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Search Results: Netromancy
Credit Illustration by Erik Carter

When Bri Luna started her website, the Hoodwitch, she intended to carry on the legacy of her grandmother, who was a curandera: a traditional spiritual healer from Mexico. Luna, a beautician in her 20s who lives in Seattle, uses the site to publish tutorials on topics like how to cleanse a new home by burning sage and how the lunar cycles affect your daily life. What started out as a hobby became so popular that Luna turned it into a business, opening an online shop where she sells crystal clusters, bundles of dried herbs and vintage tarot guides.

Lately, the Internet has become a more enchanted place. Scroll through popular Instagrams, Tumblr accounts and Pinterest boards, and you’ll unearth posts of glittering geodes, aura photography, psychedelic patterns and geodesic designs. Even Silicon Valley itself isn’t immune: A recent article in SF Weekly reported that some local start-ups have turned to mediums and psychics for financial advice and forecasting — and, in one case, to exorcise malfunctioning hardware.

What could explain this technologized return to medieval fascinations? K-Hole, the marketing and branding agency responsible for coining the word ‘‘normcore,’’ thinks it has an answer. A recent report from the firm touches on ‘‘occult technologies’’ and compares such modern magic practices to a ‘‘cult of positive thinking.’’ Irrational optimism, they argue, is especially resonant with a generation of young people whose future is uncertain, their adult lives defined by economic and social upheaval. ‘‘There isn’t a procedural way to live your life, and that might be inspiring people to think mystically for guidance,’’ Sean Monahan, a founder of the agency, said. ‘‘If you can’t get the job you want by getting a certain degree from college, maybe you can cast a spell.’’ Technomysticism is also a fittingly nebulous ideology for a time in which the line between wizardry and technology has blurred. Smartphones lack visible moving parts but still summon hot meals, automobiles and freshly pressed laundry at the push of a button. Social media can be used to cast illusion spells, allowing people to fool the world, portraying themselves however they like.

But Luna offered a much simpler explanation for the craze: ‘‘People are tired of technology and just want to get back to nature.’’

Read more http://rss.nytimes.com/c/34625/f/640387/s/49e5d6f3/sc/24/l/0L0Snytimes0N0C20A150C0A90C20A0Cmagazine0Cnetromancy0Bhtml0Dpartner0Frss0Gemc0Frss/story01.htm


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