03.09.2021

“The Rise of Digital Repression: How Technology is Reshaping Power, Politics, and Resistance” by Steven Feldstein

Magick Matters

"The world is undergoing a profound set of digital disruptions that are changing the nature of how governments counter dissent and assert control over their countries. While increasing numbers of people rely primarily or exclusively on online platforms, authoritarian regimes have concurrently developed a formidable array of technological capabilities to constrain and repress their citizens. In The Rise of Digital Repression, Steven Feldstein documents how the emergence of advanced digital tools bring new dimensions to political repression. Presenting new field research from Thailand, the Philippines, and Ethiopia, he investigates the goals, motivations, and drivers of these digital tactics. Feldstein further highlights how governments pursue digital strategies based on a range of factors: ongoing levels of...>>

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03.09.2021

“Post Memes: Seizing the Memes of Production” edited by Alfie Bown and Dan Bristow

Magick Matters

Art-form, send-up, farce, ironic disarticulation, pastiche, propaganda, trololololol, mode of critique, mode of production, means of politicisation, even of subjectivation -- memes are the inner currency of the internet’s circulatory system. Independent of any one set value, memes are famously the mode of conveyance for the alt-right, the irony left, and the apoliticos alike, and they are impervious to many economic valuations: the attempts made in co-opting their discourse in advertising and big business have made little headway, and have usually been derailed by retaliative meming. Post-Memes: Seizing the Memes of Production takes advantage of the meme’s subversive adaptability and ripeness for a focused, in-depth study. Pulling together the interrogative forces of a...>>

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03.09.2021

“Iconic Tarot Decks: The History, Symbolism and Design of over 50 Decks” by Sarah Bartlett

Magick Matters

"Discover the secrets of the most iconic, mysterious and beautiful tarot decks ever created. The tarot is a treasury of divination, symbolism and self-knowledge. But who created its mysterious art and meaning, and why? What were they seeking? Does it originate in ancient esoteric wisdom or is this a vain fancy of the occultists? How has the interpretation and meaning of the cards evolved? In Iconic Tarot Decks, Sarah Bartlett (the international bestselling author) presents 50 of the most iconic tarot decks – telling the powerful stories of how each was devised and designed and showcasing their most exemplary cards. Each of the fifty-six decks in this book holds its own unique symbolism and...>>

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03.09.2021

“It’s a Conspiracy!: The World’s Wildest Conspiracy Theories. What They Don’t Want You To Know. And Why The Truth Is Out There.” by Tom Cutler

Magick Matters

🕵️🐷🕵️ zero-day🕵️🐷🕵️ "Did NASA fake the moon landings? Did aliens build the pyramids? Is Finland really there? Dive down the conspiracy-theory rabbit hole with bestselling author and conspiracy buff Tom Cutler. Mingle with the millions who do not trust the official version and find out what THEY — the global elites — don’t want you to know. This compelling collection of the world’s wildest conspiracy theories is packed with startling stories, curious characters and freakish facts — covering everything from Princess Diana to weather control, from the cloning of Paul McCartney to 9/11, from Lizard Men to JFK. It’s a Conspiracy! will make you think again about everything you thought you knew."...>>

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03.09.2021

“The Re-Enchantment of the World: Secular Magic in a Rational Age” edited by Joshua Landy and Michael Saler

Magick Matters

"The Re-Enchantment of the World is an interdisciplinary volume that challenges the long-prevailing view of modernity as "disenchanted." There is of course something to the widespread idea, so memorably put into words by Max Weber, that modernity is characterized by the "progressive disenchantment of the world." Yet what is less often recognized is the fact that a powerful counter-tendency runs alongside this one, an overwhelming urge to fill the vacuum left by departed convictions, and to do so without invoking superseded belief systems. In fact, modernity produces an array of strategies for re-enchantment, each fully compatible with secular rationality. It has to, because God has many "aspects"―or to put it in more secular terms,...>>

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