Creating Gods

Taylor Ellwood talks a little but about pop-culture paganism, and pop-culture entities being “real.”

What makes a pop culture character real? The connection you have with it and the interactions that occur as a result of that connection. The research you do to learn more about the character, and the way you integrate the character into your magical work is also other ways that you bring the character to life. The more you build the connection, the more you bring the character to life. What also makes pop culture entities real is how many other people are also building connections to that same entity. All of those interactions aren’t necessarily the same and may not mean the same to a given person, but they all add up. For those of us who are open to working with a pop culture entity, it provides added fuel to the fire. The pop culture entity becomes real, for us, when we accept that it can have an objective existence, and yet also have a symbiotic one in relationship the interactions it has with us. Pop culture entities become real because they mean something to the people they interact with. An impression is made, a connection established and an experience is had that moves the person enough to continue working with that pop culture entity. To other people it may seem like it’s all in the head of the person doing the work, but if that person is relatively sane and functional and the working consistently produces results, who can really say if it’s just in that person’s head?

A while back I read an anecdote about a chaos magician that created a servitor to adjust his experience of time. (I can’t find the link, so I’ll relate it as best as I can.) Basically, there are two types of time: measured time, ruled by Chronos (what the clock ticks away), and personal time, or the subjective experience of time. The servitor adjusted the latter, so that the magician would experience time passing faster during unpleasant or boring events, and slower during more enjoyable events.

As the servitor worked better, the magician shared it with his friends. It learned and grew into a larger egrigore. More people used it and its realm of experience increased even further. Eventually, it aspired to godhood and hoped to challenge Chronos.

I’m not sure what happened to it.

In traditional Chinese religion, it is accepted that spirits become more powerful as they receive more offerings and worship. If a ghost causes trouble, it will receive attention to appease it, and if its cult grows large enough it can attain godhood.

And of course the Ancient Greeks deified their heroes, and the Romans deified their emperors.

So why can’t we deify fictional characters? And why can’t they develop a life of their own?

A servitor, tulpa, or similar thoughtform is given life to perform certain functions. If given enough license to learn and given more authority, it can become more powerful and develop more of a personality. When several people come together for a common purpose in a group, the egrigore they create can long outlast individual members of the group.

Are not fandoms feeding these egrigores? Is the energy they direct into the characters not a form of worship? Can the characters not easily develop a life of their own?

And when they do, can they not be petitioned like any other entity?

On how pop culture gods and other entities can become real or deified

Also, countering Pete Carroll on why astrology is useful