Jake Kobrin TALKTALKTALKS an Enchanted Life
The multi-disciplinary artist discusses being a child psychic, bonsai trees, and his forthcoming book on Magick
“Meditation practice is meant to be a preparatory practice for how you relate to life. It’s supposed to change your orientation to reality and how you experience it. At a fundamental level, it really is meant to unravel the illusion of reality.”
— Jake Kobrin
Jake Kobrin is someone whose life is a testament to the fact that magic works. That and meditation. He’s been cultivating his own practice since his teenage years in the Bay Area, where he studied with the Buddhist teacher, Jack Kornfield. It was during the same time that he was exploring lucid dreaming and the works of Aleister Crowley.
A multi-disciplinary artist, his many titles include: painter, tattoo artist, musician, DJ, magician and author. His debut book on magick is scheduled for release in 2024 by Llewellyn.
Jake is based in Bali, where he's spent the past five years, and has traveled and studied around the globe. I caught up with him during a quick trip to New York, where he was staying at the Brooklyn home of our mutual friend, magician/astrologer/artist Micki Pellerano of Time Lord TV. Scroll down to the bottom of this page for access to the NYC footage, where we touch on a myriad of topics, including: meditation, Burning Man, psychedelia, and, of course, magic.
The following interview was conducted over email.
Vivi Henriette: Do you remember the moment you discovered magic was real?
Jake Kobrin: I believed in magic as a child. I had some experiences of influencing the outcomes of events. For example, when I was very young I would win things a lot. A large amount of times. I would win CDs and concert tickets from the local radio station. You had to be a caller at a certain number, and I won several times. I’d also go play bingo with my family as a little kid and won at the higher stakes, like blackout, more than once. I would visualize myself winning with a felt sense of certainty that it would occur, and it would. I was also fascinated by fantasy stories. I have always identified with the wizard archetype. My favorite Pokemon characters were Alakazam and others with strange psychic abilities. Almost every child has a sense of magic being real. It’s almost cliche to say, but the difficult part is maintaining that openness into adulthood.
Vh: What were you like as a child? What were your favorite activities? Feel free to share the bonsai story. It’s so good.
JK: I was a bright and nerdy child. The kind of ‘teacher’s pet best student in class’ kind of kid. From a very young age, I developed an obsession with fantasy books. I read JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings and JK Rowling’s Harry Potter books especially. I’ve always had intense and strange obsessions that I pass through at various phases of my life. When I was around 10 years old I had an obsession with Bonsai trees. I became fascinated with them after seeing them at my local county fair. The fair had some 100+ year-old trees on display. They were immaculate and gorgeous. So I began to create them and learned how to care for them, and bought all the old Japanese tools and things like that. My first teaching experience was teaching my entire fourth-grade class. I showed them how to make Bonsais. We also went on a field trip to the local arboretum.
Vh: What’s something most people don’t know about you?
JK: Many might not know about my deep passion for poetry. Poetry is a way to express the inexpressible, a bridge between the mundane and the magical. It's a medium where I find a profound connection to many aspects of life. One of my favorite writers is Charles Bukowski. He may not have expressed mystical ideas in his writings, but he did a profound job at cutting through to the heart of the human experience. I’m also very passionate about music. I’m a DJ and musician. I have a particular love for progressive metal and bass music. I also enjoy dancing. But I don’t have as serious of a skillset or practice around it as some of my full-time dancer friends. My favorite dance style is Krump. It is intense and expressive. It uses a lot of isolation and exaggeration to create a powerful effect.
Vh: For those unfamiliar with your work, how would you describe your practice?
JK: My practice is a blend of art, magick, Buddhism, and other disciplines such as astrology, and tarot. Psychedelics and plant medicines have been a big part of my practice. Sometimes I call it “chaos dharma.” It's a blend of creative expression and esoteric wisdom. Each discipline informs and enhances the other. This creates a unique pathway to self-discovery and creative expression.
Vh: In your work, and in general: what is the relationship between art and magic? What is the role of the artist? The role of the magician?
JK: In my view, Magick is an art form. Each artistic expression—like literature, music, or sculpture—manifests Magick. Both art and Magick manipulate symbols, words, and imagery. They aim to shift consciousness. Consider a grimoire, or a book of spells; it is a complex grammar system. Casting a spell is spelling, as another example. Writing, speaking, and reading alters consciousness through mastering words. In this context, artists and writers are like modern shamans. They have command over language and symbols. Thoth, the famed Egyptian God, was the God of both magick and language.
Vh: In the interview we recorded, you talk about your meditation practice. Can you share something about that here? What was your entrance into meditation? How has your practice evolved through the years?
JK: At sixteen, my fascination with Norwegian black metal led me to an unexpected place. I self-identified as Satanist. Jack Kornfield established it. He is a key teacher in the Vipassana movement at Spirit Rock Meditation Center. My father is a psychologist. He introduced me to this center. It diverged from my interests in magick and occultism. I transitioned from my obsession with metal bands. This had led me to Aleister Crowley and occultism. I had started meditating based on Crowley's teachings. I hoped to deepen my practice at the center.
Surrounded by affluent professionals, my appearance with a black leather jacket stood out. Despite this, I found a surprising sense of calm during meditation. I achieved deep relaxation and clarity, akin to the effects of Valium. This experience was pivotal. Amidst inner turmoil, meditation offered me peace for the first time. It enhanced my interest in magick. It led to significant experiences in altered states of consciousness. Today, I engage in Vipassana retreats and silent awareness meditation. It shapes my approach to life. Vipassana remains a constant in my meditation practice. It influences my daily mental state.
Vh: In that same interview, you discuss dropping out of art school to pursue a full time art career and you said something like, and I’m paraphrasing here, that you never believed artists have to suffer, that your decision to pursue art was met with excitement and success.
Would you share more about this period in your life and elaborate on this idea that artists don’t need to suffer?
JK: I had a lot of preparation under my belt. A mix of luck and calculated risk allowed me to transition into a full-time artist. It’s been at times challenging for me, but I know many professional artists that do well. I made a good decision, but my path as an artist met it with a lot of enthusiasm and triumph. A lot of that had to do with a certain configuration of circumstances at that point in the world and in my life. We cannot repeat that configuration now. I’m not saying it couldn’t happen now, but it would be harder. Regardless, artists can treat being an artist like any other business or profession. If treated with the same passion and care, they can thrive.
Vh: Who inspires you? That’s a big question. Take it anywhere you want.
JK: Many people have inspired me in the past. This includes writers, artists, musicians, spiritual teachers, and friends. Yet, I'm in a transitional period in my life. Many of the things and people that used to inspire me no longer do. Still, I still find inspiration from certain sources. Among those are JRR Tolkien, Alex and Allyson Grey, Aleister Crowley, Peter J Carroll, Robert Anton Wilson, Ram Dass, and Terence McKenna.
Vh: You’ve lived in Bali for a number of years. What is it about this place that attracted you? What keeps you there?
JK: Bali has a rare and unique spiritual culture. It also has an exciting, lively community of strange and eccentric ex-pats. Bali offers a high quality of life at a lower cost than Europe or the United States. I first traveled to Bali in 2016 and fell in love with it. It’s a very magical place. It offers a feeling of living in an alternate world, outside the dominant structures of our world.
Vh: You have a book coming out. Tell me about that.
JK: I’ve worked on the book for two years, and it’s called Magick and Self Transformation. The idea is to create a compendium of all the ideas, techniques, and exercises that empowered me in my life. They worked for me as a form of magick. I act as a kind of translator. It's my intention to make these practices more accessible and understandable. The book is dense and filled with exercises. It’s also filled with guest essays from a lot of amazing people. These include Mitch Horowitz and Carl Abrahamsson. I only recently turned it into the publisher Llewellyn publication. I’m excited to hear how it’s received. They plan to publish it some time in 2024.
Vh: What’s next? Where can people find you?
JK: I'm excited to expand my teachings in magick and art. I'm also excited to explore new mediums and collaborations. People can find me through my website and social media channels. They can also find me at various workshops and events in the US, Bali, and across the world. I finished my first book. I’m excited to write more. I also plan to organize new retreats, workshops, and courses in 2024, on both art and magick.
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