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"Bending the Binary" A Book Review [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2023-08-21

When I was finishing high school, one of the things we did for fun was mill about the shopping malls of New Jersey. After a healthy meal of Hot Dog On A Stick and a frothy Orange Julius, I would slip away from my cohorts and head to a secret place. There was a little section of every bookstore the that always held a special allure. One where I was both thrilled by the far out possibility that you could actually practice magic and also frustrated by the implications in many of the books that you might just want to keep this all to yourself. Hide it under the bed, it was dangerous. And well yes, anything that reaches into your head and tinkers with the clock springs whether its a self help book, a philosophical treatise, a psychology manual or a religious text is going to carry the inherent "risk" that you in some way, shape, or form, change your mind, your outlook or even how you feel about yourself deep down inside. As Doreen Valiente once said something like "Yes, witchcraft is dangerous but so is crossing the street, yet cross the street we must." But it became part of a marketing strategy to use the idea that this was shhh... a secret and too dangerous for the everyday folk. Some occultists still use the old "It's a secret!" strategy, to loudly announce their latest creations; and that's fun. I'm there for it, first in line and wallet in hand! But if its for sale, it ain't no secret. The real troubles usually come from the people selling it and the people trying to quash it. Not so much from the information itself. At any rate, today’s dangers of just being yourself in public makes the risk of any so called occult knowledge child’s play in comparison. But there was an intersection of ideas in those old 80's and 90's books that caused many a headache and plenty of heartache. It was a core tenet of how magic was taught and practiced. It was the idea of polarity. It held that underneath it all, the universe worked in balance of positive/negative, light/dark, god/goddess, male/female. Magic, like a battery, needed its poles to produce energy, it was said. “Gender polarity” was taught as a fundamental practice, especially if you worked with a partner. It's still a part of some traditions but few are really comfortable and confident with that approach as it was presented, anymore. It was a traditional idea in the occult world but I first heard of it circa 1990, as it was prominent in so many books back then. So what do we do with all those balance and polarity ideas from ye olden days of yore when shoulder pads and fanny packs were fashion necessities?

Well fortunately, author and Wiccan High Priestess Deborah Lipp has taken up that challenge to find out with her work titled "Bending the Binary" from LLewellyn books. Subtitled "Polarity Magic in a Nonbinary World" it's a thoughtful and practical exploration of some new possibilities for dusty old ideas that haven't really held up. Like other books of hers, it's a thorough look at both concept and practice, this time relating to polarity magic. She shares some of her personal insights that have come about as someone whose queer identity has had to confront the issue in real time. If you are interested in the history and evolution of occult ideas, what magic polarity is all about, or want to find a way to explore alternative polarities and not be held back by dated gender ideas, you should check this book out.

The first section of the book takes a deep dive into just what the heck the polarity is in the context of a magical practice. She covers where the ideas came from and what groups played a part its development like the Golden Dawn and Wicca. Historical figures like Aleister Crowley and Dion Fortune are considered keys here. The author takes a look at relevant aspects of Kabbalah and what it has to offer the discussion as well. What I like most about this book is the examples of polarity she details that are unburdened by the out-dated binary-gender metaphor. Topics like "Force and Form" "Passive and Active" and "Night and Day" are the themes of section two. I found the demonstration of "relative polarity yin and yang" wherein black and white shifts to shades of gray, effective, as the black and white symbol was often used in my 1990's book collection. This much needed discussion of polarity from an occult perspective has thought provoking journal prompts and a few practical exercises and practices included throughout. The final section provides some suggestions for how to use polar magic in your practice, but leaves it up to you to make the call if you'd like to explore the concept. I really appreciate the book's engagement with the topic and Deborah Lipp's detailed approach is well suited to do so. There's plenty enough depth to get you thinking without any heavy handed ideology to sidetrack the practical discussion of polar magic. I haven't come across any similar book out there and I consider "Bending the Binary, Polarity Magic in a Nonbinary World" an important addition for my library and would be so for any practitioner.

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