Egregores in Our Midst

If you have problems getting a grasp on the concept of angels and demons, give egregores a try. In today's news hunt I found two articles that spotlighted egregore formation.

Why campaign coverage sucks | Horse-race journalism works for journalists and fails the public.

We use collective nouns, even when they mash way too much together, because, despite all the flattening and collapsing, there is some rough justice in saying, "The media loves Obama right now." We know we're speaking imperfectly, or metaphorically, but we also know we're observing something that's really happening.

And that's fine, normal, human even. Nonetheless, it's important to remember: The media has no mind. It might appear to decide things, but if no one takes responsibility for "Edwards must win Iowa," then it's not really a decision the media made, but a convergence of judgment among people who may instantly converge around a different judgment if it turns out that Edwards isn't done after failing to win Iowa.

That's pretty mindless. Strangely, though, the argument that the media has no mind serves almost no one's agenda, with one exception, ably represented by Jon Stewart, but including all who satirize the news and the news criers, exposing their collective mindlessness and making it almost... enjoyable.

Black Monday: recession fears spark global share crash.

Nick Parsons, head of strategy for NAB Capital said: "There was no real trigger for what was a Black Monday. Overnight there was the very large sound of pennies dropping followed by a general market capitulation. What the markets have woken up to is that, yes, there will be a recession in the US and, no, the rest of the world won't be immune to that slowdown."

And that's egregores for you. Think of people as cells, operating independently while feeding off of some grand host that none of us quite understands. Do you know where your next meal is coming from? Of course you don't. You just go to the grocery or a restaurant and get food. Those places get stock from distributors. They get it from growers. Growers have some understanding of the process but typically lack a full understanding of the science behind it. And behind all of that our scientific knowledge is still fuzzy concerning what created a system where life evolved as a system of things that feed off of various sources of energy that can in turn feed off of each other. To the individual within the larger system these things take on personifications. Gods, angels, demons... egregores.

Everybody knows that "The Media" doesn't actually exist. Yet it does. We create it in our minds and it becomes a very real entity that can be conjured to serve a will. Likewise "The Market" isn't real. Both of these are useful tools for understanding events brought about by individual actions operating in a seemingly collective manner. They are egregores.

Egregore is just a fancy new term for gods, angels and demons. You can worship them, pray to them or try to conjure and control them. Invoking them requires magick. And some day, Mr. Potter, you will make a GRAND Wizard.