Subsections of Occult Economic Laws
by Gordon • • Prosperity, Rants • 7 Comments
Always nice when you can get more mileage out of a post title. Even better when it lets you open with an image of the magnificent Bob Loblaw. (“Bob Loblaw No Habla Español“.)
So far there has been some fantastic feedback on my earlier post about occult economics (which was borne out of the ongoing discussions around elders and money).
Some great people have made a number of points that I really want to address. At first, I was going to open this post by asking whether we, as a loosely affiliated community, should draw a line under the money discussion.
But I’m not going to, because I don’t think we should. It’s emerged that we’re just not very good at talking about money. More than anything, this lack of openness is possibly a key contributing factor to some of the systemic economic malfunctions across the wider occult sphere. Instead, let’s talk more about it. Maybe not just in the blogosphere but where ever good magical folk gather.
And so without very more more ado, here are the pertinent subsections of the Rune Soup 5 Laws of Occult Economics.
1.1 Locate value where there is margin
Kenaz made some valid points in response to my idea that books are affected by price moving to the marginal cost of production. He correctly points out that books do indeed have fixed costs which can never approach zero.
Which means I need to clarify what I mean by ‘cost of production’ in this case. (I made a go of it in the comments on his post which you can also check out.)
Unfortunately for creative folk, the ‘cost of production’ for information products (which is what books are) is measured further along the distribution chain; principally in the commissioning of manuscripts and the actual printing of physical products.
Now a physical book is just a distribution mechanism. It’s not the actual ‘idea’ printed on it. In the past, publishers could locate margin in the production and sale of physical products because there was such a high economic barrier to entry: It was extremely expensive to build, run and maintain your own printing facility as well as transport your physical products to the limited number of distribution points. What was printed on them was almost beside the point.
This kept competition down which kept margins high. Replace ‘printing press’ with ‘vinyl/CD press’ and you have the same historic business model for the music industry. Which was why it, too, used to be obscenely profitable.
Trouble is, the printing and distribution of physical products can be politely considered “a business model in transition”. This is caused by two things:
- A simultaneous reduction in printing costs (China) and an explosion of distribution points (Walmart, airports, drug stores, train stations, the internet). This led to more competition and more price pressure. Most large retailers sell books at a loss to entice people into the store where they can hit them up for products that actually have a margin. It’s called loss-leading.
- A much more efficient delivery mechanism for information products has emerged.
If they’re not already, Jason’s books will soon be available for a pittance on Steve Jobs’s infernal glowing rectangle, your phone, your TV and your lame-ass Paris Hilton Nokia watch/phone thingy. Jason is my go-to example for this because I really think his business is the best/most visible model for ‘relocating the value of information products’. Sorry, Jason. I’ll pick on someone else next time. But if you check the comments on the 5 Laws post you’ll see we’re in broad agreement on this.
Now… Brutha ain’t retiring to Como on no 99c book sales.
But… The number of readers/consumers of his information products will likely increase dramatically. I’m going to call this the Rune Soup Newspaper Paradox. (Because I paid for a .com domain name, I’m going to slap it on everything.)
Newspapers are in the exact same situation. Thanks to the internet, they have more readers than they have ever had in their history. But they are making less money.
A Real World Example from History
Seth Godin asks an interesting question in the Bootstrapper’s Bible. “How many of the great railroad companies got into the airline business?”
When commercial aircraft arrived they started eating into the passenger train companies’ market because they had a faster, cheaper solution to a business need: getting from one place to another.
Now. What business are passenger train companies in? Are they:
- In the business of moving their customers from where they are to where they want to go?
- In the business of building and laying train track?
They made the mistake of choosing door number two and -as a result- the commercial airlines completely obliterated them.
So, is an author:
- In the business of delivering information products in such a way as to locate margin somewhere along the audience relationship?
- In the business of moving bundles of paper around?
1.2 Hyperbole has no place in Occult Economic Law
In the comments, Jason pulled me up on some frankly pretty caustic occult stereotypical descriptions that I seem to have sprinkled liberally throughout the last post.
Yikes.
These descriptions were intended to exaggerate the contrast between the majority of occult customers and the potential goldmine waiting to be tapped in the corporate sphere -which I go on to outline.
But it certainly reads in a much more mean-spirited way than I actually intended. So that’s my bad. And I’ll fix it.
Like Discovery Channel say; “I love the whole world.” If they had said “don’t drink and blog late into the night” then the post would have come out different.
4.1 Familes are always rising and falling in America
Back in my freewheeling Bohemian days, I used to travel all over New Zealand in a clapped-out Honda with my then-flatmate who was a market trader. She sold jewellery she designed and made herself. I’d assist. (With the selling. Jewellery design? Please. I’m homosexual enough as it is.)
Now, she made what people would buy. At NZ $85 dollars, her wonderful paua shell necklaces just weren’t moving. People don’t spend that much at markets.
So she made bracelets. Or necklaces with less paua shell (which is expensive).
She might have got a bit sick of churning out the same thing over and over… But she was still a jewellery designer.
Let’s bring this back to the origin of these wider economic discussions: Elders.
Consider the position of some of these elders versus the financial situation of that Harpy Millionairess who created The Secret. (I know that title is absolute flame-bait, so please be kind!) But it’s a series of books, DVDs, retreats and merchandise: See all that value she located?
Can we actually make this comparison? Well, we can if we crudely measure the ‘ gross volume of help delivered’. This is still a chaos magic blog. I’m all about real world, measurable results.
So when it comes to elders, this is just how markets work. Some people win. Some people don’t.
Have they been selling necklaces when people have been buying bracelets?
5.1 Hoarding gold turns you into a wraith
Your information product probably has broader appeal than you might initially think. In the comments, Diana mentioned that she’d use a couple of the laws while working out what to do with her own book.
Now, she’s been open about what she’s writing probably because she hasn’t made the rookie mistake of thinking that someone is going to somehow ‘steal’ her idea.
(Rookies: At any one time there are dozens of people independently working on the exact same idea as you. So relax. Having the idea isn’t the hard bit. Writing it is. Besides, competing titles are actually a good thing. It means there is probably a market for what you are selling. It’s up to you to be the best in the market.)
Diana -if you’re reading this- I hope you don’t mind me using you as an example because I think it’s a good one. Diana’s getting to the pointy end of a book about divorce from a Wiccan perspective.
I like this. But if it were one of my development projects in my day job, here’s what I would look at: Half of American marriages end in divorce. That’s an enormous market.
- A collection of broad-appeal women’s magazine articles giving advice from a witch (!) to recently separated women. Editors will like this because there will be a whiff of black magic and cursing about it. (But it’s Wiccan so there won’t be any. Nice twist.)
- Springboard off the articles into a broad-appeal book on divorce advice from a witch. (Potential agents will like your track record in article publishing and the unique angle. I can see the cover already: A cartoon silhouette of a witch on a bright pink background. It’s Carrie Bradshaw meets Harry Potter.)
- Time a January launch to capitalize on the Anti-Valentine’s news cycle (“Boo love! Valentine’s sucks!” etc) that is now the most prominent media feature of the holiday. This should be good for at least one HI/breakfast TV spot, some radio and newspaper magazine pieces.
- Get some sort of basic qualification to run weekend workshops. Make it so the woman going through the separation can bring a friend because it will be the friend that suggests attending in the first place. Something around reclaiming your power but without the obvious lesbian overtones.
- A series of niche books that specifically target the Pagan/Wiccan community.
Yes. I work in a silly industry. I’m aware of this. But see what happens when you start to think about sharing your gold? You probably have an idea you could work work up in a similar way. That’s the easy part. Delivering on it is the challenge. But it always pays to be pointing in the right direction when you start down the long road of delivery.
5.2 Agreeing with Chris Anderson is mandatory
If you are even thinking about commercializing your occult practices, I must insist that you allocate an hour of “me time” and watch the video embedded in the original post.
Chris is awesome. I want to keep him in a little box in my spare room and subject him to an endless stream of questions.
5.3 Don’t shoot Hermes
Do I wish things were different? Sure. I wish a lotta things were different. For instance, I’d love an extra couple of inches… Of height. (Boom!)
But here is what I said to Lupa:
Business, like diplomacy, is “the art of the possible”, not the preferable.
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Gordon -
Thank you so much for the analysis of my project. I’m flattered that you investigated me, and this is truly valuable advice!
.-= Diana´s last blog ..A tool for all the witchy types =-.
No, no. Thank you. And keep it up. I reckon your project has legs.
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Another excellent post. This time we are in complete and full agreement.
One of the key parts of strategic sorcery is the blending on magic and mundane actions and knowledge. When I decided to do this in earnest I gave quite a lot of thought to my model. Now that my model is working and working well I am giving more thought to growth, streamlining, and developing more diverse offerings.
The Elders did not think this way, which is why they are stuck now.
I was going to comment on your original article, but I’ll just condense my thoughts here.
One of the big problems talking about Bonewitz and people like him is that he is a pagan, and pagans generally dislike work. In fact the entire pagan subculture seems to encourage this.
Jason Miller’s article takes some time to look at Bonewitz, and he makes a very good point, Bonewitz had lots of opportunity to make money, but he didn’t follow through on them. In fact I’m sure if you didn’t just look into his spiritual opportunities but all of his opportunities, you’d see that he made a long series of bad life choices from a young age right up until today.
I don’t want to stereotype, but if we look at the Pagan demographic we see some specific things. Most are from middle or upper class families. Most work unskilled low wage non-management jobs even into their thirties, forties, and fifties. Most do not hold jobs for more than a year. Many don’t work full time. I’d say less than a quarter own a car, and the amount that own homes is near abysmal. Most do not have degrees or trades, and the ones that do often earn their degrees online from unaccredited institutions. Most live in squalid conditions or are still being subsidized at least partially by their families, again into their thirties, forties, and fifties.
Bonewitz is just a natural extension of this culture, which is based on not wanting to work. And the thing is, most Pagans can’t afford to give him money, because they are mostly just as bad off as he is. The few that can usually share the same thought when he asks, “Fuck you, get a job hippy.” Seriously, I have to go to work at a job to pay my rent, buy myself food, pay my medical bills, and live a comfortable lifestyle. Why shouldn’t Bonewitz and every other pagan out there?
And the idea of these people being life coaches is just laughable. In order to be a life coach, you have to at least be able to project that you live a desirable life, and most pagans or so far gone they can’t. It’s like a morbidly obese person trying to find work as a personal trainer.
Right now the big money in the metaphysical community is in the New Thought and New Age movements. And I’m betting that most of the practitioners that bitch about these two movements don’t know the difference.
One of the really cool things right now is there is a lot of spill over from these movements. People in them are looking to expand spiritually, especially in the New Thought movement which is ultimately spiritually limited. A lot of these people want people they can relate to that can teach them complicated systems like Kabalah, Tarot, and spell work in a way in which they can understand it. This audience is growing and there’s going to be a lot of money there for people who can make it work.
So far people from these two movements have been largely turned away by the culture of the Pagan and Ceremonial Magic movements (which are similar in culture and currently combining). They have however adopted spiritualism and a lot of Eastern religions and philosophies into the movement.
The New Thought movement is all about personal empowerment. The New Age movement has a lot to do with personal and individual spiritual attainment and growth. The people in these groups are generally intelligent, well-educated, and financially secure by a relatively young age. Do you think these people are open to a fat Wiccan high priestess with emotional disorders telling them what to do? Do you think they’re about to be tricked by some supposed Elder that wants to treat them like a slave or worse in exchange for spiritual teachings? Do you think many of them can even relate to people whose definition of formal dress is leather BDSM costumes and casual dress renfair costumes?
Here is my list of major metaphysical demographics and what you can expect from them:
New Thought
-Very large base.
-More financially motivated than the average individual.
-Usually will have a six year degree by the time they are thirty.
-Generally have a large disposable income.
-Usually seeking a better quality of life through the attainment of money, financial security, happiness, and spirituality.
-Religion is based around self-empowerment.
New Age
-Very large base.
-Usually have at least a four year degree by their late twenties.
-Often professionals with disposable income.
-Usually seeking happiness and spiritual attainment.
-Usually seeking some sort of spiritual event
-Mostly spiritual individualists and opposed to organized religion.
-Movement is unorganized and is based on individual spiritual attainment.
Pagan
-Large base
-Usually less financially motivated than the average person.
-Most are from middle to upper class families, but are themselves lower class.
-Usually no higher education degrees and lack a job trade or career.
-Far more open to organized religion.
-Few have disposable incomes.
-Generally open to the fringes of society (BDSM culture, Furry culture, swinger culture, to name a few).
-Many are concerned with religious oppression and want to be oppressed.
-Some are racist to various degrees, this however depends on the area and the exact group.
-Religions are generally based around reconnecting with nature, reconnecting with the spirit world, magic, and reconnecting with ones ancestoral beliefs.
Ceremonial Magicians
-Smaller base
-Many actually have college degrees.
-Although most have a poor work ethic.
-Many are professionals but most can’t hold a job and are poorly motivated to find a job when they are unemployed and have money to live off of.
-This means they have short spurts of disposable income followed by long periods of no disposable income.
-Often schemers who try to find ways to make money easier.
-Typically more open to organized religious groups and heirarchies.
-There is a very small percentage (less than 10%) where this isn’t the case, and they typically are more financially motivated and have very large disposable incomes.
-Movement is based largely around personal empowerment, connecting with the spirit world, and magick.
Spiritualists
-Very small base, probably dying out.
-Members are typically middle class with a good mix of education and trade professionals.
-Members are usually a bit older.
-Not much for religious heirarchies, however people who can prove themselves competent mediums often have a much higher status among spiritualists.
-Very much geared towards having spiritual experiences and individual spiritual attainment through these experiences.
-Despite the small base, certain spiritualist materials and services can sell quite well outside of spiritualism.
Satanists
-Large base with a small devoted base.
-Many are Atheists.
-Some do perform magic.
-Actively encourages members to take advantage of and disrespect one another.
-Devoted members typically have small disposable incomes and are similar to pagans in many aspects.
-Many are concerned with oppression and want to be oppressed.
-Many are anti-Christianity.
-The big money from Satanists comes from selling Satanic branded products.
Luciferians
-I haven’t met many, although the ones I have seem to mix elements of devote Satanists, Pagans, and Ceremonial Magicians.
Discordians
-Typically young and in high school and college or at least of college age.
-As such very little disposable income.
-Disposable income typically is spent on pot, psychedelic drugs and shinies.
-Always and under every circumstance opposed to organized religion of all kinds, except when they are not opposed to it, which is often.
-Some are Atheists.
Traditional Witches
-Small base, nearly dead.
-Usually more financially motivated than the average person.
-Many females marry rich.
-Traditionally they hate and fight with Wiccans.
-Some Wiccans are now saying that they don’t even exist despite lots of external evidence to the contrary.
-Almost always opposed to organized religion.
Roscarians – I haven’t met enough to accurately judge, what I’ve seen though:
-Typically middle class or higher incomes.
-Very small base.
-Usually very secretive.
-Open to organized religion.
-Some do interact with the other parts of the metaphysical community, although in many places this behavior is frowned upon by the group.
Voodoo/Santeria
-Very small base.
-The first is more common in the south and across the east coast, the second in the southwest and is larger in Hispanic communities.
-Both typically sell their services to the general community and this is where the money is in these beliefs.
-Voodoo especially is associated with confidence men.
-Big legitimate money is in divination, mediumship, and spells associated with prosperity, love, fertility, and revenge.
Parapsychologists/Ghost Hunters
-Generally Christian or with Christian based beliefs. Some are Spiritualists and New Agers. Many utilize psychics and demonologists.
-Most are hobbyists.
-Most are middle class or higher with disposable incomes.
-Requires a large amount of money to invest in various gadgets.
-Most that are looking to become professionals agree that the best way to do so is by landing a TV show.
-Generally interested in capturing proof of a metaphysical phenomena.
Demonologists
-Often related to parapsychologists
-Christian based.
-Generally opposed to magic, non-christian ritual practices, and communing with spirits in any way.
-Usually labels all non-angelic spirits as demons.
-Mostly concerned with exorcisisms and cleansings.
-Very big heads (seriously read their stuff. They make themselves out to be a cross between a Priest, Indiana Jones, Han Solo, and every other character Harrison Ford has ever played).
Oh Rob… And the lifetime achievement award in blog comments goes to you. Thank you so much for this response. The more fizz we can add to this soda, the better it is for everyone. (At least, that’s the assumption I’m working to.)
I’m absolutely with you on the opportunities around New Thought.
In my own career I have noticed a shift in business strategy/corporate thought toward incorporating what I can only describe as ‘Occultism Lite’.
It’s the last frontier for the moneyed middle class.
It’s like knowing there is an untapped oil field sitting just off the coast. The picking is going to be really good for those who are prepared to drill.
The optimist in me hopes that people will look into this opportunity to see if it’s for them rather than dismiss it out of hand. We shall see?
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