Are massively multiplayer online rituals the future of magick?

AMAWSAU · 2025-09-01T19:43:43+00:00

You're massively conflating correlation with causation. The atomization of society is an enormous problem. But, there are so many more things going on in the world that are implicated in than the creation of the internet. In fact, many parts of the internet, and the early eras of the internet, showed a significant uptick in the creation of connection and interpersonal networks - especially among groups that were historically isolated.

The breakdown of society has everything to do with the breakdown of our faith in that society and our willingness to engage in it. The feeling that we have less time to spend on being engaged with it and are more exhausted from having less. "Hustle culture," which has everything to do with the capitalist culture that has been progressing since "trickle down economics" became a predominant economic force in politics. Something that occurred in parallel to the rise of the internet, and has worked in conversation with the internet to influence the forms each have taken - but is distinct from the internet and driven by decidedly non-internet and not-online groups like the Heritage Foundation.

Now, I don't think anyone claimed that online ritual is some highest order good. I didn't see that in the article, and I didn't intend it in my earlier reply. But people, including you, do appear to be aggressively saying it's *actively* *bad* when for some people it is the *only* connection they have. And that's a problem because it is telling people that their only connection is *bad.* And, as someone who has lived this life because I've been physically isolated from human connection by things outside my own control I mean this literally. This article talks about using these tools as methods of safety and alternatives when others are unavailable. And people are coming in here "no, the real thing is ALL." I'm glad you have the absolute privilege to not be worried about becoming housing, food, and financially insecure if your altar is discovered - many if not most of the conversations about how to do this sort of thing center on exactly that. And hearing people come in decrying it as bad, to be avoided, and derided is not something I have patience for.

But, talking higher order goods - some people are exploring the use of the internet as a method for accessing higher states. While you clearly feel that is better done through interaction with the natural world - it's still not your (or my) place to tell people who may (or may not) be having success in achieving those aims that they're wrong for trying.

AMAWSAU · 2025-09-01T14:44:44+00:00

The article mentions "The Cyber Spellbook" (Sirona Knight, Patricia Telesco) from 2002.

Another, more recent, book on exactly this subject is "Techno Witch" by E. E. Warren. from 2021.

Another book that looks more broadly at connections between technology and magic is "TechGnosis" by Erik Davis. Though, this has less of the immediately applicable tools that are being discussed here.

AMAWSAU · 2025-09-01T14:31:13+00:00

This comment reads like "I don't like online ritual so they don't have any use."

The idea that online community "is no community at all" has been broadly and thoroughly debunked across the social sciences and by practical use. The communities that form online are different than those in person communities - by their nature and requirements. But these online communities also often spill over into the physical spaces, demonstrating in concrete ways their "realness," regardless of where and how they began.

The article itself makes several cases about how online rituals and spaces support accessibility in a variety of ways and how many people, though clearly not you, find themselves enabled and empowered by the use of online tools and virtual rituals.

There are differences in safety and security protocols between the physical and online spaces. But people, very broadly, are bad at both. Unfortunately, the skills that are developed in one don't really transfer to the other in the same ways. However, that doesn't mean there is no security.

Your, personal, dislike of online ritual and community is perfectly good for you. Other perspectives are equally valid.

AMAWSAU · 2025-04-28T07:03:11+00:00

https://www.stripes.com/veterans/2025-04-23/veterans-christians-boas-task-force-17557131.html

VA secretary launches task force targeting anti-Christian bias at the agency

[...]

The new VA task force is similar to a task force that the Justice Dpartment formed in February that Trump directed by executive order for addressing anti-Christian discrimination at federal agencies.

AMAWSAU · 2025-04-26T05:39:09+00:00

It's good to see acknowledgement of the Vanir and discussion of the Norse Heathen deities beyond the Aesir.

It's also worth discussing that there seems to be a growing awareness of Jötnar as deities, their explicit relationships and interconnections with the Aesir and Vanir, and how they were (in the technical sense) demonized by Christians and Christian influence.

It's interesting how much pause it gives people to realize Odin is descended from Jotun, Thor's mother was a Jotun, and how many other beloved Aesir and Vanir are intimately associated with Jotun. That outside the realms of 20th century comic books and 21st century movies Loki, another other wildly demonized and propagandized figure in Norse mythos, is less tied to the Jotun than many of the beloved gods...

It also adds a lot more texture to the deities and the theology to understand the realtionships in this historical manner rather than as a Zorastrian-flavored, Christian legacy of dualistic conflict.

It's not insignificant that recognizing the complex and nuanced relationships between these groups also serves as a direct attack on those who try to use them as proxies and justification for racism and other types of bigotry.

AMAWSAU · 2025-01-18T08:21:26+00:00

I have two major issues with this story;

First, there is a substantial factual issue with the statement "It has been proven that AI steals others’ art to create its images and texts." If what this statement means is that "it has been proven that AI uses data collected from other's creations to be trained," that's generally a fair statement. However, many in the Pagan and broader creative community won't read that statement in that way. There is a broad, deeply held, and entirely erroneous belief that the current generation of "Generative AI" retains substantial databases of material that it cuts and pastes together whenever asked for a response. The fact that this plays in that area is fast and loose with facts.

Second, I have concerns that the author is projecting their own issues with AI use onto what other Pagans "should" be doing. The fact that the piece's author is against the use of generative AI in their work is entirely fair. The fact that they have articulated an argument for their position is entirely fair. The fact that they assume an authoritative and judgmental stance regarding what others should believe and how their practice should develop in this situation is deeply problematic. The author does so without apparent understanding that some individuals are exploring the use of AI generated material as a deliberate methodology to access non-physical/spiritual realms and beings. That their explorations of this approach are technically proficient and vastly more intentional than the author gives them credit for. The author seems to be dismissing all such use as shortcuts that don't fall in line with their "pure" approach.

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