Hello from the Southern Blue Mountains of These Soon To Be Re-United States.

I realised that, for someone whose work and life and public face is as much about magic as mine is, I haven't done a lot of intention- and will-setting, here. That is, I haven't stated and formulated with a clear mind and intention what I want and will work to bring into existence.

Now, there are a lot of magical schools of thought that go in for the power of setting your intention, abstracting it out from yourself, and putting it into the universe as a kind of unconscious signal. Sigilizing, "let go and let god," that whole kind of thing.

But there's also something to be said for just straight-up clearly formulating the concepts and words to state what you want, and fixing your mind on what it will take to achieve. So here's what I want, in 2019…

by Damien

Over at A Future Worth Thinking About, I’ve posted an expanded riff on a presentation I gave at the Theorizing the Web 2017 Invited Panel, “Apocalypse Buffering.” It’s called “How We Survive After The Events.” If you’re a regular reader of the newsletter, then this will likely be familiar.

[Black lettering on a blue field reads “Apocalypse Buffering,” above an old-school hourglass icon.]

My co-panelists were Tim Maughan, who talked about the dystopic horror of shipping container sweatshop cities, and Jade E. Davis, discussing an app to know how much breathable air you’ll be able to consume in our rapidly collapsing ecosystem before you die. Then my piece.

Our moderator, organizer, and all around fantastic person who now has my implicit trust was Ingrid Burrington. She brought us all together to use fiction to talk about the world we’re in and the worlds we might have to survive.

I found myself looking out at the audience, struck by the the shining, hungry, open faces of so many who had been transformed by what had happened to them, to bring us all to that moment. I walked to the lectern and fiddled with the elements to cast out the image and surround them with the sound of my voice, and I said,

"First and foremost, I wanted to say that I'm glad to see how many of us made it here, today, through the demon-possessed nanite swarms. Ever since they've started gleefully, maliciously, mockingly remaking and humanity in our own nebulously-defined image of 'perfection,' walking down the street is an unrelenting horror, and so I'm glad to see how many of us made it with only minimal damage."

Everyone nodded solemnly, silently thinking of those they had lost, those who had been "upgraded," before their very eyes. I continued,

"I don't have many slides, but I wanted to spend some time talking to you all today about what it takes to survive in our world after The Events…

by Damien

On one level, Michael Muhammad Knight's Magic in Islam is an exhortation to study Islam through psychedelic drug use, rap music, and mysticism. On another level, the whole text is an argument to reframe the ways in which we draw categorical distinctions between orthodox and heterodox/heretical practices and beliefs, altogether. Knight makes the case that even the most fundamental or orthodox positions (be they in Islam or any other belief tradition) are at least in part founded on principles that would be considered heretical, today.

Knight starts the text off working to problematize the term and category of "magic" as a whole, saying that the only things that really distinguish magic from religion are context and practitioner self-identification. This sets the stage for the book's overarching question of "Is there any such thing as 'Pure' Islam?"

by Damien

I used think that running for high office would take years of experience, billions of dollars, and a cleaner history than I may or may not have. Turns out you just have to be willing to lie forever to get what you want.

And also California and Oregon were talking about secession, for a little bit, there. I kept wondering when somebody was going to do a Great Ghost Dance Revival, so we could kick this off proper.

Because, honestly, what do you think? Damien Williams 2020? I can see the ads now…

Weird, normally the kinda thing I'd ignore. But I was reminded of that SMT ARG ran on here back in like, 2012, so I decided to dig a bit.

First I looked up the four verses in question. Superficially, I don't see a thematic connection here. Pretty typical 'believe in jesus and you will be saved', when taken together: 1 2 3 4

But when I searched for the four quotes together I found that... this isn't the only place they've posted this comment?

And this isn't all of them.