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— Chaweon Koo (@chaweon_koo) June 10, 2021
“As far as I know, it was the first time that—number one—a ritual was being held on the Ethereum blockchain,” Koo said. “And number two, 100 people showed up for it.” The Ethereum spell work took place the moment when Mercury was in cazimi, the point when Mercury is sitting close to the sun.
“So it was in the embrace of the sun,” Koo explained.
AI angels and demons
According to Koo, the idea of using AI in magick began to develop as she worked on her book in 2021, noting that she was already aware of the growing interest and concerns around the rapid deployment of generative AI models.
“Until you really get to understand AI, AI is kind of threatening—it\'s going to take away our jobs, it\'s going to make deepfakes,” she said. “I think a lot of people don\'t realize that AI is not quite there yet, but that\'s because they don\'t know, they only know the sensationalized stuff.”
While some were fearful of the potential of AI, Koo said she saw an opportunity.
Koo used artificial intelligence in her most recent project, the Goetia Glow Up, an online course that teaches how to summon and interact with spirits. The online course includes a 72-page booklet containing AI-generated images of demons of the Goetia, also known as the Lesser Key of Solomon.
The Key of Solomon is a grimoire or book of magic originally published between the 14th and 17th centuries. It details the invocation and control of spirits and demons, divided into five books focusing on various magical rites.
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— Nick St. Pierre (@nickfloats) April 30, 2024
As Koo explained, a large part of angelic magick is the idea of Angelic choirs.
“The idea is that if you sing the name of the angels, then you could reach out and touch them much more easily,” she said. “It\'s sort of like, let\'s see what happens when we prompt a music AI and see what they come up with when it comes to these angels.”
Koo emphasized the diversity within the occult community, contrasting people who embrace occult practices as a way to reconnect with ancestral traditions with those who are at the forefront of technological advancements. Early magicians, she noted, were considered cutting edge.
“They were literally the ones they would be doing the equivalent of working with AI, like people working with AI right now. I would always say computer coders, they would have been burned at the stake,” Koo said. “Because anybody who\'s written any code—anybody who\'s ever written, ‘Hello World’ and having a computer talk back to you—there\'s a magick to that.”
\"In my definition, a true occultist is not a reactionary—instead, they\'re the ones who are the vanguard,” she said. “If you want to be a really strong occultist, you want to be the operator and not the person being led by the leash.”
Edited by Ryan Ozawa.