be.  Visit places you *love* to be.  Set a ‘magical beacon’ for others to find a path to you.   Make a plan and a promise to visit in the future, and project that into your ‘beacon’.   (And if you actually come across an ‘Other’, talk to them!)

·         Time Machine – Great for travel.  Before visiting a new place you’ve never been before, research its history. Find stories of inhabitants from the past that pique your interest and would have liked to meet.  Plan to visit a place you know they were at.  Tell at least one other person of their story.  

·         Say Yes - For a period of 30 days, commit to agreeing to all events, outings, invitations, and impulses to do something besides sitting at home. (With thanks to Uncle Setnakt for this transformative exercise!)   Additional Magia Loci work – drop Beacons as you go, identifying at least one interesting feature of the event or people you met while doing so).

 3)      Changing the Past

One of the magician’s greatest (or favorite) tools is changing the past.  We do this by changing our subjective view of past events, or doing the hard, slow work of digging into our issues, unearthing and coming to terms with the past. This releases us from the emotional baggage we were carrying about it. In either case, effectively, the past is changed.  It is easy for humans to do this – we are natural storytellers and fill in blanks easily. Note how unreliable and suggestible we are (see the Mandela effect or studies on eye witnesses).  Figure out what to change and determining a replacement that serves us, is the work of the black magician. 

Can we change past events objectively?  One might say the question is largely moot, because it is arguable that there is an ‘objective past’ – the past is alive only subjectively.  Even with video and detailed record keeping devises, we have seen various psychological and behavioral studies show that people still hold firm to their subjectively selected story over proof.  History is written by the victor; editing one frame or sentence changes the context.

Magia Loci operations to change the past include:

·         Memory Re-Anchor – revisit the exact locale of a memory you wish to change, if you can (if not, in ritual, visualize it clearly).  Bring something fragrant that is pleasing, and that you wish to attach to the new memory. Tell the revised story of the events out loud, as if telling a friend a story.   Write them down in your journal, while at the location.  For seven nights, before bed, inhale the same scent and retell the story, embellishing a little as it seems fit.  

·         Memory Wipe – you will need to create a memory to replace the one you are trying to revise. Best if you take others with you and get them to tell you good and funny stories while you’re at the place.  Prior to entering, banish your old memory by envisioning cleaning a slate.  If the old memories come up during your new visit, wipe the slate again, and re-engage with the others.   Make no effort to remember the new visit, but talk to the people you visited with several times over the next 7 days.

·         Time Capsule – Before bed, visualize a memory you wish you had.  You’ll want to symbolize burying it, so pick a suitable mental location and visualize your memory filling your time capsule, and bury it. Before sleep, for the next 7 nights, mentally visit the location you’ve buried your time capsule and let your mind wander (but don’t dig up the capsule, or force yourself to think of the memory).  Journal dreams and day-time happenings over the next 7 days.

4)      Shaping the Future

Finally, we are oft concerned with the Future – the great goal of Self Creation, and ‘lesser’ goals of obtaining certain desires that may benefit our greater Need (or, simply please us).

Magia Loci operations to shape the future include:

·         Beacons – A tool for bringing awareness of your magical goals.  Set an intention at a certain physical location that you pass through no more than a few times a day.  Best if there is a particular goal attached, so the future memory associated with the location will deepen once you meet your goal.  As you pass through daily, envision that future need or desire clearly.

·         Linking – After selecting a future outcome you desire, decide on an appropriate location that is significant and ingrained to that future you seek.   However, as magic of this sort can be crippled by too much detail, choose something with the qualities of what you’re seeking.   Examples: for a new place to live, pick a place that signifies the neighborhood or ‘type’ of place; for a job, choose a location that screams of the type of work you want, or the culture of a place you’d like to work; for losing weight or gaining strength: rather than focus on a specific gym, for example, you might think of it as ‘a kind of place where people who have achieved what you desire congregate’.  Physically touch the ‘linked’ space and fill it with your intent.  Visit the location frequently.   Be aware of similar options that pop up.  

·         Pre-Cog – Visit a place that you want to be significant to you in the future – good for buying a house, getting a job, to just liking a vibe of a place.  Visit it in whatever capacity you can, and perform a frame ritual opening prior to entering.  Your intent in the ritual is to listen, watch, and take in any information that the location and its current inhabitants will share.  Leave a Beacon (see above) before you exit and close the ritual.  Act on any insights.  

Magia Loci (Magic of Place/Megapolisomancy) blends art, science, and magic to transform ourselves and others through influencing/altering our locales.

-Art influence comes from fantasy/horror author Fritz Leiber’s ideas of Megapolisomancy.  Also, the use of location in storytelling (stories we remember about ourselves or tell others to craft our Identity) plays a role in Magia Loci.

-Scientific influence comes from cognitive architecture, urban design and it’s influence on our biological and emotional responses, urban evolution and its import on societal and cultural evolution, memory formation and recall, neurology as it relates to interacting with nature and built spaces, and sciences that uncover the hows and whys of our evolution.

-Magical influence comes from the basics of Black Magic to ‘Become’ a Sovereign being & create our Self and the World we wish to inhabit.  Strains of Chaos Magic and Sigil magic seem  useful to Megapoliomantic ideas.

*More on Megapolisomancy: See Fritz Lieber’s “Our Lady of Darkness”