“You cannot separate your lifestyle, your religion, your politics from your music. It’s a part of life.” The same holds true for crafting, philosophy, and the small acts that build a life and a nation. At Jangled Jester, there's no compartmentalization. Politics is a normal part of how we live, create, and connect.

 

The Magick of Politics

“Magick,” in its most grounded, physicalist sense, is simply the art of designing and executing an effective process whether that process is natural, mechanical, living, or otherworldly. Politics is its own category of magick. The word "politic" comes from the ancient Greek polis (the city-state), a self-governing community of citizens. Aristotle, in his Politics, treated the polis as the highest form of human association: the shared space where people live together well, pursuing the good life through collective deliberation, decision-making, and mutual support. Politics (politiká) literally means “the affairs of the polis” — building, maintaining, and improving the common life.

At its core, politics is magickal because it is the deliberate process of shaping a living system: the body politic.

What is the body of politics?

The body politic is the metaphorical organism formed by We the People, the citizens themselves, bound together as parts of a single collective entity. Historically rooted in ancient metaphors like those of Plato, the state or nation is imagined as a body: citizens are its limbs, organs, nerves, and blood. The sovereign or government may be the head, directing motion, but the true vitality comes from the harmonious functioning of every member. Without the active participation of the parts, the body weakens, sickens, or dies.

What is its essence — the interactions that make it what it is?

The essence isn’t static borders or institutions alone but the dynamic interactions among citizens such as how we cooperate, deliberate, resolve conflicts, share resources, uphold norms, and pursue common goods. Every daily choice contributes:

• Obeying traffic laws keeps the "circulatory system" (roads) flowing safely.
• Paying taxes and working sustains the "nutrition" (infrastructure, services) that feeds the whole.
• Innovating solutions, voting, speaking out, or simply being a reliable neighbor strengthens the "muscles" of trust and mutual aid.
• Reflecting philosophically on our community, our neighborhood, ancestral story, responsibilities that fuel the "mind" that guides wise action.

These interactions aren’t abstract. They’re the living processes that transform a mere collection of individuals into a thriving, self-sustaining polis. When they break down through apathy, corruption, or division, then the body politic suffers "disease": stagnation, mistrust, decline.

In America today, the average citizen’s voice is too often filtered through distant superiors whose lives little resemble our own. Jangled Jester pushes back by normalizing direct, unfiltered political expression right under the craft tent. Talking politics amid candles and conversation isn’t divisive but essential to citizenship. It reclaims politics as everyday magick: ordinary people designing and participating in the processes that keep our shared body healthy and free.

Jangled Jester encourages political participation and patriotism precisely because ignoring them cedes the field. If we don’t tend the body politic through active involvement, others will reshape it without our input often against the values of reason, independence, and individual liberty that America uniquely protects. By bringing politics into craft spaces, JJ reminds you: your voice helps build the city. Your choices can  enchant or neglect the political body we all share.