#pop magic

MY ART JUMPSCARE!!! more fanchilds incoming

SMASHES THIS IN YOUR FACE

Haiiii!,!!,1! I’ve come here to share my Pin x Soob x LOOEY crackship fanchild propaganda,,,,meet Yay!! Yes that’s her name…..

ANYWAYS POP MAGIC IS REAL

This is a little bit of pop culture magic designed to help identify and process strong feelings. Knowledge of the game/vocaloid lore isn't required; anyone should be able to use this if you'd like!

Instructions

Find a peaceful space which you can comfortably meditate in.

Once you're ready, close your eyes and meditate in whatever way works for you. That could mean sitting still and focusing on the breath, rocking back and forth, using prayer beads, or smoething else.

Once your mind is calm, focus on the feelings you're dealing with. Maybe it's about a certain situation, or just a general feeling of discomfort. You don't have to name it. Just let it in without judgement.

When you're ready, enter your own sekai. This is a small little imaginary world created from your feelings, designed to help you discover them. Simply let yourself "appear" there. The important part is not to question what it looks like. We don't get to choose our sekai. Just allow whatever pops into your head to be, and trust that it will come to make sense over time.

As you continue to meditate, each sekai also comes with its own incarnation of Hatsune Miku. Just like the sekai itself, don't try to force it. She'll appear how/whenever she appears. Miku here serves as an ambassador to the sekai and a personal guide. By nature, your Miku is built to care about you and want to help.

Spend as much time in the sekai as you like. Explore the world, talk with your Miku, whatever feels right. You can also return to the sekai in future meditations if you want to, since it might take more than one visit to get everything out of it.

Reflect on the meditation afterwards. Much like a dream, the way things manifest can be significant. What might your sekai mean for you? Your Miku might represent what kind of help you need in real life. For example, if Miku were to appear as a nurse or maid, it could mean you want to be supported or nurtured. A badass, confident Miku might be a desire for more confidence or a strong direction to go in. Your answers will be entirely personal.

I hope, when that day comes, you are mourned.

I hope many prominent people eulogize you.

I hope that the day you die, you will end.

Your body will remain sterile;

Your memorials deserted;

Your memories forgotten.

I hope that, from the day you die,

So I am a big fan of pop culture paganism/magic.  I could write at length about it (and I might eventually) but for now I want to focus on one of the (maybe) biggest aspects of pop paganism: pop pantheons.

A pop pantheon is a collection made of fictional characters, images, or archetypes that you work with like deities or other revered magical beings, or that you use in a sacred way.  A popular example of this is the tarot, where you can make 100 different decks using 100 different subjects and people can still connect to it as a divination tool.

Pop pantheons can be used either on their own or as a gateway into working with ancient deities-- both of which I’ll talk about.

Why would you use a pop pantheon over a ‘real’ pantheon? The answer to that question is very simple: connection.  You have a personal connection to these pop culture figures already, so you can really put your heart into working with them.  When you’re personally invested in something, you connect to it better.  The feelings you have for those things are raw and powerful and can be harnessed in your magic or your daily life.

I’ll use an example from my own practice: Pokémon.  I’ve explained in other posts how much I love Pokémon.  Because I have such a deep connection to Pokémon, I am able to tap into that and use Pokémon trading cards for divination.  I might also pick a Pokémon to embody something for a spell or ritual.  For example, I feel like I need to be more disciplined, but I don’t work with any deities or beings that represent 'discipline’ so I don’t feel like I have a source to call on.  I, personally, don’t feel comfortable calling on the help of deities I don’t work with, so instead I can turn to my special interest, Pokémon, and find something to represent discipline for me.  I could use Lucario as an image of discipline because of its history of being a knight’s companion and intensive training to be able to see and use auras.  I could do a spell where I involve this Pokémon through a trading card or a plush toy or an enamel pin, and I can use that item as my talisman.  Then when I need to call on discipline, I could turn to that item or carry it with me.

Pop pantheons are easily accessible. For some things in pop culture, there is vastly more information about that thing than there is about a specific deity or mythical being.  There might only be a handful of myths for a deity.  However, with pop culture work, you likely have access to the source material for the being you want to work with and can easily consume it.  A great example of this is Aslan from C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia.  There are already books dedicated to using Narnia as a religious-adjacent text for your life.

Another example could be Merlin.  Merlin is an archetypal figure with many interpretations that you can consume and build a connection with.  You can read the legends of King Arthur, or you could choose a Merlin-esque being who embodies the same archetype, like Gandalf.  You can read the Middle Earth books to foster that connection to the archetype of the wise wizard or magical mentor.  This stuff is readily available at your fingertips, it’s as simple as going to the library and checking out the books or renting the DVDs.

What you need might be too ‘niche’ for a deity/being or you can’t think of/don’t work with a deity/being that represents what you need. As I mentioned earlier, some of us don’t feel comfortable calling on deities/beings we don’t regularly work with, but we feel we need the help of a supernatural force.  We can call on an archetype or a fictional being that we feel connected to to serve this function.  My example from earlier was how I felt I needed discipline, but I don’t work with any beings that represent or embody that, so I called on a Pokémon for the job.  A big facet of the world of Pokémon is establishing a deep connection with your Pokémon and being able to call on them when you need help, so it felt appropriate to me to use a Pokémon for this task.

Pop pantheons can be more comfortable to work with. This is sort of the same as the previous point, but I’m going to include it anyway.  I’m going to use an example that Molly Roberts used in her video on this subject (which is linked at the end of this post.)  For road opener work, Molly uses Glinda the Good Witch from The Wizard of Oz.  She mentions that many people like to call on/use Ganesha symbolism for road opener work because it falls under the umbrella of things he represents.  However, Molly doesn’t feel comfortable working with a being from a system she doesn’t know enough about, so instead she uses Glinda, who represents the same thing to her but comes from something she does know and understand.  She’s more comfortable with Glinda, so her work flows freely and her magic isn’t blocked up or diminished by uncertainty or discomfort or a feeling that what she is doing is ‘wrong.’

Pop pantheons can be a gateway into working with ‘real’ deities. If you’ve never worked with a deity before and aren’t feeling called to one, but want to start a relationship with one, it can be a bit intimidating to work with one at first, especially if you’re new to paganism and/or witchcraft in general.  You might feel drawn to a pop cultural depiction of a deity, though, and want to interact with that being through the lens of the pop culture ‘version.’  A great example of this is Loki from the Marvel universe.  I’ve heard of several people who came to Loki through an interest in his Marvel counterpart.  I have a friend who works intimately with Loki and the way he appears to her is much the same as Marvel’s Loki.  Is her work with him diminished because he resembles the Marvel character?  Not at all!

Another example is Hades.  Say someone played that game and suddenly felt a strong interest in Dionysus.  They might begin dipping their toes in deity work, and when they do they envision Dionysus the way he appears in the game.  This helps them connect to the ‘true’ Dionysus because they already feel drawn to that vision of him and feel comfortable with it.  They can use Hades Dionysus as their proxy for the ‘real’ Dionysus the god chooses to show his preferred form to that person-- if he ever does at all.  Dionysus might be perfectly happy to be represented as the Hades Dionysus for that practitioner and not change.

🌟 🌟 🌟

This post is getting quite long, so I will stop here.  I hope this feels like a good introduction to pop pantheons.  If you have questions or want me to expand on this subject, you can always send me an ask.

Before you leave, I’d like to recommend three videos to you.  Some of the information I’ve provided in this post comes from these videos, and each expands on the ideas presented here and provides more information.  So if you’re interested in knowing more, I highly recommend watching them:

Kelly-Ann Maddox: Worth with Deities and Other Personified Beings

Jesse Huntenberg: Discovering Gods, Goddesses, and Archetypes