{"id":2148,"date":"2016-05-18T14:04:04","date_gmt":"2016-05-18T19:04:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/journeythroughtheobsidiandream.wordpress.com\/?p=2148"},"modified":"2016-05-18T14:04:04","modified_gmt":"2016-05-18T19:04:04","slug":"chaos-protocols","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journeythroughtheobsidiandream.com\/index.php\/2016\/05\/18\/chaos-protocols\/","title":{"rendered":"Chaos Protocols"},"content":{"rendered":"

As I mentioned the other day, I’ve been crying into my beer a little lately over the swiftly growing number of people I know or follow who have recently joined the ranks of published authors. \u00a0In particular, I’m weeping over the prodigious and prestigious one-two punch delivered by Gordon White of Rune Soup<\/a>. \u00a0The second of two books he has published this year is The Chaos Protocols<\/a>, via Llewellyn.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Chaos Protocols<\/em>, simply put, is the magic book I wish I’d had ten years ago. \u00a0Of course, ten years ago it couldn’t have been written: half the calamities and fewer than a third of the innovations (technological, cultural, and magical) that produced the world today\u00a0had not yet happened.<\/p>\n

Where Star.Ships is theoretical, meandering, and academic, The Chaos Protocols<\/em> is pragmatic, to the point, and actionable. \u00a0Amusingly, it is the latter that has footnotes on almost every page. \u00a0The book begins with a brutal crash-course in economics and ends with a miniature grimoire. \u00a0In between, it provides magical theory, economic reality, and practical techniques by turn.<\/p>\n

Economic highlights include a sober discussion of the probable medium-terms effects of crony capitalism; advocating for the return to multi-family and multi-generational housing; a realistic assessment of the value of formal education and property ownership; and a discussion of the meaning of value and the value of meaning.<\/p>\n

Magical highlights include Gordon’s own variation on the Stele of Jeu; the print publication of his masterwork on sigils; necromancy and ancestor worship; a discussion of divination mechanics and strategies;\u00a0 and magical strategies ranging from personal syncretisms to the Greek Magical Papyri to street-corner Hoodoo.<\/p>\n

The most important parts of the book, though, can be summed up in three\u00a0quotations:<\/p>\n

One does not meet the devil at the crossroads to build a life that looks like everyone else’s.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

and<\/p>\n

Even if this is the apocalypse, that is no call to avoid making things interesting<\/em>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

and, finally,<\/p>\n

Become invincible and have adventures. \u00a0The rest is detail.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Let’s have at it, shall we?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As I mentioned the other day, I’ve been crying into my beer a little lately over the swiftly growing number of people I know or follow who have recently joined the ranks of published authors. \u00a0In particular, I’m weeping over the prodigious and prestigious one-two punch delivered by Gordon White of Rune Soup. \u00a0The second … Read More<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[34,46,96,271],"class_list":["post-2148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-witchcraft","tag-book-review","tag-chaos-magick","tag-gordon-white","tag-the-chaos-protocols"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8kUcm-yE","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journeythroughtheobsidiandream.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journeythroughtheobsidiandream.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journeythroughtheobsidiandream.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journeythroughtheobsidiandream.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journeythroughtheobsidiandream.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2148"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/journeythroughtheobsidiandream.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2148\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journeythroughtheobsidiandream.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journeythroughtheobsidiandream.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journeythroughtheobsidiandream.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}