August 19, 2018   |   0 comments

Gary Lachman discusses his book Dark Star Rising: Magick and Power in the Age of Trump.

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Millions of people were shocked, surprised and even horrified by Donald Trump’s election as the 45th President of the United States. From the outset his detractors considered his candidacy little more than a sick joke; a populist publicity stunt designed simply to further his own career at the nation’s expense. Behind the public facade, however, unseen forces were at work and as the campaign wore on, those convinced of Trump’s imminent failure became less and less sure of themselves. His victory turned their world upside down. As pathetic as Hillary Clinton’s campaign was, something else was needed to explain Trump’s seemingly unlikely triumph. But just what might account for this polarising paradigm shift?

Invisible to most, within the concentric circles of Trump’s regime lies a cabal of occultists, power-seekers, and mind-magicians whose influence is on the rise. Did the power of positive thinking and the much-vaunted practice of ‘manifesting’ help put Trump in the White House? Are there any other hidden powers of the mind at work in world politics today? In Dark Star Rising, Lachman lifts the lid on magical and esoteric ideas that are impacting political events right across the globe. From so-called New Thought to Chaos Magick and far-right esotericism, we follow a trail of mystic clues that involve, among others, positive thinking pioneer Norman Vincent Peale, Objectivist philosopher Ayn Rand, Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Alt-Right, Pepe the Frog, and various domineering gurus and demagogues.

We have now entered a mind-bending matrix of occult politics where post-truths and alternative facts proliferate and where change is the only certainty. In the early 21^st Century, the borders between fantasy and reality have begun to blur and break down. If anything can be said with any conviction it is that there will be much more chaos to come.

Previous interviews with Gary Lachman here.

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