List Price: $20.99		Publisher: Immanion Press Salesrank: 175503 Released: 09 January, 2004
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Customer Reviews:
Magick for Geeks
I don't have anything against Taylor. I'm sure he's a really nice guy who gets some very interesting experiences out of his magickal practice. This book has a fantastic cover and title (one quite similar to Grant Morrison's fantastic article in Disinformation's Book of Lies), and as shallow as it may sound, I bought my copy largely on that basis. Somehow I thought it would have some manner of useful information for my attempts to create magickal entities through pop media, the process of fame and cultural meme generation via magick, or some sort of insight into why these pop culture heroes gain the power they do. Be forewarned, reader. This book has very little to offer in that regard.

You might argue that I shouldn't review a book poorly because it fails to meet my abnormally high expectations. The problem is that this book can be effectively summed up in a nice 5000 word in-depth article, and doesn't need 150 pages AT ALL. We invest magickal power in celebrity, and Star Wars is for Americans as The Odyssey was for the ancient Greeks-- a story that helps us define our reality. Thus, you can worship Buffy just as effectively as you can worship Neptune, and achieve equally potent results. Well DUH!

In other words, not only is the book overly long for the contributions it makes to the Art, but I personally consider it to be fairly obvious to anyone with any understanding of magickal theory. I'm by no means any sort of Grand Magus or Enlightened Being; I'm just another traveller along the path. Perhaps I'm just missing the point. We all already knew that most people in this culture worship the gods Money, Sex, and Television, and that you can do good magick by working with those memes. Do we really need to spend $12 to learn that you can also worship the lesser gods of Cher and Magic: The Gathering?

Now that I've torn down the book, I'd like to add something back to the pile. I gave this book two stars instead of one for a reason: I have friends who I would heartily recommend the book to. I am not someone who gains great personal meaning from Pop Culture. I'll watch Anime and enjoy it. I like shows like Star Trek and Firefly. I think Cowboy Bebop is some of the best television ever to be aired. I'm a great lover of art of all kinds. I like to play Dungeons and Dragons every once in a while. But that's the distinction-- I am a consumer of Pop Culture and never a fan. I'm not geek enough to use this book properly.

This is a book that would be perfect for anyone who dresses up and goes to cons (conventions for you geekspeak illiterates). I have quite a few friends and acquaintances who I would point in this direction if they ever mentioned an interest in 'real magic'. They are classic geeks, and proud of it. I think they could get a lot out of this book, and really open up their world by following the exercises given.

However, I see no compelling reason to use Pop iconography in my practice. I like the history attached to the old gods. I like the past sacrifices and celebrations made in their names. I enjoy the process of researching the ancient beliefs, and I enjoy creating appropriate modern ceremonies to call on them. I think they add an element of seriousness and old power to my work. If Ganesha doesn't do it for you he doesn't do it for you-- go with what you respond to above all else.

I'm not particularly even a stickler for the ancient stuff myself. I like Jungian Archetypes. Probablistic physics has a special place in my heart-- it made it possible for my scientific mind to shut up long enough to comprehend the world of imagination and myth as something real. I groove on the concept that our decisions are made before we ever arrive on this planet just as easily as I believe that the universe readily bends to the demands of the Will. But why should I give Star Trek any more power by worshipping it?

What I'm saying is that I'm damn well not gonna engage in fanboy geekfests as part of my spiritual practice, and so this book is useless to me. If you already geek out pretty heavily, then this book could help you get more out of the whole thing. In my experience, fans are often as messed up and ineffectual people as some of the most tripped out megalomaniacs you could ever find in organized magickal groups, but whatever floats your boat-- it's not really any worse, for all that.

Insane Ideas No.21 TV-cultre based godforms have as much power as the lwa!
The above should tell you all you need to know. I was hugely dissappointed with this book. It's all sub-standard, rehashing of ideas done with more verve and poetry elsewhere by the like of Grant Morrison. Avoid.

Bridging Between Genres
Taylor Ellwood's Pop Culture Magick can best be seen as a transitional book taking one from the world of fantasy to the real magick that exists behind every doorway and in every shadow of our world. Popular culture may not be popular among many of today's occultists (with the exception of some of the Chaotes), but if Carl Jung was right, and humankind does play out its rite of passage in dreams - or even if Kenneth Grant is right, and literary workmanship is the result of transdimensional communication - popular culture can then be said to have evolved from the archetypal images implanted into our thoughts. It is our ultimate play of inspiration like Shakespeare's portrayal of the Faerie Folk in Neil Gaiman's A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Most of those that get into the occult do so from various other mediums, whether it is comic books, role-playing games, or paranormal television shows. Most also struggle when first entering the occult scene because of the voluminous amounts of texts and practices required to make any real progress. Many give up on the occult not long after due to frustration.

Ellwood's book presents the occult framed by the modern images of popular culture, including those aforementioned comic books and role-playing games. If ever there was a book that eased the transition from fantasy to reality, this would be it.

This isn't to say that Pop Culture Magick is a beginner's book. Though Taylor Ellwood tries to keep the mumbo-jumbo down, and makes each and every exercise as simplistic as possible, there are a few assumption made that will force the novice to look elsewhere for additional material. This book, however, was never meant to be the end all. It was specifically meant to show individuals how to incorporate pop culture into there own current occult work, and Ellwood opens up many pathways for the user to accomplish this feat.

The most intriguing chapter of Pop Culture Magick has Ellwood dissecting anime cartoons with a hair-splitting scapel. He manages to inform the reader of all the occult and spiritual dogmatism present in anime, and goes at great length to examine the similarities between Neon Genesis Evangelion and the Kabbalah. Quite fascinating indeed.

Pop Culture Magick is a book of ideas. No, scratch that... a book of new ideas; and a refreshing change from the regurgitated techniques and information spilling out of many current publications.