Crash Test Dummies and Magick – The Camping Trip

Recently, your resident black metalhead (metalhead who likes the black variety and not a man of the African-American persuasion that loves metallurgy) has been wearing out an unusual record from his collection – the Crash Test Dummies’ 1992 album God Shuffled His Feet. I’m sure anyone from the 90’s generation knows their song “Mmm mmm mmm mmm” about the kids who are all fucked up, but that is actually an okey dokey song rather than some of the other, stronger cuts. In particular, there are two songs called “In the Days of the Caveman” and “Here I Stand Before Me” that are special to me and my Work.

I went on a camping trip last month for the first time in several years and had a magickal pagan experience. Particularly, the fire is of notice and the locus for the entire experience. It burned like a natural television where I could see anything I wanted in my imagination. I read the logs and saw runes and sigils burn in and away while the fire danced and snapped with my brain imposing images and finding fragments of my Will in the flicker.

My friend Amber and I spent 12 solid hours expelling our demons and burning a stick over the fire ceremonially, discussing our hopes, fears, and desires. This was the perfect opportunity to charge an implement used in Workings; the key to charging a wand or talisman is the way you take a fragment of your memory (especially one with a “magick” surrounding it) and impart it upon an object. This is the act of creating a fetish, an item imbued with a special ability that is crucial to any soul work. That stick has now been whittled from a branch to a hand-held stick, carved and maintaining the black on the tip as a reminder of the power I experienced.

After emerging from the woods the next morning, the first song I heard on random shuffle was “In the Days of the Caveman,” a song about camping. The reason why this is important is the concept of synchronicity* – that your mind can draw a connection between different events – which is key to having the proper magickal mindset. Not only was it a coincidence that had that special meaning, but it also has an incredible line:

See in the shapes of my body
Leftover parts from apes and monkeys

The act of magick is predicated on the ability to peel back the distinctions and divisions of material and realize the reality of evolution involved with objects and their underlying relation. To be a good magus, one has to be able to see the fragmentation of a singular substance into different modes and be able to trace everything you encounter back to that zero-point void where Work happens. Not only that, but realize that the zero-point is also constantly changing topographically based on the modal interactions which precludes a Totality; you are both affected by the total web of interactions and affect it as well. That affectation is Magick in its purest form and how you shape those affectations is the True Will, the point where you find the best possible actions to positively increase the power of yourself and the world out of all virtual courses before you. I leave you with a line from “Here I Stand Before Me”:

My my, the future lay before me
Hey hey, deep inside my body

And now, some Crash Test Dummies (all the songs I like were embed disabled, so here's another good one):

*In response to some comments I heard: I use synchronicity in a different sense than Jung. There is no ontological determinate between events to dictate coincidence, but it is important for one to be able to relate disparate elements to increase the ability to see opportunities and similarities. It is taking advantage of and understanding the Noosphere, rather than a "collective unconsciousness," and linking that data together helps increase your comprehensive view of your reality. It's all material (for me) and nothing supernatural. Playing dress-up helps the process, though.