The Digital Age Meets the Occult: Why Mysticism is Trending Again
The Digital Age Meets the Occult: Why Mysticism is Trending Again
It's 2024 and we're all back to consulting the stars, flipping tarot cards and charging crystals like they're iPhones.
Amid the rise of tarot and astrology, Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou's Speculative Communities shows how our return to mysticism is deeply rooted in navigating the unpredictability of modern life—where even algorithms can't answer our biggest questions.
Somehow, we've blended astrology memes with Tik Tok algorithms and created a whole new mystical aesthetic. But here's the twist: it might actually be because of tech, not despite it, that we're returning to magical thinking. When we spend our days letting unseen algorithms pick what we watch, who we date, and what we buy, it's no wonder we're craving a bit of ancient history to balance it out.
Let's be real: do you know how TikTok decides to show you that video of someone deep cleaning a pool? Or how a dating app decides Steve from Accounting is your soulmate? Exactly - it's a mystery, like a modern day séance.
That's where the cheeky term algoseance comes into play. It's like the tech worlds version of contacting the spirits. Instead of asking, "Is Aunt Marge in the room?" it's more like, "How did Instagram know I needed a velvet tracksuit?".
But here's where Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou's book Speculative Communities steps in to add some depth to the mysticism buzz. In the book, he argues, we've moved into a world where uncertainty rules the day.
After the 2008 financial crisis, society got cosy with the idea of living in chaos. Instead of trying to control everything, people started leaning in to the unpredictability - financial speculation, political swings, and yes, algorithm-driven lives.
Komporozos-Athanasiou points out that in this new world of speculation, we form communities around shared uncertainty. That's where mysticism slides back in, giving us a way to make sense of things when the algorithms are too much and the real world doesn't add up. Tarot cards and astrology give you the illusion of control. Sure it's chaotic but at least it's you shuffling the deck and not Paddy Power.
Speculative Communities helps explain why we’re all huddling around the mystical fire again. We’re in an era where everything—from stock market chaos (remember GameStop?) to our social media feeds (or whatever Elon’s calling Twitter these days)—feels like it’s controlled by invisible forces we can't fully understand and maybe shouldn’t trust.
And when you realize 85% of the stock market is now driven by algorithms , it makes total sense that people are turning to tarot cards instead of trying to crack TikTok’s ever-changing code. Plus, let’s face it, consulting your horoscope is just way more fun than guessing why you keep being shown cat videos.
We're all just trying to navigate this uncertain world, one tarot card, horoscope or dating app match at a time. And maybe, just maybe, these mystical practices are our way of making peace with the fact that, in the end, no one really knows what's going on - not even the algorithm.
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