Creating Magical Space — with MIT Researcher Cassie Lee
Listen to episode
About this episode
Explore the intersection of technology, AI, spirituality, and magic with Cassie Lee, a researcher at the MIT Center for Constructive Communication. Cassie talks with Alaina about the ways in which her experiences as a game designer, along with her personal tarot practice, AI séances and moon circles, all inform her understanding of connection in the modern world.
Highlights
🔮 How tarot can build a bridge between our structured and organic selves
🔮 Whether AI can be helpful in building spiritual practice, and the difference between open and closed prompts
🔮 The social container as the real source of magic: moon circles, mystic hackers and AI séances in a chapel
🔮 How to bring your whole self into institutions (academia, tech, corporate life) that weren’t built for spirituality
🔮 What to do when the 5s come for you (you’ll have to listen to find out what that means)
Keywords
AI, spirituality, tarot, moon circles, analogia, AI seance, mysticism, technology, social experiences, generative AI
About Our Guest
Cassie Lee is a designer exploring how to inspire more face-to-face social rituals in an age of digital disconnection. She is currently a Research Designer at the MIT Center for Constructive Communication, bringing facilitation and gathering practices into dialogue with the design of AI and interfaces. One such project – Analogia – is a tarot-inspired card game that uses AI images to prompt deeper conversation.
Resources
Cassie on Instagram
Analogia by Cassie Lee
Crossroads by Cassie Lee
TechGnosis, Erik Davis
"Interpretive Cultures: Resonance, randomness, and negotiated meaning for AI-assisted tarot divination"(Prock, Epstein, et al, 2026)
New Social Forms by The MIT Center for Constructive Communication, in cooperation with Google Xi
Making Special by Ellen Dissanayake
Five of Cups - RWS Tarot Deck
Five of Swords - RWS Tarot Deck
Support the Show
Share this episode with a friend! Subscribe to the show on Substack for episodes in your inbox, or follow the show on your favorite podcast app. Leave a review on Substack, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.
Stay Connected
Join the newsletter: alainacrystal.substack.com
Follow us on Instagram: @thecoveninthecorneroffice
Get full access to The Coven in the Corner Office at alainacrystal.substack.com/subscribe
More AI podcast episodes
Browse all →Want to find AI jobs?
Join thousands of AI professionals finding their next opportunity