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CHAOTOPIA Newsletter, February 2019
Welcome to the first Chaotopia newsletter of 2019!
May at least some of the exciting things awaiting you this year be very, very good. 
 
Archive of Newsletters since September 2018.
Archive of Newsletters up to August 2018
The Big News: Magic, Witchcraft, Chaos and Beyond #4
Tickets are fast selling out for next Saturday's (9th Feb) day of workshops with Cat Vincent, Anwen and me on 'Real Magic in the Real World'. Tickets available here.

Cat will be talking about 'The Urban Cunning. Expect a lot on street spellcasting, Landscape Punk (which is psychogeography without the academics), nicking everything not nailed down in urban fantasy and the like. Then, we'll nip down the road, find somewhere with some buddleia and do a thing.'

The beastlike face below is from a sycamore in my local woods. It's just one spirit I shall be mentioning in my presentation 'Half-Formed Spirit and Aimless Wandering', about found magical objects and the spirits of landscape. 

And in other news:
For anyone who has a copy of my booklet/CD 'Connect Your Breath! Breathwork, Ecstasy and Healing': I have a nice new de-noised version of the CD. 
If you bought this off of me (it's only available from http://www.chaotopia.com/publications/) and therefore have the old, noisy version, and you would like a free download of the nice new one, email me at david23lee@chaotopia.com.
BLOGS
Why do we honour Eris? Some thoughts on my blog.

On the Runa-Eormensyl blog's Storm-Moon issue, an excerpt from  Christopher Smith's excellent book 'Icelandic Magic'.

Great post on  IOT-BIS blog by Frater Kite, on the Welsh spirit-horse Mari Llwyd.
 
AND OTHER GOOD STUFF
This piece by Cat Vincent - 'The New Gods - A Short History of the Fictional Origins of Modern Paganism' - makes some very interesting inks between early SF and paganism. Especially between the Heinlein-inspired Church of All Worlds and the beginnings of Discordianism via Kerry Thornley. This is a link I've never seen in print before. 
Also, the essay's brief mention of chaos magic at least positions CM correctly in modern pagan history - which is something few have managed. And so it should - this is Cat Vincent, who has seen close-up how much of that scene evolved. 
This lengthy essay is to read and then to keep for reference. 
WORLD OF 23
Sheffield is going to be a centre of the Discordian multiverse again this Summer. Announcements will be made of a Festival 23 party, I am told. The Stone of Ecclesall Woods is getting even more powered up. 

This month if you are in Dublin, you might want to check out the Film Festival for a film by Paul Duane about the Toxteth Day of the Dead and the pyramid of dead Discordians that Cauty and Drummond have started building. 

John Higgs has a new book out - 'The Future Starts Here, Adventures in the 21st Century.' He writes: 'The future hasn't happened yet. The idea that our civilisation is doomed is not established fact. It is a story we tell ourselves.'

'In the 1980s, we gave up on the future. When we look ahead now, we imagine economic collapse, environmental disaster and the zombie apocalypse. But what if we are wrong? What if this bleak outlook is a generational quirk that afflicted those raised in the twentieth century, but which is already beginning to pass? What if we do have a future after all?'

Well, there's a hell of a question. I shall have to read it and find out.

PSYCHEDELIA
Psychedelic philosopher Peter Sjostedt-Hughes has done a TED talk about how psychedelic experience is at the roots of philosophy. Especially if you've never come across this thesis before, this is a great concise intro, so fill yer boots.

Psychedelic Press's latest publication looks very interesting - 'The Science of Microdosing Psychedelics' by Torsten Passie. I've been promised a review copy, so watch this space.

It's an odd-numbered year, so there will be a Breaking Convention in London. The last one was terrific, an indescribably-rich smorgasbord of psychedelia. Don't miss out. 

Yes, there are still more riches to come! Julian Vayne's new book 'The Fool & The Mirror: Essays on Magic, Art & Identity' promises 'a wonderland populated by artist sorcerers, cross-dressing witches, entheogenic adventurers, subterranean shamans, magical arachnids, DMT elves and many more! This wide-ranging volume offers examples of practical how-to-do magic embedded within the author’s lived narrative, and essays on landscape, queer identity, occult philosophy and politics, witchcraft, and drugs… he approaches writing as an artistic endeavour, conjuring scenes for the reader that are rich in meaning and powerfully evocative.'

Julian Vayne and Nikki Wyrd will also be doing more workshops - Shamanism in Wales, and Psychedelic Shamanism in Treadwells. And perhaps not quite so psychedelic, but still very much Mr Vayne, another Treadwells session - Queering Magic – Theory and Practice, Day-long Intensive. 'Beyond polarity and into multiplicity: a day dedicated to magic as a lived practice.'
CONSPIRACY CORNER
Gordon White
Very few conspiracy writers are worth reading. Most are the junkfood vendors of the philosophical world, offering the addictive sugar-rush of  'I-know-something-you-don't' rather than a balanced meal of careful discrimination and analysis that won't make you feel sick later.

Gordon White is different. He is my limit; where I place the boundary posts of my how-weird-shall-I-believe, is right inside his territory. Much of what he writes in the All Red Line mailouts seems unsurprising, if not actually self-evident to anyone who has grown up sufficiently to realise that all mainstream news is utterly corrupted by the interests it serves (govt and big biz). It's been said, and truly, there is no secret global conspiracy to steal everything that isn't nailed down and enslave everyone, they're pretty upfront about it.

But then he states that there exist in secret hangars antigravity driven craft, and this is since since the 1950s. Sorry, I would like some actual evidence for this. If antigrav is so low-tech we've had it since then, then I feel pretty certain there have been a few dozen rich engineers (such as Elon Musk?) who would have replicated and monetized it. However, one bit of indirect evidence he does present is the budget weirdness, the missing trillions of bucks.


No, you did not misread that. Trillions. $21 trillion is missing from the US federal budget. As Gordon writes, 'Read and viewed in conjunction, these pieces strongly suggest at least one coherent, behind-the-scenes plan involving stolen money and forbidden technology, both of which are origin stories for this very newsletter.'
The argument is too big for this newsletter. Check out Gordon's All Red Line mailout
VERY INTERESTING VIDEOS
Don't be put off by the title - 'the future is beautiful' is Vinay Gupta  with Amisha Ghadiali, examining how 'hippie activism has failed, anarchism has not entirely woken up to the wrongness of the idea that new technology will liberate us.'
Some highlights:
Minutes 23-25 approx – an examination of the spiritual bankruptcy of the West – how can we have a conversation about the behaviour of Western culture if we don’t have an awakened view of it?
Minute 32 - Discussion of racism and how to approach the problem in the long perspective.

Have you ever wanted to know how art began? Antony Gormley takes us on a tour of cave art. This is the best thing I have ever viewed or read on ancient art. It will reward multiple watchings. It is such a delight to meet a major artist who is not some shallow greedy tosspot playing clever money games with Saatchi. 

 
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The watch above is an heirloom, from my Uncle Jeff. It's a Bravington, bought surplus after WW2, and still just about running.






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