Madgic Is Up For Sale!

[lb_lee]

The paper book is $8.00 on Etsy, and the PDF is on itch.io for $4.00. It was the big hit at MICE this weekend, outselling everything else! (And to think, Mori was worried nobody would be interested...)

When you’re severely mentally ill, religion or magic may seem like nothing but worsening symptoms, but what happens when therapy, medication, and doubt doesn’t make it go away? Herein, Mori of LB Lee talks magic and multiplicity, sanity and spirituality:
• Autonomancy, semiotics, and dance to communicate with the subconscious mind (depicted as a cartoony whale)
• Exorcism, coercive belief modification, and how belief is less about thoughts or feelings than behavior
• Sanity-boosting, inner community building, and body rooting
52 pages, 8.5 x 5.5 inches, black and white.



I'm trying out yet another new ebook-accessibility thing which, if it works, will make future zine-making a lot simpler. Up till now, I've had to make screenreadable versions manually, deleting every image and replacing it with text and saving it as a different file. However, LibreOffice has recently updated with accessibility tools that, hypothetically, allow straight embedding of alt-text into images in the PDF, meaning that if it works, I could just make the one file for everything. I hope it does. Unfortunately, it seems to crash LibreOffice a whole heck of a lot.

Comments

[talewisefellowship]

Wow this book is incredibly interesting and is giving me some food for thought, thanks for putting it out there.

It makes perfect sense to me that your brain has its own unique symbolic language and magical tradition that's not very derivative of any other tradition. Your headspace has always had its own unique cosmology so this feels like a logical extension of that.

--Janusz

[lb_lee]

Mori: yeah, I feel like a lot of my religious/magic experience is trying to make sense of the waterfall of symbolism constantly pouring down on my head, rather than trying to build said waterfall.

[talewisefellowship]

That's a great metaphor and makes a lot of sense. Your brain has always had a mind of its own so it makes sense that would apply to the magic/symbolism as well.

--Janusz

[lb_lee]

Mori: Rogan jokes that sometimes, making our comics is like sitting in the front row of a movie theatre, scarfing popcorn and going, "man, how is that poor schmuck LB going to get out of this one?" Only we're also the writer, director, and producer! There's a weird sense of less CREATING something, more like we're just along for the ride in a story that's much bigger than us.

[talewisefellowship]

Thats kinda like how memory recon is lol! Except lore is released in bits and pieces in a random order and you never know when they're going to come out and you kind of have to do a scavenger hunt if you want to experience more of the story.

--Hikaru

[jkatkina]

Bought!

(I wanted to get the paper version but shipping to Canada was more than the cost of the book. Damn you, Etsy!)

[lb_lee]

Sneak: Yeah, sorry, international shipping is really terrible! T_T It's part of why we put everything in ebook. I hope you find it useful!

[jkatkina]

I found it wonderfully so, with some very cool ideas to consider -- the idea of the way you guys build your protective symbols resonated. Let Mori know she's a compelling writer. And no worries on the shipping -- that's on Etsy and Canada Post, not you guys!

[lb_lee]

Mori: Thanks, bro! I hope to make it a series, so am wading through research to build up future installments.

That or I'll end up finally making a comic out of this, which we've been trying for years without success.

[runeroot]

This was SO GOOD and immediately made us realize we had enough feelings on magic and our history with it that uh we should probably make our own zine about it! The Symbol Sourcebook is a great place for us to start; thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us so much to think about :3

[lb_lee]

Dooooo iiiiit. Multi magic cabal! Cripping the cosmos!

Do you want to borrow our copy? It can be a tough book to get, from what I recall.

Mori

[runeroot]

Appreciate the offer greatly! But we were actually lucky enough to snag one thru the library :D Most of them were reference or in library only but not this particular one

[lb_lee]

Mori: Niiiiiice! Yeah, so no regrets about buying our old hardback edition, it's one of the gifts that keep on giving.

By the way dudes you need to give me a way to pay you for your Ouroborus sales help a multi out come on.

[tuesday_morning]

I just got finished reading the PDF version of this and it was very eye-opening and gave me a lot to reflect on.

In my system, there are some religious parts from different traditions and some more spiritually-inclined parts. Each one has this thing where they want everyone else in the system to go along with their beliefs because that's what they've been told is best and it's the only thing that's been modeled for them by society at large. But then, now that I think about it, maybe we don't all have to subscribe to the same belief system. That's probably a no-brainer, and I'm sure I've come to this realization before, but it's always nice to be reminded of this every once in awhile.

Anyways, looking at what Mori had to say about magic, religion and everything in between made me realize something important. Religions that have been created hundreds or thousands of years ago could be valid, but when you think about it, someone following their own belief system is just as real and valid too. I think we're all just trying to make sense of this great big mystery that is known as "Life" and so, naturally, it would make sense that there would be variations in people's ideas, practices and perceptions surrounding it. Even in the same religion, two people can have vastly different experiences and perceptions from one another. This is all to say that I think I'll be consulting with some of my other headmates about not having to feel so scared to do their own thing. That doesn't mean we all have to go the same way, but just that it's normal and healthy to be our authentic selves while doing whatever we do.

Thanks again for creating this zine Mori! Also, sorry if I typed too much just now. I have a habit of writing a lot sometimes, lol. ^_^'

[lb_lee]

Mori: our roster is kinda a mix. Mac is Protestant, Falcon a lapsed New Orleans Catholic (we think?), Grace Jewish atheist, Bob Hindu atheist. We had a preponderance of Christian atheists, but it's kinda hard to uphold either that when our brain keeps doing what it does. So most of us are just a flailing parade of, "whatever gets us through the day." Truly a deep, rigorous philosophy! It'd be downright weird if all of us had the same traditions and such; I can't IMAGINE Bob praying to anything! (Meanwhile, Rogan's told Mac a bunch of times that it'd feel weird if Mac wasn't Christian.)

Both marriages here are interfaith. Grace once said about her marriage to Bob that from their differences come strength; I'm pretty sure Mac and Rogan feel the same way.

The funny part is seeing how the bony lady gets (mis)identified by everyone around her. Falcon thought she was a loa when they met, while Bama (who was Protestant, RIP) thought she was the Christian angel of death, and me and Rogan mistook her for Santa Muerte, who's a Mexican Catholic saint. (Neither of us are Mexican OR Catholic, adding to our confusion.) We finally gave up on pinning her to a pantheon; she just pops up now and again and laughs at our attempts to categorize her. She seems totally uninterested in any moral philosophy more complicated than, "make yourself useful until the end of your days. You're doing that? Great! Keep up the good work byyyyeeee!"