on manifesting, curses, punk rock and Porsches
Cixin Liu’s The Three Body Problem, and a bunch of far less believable mumbo-jumbo from celebrities and influencers about ritual greed.
24 February 23 | Vol 2 Issue 6
You should probably read last week's post first [1 ]. I solemnly promise this is the last of it. After this, the subject is closed. No more cloaks and incantations, we're back to consumerist philosophy, and films where nothing much happens.
I was chatting with my friend Hattie about faking it until you make it, and she asked "is that like manifesting?" Being the know-it-all opinionated column writer I like to think of myself as, I emphatically stated "No. Not at all." Some while later I had to have a word with myself, realising that actually, no, I had zero not at all idea what manifesting actually entailed, and I shouldn't be so demonstrative and dogmatic.
So I asked Hattie for the low down, who explained manifesting, pointed me at some Instagram accounts, and — cue dramatic music — The Secret by Rhonda Byrne.
"So it's basically modern magic?"
"Yes," said Hattie.
Welcome to magic in the age of technology. The first age, agriculture, saw spells and potions focus on the community around you. In the next age, industrial, magic turned inward, becoming personal - manipulating your place in society. Finally we arrive at today's technological age, where magic has joined late stage capitalism and become consumeristic.
"Oh Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz. My friends all drive Porsches, I must make amends" sang Janice Joplin, back in the innocent days of 1971 [2 ]. Oh Magic, won't you give me a Mercedes Benz Porsche. It seems Mercedes are no longer in fashion and today we cut straight to manifesting Porsches.
Even Elle magazine has a serious article on it [3 ]. On one hand there is positive thinking, visualising your goals. Also saving your money, not getting wasted all weekend, thus performing badly at work. Keeping your act together, getting shit done, working towards an ambition. On the other hand there is magic. Like our old friend Austin Osman Spare, it's a short neural pathway to go from psychoanalysis, the subconscious and dream interpretation for dealing with life's stresses, to using it for channelling past lives and ancestral beings in order to bend reality.
I spoke to my friend Kay about it. She uses it to get a parking slot. "It works fifty percent of the time," she told me, "about the same odds as there being a free space when I don't use it." A canny one, that Kay.
My friend Bryan however, who rides the esoteric airways, said "but have you considered quantum entanglement?" No, it's true. I hadn't considered quantum entanglement. "You can't prove it doesn't work" he said. Which is also true. You can't.
I do hope though to demonstrate it's really Ponzi magic. That there are two types of practitioners. Those who are already rich, selling manifesting journals. And those with Instagram accounts who hope to get rich, selling manifesting journals. [4 ]
My friend Isabella's mother owns a copy of The Secret, although unread, apparently. For something so... secretive, it seems everyone knows about it. Except me. In case you don't know, here's a quick takedown breakdown of manifesting. There's an address at the end where to send your cheque, thank you.
You want a Porsche. You print out a photo of a Porsche and pin it to your wall. You look at the picture a lot. You imagine it parked outside. You imagine the keys on your keyring. You imagine using the imaginary keys on your (real) keyring to open the imaginary door of your imaginary Porsche, starting its imaginary engine, taking it for an imaginary drive. Parking it. There's good news — you don't need to manifest a parking space. Imaginary Porsches can always find a park.
Elle magazine says it all started with Phineas Parkhurst Quimby. Not really true. Phineas is the father of the placebo, nowhere does he manifest wealth or possessions.
Also integral to manifesting is your journal, your spreadsheet, your wall chart. The act of writing down. And repetition. Lots of repetition.
Here's the 3-6-9 method of manifesting
Write down your affirmation three times as soon as you wake up in the morning.
Write down your affirmation six times during the afternoon.
Write your affirmation nine times before you go to bed.https://www.mindbodygreen.com/articles/369-manifestation-method
It works because of numerology. The belief that the abstract symbol 9 (but not IX or 玖 mind) holds a unique energetic vibration which... to be honest even I can’t be arsed to type out an explanation, utter nonsense. But Aleister Crowley was deeply into it, writing a book called 777. Park this (not the imaginary Porsche) for a moment, we’ll need it later.
There is no need to clap by the way.
You can also use the 55x5 manifestation
The secret sauce behind this manifestation ritual is that you need to write it out… 55 times… Every day… For 5 consecutive days.
The 55×5 Manifesting Formula goes to work directly on the subconscious mind.
Therefore, it’s the perfect tool for manipulating our frequencies in order to attract whatever we want.https://moderndaymanifestations.com/55x5-manifesting-formula/
Hhhhmm.
Remember old Austin and his sigils? He believed that as a summoner wishing to bend reality to your will, you had to create your sigil to the very best of your abilities.
Hey! No need for that, you can purchase a 3-6-9 guided scripting pack from lawofattractionblueprint.com for only $23.00. Adding an extra $10 gets you the extension pack including "Dream car".
Remember old Austin and his manipulating reality through the subconscious and atavistic resurgence? Sound anything like 55x5 manipulating our frequencies? Glad to see selfmadeladies.com/faq-what-is-55x5-manifesting-method professing it's all just making numbers up, and doesn't mean anything, for instance instead of 55, using 17 www.manifestinator.com/law-of-attraction-blogposts/17-second-rule. What you actually need, she advises, is the Self Made Ladies Power Manifestation 5×5 Tool, sold as part of her book, Become the CEO of Your Dream Life, reduced from $181 to $27!
Even Oprah, the highest-paid TV entertainer in the U.S., earning an estimated $260 million when Rhonda Byrne's The Secret was published in 2006, promotes manifesting, by, you guessed it, selling you a $29.95 manifestation planner. Shame on you Oprah. Shame on you. [5 ]
But Julian, it's not magic, it's positive thinking. Don't be such a cynic. Take your pick — Liber Null & Psychonaut: An Introduction to Chaos Magic by Peter J. Carroll [6 ], or Rhonda Byrne's follow-up to The Secret, called... The Magic [7 ]. There you have it. Is it only me who finds it a little concerning that it's ranked 1 in Occult Magic and 30 in Popular Psychology?
Now, I realise I'm in grave danger of being cursed by various influencers and witches, or Edgelord the Manifest, perhaps even The Dark Lord himself.
Here's Eddie and The Hot Rods’ seminal Do Anything You Wanna Do.
Bit random you may think. Remember that Crowley fellow and his numerology? Well, he had a catchphrase — Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. Before anyone starts with that’s misrepresentation, there's more to it than that speech — whatever. Rock stars can be prone to spouting a bit o' Crowley, Led Zeppelin, for instance on the initial pressing of their third album had "Do what thou wilt" etched into the runout groove. Removed on later pressings. The Only Ones have a song called The Whole of the Law. Ozzy Osbourne — unsurprisingly, as a member of Black Sabbath — penned Mr Crowley. John Lennon requested Peter Blake include him on the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band artwork.
And of course Eddie and The Hot Rods. Who turned Do What Thou Wilt into Do Anything You Wanna Do. If you skipped playing it, I suggest you do. It's a blistering four minutes of power pop, up there with The Only Ones Another Girl Another Planet and The Undertones Teenage Kicks. Please note The Undertones have never been accused of being Satanists. Nor has Ed Hollis, the band's manager who wrote the lyrics, I suspect he simply liked the turn of phrase, Do What Thou Wanna. “I didn’t even know who Aleister Crowley was, I’d heard about it, but I was an in-your-face rock’n’roller, not into the magical mystical side of things" said the singer, Barrie Masters. [8 ]
Released as a single, they put Aleister Crowley on the sleeve. Someone at Island Records thought The Great Beast staring out at you was not giving out doing-anything-you want-to-do vibes, so Ed Hollis suggested collaging a pair of Mickey Mouse ears onto Crowley’s bald noggin.
Guess what, Jimmy Page, guitarist of Led Zeppelin, an ardent Crowleyist, and owner of several Austin Osman Spare artworks, got really miffed. Like really miffed. You can't just go around sticking Mickey ears on The Wickedest Man in the World apparently. So Jimmy Page cursed Eddie and The Hot Rods. Who never had another hit again. Except Quit This Town. The curse missed that one.
Avant garde filmmaker Kenneth Anger, by the way, fell out with Jimmy Page over a project they were doing together, and, yes, Anger cursed Page. Damien Chazelle's incredibly tame and self satisfied Babylon is not related to Kenneth Anger's infamous scandal-mongering expose Hollywood Babylon apparently. Aside from being about badly behaved stars in the same era, and called Babylon, set in Hollywood. Hands up who sees a curse coming Chazelle's way? [9 ]
Rods bassist Paul Gray is on record saying ‘Weird shit happened after that. A lot of people said we shouldn’t have fucked about with Crowley.’ May I suggest a less supernatural reason for a single top thirty hit. They straddled the pub rock — punk rock divide, in fact Sex Pistols’ first concert was supporting them. Listen to their preceding single Teenage Depression, although the title sounds most angst, and you can't help but think it's more related to Greased Lightning than Anarchy in the UK. Like Austin Osman Spare, Eddie and The Hot Rods were simply left behind as Britain pogoed towards post-punk. To be honest if your heroin addicted manager writes your lyrics, then you probably aren't destined for the stars.
The cover stars are William S. Boroughs and Genesis P-Orridge, who, back last November, were part of my riff on industrial magic. The post then fell into a long spell of cursed procrastination. Since our artist in residence, the amazing Fatima Fletcher has already conjured them up, they stay.
Please show Fatima your love under will by following www.instagram.com/fatima.fletcher, her work is for sale at fatimafletcher.com, and she’s available for commissions. Her wonderful Ruff Ruff coasters are for sale at fatima-fletcher.square.site/s/shop.
We’re done with the occult for a while, I shall just leave it with a link to William S. Burroughs’ 7 Magic Techniques for Bending Reality
These last two weeks have been pretty backward looking. I feel we need some fresh media to counteract all this rather old and retrograde thinking.
This week I have been playing this pretty solidly.
It evokes precisely the atmosphere I desire for my imaginary life, a touch of avant-garde, a lot of poolside. Readymade for shuffling one’s feet in the sand, or keeping you company as you get shit done. A lovely Zhu meets XXYXX feel, melodically supporting you while never getting in your face.
I discovered COME2THECOAST on the Dirt Discord, while not NTF token driven, it comes as no surprise their mp3s are released in modern ways. Don’t worry if you only understood two or three words in that last sentence. Wanting to read the new Dirt newsletter took about two days of me getting to grips with the world of web3, I shall be talking with them soon in a post discussing decentralised distribution and communities.
In more conventional language COME2THECOAST turns out to also be Calla Discs, their record label, and all the other acts on it. I say record label, but really it’s varied forms of release from Google Drive, Soundcloud, Bandcamp, to… ok, I lied, unconventional Nina, which is I think a Solana blockchain hosted infrastructure for music distribution, but my Metamask wallet wouldn’t connect. 🤯
In even more conventional language, you can pay what-you-want using regular money for “their” latest compilation at calladiscs.bandcamp.com/album/cd010. A new release is produced monthly, and like other aware artists and brands “they” produce a newsletter announcing its whereabouts. Judging by the edition I received upon subscription it includes some first-class fringe browsing suggestions, for example
Conventional boiled down to basic grunting gives visit calladiscs.info and keep clicking on links until mp3s appear, you can also sign-up for the newsletter there.
Now would be a good time to read The Three Body Problem, from China’s leading speculative fiction writer Cixin Liu. It’s not quite as complex as trying to connect a digital wallet to a NTF gated website, and you’ll be thanking me for being ahead of the curve when Netflix screens their version later this year. Again, more on this, the previous Chinese adaptation and the sixth wave of Sino cinema in a future newsletter.
The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu | Buy here
This week featured
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phineas_Parkhurst_Quimby
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_and_the_Hot_Rods
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liu_Cixin
Buy me a coffee at www.buymeacoffee.com/vfnIE9P0Ta
References
https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-book-that-shocked-tinseltown
Legally I have to tell you I might get five pence or something from Bookshop dot org should you purchase something, but really I just want to stick it to Amazon and keep independent bookshops alive. Yeah, rebel me, bringing the man down from the inside etc etc.
Brilliant, but I'm going to repeat (jokingly): "sorry you can't be inspired by a microwave".