The Scarlet Letter
Volume II, Number 3 | Feburary 1995
Powertools: Tele*Vision Magick
by S.Oroboros


This is the world now

TV is a magic mirror that can and does reflect the World (TaV). This mirror is so life-like and seductive that most people prefer the facsimile to the reality. As Noam Chomsky put it, "What Orwell failed to realize is that if people can be induced to watch their screens all the time, the screens don't have to watch the people." Network television mobilizes desire while paralyzing belief. It inhibits reality change among small groups and contributes to the totalization of consensus reality. It has become a self-perpetuating cultural consciousness generator that keeps irrational value systems in place. This is definitely a magical machine; one that contributes to the negentropy of an already homogenous society.

Psychic Cyborg Surgery

Imagine the future information superhighway as the third term development of a cyborg entity with channel specializations as organic tissues and fiber optic cables as dendrites pushing their hot loads of data across the globe. Of course the matrix that determines the form the force will flow through and into is DNA. Television programming is that DNA. Reprogramming the TV to depict and manipulate alternative realities is the key to conscious mutation (evolution) of this cyborg.

K-AEON-TV

The most efficient way to get a message to a large group of people is television. People need to know that alternative realities exist and that it is their birthright to access them. This is the stepping stone to full-blown thelemic consciousness. This is the Eye of Horus that can blast through the tower of cultural mediocrity. TV is made that much more powerful by the fact that most people are already sophisticated viewers of this tool. If you have access to a community cable station, utilize it. Learn. how to use video editing equipment. Buy a video camera if this is feasible. It is up to us to usher in the new aeon and this is one of the best ways I can think of to do it.

The Infinite Possibility Box

Through group work with the Order I have attained a group consciousness and the maturity of mindstream to realize that I cannot be content simply reveling in my own gnosis. We live in critical times. Critical action is needed. We need a war machine! To date, I have used the TV primarily for my own magical purposes and amusement. A few ways I have manipulated the TV/video are listed below, but this list is in no way exhaustive. Remember that the TV is an infinite possibility box. Any of the ideas listed below could easily be translated into broadcast format.

TV Djinnis & Magic Mirrors

Certainly everyone has culled random yet significant sound and image cut-ups by rapidly channel-surfing the cable stations. But there is an even more powerful djinnis to be found darting about in that black box. These are the djinnis of the most holy scrambled channel. I can't tell you how many times Bahalon has manifested in all her glorious weirdness when the scrambled Penthouse or Playboy channel was videotaped at an oblique angle. On the resulting video footage, she blips in and out of manifestation, the face and body curving and morphing, becoming undulant and seductive and then suddenly grotesque and frightening. This particular technique is all the more powerful because our Lord Chaos has a chance hand in the randomness of the scrambled signal. Anyone who wishes visual communication with our Fair Lady is invited to play in this electronic imaginal realm. For those who are electronically inclined, any TV channel can be scrambled by making your own chaos box out of a variable resister, a variable capacitor, and a variable inductor, and some soldered wire.

In my opinion the TV is one of the best skrying tools around, second only to the dream machine. Skrying is well suited to constantly changing patterns that retain some degree of uniformity. The best skrying opus I have created to date is video footage of a solar eclipse. It depicts hundreds of tiny, dancing crescents layered over each other. They collide, disappear and reappear as tissue-soft shadows swaying to and fro. This rare footage was obtained from the eclipsed sun's image through windswept branches captured on a piece of poster board. This type of constantly changing pattern can also be culled from more available resources such as light and wind on water (try a candle in the bathtub), fire, smoke, rain, or any number of everyday phenomena. When the videotape is replayed, tweak the color and brightness to get just the right effect.

If you are lucky enough to have a video camera, video feedback can also be magically massaged to bring the djinnis out of the machine. Simply connect the camera to the TV and then point it at the TV. Most people have probably seen this done. However, if you delve further into this technique you will meet some bazarre TV spirits. The trick is to tilt the camera to one side until you begin to ride the wave of the feedback loop. Imagine a TV show that teaches people how to skry and what can he done with the information they collect!

Watching network TV is such a natural brain number that I have found it great for sigil work. In some systems, after a sigil has been charged, it should he forgotten immediately. I have found watching broadcast TV quickly and efficiently sucks up my conscious attention, and I soon totally forget about the sigil and its intent.


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