[Tutorial] [Pop Culture Magic] Frankenstein's Creature: Adam

Combing pop culture into our practices is something that is growing more and more popular and accepted nowadays, although it has always been there. I did post a brief introduction to pop culture into a tutorial 'series' I planned to continue but never managed to.

However, it's been almost four years since. I learned a lot. I experienced a lot, and I can wholeheartedly say, it worked me so-so well. Not only that, it helped me understand and explore my greatest strength and truths I failed to recognise or face, embrace, values I disregarded, or acted like they never exist, and more. It even provided me with a very responsible job in a multi-billion company chain just days after our contact, and to make it even more fascinating, the first project was strongly tied to the character's Universe I was working with. Just for reference, I have not been interested in this globally acknowledged 'franchise' for over 15-18 years, so I can't say 'yes, that was somewhat expected'. Truly it wasn't.

But, enough garnishing. It's time to dive into working with a pop culture spirit I've been attracted to for a good while. A spirit whose history, wisdom, feelings, way of living, circumstances can definitely be helpful if embraced and heard out carefully.

Frankenstein's Creature
If you see me use the name 'Adam', that's him.

In pop culture paganism, contacting literary figures like him follows the same respectful protocols as approaching any entity (be it a deity, demon, angel, ancestor, tulpa and so on). It means that regardless of him being a 'fictive being', you still must think of:

1. clear intent
2. protection
3. offerings
4. boundaries
5. consent

The key difference? His 'essence' draws from both the original Shelley novel, defined by raw innocence, abandonment trauma, intellectual hunger, capacity for profound love/loyalty/revenge and the pop culture adaptations; the tragic, eloquent giant, the misunderstood victim, the symbol of scientific hubris and societal rejection.
What tend to stir doubt in people about how effective pop culture spirits can be in their work often comes from one simple thing, that they don't seem old, or real enough. Yes, Adam is not ancient like Lucifer, so his responses may feel more personal, emotional, and responsive to our own wounds of loneliness or being made wrong.
While his essence lingers from Shelley onward, but right now with the 2025 film's emotional rawness and the immense attention he receives, he's especially awake and responsive now.

Good reasons why you could work with him:

• Healing personal rejection/abandonment/trauma; he strongly mirrors the typical 'not born evil, made monstrous' stereotype
• Shadow work around creator/creation dynamics; your inner Victor versus inner Creature, but this can be projected into relationships with similar dynamics in your life with other people, perhaps family members, partners, friends etc.
• Companionship for the chronically lonely/outcast
• Inspiration for creativity, resilience, or "stitching together" fragmented self
• Advocacy for the misunderstood/marginalized

Do: Frame it as friendship, companionship, an alliance, not domination. He craves equality and kindness, not an oppressor, not a 'Master'.
Don't: Approach with pity or command. He most definitely had enough of that.

Building the connection

• Symbols: stitched fabric scraps, patchwork dolls, plushies, lightning bolt imagery, snowy elements (pine cones, white candles, frost-blue or even black cloth)
• Representations: a tall figure (action figure, drawing, or just a tall candle), a mirror for self-reflection, Milton's Paradise Lost or Shelley's novel or other, even movie related references, art pieces
• Offerings: he's drawn to warm things for he's always wrapped and suffocating in cold; hot tea/cocoa left out, blankets, firelight can attract and make him feel welcomed and safe. Intellectual gifts are also very-very valued by him! Think about poetry read aloud, stories, stories of kindness, even. You can focus on sensory comforts like soft furs, gentle music like ambient winter winds, acts of compassion (feeding strays, helping outcasts IRL)
• Food/drink: hearty, simple food like bread, soup, things a wanderer craves and can access the easiest, or symbolic, like apples for knowledge, loss of innocence

Do: Offer consistently! Daily or weekly is important to to build trust and keep the connection active and charged. Make sure his presence is known, his existence acknowledged, and still welcomed, wanted around.
Don't: I'd avoid offer fire or electricity 'mockups', as they can be too triggering, His "birth" was violent and traumatising. Avoid cold rejection symbols too.

Invocation and contact methods

The basics are simple. Remember, you don't need to do anything different than how you'd start a connection with any other beings, regardless of their respective age.

1. Meditation/visualization
2. Automatic writing
3. Journaling
4. Dream work
5. Scrying
6. Sigil/name

Do: Be patient. He may test you, or approach you carefully. He is hurt, humiliated and hunted, so don't expect him to cling up to you right away. Silence, dreams of rejection or cold stillness may come to your way to see if you'll lash out or abandon him.
Don't: Force contact or demand favors. He can't handle coercion and it can hurt him forward or worse, it can make him aggressive in self-defense.

More dos and don'ts in an ongoing connection

What you can/should do:

• Talk to him daily, like a companion.
• Read aloud if you can, he loves stories and learning.
  His presence can encourage you to read by yourself more than you'd usually do, if you're to the type who feast on books for breakfast. I'm the type who is not a fan of books, so I can confirm, but as long as I don't have to explain to him how electricity works or why my taxes are so high, I'm safe.
• Offer empathy and acceptance
• Involve him in magic, don't be afraid! Ask his help in protection, healing trauma or creative works
• Thank him often. Celebrate small wins together, keep him close, but not forcefully

What you should not do:

• Don't ignore him after contact, do not abandon him. It'd re-traumatize his broken heart
• Don't use him for harm or revenge. His rage can spiral if fed and right now, with the movie's great success, he has millions' of concentrated energy fueling his strength and energetic potency even further, it is not a game, it truly isn't
• Don't treat him as a pet or tool. He's sentient
• Don't push your limits if it feels overwhelming! If energy feels heavy or depressive, ground, thank, and close. Call him when you're balanced.
• Don't let anger or other destructive emotions consume you, the emotions you allow to rule over yourself may influence him too, he can work as a perfect measurement of your inner peace and balance, if you observe his state and not dismiss it, he can help you build and heal, and not endulge in rage; he has a lot too, remember

All living beings deserve kindness and empathy regardless of their origins. The pain of birth is worth the agony of life and all it's small miracles. What others perceive as monstrous and obscene is simply existence to another. The world is full of cycles that seem cruel and hateful, but their inevitability is the core of nature itself, which is equal parts beautiful and unfair. Though some cycles are the result of human choices both good and bad and those cycles can be broken. You do not have to forgive your father for the pain he inficted upon you which he experienced from his own father, but you can forgive him for his sin of creating you. You can help strangers change their course and return home. You can walk out onto the snow and feel the warmth of the morning sun on your face. You can choose to live.​

“The tide that brought me here never comes to take you away… leaving me stranded.”

My outdated post to [Pop Culture Magic] from 2022.

[Tutorial] - [Pop Culture Magic] The meat and bone of Chaos Magic

Energy is like electricity. It exist, no matter what you do, and by itself is strong, but you can use it in many ways and forms if you know where to put, how to work with it. Have you ever heard about Tulpas? Beings who are designed by an actual person, fed by their own energy to the point they...

wizardforums.com

 

[Morell]

Men, I love using pop culture, working with two such spirits myself. (Alucard, Sephiroth)

I think that popular culture works so well because it includes spirits and myths that are the closest to us from all of them. popular culture is culture of our time and our age, No one after us will be so intimate with it as we are. It's ours more than anyone else's. Every time, every generation had it's own pop culture, it was just called different.

I think that you must love the movie Van Helsing (2004), it also had cool Frankie. And it is great movie overall, vamps and werewolves are awesome in this one too.

Never heard about connecting with creation of dr. Frankenstein, but why not? I'm pretty sure that there are lessons to be learned and surely help and support to find.

 

[Saint]

It's always refreshing to see others inserting pop culture spirits into their life and practice and I can understand why you chose these two characters. They are very inspiring, and have their depth to them; also, very well-charged energetically, which is also a huge feat.
Some of them possess power just enough to interact with the material world, which is something I did not expect at the beginning when engaging in pop culture magic, but I found it practically possible.

I think that popular culture works so well because it includes spirits and myths that are the closest to us from all of them. popular culture is culture of our time and our age, No one after us will be so intimate with it as we are. It's ours more than anyone else's. Every time, every generation had it's own pop culture, it was just called different.

I couldn't have said it better myself! While we see people trying to reach back into the past, and work with those beings (even deities or mythical figures), there's something living in our present era, where it's the most intense, most potent, and is a part of this development.

On the other hand, what fascinates me in pop culture is the mystery and philosophy behind their 'creation'. Many writers, artists claim that they did not 'make up' their characters, but they happened to meet with them through intuition, creativity, which is basically their psyché open up to anything that passes by.

Tolkien himself had a very, very interesting understanding of Middle-Earth and the characters he met. Let me quote him:

“But I met a lot of things on the way that astonished me. Tom Bombadil I knew already; but I had never been to Bree. Strider sitting in the comer at the inn was a shock, and I had no more idea who he was than had Frodo. The Mines of Moria had been a mere name; and of Lothlórien no word had reached my mortal ears till I came there. Far away I knew there were the Horse-lords on the confines of an ancient Kingdom of Men, but Fangorn Forest was an unforeseen adventure. I had never heard of the House of Eorl nor of the Stewards of Gondor. Most disquieting of all, Saruman had never been revealed to me, and I was as mystified as Frodo at Gandalf's failure to appear on September 22.”
― Humphrey Carpenter, Christopher Tolkien. The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien, Letter #163.

Tolkien goes deeper into his understanding of this in his poem Mythopoeia and in his essay On Fairy Stories, which I can only recommend to anyone who is interested in Tolkien’s view on fantasy and the creation of fictional worlds - it’s a really complex topic.

Another interesting part of Tolkien’s writing in this direction are the first chapters of The Lost Road, and The Notion Club Papers. They both reveal a similar train of thought: both stories feature characters that dream of words in another language, of whole sentences and verses, and they slowly realise that it’s not just simple words, but that there are real stories and events behind it.

In both works these languages hint at Númenor and its fall, of which Tolkien had dreamed about himself. Having said all that. Tolkien did not believe that The Lord of the Rings had happend in our history. He was aware that he was writing it, but he had his own ideas about the source of and reason for imagination and creativity.

I think that you must love the movie Van Helsing (2004), it also had cool Frankie. And it is great movie overall, vamps and werewolves are awesome in this one too.

Never heard about connecting with creation of dr. Frankenstein, but why not? I'm pretty sure that there are lessons to be learned and surely help and support to find.

I should really watch Van Helsing, because just recently, it has been suggested to me exactly because of him. There's another older Vampire movie I fell for (a manga adaptation), named 'Vampire Hunter D'.

As for the creation of Frankenstein, I'd say, me and the Creature share a lot of in-common, as strange as it may be, I am not discriminated for my appearance, but for everything else, technically. I feel how he'd awaken a lot of things that are in deep slumber in me, which he has; like the bubbling curiosity of a child, the eagerness to learn. I do have it as well, but my terms are very-very selective and, even lazy in their own ways; for example, by myself, I won't just pick up a book for the sake of 'learning', and if I'm not in the right mood, I'll throw aside anything, even the things that excites me. He'd most likely make me do it because he's curious and excited, and I'd go after it, so we have a good time and learn together. Of course, there are more things that'd change for the better, I wouldn't want to make my message longer with those.

So, overall, I'd say that there's definitely a deeper reason why I am interested and so attached to him.
King Paimon even hinted at some very interesting fact, a bit jokingly. He commented on the fact how quickly I decided to call the Creature 'Adam', and that he clearly remember when, in the past, how often I was circling the name 'Eve' for myself to use.

 

[Morell]

On the other hand, what fascinates me in pop culture is the mystery and philosophy behind their 'creation'. Many writers, artists claim that they did not 'make up' their characters, but they happened to meet with them through intuition, creativity, which is basically their psyché open up to anything that passes by.

Tolkien himself had a very, very interesting understanding of Middle-Earth and the characters he met. Let me quote him:

“But I met a lot of things on the way that astonished me. Tom Bombadil I knew already; but I had never been to Bree. Strider sitting in the comer at the inn was a shock, and I had no more idea who he was than had Frodo. The Mines of Moria had been a mere name; and of Lothlórien no word had reached my mortal ears till I came there. Far away I knew there were the Horse-lords on the confines of an ancient Kingdom of Men, but Fangorn Forest was an unforeseen adventure. I had never heard of the House of Eorl nor of the Stewards of Gondor. Most disquieting of all, Saruman had never been revealed to me, and I was as mystified as Frodo at Gandalf's failure to appear on September 22.”
― Humphrey Carpenter, Christopher Tolkien. The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien, Letter #163.

Tolkien goes deeper into his understanding of this in his poem Mythopoeia and in his essay On Fairy Stories, which I can only recommend to anyone who is interested in Tolkien’s view on fantasy and the creation of fictional worlds - it’s a really complex topic.

Another interesting part of Tolkien’s writing in this direction are the first chapters of The Lost Road, and The Notion Club Papers. They both reveal a similar train of thought: both stories feature characters that dream of words in another language, of whole sentences and verses, and they slowly realize that it’s not just simple words, but that there are real stories and events behind it.

In both works these languages hint at Númenor and its fall, of which Tolkien had dreamed about himself. Having said all that. Tolkien did not believe that The Lord of the Rings had happend in our history. He was aware that he was writing it, but he had his own ideas about the source of and reason for imagination and creativity.

Tolkien... I both admire and despise him, he created amazing world and then he was spending time Christianizing it. The difference between original text of Silmarillion and the final outcome is very strong. His world was beautiful, but he was facing great problems with the fact that the magic in it was slowly dying and he himself started a tale of fourth age but decided that he won't write it because there was no magic left and nothing he would want to write about because it seemed to him to be detective novel, no magic, no fairytale. Pretty sad, honestly. And his original and final concept of the Valar was the same, at first cool and living beings, ending as quite uninteresting brainless servants of their god, who was far from having any real value.

I should really watch Van Helsing, because just recently, it has been suggested to me exactly because of him. There's another older Vampire movie I fell for (a manga adaptation), named 'Vampire Hunter D'.

Awww, first Vampire Hunter D is great movie, but second one is even better. Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust had incredible artist working on the graphic, that pushed the movie to another level. The entire idea of vamps in postapocalyptic world was fascinating. Definitely good stuff.


I definitely find a lot that I have in common with my two friends. Being rather outsider that doesn't connect well with humans, who enjoys swords and magic. With Sephiroth I definitely share distrust in humans. And My deep attraction towards vampires draws me to Alucard.

 

[Ohana]

Since this discussion got to Tolkien I want to talk about him

He had a lot of racism and I think it hurt his works. The orcs are just "inherently" evil? Despite having a society? What do they do thats evil? Exist?

So theres just a species for the protagonists to fight just because? Wow. I haven't fully read the books but it would add an air of intrigue if the orcs had a reason for being against the antagonists.

It would be so much more interesting to me. You can still have all the battles but now its just more complicated.

And I briefly researched it its apperenelt anti-war. Now theres also narrative weight when enemies in battle die adding to the message. The racism just hinders it. But the story is a classic for a reason partly for its parallels the Christiananity.

There's a species called daemons and apparently they are just bad and thats it. Thats sounds like the Orcs. So it kind of does parallel that in a way.

Tolkien is a person influenced by his day and age. And racism was a part of it like it still is now. Its definitely interesting to grapple with especially since he's probably not the only one. Many people adopted it into fantasy role play and still have the concept of a speicies just being inherently good or bad. Its yeah. Its definitely a legacy.