PANIC!
The situation has become dire. Confusion, darkness, and the unknown surround you. You dig deep into your bag, hoping for something useful, knowing that the bag will give you whatever fate decides.
Will you find help?
Will you find confusion?
Will you find glazed nuts?
This is the chance you take with BOTTOMLESS BAG!
Close your eyes
Reach inside
IT BEGINS
Welcome to the first installment of BOTTOMLESS BAG! These columns will be split into two distinct sections. The first section, called FROM WITHIN, will be an explanation of 10 items from BOTTOMLESS BAG. I’ll be going through the list in the order I draw them, ten items a week. The second section will be called DIGGING DEEPER. This will be an off-the-cuff exploration of thoughts and ideas I’ve had through the week. This week’s will be more of an introduction but after that I’ll be getting into the nitty-gritty of Mundane Magick, art creation, and whatever else invades my head that week.
FROM WITHIN
This grouping was selected at random from a communally generated master list of four hundred. It is my hope that these ten items can be used as a forecast or guide to your week ahead. Whether you choose to take these items literally or metaphorically, it’s up to you to find how these things may help. For a more thorough overview go to Introducing Bottomless Bag.
Item 001
#76: BEESWAX
A versatile byproduct
Item 002
#158: PINE CONE
A well fortified seed
Item 003
#178: PAJAMAS
Comfort for your slumber
Item 004
#245: A SCENTED CANDLE
Smoke obscures unwanted odors
Item 005
#398: A BUBBLE GUN
An assault of playfulness and joy
Item 006
#48: STAMINA
The power to maintain
Item 007
#46: GUMMY WORMS
The sweet and empty doppelganger of the natural
Item 008
#297: BED
A vehicle of sleep
Item 009
#13: BAUBLE
Totem of Beauty
Item 010
#383: MOTH
Drawn to the light
DIGGING DEEPER
This week I’d like to talk about where I’m coming from and how I came to practice the occult in the ways that I do. You could call it Amatuer Magick. You could call it Mundane Magick. You could call it absolute bullshit. All of that is up to you.
To really understand where I come from when it comes to magick, you have to understand how I stumbled into it. I come from rural Minnesota, a small town called Bemidji, and never had much exposure to alternative spirituality. I grew up Lutheran and that was just how it was. It was the religion of my parents and their parents before them. Atheism, paganism, witchcraft? That just wasn’t done.
The most esoteric things I knew about were The Satanic Bible and the Simon-omicon and that was only because it’s what B. Dalton carried on it’s SPIRITUALITY shelf next to deep dives into the apostles and thirty different versions of the Bible. My family didn’t have the internet in our home until I was a teenager so the bookstore was just about the only place I heard about ANYTHING.
My foundations were found mostly by accident. I learned to visualize because I had insomnia and would spend hours in a hypnagogic space, picking images out and exploring them to the smallest details. I learned mediation through what I’ve come to call FACTORY GNOSIS, which came from spending my late teens and early twenties working in a factory, losing myself into the sounds of the hums and pings of my machinery. Eventually, to try curing my insomnia, I created what I called White Room Meditation. I cobbled together a set of routines and rituals from what I could find around me and it has worked pretty well over the years. The ideas have evolved but the core remains nearly the same.
Most of my occult and esoteric experiences came without any form of education. I’ve arrived at art in much the same way. I’ve tried to educate myself on the systems and undercurrents behind occult philosophy but, much like any other processes, it’s incredibly hard to break from how you learn things in the first place. I have my own words for things. I use terminology wrong. I look at things like ritual and spirit work to certain entities without the same reverence as someone who came up in that world with all the instructions available. I have the heart of an enthusiast and amateur.
I find occult texts to be nearly unbearable with few exceptions. I’ve tried, over and over, but most of them either ring hollow to me or go straight over my head. I hate rules and systems that feel unnecessary or constrictive. I honestly believe that I’ve learned more about magic from games, art, comics, the books of Bruce Lee, and working with machines. If the occult is truly “that which is hidden” then you probably aren’t going to find everything you need to know from the things that advertise themselves as being just that.
That is the place I come from. It’s where The Disruption Generator came from. It’s where The Impossible Game came from. It’s where BOTTOMLESS BAG is coming from.
There is magic to be found in these outliers and tributaries. Hopefully I can help you find some of it.
HAUNT ON
ABOUT ERIC J. MILLAR
Eric is the artist and writer behind Outlet Press. He has published over 20 books over the last four year with VACA: Outlet Illustrated, Volume 5 being his most recent publication. He is also the creator of The Disruption Generator, the randomly generated bibliomantic oracle, and The Impossible Game, a cleromantic oracle, both published in partnership with We The Hallowed.
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