Q: How much does being informed matter when it comes to magick?

A: Man, this is one of those questions that keeps me up at night. I think your relationship to the world should be as chaotic as the world itself. I have spent time both very detached from my physical body and detached from news of the larger world. I think within a couple years of when I started listening to Terence, I started practicing what he said about avoiding being a passive consumer of culture, and started to detach from popular media, stopped watching big cinema titles when they first come out, playing triple A game titles when they were released (not that I can afford to do that nowadays anyways), and ignoring popular shows. For a long time I was the kind of person who usually sees stuff at least a year or two after it first came out and was popular. It definitely amplified preexisting feelings of being an outsider, but gave me some clarity around the kind of things people my age would get caught up in. It forced me to seek connections that were deeper and more authentic than what shared intellectual property we found ourselves interested in. It made the potential selection of friends even sparser than it already was thanks to being a neurodivergent weirdo, but it gave me perspective on the rising commodification of "geek" culture. It gave me an up close and personal insight into how shiny, hollow, and plastic it all was. Ultimately, I think it led me deeper into magic; magic was more interesting to me than whatever my friends were passively watching or playing, magic required my direct participation, and my attunement to the world around me, rather than situating me as a passive consumer.

Now, you'll notice I've swung back the other way, and my work contains echos and intersections of pop culture—which is, from the perspective of someone whose path contains the understanding of direct experience, just the clothing of modern folklore. Terry and I are both drawn to the whole vibe of Gnosticism, and from the perspective of some Gnostics, it's ridiculous to regard any aspect of the world as "sinful", and since around the time of COVID-19, I've noticed that my algorithm has adjusted so that everything I read and watch now has direct significance to my magical path and the ever deeper penetrating complexities of the body of my internal gnosis. The possibility of merely being a passive consumer is gone when you understand that everything is connected and a part of you, within and without. Pop culture also serves as a wonderful touchstone for the methods of magical gnosis you wish to transmit; everything is magic for those who have the eyes to see it.

The same thing has been true of my relationship with the news. There are times I've been deeply invested in what the world has going on, and times I've had to do my best to tune it out for the sake of my mental health, and discovering hidden truths beyond media narrative and current events.

So the answer to this question, at any given time, depends on two things, I think: The scale of your own grandeur (ie, how much of a role do you want to play in shaping the world's narrative, multiplied by however much you believe that you're capable of shaping the world's narrative) and how much your awareness impacts your personal ability to do effective Work within the world. If microdosing disaster on a daily basis in the form of the news is what drives you and fuels you to do effective Work, then keep doing it. If knowledge of the current tragedies drags you into the quagmire of utter despair and nihilistic disempowerment, then it's time to turn on, tune in, and drop out.

I can feel the current phase of the Work wrapping up as I'm about to enter into a time of lower investment. The scale of my own grandeur has ballooned and shrunk, but I was never supposed to be a major player for an extended period of time. I have the feeling that I did Something, but it didn't come without personal cost. I got to play demigod, cult leader, peasant and court jester. As always, left with more questions than answers, but there's my $0.02