Gordon White - The Chaos Protocols: Magical Techniques for Navigating the New Economic Reality

About the Author

Gordon White (London) runs one of the leading chaos magic blogs, Rune Soup . He has worked nationally and internationally for some of the worlds largest digital and social media companies, including BBC Worldwide, Discovery Channel, and Yelp. Gordon has presented at media events across Eur ope on social strategy and the changing behaviors and priorities of Generation Y. During this time, he has partied with princes, dined in castles, been mentored by a former director of a private spy agency, and even had a billionaire knight buy him bottles of champagne.

introduction

The problem is not to find the answer, its to face the answer.
terence mckenna

Sometimes I go to the Hall of Asian Antiquities in the British Museum, sit on a bench, and think about the Kali Yuga. According to the Mahabharata, the great Hindu epic, this is the age in which we currently live. As a two-thousand-year-old description of the modern world, it is unsurpassed in its dismal accuracy. Spiritual teachers are mocked, rulers no longer see it as their duty to protect their citizens and become a danger to the whole world, dramatic climate shocks kill us by the thousands, millions die hungry. There are even descriptions of great metal birds bringing death that we assumed were airplanes but are probably, with the benefit of unenviable hindsight, military drones. According to the yuga system, to be born during the Kali Yuga is to have the most challenging incarnation possible. Yet here we are! Congratulations on your amazing timing.

The Asian Antiquities Hall is a particularly unloved corner of the British Museum and it shows. Its treasures are almost sheepishly displayed, under glass and with quiet little cards next to them, as if the last hundred years of cultural studies never happened. The hall has none of the inspiring confidence or wonderful bombast you see in the museums other wings. There are no touch screens or holographic projections here. These are relics not only from a culture that thought it would last forever and is now vanished but are also displayed by a culture that thought it had worked out how to avoid vanishing and is also now largely obliterated. Sitting on the first floor at the back of the museum where comparatively few people venture, there is something awkwardly hand-wringing about the collection. It reminds me of those alarmingly racist relics from a different era, like the inherited objet your family hides away in your grandmothers attictoo controversial to put in the sitting room, too valuable to put on eBay.

To me, this says everything about the modern era. The British Museum is, without question, my favourite place on earth. It is free to enter. Millions pass through its doors each year. Past its three gift shops, two restaurants and up the back stairs are some profound objects hiding in plain view. No great quests into the Himalayas are required. These artefacts could not be more readily accessible to anyone who is interested. If you but take the time to just look and think then your life might just change forever. Few take that time.

You may be aware that the term sams ra refers to the continuous circle of incarnations through the various worlds for those that have not yet reached enlightenment. Its original etymology means perpetual wandering. Like visitors through a museum, we wander from gallery to gallery. Ill be happy when I get that promotion. Ill devote time to my spirituality when I have paid off my credit card. The Buddhas solution is for us to give up attachment, to give up striving. This is sound advice in a world where you would stay a peasant if you were born a peasant. No amount of desire could turn you into a prince. But we live in a world where, at least in theory, one can accomplish great things regardless of their birth status. A new method of dealing with perpetual wandering is required in a world where there still may be even the slightest hope that you can accomplish great things with your incarnation.

Magic is always the tactic of last resort for those who refuse to give up hope. You do not summon Cthulhu to help you find the TV remote. You only visit the witch at the edge of the village when all other options have been explored, for she is the loan shark of the gods. It is only a certain kind of person who is willing to take the road we are about to walk. This book is written for that person. For the person who, when life gives them lemons, offers those lemons at the crossroads and go buys themselves a gin and lemonade simply because it is Tuesday. Last resort is just another way of saying last drinks. Even if this is the apocalypse, that is no call to avoid making things interesting.