SLITHER HITHER Weirdos, Witches and Protest Punks, here's a conversation with author, podcaster and musician ANTHONY ALVARADO!
EPISODE 07 - "RESIST!" LISTEN / DOWNLOAD
In This Episode of The PRAGMAGICK cast...
In his last novel, DIY MAGIC, writer Anthony Alvarado created a compendium of exercises to jumpstart the "microcosm," or the creative revolution within an individual, and he did so without all the heavy hoopla and goo-goo-woo-woo normally exasperated in "seeker" oriented works. Now, my friend and fellow practitioner has set his sights on the "macrocosm", or the individual's ability to affect society at large by inciting a political revolution, in his new book DIY RESISTANCE: 36 Ways to Fight Back! (Seven Stories Press). The DIY ethos has been the bedrock of not only the social collectivist, but the progressive individualist across every artistic medium for decades. Alvarado takes that same DIY gumption for creative commerce and community and corresponds it to grassroots political activism and social reform. The book totes that same, multi-generationally self-sufficient, pragmatic approach of the DIY aesthetic into a PROTEST-PUNK PROSE meant to ignite and inspire.
Let's make no bones about it, RESISTANCE doesn't try to be accessible for the conservative factions.
It utilizes the current administration as it's call to arms for radical change,and it celebrates and motivates REVOLT by showcasing a myriad of historical examples of fascist-like regimes upheaved by socialist collectives. So if you're soured by the sentiment of this book's choice of antagonist, hold fast but listen hard: Our conversation dives deep into healing the divide as much as it does investigating it. Or devastating it.
I racked my brain on when and how the political climate would seep into PRAGMAGICK. Even when the show was more focused on the "occult" or "esoteric", their seemingly apolitical metaphysical philosophies seem to support any practitioner's political beliefs these days. But the program is becoming more of a personal affair into this doof's spiritual and emotional evolution. From full-time-doof and starving artist into somewhat of an integrated (little-to-no-doof) human and productive artist. So, yeah, we gotta address the elephant (or jackass) in the room.
The Principle Of Correspondence
The need to prioritize human interconnectivity, especially my relationship with a community has been a revelation (pun intended). It's easy to just wallow in the self-felating "seeker search" within, as I have been this past year, but it pickles and alienates one's brain if not expressed with others. The need for is part-and-parcel for that aforementioned integration. This is what Hermeticism calls "The Principle Of Correspondence," the micro and macro; "As Above / So Below". It's only fitting that Alvarado would explore the "micro" of Individualism in his last book, DIY MAGIC, and evolve the sentim
Anthony Alvarado | RESIST! | Pragmagick #7Anthony Alvarado | RESIST! | Pragmagick #7