Welcome to the last Chaotopia of 2022, and Yule Blessings be upon you all, as we get ready to greet the Unconquered Sun! 

And thank you, all those who open and read this newsletter, I hope it provides something worthwhile for you. Feel free to reply by email if you have something to say about the content.  
 

I don't usually get involved with the politics of social media, or even write about politics at all in this newsletter, but it'd be hard not to notice the disastrous takeover of Twitter by Elon Musk. I used to like Twitter - sure, it has always had a well-earned reputation as the platform for getting into rows, which is hardly surprising considering the loss of nuance a 280-character limit offers. On the other hand, that limit can be used to discipline yourself to create something approaching a haiku in its gnomic brevity. I'm not claiming that level of skill but some people manage it.

 

And you don't have to get into rows - if someone is rude or persistently stupid just block them and move on. Another upside for me is that there is practically no advertising, just a burst of sponsored posts every week or so. Block them and they go away. This is in stark contrast to my experience with Instagram, where my feed, just before I uninstalled the app, was about 65% sponsored, making it utterly tedious to use. 

For me, Twitter has been a source of news links. I never watch TV news or read the newspapers (because it is all about learned helplessness, which is one of the worst things possible for your mental health), so I get my news by following up specific stories from links provided by people I follow, concerning which I might be able to commit to some action and therefore not get poisoned by helplessness. Twitter is of course also useful for promoting my writings, courses and this newsletter. So I'm disappointed that it's being destroyed by one man's narcissism.  
 

Musk's thin-skinned banning of a number of his critics has earned him the name Space Karen, but it's worse than that. It's quite breathtaking how cut off from the real world the hyper-rich are. Remember R A Wilson's unpacking of the SNAFU Principle? The higher up in any organization someone gets, the less they know, because no-one dare give them information they don't want to hear. So imagine what it's like if you're the richest man in the world - nothing can touch you. Musk grew up mega-rich, has never taken a single step outside his diamond-hard bubble of privilege. And this is the result: he takes over a social media platform notorious for its argumentative nature and rejoices in turning it into a verbal bloodbath. He lives in some fantasy land where this is called 'free speech absolutism'.

What does that even mean? That anyone can say anything in any context whatsoever? In face to face communication there are natural safeguards: if I'm being a dick then I run a risk of getting physically slapped. On social media those checks and balances aren’t in place, so instead we have moderation, someone overviewing the entire scene and making decisions about which posts are inappropriate. If this is done by community, it defines the community, and may be effective. If it’s done by corporate employees, it will depend on the culture of that company. 

If you remove it altogether, you open the platform up to the who shout the loudest. Some of whom are hate-filled scumbags. And then you get results like this:

The link at the top is to a rather good article by Crimethinc, banned of course from Twitter, on Space Karen's motives and how anarchists can organize without social media. I develop these ideas a bit in a blog post, https://chaotopia-dave.blogspot.com/2022/12/popular-bird-throttled-by-narcissist.html 

I don't know precisely when I'll leave Twitter, but I've started interacting on Mastodon, so my bolthole is: @dleeahp@social.chaosmagick.com 


All my main links including signups and archive of this newsletter:

 
 

WRITINGS & INTERVIEWS

Meditation for Magicians

In 2022 I ran a series of six Zoom meetings over three months, for magicians who wanted to develop their meditation practice. Recently I wrote an article which makes use of the notes from those sessions, and it's now up on Joe's great chaosmagick.com site, via the link below. 

It's also available in Spanish, on the excellent Frater Hagbard Celine's blog, here: https://www.guerrillaontologica.com/uncategorized/meditacion-para-practicantes-de-magia-una-breve-exploracion-por-dave-lee/ 

As mentioned in the article, I'll be running another similar series in the new year. Write to me by reply to this newsletter, or via Chaosmagick.com, if you're interested in joining in. 

While we're on Chaosmagick.com, check out Mr V's article on the new Satanic Panic. Some of my older readers may remember the victimisation by Christian social workers and slavering yellow-press newshounds of people proven entirely innocent, back in the 1980s, of 'Satanic' paedophilia accusations. This article looks at the current scene, and features some of the demented creeps who have recently been trying to do something similar, and similarly being shown to be full of crap.

I wrote a brief review of Dave Strychnine's beautiful Sleipnir Rune Cards, check it out on Facebook:

For more rune-y stuff, check out the Rune-Gild Europe's lovely new(ish) website. Here's a piece by me on Waterfall Galdor.

Here I am being interviewed by Stephen Rae of The Saroth Mage Experiment. 

John Higgs, the Discordian author who actually sells books, came to Sheffield to talk about his new book, Love and Let Die. 

I know, I didn't think it would work at first, but his talk showed how rich this symbolic connection is. I've yet to read the book, which I'll do over the Yuletide. 
 

Victor Neuburg is famous for two things that aren't about him - his relationship with Aleister Crowley, which along with other exploits resulted in the famous evocation of Choronzon in the Algerian desert, and his 'discovery' of Dylan Thomas when he was editor of a poetry magazine. Sharron Kraus and Justin Hopper have made a beautiful thing from his poems, from the book Swift Wings, also the name of their album. This is extraordinary music, made me feel embraced by a rural fantasy but at the same time, imersively eerie. Highly recommended!

A couple of bits for Alan Moore fans: An interview, Fantasy must be sharper...

'...retreats to infantilism are generally precursors to fascism; that desire for a simple solution to really complex problems. The desire to be told that this has all been done by the illuminati, the international banking Jewish banking conspiracy, the underground Democrat paedophile demons drinking children’s adrenochrome underneath the Comet Ping Pong Pizza restaurant in Washington DC. These are all comic book solutions to comic book problems.'  

And here, with Iain Sinclair:

“Everything that we are is reflected in place and we reflect everything that is in the locations that are around us”

Work up to enjoying your funeral with the MuMu: