Originally published on HAUNT MANUAL, Revel Rosz shares some insight on the Somatick Magick Aeon‘s necessity within the current digital dirge.

SOMATICK MAGICK HAUNTS ON…

The second installation of We The Hallowed’s SOMATICK MAGICK initiative is in transit to patreon subscribers and supporters. This season, we’re furthering the micropublishing tier of the PATREON (THE HOLLERS tier) with Seer Eric J. Millar’s brilliant (and absurdly prescient) 20+ page FECK UP MANIFUSTO zine with this season’s HEXKASSETTE tier’s second HAUNTOMANCER cassette chapter (and first major Hauntomancy working with accompanying audiomancy) SINE-WAVE SERPENTS.

As we languish within the confines of an all-too-dead internet, and its perpetually dead-horse-fucked oligarch-laden overbosses, the tactile SOMATICK MAGICK AEON from WE THE HALLOWED has never been more appropriate.

This is our second installation in a progression to tether unique talismans to interested folk. We soft-launched it in October, allowing for patrons and supporters to receive the first major batch of cassettes, The Hollers seasonal art letter, and magickal ephemera. This on-going experiment to buttress the works with supreme intention outside of the digital norm has proven quite the undertaking, and as we ship out this second installation, I’m finding just how deservedly involved handcrafted media magicks truly is. And just how much I and others have deeply longed for such artifacts.

After these initial gusts of somaticks, we’re still finding and ironing out the subscription breadth. We’re finding that the 2 month turn around is not only too difficult regarding handcraftability, but our low subscription costs don’t add up well enough, so we’re experimenting with 3 month timelines, while also allowing for more involved packages along with a sea of digital medias special to subscribers therein. It’s a process. And we process-punks up that and are happy to learn it.

Here was a soft-launch announcement with some SOMATICK details:

It started from a sheer need to connect via the physical, through tactile art—embracing the snail-mail-zen of connectivity to supporters of our now decade long art religion (Updated ‘Tethers’, the WE THE HALLOWED scripture, in zine-form forthcoming), and the furthering progression to eliminate the bite-size snark and the low-digital-ceilings of the current internet void. This may seem an ulterior course of action concerning our very minute niche of the interweb. But this is a return to form and creative function.

Of course, growing pains were expected as when us Haunts decided to largely to leave the social media industrial complex and with it the seeming monopoly of sheer (and largely unanswered) possibilities of reaching “new” eyes and ears. It has become a platitude, “finding the others”, but what if the digital machine creates a vacuum of touch instead of a beacon?

This is what I’ve found as a fervent creative within the past 20+ years of the digital landscape. Hell, I was part of the SUBJECT ZERO generation, maybe even a little ahead, as it was the advent of mp3.com and my computer-literate 13 year-old-self that discovered releasing (and printing!) my bedroom musicks to those connected and outside the confines of my marooned and alienated highschool doldrums finally feasible.

For over 20 years now I, personally, have roused and toiled within the ebbs and flows of creative wide-births via the digital space. Birthed back when “addresses” were digital domiciles that you could truly construkt and find artistic pride in creating and refurbishing via sites like Geocities and Angelfire, and long before we all became dorm mates within the digital slums oversought by scumlords in ticky-tacky social media boxes. Learning things like html code and the, now bloated, graphic design skills were necessary tools to customize, to artistically inject the medium…the way you were represented t o the faceless masses was paramount… And time and time again, the machine wants to rid these prisms of skill and customization, to remain sleek and minimal, easy, comfortable…pfft! Ah, the halcyon mercitron (see: Kevorkian) of sentimentality haunts on.

I see this general resolve permeating through these facets that affect, largely within that confluence of occulture and art, of which we tarry. And I see the sea change when hearing academics and occultnik gatekeepers alike wax and wince about relevance in the face of the shifting digital tides. How will they gain new students, or subscribers, how will their voice travel if there is a mass exodus away from the current social media paradigm? Oh, the horror! This dire need for homogenization, whether it be through esoteric study or digital artistic presence seems so brutally antithetical to creativity, the true divine spark, and creativity is the purpose of any of this.

This is the tested metal we meddle in, perhaps it’s a larger faction of practitioners and creatives wanting more space to actually create in, to conceive, to embellish with their own experiences instead of the bite-sized and hackneyed information that is overwrought behind intrepid pay structures, tiktoks and introduction videos. Eric Millar, my partner within the major timeline of We The Hallowed, and I have always thought of the digital space, namely social media, as a necessary evil to advance connectivity to the works we created. Perhaps a large faction outside of us is realizing that was the point all along, too. And how did we allow such drab vicarious suckage to take center stage?

Then again, there is more to say regarding why we’ve largely remained somewhat blue collar magickians and artist among the desperate and audience-driven figureheads that run amok within the social media sphere. We’ve always kept two desks, or altars, in our sacred spaces, one to relish within the creative gusts and applied magicks sans oversight, another to keep a loose tether and allowance for financial support while tending to our day-to-days. Too often I see heel-turns from magickians (and artists) who don’t keep separate altars within their sacred space, and blame their incredulous need for sustainability on an apathetic audience. Which is why we always new we weren’t for everyone, and probably shouldn’t be—are we so surprised that the influences we held in our individual scaffolding rarely ever made large waves, or rarely ever made a living from their brilliant works, and that we would or should? The Somatick initiative bleeds within this understanding, that perhaps trying to use the same vacuous and homogenized public utilities have always been unnecessary and that’s by its design as well as ours.

But I, for one, and am not a soothseer in what this all may mean, rather I’ve always held a utilitarian effort that is forever battling how and when these things can align. Do I have an answer? No, and I’m still terrible and crux’d about the ethics of monetization, let alone the “one for the them, two for me” analogy I’ve somewhat held. This can been seen in the last decade of trans-medium output alone, largely left for anyone to peruse, listen, view, and only ever with a hushed mention about a Patreon or donation. We may be naive that we held the “one day we can live off just creation” maxim for so long, and there’s a part of me that still holds to that knowing that this is the most pie-in-the-sky we may get. I’m not so sure this is even a dream anymore for the sheer fact that I will always create and create to live, but what does that look like when a large audience is unnecessary? This is why we remain steadfast in separate desks in our sacred spaces: the space where everything flows, and each altar is cornered to attune their respective signals.

10 years of We The Hallowed, from a monthly residency in a small Portland venue showcasing multitudes of local artists in a variety show, to a burgeoning international collective of disparate magickians via WETHEHALLOWED.ORG has shown us just how crux’d the merger of these sacred desks, or altars, can become.

As we pushed for our imprint of original art through books and records, we only ever saw WETHEHALLOWED.ORG and its newsletter/e-mail apparatus as an optimal function for out-reach. And we barely weathered the hustle-bustle-rotund-tumble of “consistency” in output, for quantity>quality of social media and its ever-reaching vapidity. But the site, the digital address, the true digital domicile, remained resilient and consistent with engagement. We played the game, as it is written, albeit reserved and forever commanding with the ethos in intention, and it was a full-time bore. All the while, our digital domicile held true, albeit tucked away in an alterior location to the modern norm: the now vilified website.

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We’ve already redesigned and relaunched WeTheHallowed.org into the hub of this Somatick era: a refortified digital domicile forever housing and digesting the many works, digital or analog, therein. We’re still hosting articles, book reviews, essays, podcasts, music and video releases, on the digital front and keep a monthly newsletter aimed at subscribers to peep it all. The digital faction of our cross-medium creations won’t waver, it will just become strongly tethered to our artistic digital home rather than plastered and molested about within social media needs. We are forever customizing, learning, enacting and applying our many hats across the site… viewer beware. Human error is expected and exalted here.

Though, how do we keep each installment, each work, honest and effervescently individual without playing to an audience, a niche, a brand when everything tells you its unavoidable? How do you find the “others” when you’re a collection of weirdos with no marketable baseline? I suppose we always ducked the advice these questions bore, largely because we never really cared, and it’s time we stop acting as if we ever did.

Now, how do we elicit long-necessary breaths and patience to a world drunk on instant gratification and vapid attention in this mal-titled information age? How are we poised to progress by largely dispelling the now in-grained and fevered reliance on fleeting digital detritus? What constitutes progress? Do folks even have cassette players!?

To define our “goals” within this new trajectory seems kinda silly, we are, for all intents and purposes, process-focused creators battling against the continual eradication of processes we hold dear. The resolve is romantic, dangerous, and might even be wholly misguided. And we’re kind of proud to stiff our upper lips and middle fingers in that regard.

Progress, to us, is the ability and freedom to create, to wide-birth these creations to interested supporters, without overbosses that aren’t our Holy Guardian Angels (See: Little Wind). Everything else is confetti. With this ethos comes the need for sustainability financially, sure, but not at the cost of our individuation. Supporters who wish to purchase our artworks, and/or subscribe within these select spaces help charge (financially and metaphysically) the tools and talismans needed to further our mad-dash creations, to be a small part of these mad-dash creations, to become a large part of a religiosity built on creation. Its quite simple, really, and at this juncture, and by rugged and tiresome day jobs, we have largely sustained the through the small and fervent support we are gifted by folks such as yourself. Of course, we’d like to balance the ratio so that time spent at our creation desks outweigh our dayjob desks, and essentially, that’s really our only goal at this juncture.

I suppose with this trajectory comes a bit of an unspoken, but deserved reciprocation, however. Good art takes work, it takes time. And this is largely antithetical to how the general populace imbibe. Perhaps, its time to consider your work worth a bit of effort on the audience’s part. It’s time to stop treating the faceless Demiurge to all parts of you in hopes it pays attention. Perhaps its time to stop allowing the general populace all of your trans-formative works to quid-pro-quo a sort of phantom presence we parlay but never truly commune with. I mean, what are we actually asking for here? An email address? A free subscription to Patreon as a base standard? Peep-it-before-you-buy-it? Perhaps its time to wheat-the-chaffe and embolden and embellish the thank-yous to the real ones over strangers who don’t have any intention of doing the smallest bit of rummaging the outside confines of social media. Those in the shared somatick read books, or see performances, or engage in true dialog with creators. Those are the real ones. Always have been. If there was ever a silver-lining to the advent of Artificial Intelligence and Deepfakes, it’s the general remembering that we shouldn’t have ever put so much stalk in the anonymity of the wild web anyway.

Even now, in my long-conditioned reticence of alienation, I find myself worried that betting wholly on the process and creation could sustain our ethos without the usual tit-for-tat of free release, then I remember everything we’ve already created that’s still freely available and worth revisiting, and this gives me solace. It gives me solace as the alienated forever-fighting becoming the alienator would. For some reason, paywalling or largely leaving the digital paradigm seems like punishment, like a grumpy “I quit!” after never being hired in the first place. And this is not my meaning.

Though, confetti on a dead horse maketh not a unicorn, it does make a pretty darn purdy dead horse. So if we can reconfigure, reformat and rebirth the ethos within all tentacles, even the conglomerate, such as Amazon printing, or social media promotion, I suppose some utility is there? I really wanna keep this dead horse, don’t I? 20+ years of digital integration will make you a dead horse advocate, that’s for sure.

Look, we tarried in the combustible, but even our creative Molotov’s were meant to burn long. I, no We, truly prefer those looky-loo’s that are interested in the works to show a modicum of effort to take the ride. Don’t you? Otherwise if the vapid onset of consumption is the endgame, then perhaps this screed is wholly unnecessary. We don’t parlay in passive. Does that sound elitist? Why? Why are we all so ingrained to lessen our resolve in hopes of comfort and edibility? To kowtow to the robber barons behind the code for validation? Have we gone so sour on ourselves?

After 20 years of utilizing the internet to source connections and spread original works, it has become all-too apparent that deaf ears and deaf eyes are not sorely just on the audience, but also engineered in a hyper-machination of the payola radio-plague that we were all born into.

The Somatick initiative more than feels right, it feels just. It feels justified to retain confidence and control on how our decades-upon-decades of art within the deep annals of the internet is to be sourced, used, (Gods forbid, “learned”), etc. It feels right to move safely behind the all-too-low paywalls, or effort based reach, and source the intentional mediums of yester-year (physical media, snail mail, customized digital spaces) as the true artifacts of creation within this vapid NFT-age. So we’re haunting on.

We’re multi-dimensional human-error-filled pseudo-luddite miscreants. And proud!

The ghost of what was spurns and is made anew, yet the commitment to evergreen creation, no matter the medium, remains steadfast.

Which brings me to a bit of housekeeping—social media tied to any of my art projects, be it PRAGMAGICK, REVEL ROSZ, DAKOTA SLIM, or WE THE HALLOWED in general, will be reserved only for spreading new releases and announcements—largely utilizing the combustible posting that “stories” seem to allow. After archiving hundreds of posts across various platforms, it has become all too revealing of how much We, namely myself, have allowed to freely traverse the strange and dark alleys of the internet. Seer Millar has already gutted his social media, and I aim to further rectify mine, but this will take some time…

As for the ART-ifacts, namely the HAUNTOMANCER HEXKASSETTES, subscribers will know that these talismanik tapes are constructed with the previously released audiomancy and audio-chapters of the early Hauntomancy writings found here on the Haunt Manual (soon to be HAUNTOMANCER) substack. My work within the genesis, experimentation and application of my anarchic HAUNTOMANCY praxis, or “hauntology-of-the-self” creativity magicks, haunts on. A new eclipse season is upon us, and a new chapter unfolds…

It is my aim that once these are casted and conjured on to HEXKASSETTES, and after they are initially shipped to patreon subscribers, they are further made available to obtain individually, made-to-order, from Bandcamp, Gumroad and/or Patreon. With this, I will retire the wide-release of these early chapters through not just the modicum of effort behind low paywall-ing, but also affording me the freedom to continue editing and expounding the writings into the overall print edition of HAUNTOMANCER: the first collection of woven and tethered Hauntomancy writings originally found here. Retiring these old episodes/posts behind low pay-walls provides an the allowance of editing and refining for the trans-formative and transcendent print editions while cementing these original cross-media grimoire installations their casted talismans. The lowest amount of subscription will garner access to everything moved behind a paywall.

This will all be a part of a forthcoming PRAGMAGICK video and audiocast, and be the shot-over-the-bow to reiterate the SOMATICK ethos within the podcast current. After 100 episodes of un-toiled and largely experimental audiomancy experimentation within the Podcasting format, I plan to reassure the listeners that this perceived “lack” of consistency or of quantity is not only worthwhile but is due to the massive amount of other projects shifting and burning.

Again, good art (not always, but mostly from me) takes time. It dissolves, it echoes, and it resonates. This is why I’ve only ever interviewed people who have moved me first and foremost, and why time between the education the podcast brings me is necessary to apply the revelations therein. A full-on video documentary of sorts is currently being worked on that furthers the exploration of this SOMATICK initiative, with proposed guests and other focused essays on the docket. But as for timeline? When it fits it fits.

All said, each piece, no matter the medium, will bring a fervent regard within the WE THE HALLOWED tether: Each work is intended to haunt on. To revisit. To ruin and rebirth hauntomantically from its creator. Not to chew and spit like binary tabaccoo in a facebook spitoon.

HAUNTOMANCER’s cassette and further writing, audio and video exploits will largely be found here. Whether its full episodes concerning Hauntomancy or my many audiomancy exploits, the unique HAUNTOMANCER podcast channels will be flush with the analog magicks I’ve created.

All said, patreon subscribers for as little as a dollar a month will be privy to the full bounty of weekly posts containting original music, writing, unaired liminalstreams, interviews, etc. The cornerstone of the SOMATICK’s underpinnings will heretofore be nestled behind those low-pay-wall confines of patreon. It furthers the ethos, sure, but it also provides insurance concerning what we allow within the digital detritus deluge.

As of now, patreon subscribers have received 3 HAUNTOMANCER HEXKASSETTES, 2 zines, assorted stickers, rare artworks, and a few DMG’rs (Divergent Magick Grimoire users) got special handcrafted AUDIOMANCY RITUAL RIBBON TAPELOOPS with an accompanying DIVERGENT MAGICK RITE cycle on how one can implement them within their own audiomancy praxis. Here is a short video with some footage of me creating the tapeloops:

As I reach the bitter-end of my thirties, I feel a hard-won resolve within the patience, experimentation and true communion this SOMATICK AEON provides. Join us, will you? And HAUNT ON through the SOMATICK while the internet’s corpse detoxes from your apathetick magicks.

Find us at wethehallowed.org, and, for those interested in a more fevered-and-hyper-output temperament, at
patreon.com/pragmagick.

HAUNT ON,
RKR

ALL LINKS: http://pragmagick.com
PAYPAL: http://www.paypal.me/keatsross
WE THE HALLOWED: https://wethehallowed.org
SUPPORT VIA PATREON: http://patreon.com/pragmagick

I want to give a big thanks to Eric J. Millar for his invaluable partnership in weathering the proud tides of human error. And of course, all the amazing patrons that have stayed with me as I swayed these past couple of months. Thank you Temple of Babalon Choronzon (Bobby, Leah, Stashia & Groucho), Frater Perseus, Kenned Doll, MetemPsychotic, Saroth The Mage, Sam Shadow, Lya & Azure Edwards, JJ Reine De Blanc, Jenny Rocky, SorcerersHomie, Cal Desmond Pearson, Alex Leadbetter, Lynz Pinzer, Bibi, Brittany Brown, CW Chanter, Jonicide, Jilly Beans, Corrie Anne, Spooky, Derek Hunter Vanessa Sinclair, Carl Abrahamsson, Tony Davis, Arnemancy and you, dear ghost, for your ongoing support.

About Author

Keats Ross

Revelator Keats Ross of the “Open-Source Art Religion” We The Hallowed has been a journalist for the likes of Disinfo and Esotericana. He is a prolific composer having released dozens of albums under the likes of DAKOTA SLIM and SPARE SPELLS, and currently hosts the occult and outsider arts podcast, PRAGMAGICK. He is currently producing a multi-media grimoire across literature, music, podcast and video mediums entitled HAUNT MANUAL.
All his works can be found at http://www.pragmagick.com
¡HAUNT ON!

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