Generation Hex

by Jason Louv (Editor)

If the modern world is crumbling, then magic is what’s growing up between the cracks. In Generation Hex , editor Jason Louv assembles a collection of dispatches from the edge—a generation of young adults who are inventing and imagining radically new directions for spirituality and human evolution. Arising from the magical and occult underground of the early twenty-first century, the authors, artists, thinkers, and magicians assembled in Generation Hex collectively point the way to a future in which fanaticism and dogma have disappeared, in which human beings are free to realize their own destinies, and where the theory and practical applications of magic—the psychic ability of all human beings to engage and participate with the creative energy of the universe itself—-saturate and regenerate this troubled planet. Through critical essays and practical demonstrations of how a positive interaction with the occult, esoteric, and psychic undercurrents of human life can radically alter one’s existence, the young magicians collected here provide a collective snapshot of a dramatically new way forward for global culture as it emerges from the fringes and into the mainstream, from counterculture to ultraculture. Generation Hex offers the reader an excursion into the lives and practices of real-life Harry Potters, young men and women who practice real magic, here stripped of its sinister trappings and revealed to be what it truly is—the key to human evolution. Generation Hex provides a blueprint for escaping the suicidal rut of modern life and the radical redesign of the very essence of what it means to be human. Jason Louv is a New York-based writer and editor. He has spent the last six years researching and practicing magic, being initiated into various questionable secret societies, traveling around the Near East, and learning how to cloud minds. This is his first book.

Genres: Occult, Magick, Nonfiction, Magic, Spirituality, Metaphysics

288 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2005

About the author

Jason Louv is the author of eight books, including John Dee and the Empire of Angels, Generation Hex, and Thee Psychick Bible. As a journalist, he has covered surveillance, international trade and the dark side of technology for VICE News, Boing Boing, Motherboard and many more. As a futurist and strategist, Jason has worked on Buzz Aldrin’s international campaign to colonize Mars, Google's artificial intelligence program, and in many more strange and wonderful places. He lives in Los Angeles. More at: jlouv.com

Reviews

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

Many years ago I read Generation Hex, published by Disinformation and edited by Jason Louv. I also listened to a recording of their Gen Hex book event at the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors. It’s also most notably where I first discovered the work of James Curcio and Rachel Haywire. Here are my unedited notes and quotes. I have no idea what’s what now. So please consider it all one big-ass quote / summary from the book with all due credit to the original authors. Then go out and buy a fucking copy. Come back 2005, all is forgiven.

Notes:
 — Change your diet, change your reality. 
— Initiation never ends. 
— Being a writer seemed to me the way to stay a whole person, until I found a better way — being a magician. 
— ? ‘The place of dead roads.’ Book by Burroughs. 
— Draw a circle. “It is our will to become initiate.” “We sanctify this circle, we make it pure.” 
— It felt like falling out of the world. Initiation. That’s the best I can describe it. You fall out of the world and then something begins to whisper to you in the language of intuition. 
— You’ve got to have a clear idea of what you want and let other people get caught up in your story, not the other way around. 
— Don’t talk about it. Don’t say anything. Don’t try to explain it. Don’t try to figure it out. Just do it. 
— Write down your experiments and results. 
— Write down your dreams upon waking every morning. 
— The magic happens when we begin to apply dream-logic to our waking time. 
— You have to make magic real by living it. 
— On the other hand, there’s a lot to be said for only taking magic seriously in the moment, for keeping the magician self as the self that does magic… 
— A true rebel has to be an artist, somebody who can not only point out the weak points and contradictions in the system, but can also propose something better, and then guard its passage into manifestation. 
— For some magick is most appropriately viewed as a tool, rather than a lifestyle or a career. It’s something you use to create and when you create.
– P64 initiation ritual. Write down all the shit in your life that you don’t like about yourself etc. You’re offering up all this negative shit as fuel, as a ritual sacrifice.

Whatever is holding you back in life, your biggest neuroses, repressons and obstacles. All the outmoded and useless and limiting aspects of yourself that you are willing to give up. An emotional animal sacrifice. Cut it up and rearrange the random pieces. Look for the names of these things. Stop being afraid of it. Post it to the world. Give it a name. Bind it to your will. To help you. Then place yourself outside of your comfort zone. Tune TV to white noise. Conjure your named spirits. Bind them with string. Seal their sigils in a bag you later throw out into the sea. Stand naked in an anonymous room in front of a stranger, she will initiate you. Make love, painted in sigils representing your new life as a magician. Celebrate the end of one thing and the start of another.

ERIS IS MY BIATCH.

Reality is a toy!

One thing I knew about the universe was that it needed to be fucked with more than it needed to be helped.

Our choices in how we see the universe cause the universe to exist for us.

I write my own book.

You can change anything whenever you want to. Nothing in your past effects anything in your now.

Keep an online journal of your travels.

Magickal journal: Headings like: intent, method, results, conclusion.

Like in science class. Also write down everything that magick means to you, its trappings and associations. And do something connected to each aspect.

Crowley’s Liber Aleph is really helping me out. Been reading it aloud in my motel room.

Mutants cycle of evolution:
1. Alienation.
2. Relation.
3. Conversation.
4. Inspiration. (seeing outside both the societal and countercultural boxes)
5. Creation.

Express yourself. You fucking rule.

“If I hear one more person who brags about their trips with Terence McKenna or Timothy Leary I might become what people refer to as evil.” — Rachel Haywire

Magick is spontaneity

Oath of the Abyss: where you vow to interpret EVERYTHING as a direct message to you from the universe.

This country has a massive social disease called “I’m tired and need to go to work tomorrow.”

It’s all just clothing. All of it. Face the curse and find a way to destroy it. It’s all about having a strong mind, see. Sink and let yourself drown for a while. Now? Replenish. Start from scratch again. Those who suffer the most are either the strongest or the most masochistic.

Either way, you leave with the knowledge of having been there.

Magick: a practical joke. Illusion. Shadowplay. How much are you willing to believe?

How far are you willing to take it. Real.

This is the Nepali peoples method of prayer. If you need something you make an offering for Kali.
Some power, maybe to overcome disease, maybe to help with life. You hold the wish inside.

RANDOM HAND

The answer is always yes.

“Somewhere deep in the ‘isness’ of the European man is a magician in a circle and with his Art doth he torment and wrench his desires from that which screams in agony within the triangle. With symbols doth he control all that he sees and the world-so-limited screams out in agony. Or longs to break forth into the circle. Or was that just part of me? (when do we become the process?) I AM NOT (THAT I AM) A magician is only different from an artist in terms of method. The ultimate intent is identical.

Life is a dream you won’t remember upon awakening.

The easiest way to break out is to psychologically remove yourself temporarily from the culture you were born into.

Magic is a way of life — don’t quit your day job.

Create positive change on this planet or shut your mouth.

THOTH IS THE GOD OF WRITING AND MAGICK.

Use the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram

Madness comes rapidly to people who know that they are elves!

Replace the word god / Tao etc in every religious text with the word DNA and it suddenly makes a lot more sense and is a lot more useful. (Me: Except for Scientology, that’s still fucked up.)

[kit · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent collection of magical texts. The diversity and current-cy of pieces here lends itself to very practical perception shifts. Of course, as with any collection of occult/magical works, there are some writings that are perhaps left unread (or skimmed, as I intend to do at a later time) due to posturing, hubris, and other forms of active blindness.

Where this book works best is in the (several) narrative-style works—and others that weave in and out of narrative—which actually impart a state of magical consciousness rather than simply talking about it. Ultimately, this book is an antidote to the tired cliché of closet weekend occultists who never actually touch the world(s) they live in.

[Electric · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this because I was interested in what one of my favorite comic book authors talks about when he talks abaout magic(k). The book collects articles of varying quality and readability, ranging from very down to earth insights into different traditions and techniques to drug induced babbling with no value for any spiritual growth. Despite its weak points there are some real gems of knowledge in there that helped me with what I wanted to know about the approach of a western esoteric tradition without any hippie fluff and this is hard to come by. It might be a good starting point for someone interested in the subject matter but it is neither a real introduction nor a hands on manual on magick. "Generation Hex" reads like a collection of some more or less structured esseays on the personal experiences of people who call themselves magicians. It gave me some insight without annoying me too much with all the rave/MDMA/LSD talk that is included in some sections of the book.

[Felix · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting description of (one form of) modern Chaos magic and magicians. Very down to earth and real - and in parts very inspiring. Some chapters are weaker (inevitable in such a compilation) but the best ones are excellent.

[Metzy Statik · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got caught somewhere between devouring the stories from some authors, and switching to tl;dr mode with some of the less engaging authors. I wanted the book to be better from start to finish but didn't quite live up to the expectation the blurb set of being "groundbreaking". Was good for what it was though, an anthology of shared experiences and perspectives that will give some a moment of pause to ponder the nature of the world around us, as well as how many big words your ego can shove into a sentence.

[Brendan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Re-read, 06/2018: I still thoroughly enjoy this collection A great introduction of modern magic that avoids a lot of the go-to speakers on the topic, and a lot of fresh, interesting approaches.


another excellent disinformation anthology--pretty much anything occult-related that this company releases is spot on.

[Adam]

Uneven in quality; I skipped over some of the denser parts. Generally a solid compilation of some interesting voices in modern magical thought, and it certainly inspires a lot of new ideas, if nothing else.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think I might actually go pick up a copy of this tomorrow

[Jackie]

bathroom book currently. think I need to read it in a more cohesive manner.