Magic For Your Life
Spirited writing to guard against soul-death.
If you’re feeling ground down by the world, dried up, or disenchanted then this newsletter is for you.
If you’re someone with an affinity for the magic of nature, the intelligence of stories, and a longing to be more deeply at home in this beautiful, broken world, then Talismans Against Boring Culture is being written for you.
What’s Boring Culture?
Boring culture is the hyper bureaucratic, imagination-impoverished world of mass-produced experiences, pre-packaged thoughts, domesticated language, and a worrying lack of wildness.
Boring Culture is what happens when the Machine takes over, when Moloch eats our children, when the mind-forged manacles of Urizen are casually clamped around a culture’s neck.
Boring Culture is a symptom of the Metacrisis. It keeps us from being our greatest selves, from being fully human, from being awake to the magic offered by the world.
Talisman: a magical item intended to protect, heal, and bring good luck.
Who Am I?
My name’s Ben Patrick Holden, I’m a writer from the North of England. I grew up in a traveling circus surrounded by myth, magic, and larger than life characters, then got a bit older and discovered the world at large was nothing like the world I’d grown up in. Where had all the magic gone?
My writing, like my life, is dedicated to helping keep magic alive in the world, and what I mean by ‘magic’ isn’t some fanciful thing, but more to do with a quality of attention that opens you to awe.
Doing this whilst trying to be a decent father, pay the bills, and avoid the pitfalls of wage slavery, internet addiction, and being ground down by life in the metacrisis is not easy. My attempts, failures, and small successes are often the ores from which Talismans is made.
What Does This Newsletter Offers You?
Spirited writing to protect against soul-death.
These are dark times and we all need a little more magic, vibrancy, and inspiration in our lives. Every post is written with care, in vivid language that I try to make as fresh, authentic, and electric as possible.
The four main themes I’m writing about are:
In Keeping the Fire Alive, you’ll find writing on how to stay creatively alive in troubling times. There are all kinds of things that would stamp the fire out, or draw us away from our callings. I’ll be sharing some things which I find helpful - the hard one habits and practices without which I’d be lost.
Battles vs Boring Culture explains what I mean by ‘boring culture’ in a bit more depth. We explore its peculiarities and immense power, and some of the strange things that occur when you find yourself at odds with the world as it is. These are out of the ordinary, eclectic essays, everyone one of them made with love.
Ecology of Magic is a celebration of nature’s resplendence and interdependence. Sometimes the tone is light and humorous (like The Majesty of Dung Beetles) and sometimes we go in depth (Ecology of Magic #1). Either way, it’s always fascinating. Each essay here adds a piece of the puzzle to an unfolding philosophy of awe.
Inspiring Stuff is medicine against the depressing news cycle. There are all kinds of good things happening in the world that most people know nothing about. Some of the posts here will be on larger subjects such as city level transformations. Some will be on small, inventive things that individuals are doing in their homes and communities. Others posts back to previous centuries, or to other parts of the world, for clues that could help us today.
Bonus Threads: A Behind the Scenes Look at My Creative Work
The following two threads show my own creative work. Posts here are rarer, and won’t show up in your inbox unless you want them to.
Books and stories I’ve published, including a free short story voice acted by Noriko Sakura.
How do we live more soulfully in a troubled world? The question that ignites this newsletter also drives my creative work. In The Seapool Books I'll be sharing behind-the-scenes insights into the making of these interconnected stories for children, which have an inspiring quality for the adults who read them.
All of this is Free
At present, Talismans is entirely free. None of the posts are pay-walled and you don’t have pay anything if you want to comment.
Why is it free? At the time of writing I’m involved in several writing projects which make it difficult to post every week, like most pay-walled subscriptions do. This might change in the future, but if it does you’ll still be given free access to what I see as the most helpful and inspiring posts.
A Customisable Newsletter
Talismans Against Boring Culture has been designed so that you only receive what’s of most interest. If you only want posts from ‘Ecology of Magic’, for example, then you can switch off the other sections and you won’t receive emails about them. This post shows you how.
Subscribe now and you’ll get a quick summary of the most inspiring things available on Talismans Against Boring Culture.
P.S. Please consider sharing and recommending this newsletter if you’re one of the ones who likes it. What I’m doing here isn’t for everyone, so let’s help it find its people. Thank you. I really appreciate it.
- Ben
Images Credits
Battles Vs Boring Culture image by William Blake.
Ecology of Magic image from NASA
Inspiring Stuff image by Caspar David Friedrich
Books etc by Demizu Posuka
The rest are either created by me, or were uncredited on Pinterest.