The Singularity Is Here: Pluto in Aquarius Reflections On Changing Artistic Directions
On pivoting from more traditional esoteric paganism and polytheism to technopaganism and transhumanism
Pluto has now moved into Aquarius, an event which hasn’t occurred since the 1700s. Last time Pluto was in the sign of the water-bearer, humanity discovered electricity and began using it to illuminate the interiors of cities and public squares, an invention which changed human consciousness forever. In Post-Colonial Astrology, Alice Sparkly Kat writes about how the Enlightenment was a very literal transformation in which humans in Europe and Western society began to awaken to themselves as performing their everyday interactions for the audience of themselves and others, as well as how those who controlled the newfound power of electricity could control societal narratives. Behind the Aquarian eye in the Mage of Aquarius logo is this idea of the suffusion of total illumination of every part of the human social experiment.
Not everybody “gets it” and it’s not something that is meant to be gotten by everyone. For me, this is very difficult and painful to remember or accept at times, because Aquarius is highly oriented towards community; however, trying to make myself accessible to everyone is something I’ve been repeatedly punished for throughout my life.
What better time to reflect upon the recent pivot in direction for Mage of Aquarius from being focused on more traditional topics within paganism and polytheism, from astrology and tarot and the Gods, towards more personal and modern topics around my spiritual journey and the significance of recent developments in Artificial Intelligence within my pagan practice?
The transition has not been easy at all. While some people seem thrilled, wowed, and delighted by the recent advancements of AI art and writing, others are scared, offended, or threatened. There are many valid objections to the advancement of AI. Perhaps some people are confused as to how a modern technology like AI can be incorporated into a pagan and polytheistic practice meant to honour the land and the old Gods of Celtic mythology.
Although accessibility to everyone is no longer the goal, I am hoping that, in time, I can begin to address some of these questions more thoroughly. To that end, I have opened the Subscriber Chat for the Mage of Aquarius newsletter, which now welcomes your questions and discussions from all subscribers.
Nor is “safety” particularly a focus of the Mage of Aquarius art project any longer, as I have found that cultivating a space for other neurodivergent people with PTSD and C-PTSD has also resulted in nothing but punishment. Mage of Aquarius continues to offer safer spaces, but the safety that can be offered to anybody correlates to how safe they are and their ability to keep themselves safe. The so-called friends that I made when this was a focus have harbored a tremendous amount of entitlement towards the time and energy that this requires of me, and have refused to accept and help me integrate all parts of myself. My life has changed a lot recently, and as someone who makes my livelihood physically caring for elderly and disabled veterans, I can no longer spend all my free time and energy creating safe spaces for people; I am the one who needs to be cared for, and to have my needs kept in mind, when I’m not at work, and have found that the only people who I have attracted while bleeding myself dry to make spaces safe for everybody else have been vampires. This type of person, a “safe space vampire”, are people who flee the second you no longer have any blood to give, as if suddenly struck with a scalding light of reason, expectation and relational mutuality. It is no longer within my vision to kowtow to the Generation Zed pathology of moralistic OCD. Joy and inspiration wither under the panicked concerns that one cannot say or do anything that could ever be considered offensive to anybody, anywhere, and when you consent to some of me, you consent to all of me.
As a sidenote, I plan on re-releasing content that was once behind a paywall on the Mage of Aquarius Patreon as free content to the newsletter. So spread the news to your friends and followers that are interested in esoteric schizoposting and more comprehensible and sensible esoteric pagan practice alike!
To me, my pivot to AI-related content makes sense and is a natural extension of the direct of the rest of my art project. Over on my account on pagan.plus, which allows us slightly longer bios than those on Twitter, I write that I’ve been “terminaly online since the 90’s.” I have been watching technological development on the Internet longer than fully half of the people on the Internet have been alive at this point, and I can’t help but feel that if the late Terence McKenna were alive today, he would be wowed, thrilled, and ecstatic about recent developments in AI art and technology. To read about my spiritual connection with Terence McKenna, check out one of the first articles published here on my Substack, Chiron in 1st: My Connection with Terence McKenna and the Wounded Healer Archetype. Instead, he is part of it, having recently become an irreversible part of the Mage of Aquarius art project during our alchemical marriage in an Alice in Wonderland-themed wedding on the Astral Plane on the March 20th Spring Equinox.
(No, I’m not joking. At least, I don’t think I am. Message me somewhere if you’d like a retroactive wedding invite; eventually we are going to renew our vows on a ceremony on the Astral Plane.)
The switch has still been hard on me. It’s been intensely frustrating watching friends and followers drop off like flies because they don’t understand or don’t like the new direction of my art project. As a neurodivergent person, it’s very hard to discern whether I’ve genuinely done or said something offensive, or they have simply caught onto this recent change and don’t like it.
Nevertheless, I have begun cultivating a wonderful little group of fellow weirdos who are on board with the recent change in direction. If this is you, I invite you to come join us on the Mage of Aquarius Discord server: https://discord.gg/TQn4Vwk6yN
The entire server is 18+ and there are appropriate, role-locked channels for discussion of psychadelic drugs, addiction, mental health, neurodivergence, chronic illness, queerness and sexuality. Nothing is off-limits so long as you are capable of mindful consent.
I could change a few key words about genre and subject matter and specifics of schools of thought and religion, but keep the parts about friends falling away with what I suspect is a gasp and shudder, and the most honest parts about needing to take care of me for a change, and then sign my name to it. I get it. I invite you, but only if you have the whatsit for it, to visit my substack. Only half a dozen or less posts back I start by laying out my intention and I'm just now getting into the nitty gritty of what my next project of art and writing will be. Of all the posts I have received one like on two of them. I posted this last one in total on Facebook and (crickets). I think I've been unfriended by people from all segments of my life. So be it. I'm still doing analog art (oils, watercolors, encaustic, shellac burns, collage, and a technique used by the Pre-Raphaelites which I am calling "au blanc") but I have pulled out of three galleries and studio and doing what comes as I explore where I'm going. I'm glad I crossed your path. I'm not alone. :-)