(CC0)

Read Part 2 and Part 3

The purpose of this essay is to demonstrate how a narrative analysis of creative and criminal individuals with a particular astrological placement, assessed through traditional and modern astrology as well as the tarot, can provide insightful patterns of consciousness and understanding, allowing researchers of this unique occult discipline to better comprehend the source, motivation, and meaning of certain individuals’ unique and unexplainable behaviors from this astrological influence.

H. P. Lovecraft, an example of an individual of this nature, was an early 20th-century author of speculative fiction; his work was often dubbed “supernatural horror.” Lovecraft creatively expressed himself through story submissions during the heyday of pulp-fiction magazines, as well as the numerous letter exchanges he established and maintained with many authors. And while his memory as an author and historical figure is experiencing a strong revival in our current era, between fans and critics alike, equal effort from authors has been made to understand this enigmatic individual.

Colin Wilson’s note in his book The Strength to Dream: 

In some ways, [H. P.] Lovecraft is a horrifying figure. In this ‘war with rationality,’ he brings to mind W. B. Yeats. But, unlike Yeats, he is sick, and his closest relations is with Peter Kürten, the Düsseldorf murderer, who admitted that his days in solitary confinement were spent conjuring up sexual-sadistic fantasies. Lovecraft is totally withdrawn; he has rejected ‘reality’; he seems to have lost all sense of health that would make a normal man turn back halfway.

Lovecraft is interesting mainly because he is a perfect example of the ‘escapist imagination.’ It is hard to agree with August Derleth that his death was ‘a great loss to American letters’ because he had not yet reached ‘the fullest development of his powers.’ It is doubtful whether Lovecraft had any more to say. As it is, he wrote far too much. Moreover, since he so determinedly created an unreal world in opposition to the real world, it seems that he willed his own death. His whole life is a spectacle of self-destruction; he strikes one as being like a chronic alcoholic or a drug addict. 1

As an amateur astrologer, I’ve come to learn that certain spooky behavior can be observed from the patterns that some natives with prominent planetary placements in the last ten degrees of tropical zodiac of Libra exhibit biographically; specifically, the spookiness seems to occur where the fixed star Spica is located.

In ancient history, this star formed the chaff or ear of wheat in the left hand of the virgin in the constellation Virgo—in our contemporary, western understanding the constellation was symbolic of the Greek goddess Persephone. As fermented barley wheat grown in ancient Eleusis was the main ingredient in the Eleusinian Mysteries’ kukeon—the alcoholic/psychotropic drink that allowed one to “meet with” and begin to “contemplate” Persephone—modern toxicological tests on archeological sites where these chalices were found has also tested positive for ergot, which grows on this wheat and alters its form. Ergot is notable historically because the discovery of its chemical nature led to the development of LSD2—a critical factor in the history of the expansion of human consciousness. A few notable examples of noteworthy natives with conjunctions and/or stellium to Spica at least demonstrate that there is something about this spooky influence:

  • H. P. Lovecraft3
  • S. T. Joshi4
  • Bruce Campbell5
  • Adolph Hitler6
  • Vladimir Putin7
  • Aleister Crowley8
  • Michael Aquino9
  • David Berkowitz10
  • David Lynch11
  • Carl Jung12
  • Peter Birkauser13
  • Joseph Smith14
  • Friedrich Nietzsche15
  • J. K. Rowling16
  • Robert W. Chambers17
  • Percy Shelley18
  • Sheila LaBarre19
  • Audrey Marie Hilley20
  • Luka Magnotta21
  • Anneliese Michel22
  • Seth Mazzaglia
  • Kathryn McDonough23

And all of these individuals can be said to have experienced something akin to an “escapist imagination,” – although I wouldn’t have defined it in the same way Colin Wilson did above. Indeed, it is a challenging concept to define. Astrological empirical data from the second millennium BCE to today, along with partial ancient translations (thanks to numerous researchers involved with the astrological effort, Project Hindsight) have reconciled with original ancient astrological claims. However, aside from Colin Wilson’s “escapist imagination” remark about Lovecraft in The Strength to Dream, it is a term that has never been elaborated on during Wilson’s life, other than the following passage from his book:

The definition of the imagination – as the third dimension of consciousness – would seem to be broader than the ‘escapist’ definition. The imagination, like the reasoning faculty is an extension of the powers for survival. All animals need reason to stay alive, but no animal needs Boole’s symbolic logic, or Planck’s quantum theory. The kind of recreation of the past in which Proust spent twenty years of his life is quite simply a luxury. And yet Proust, no doubt, would have agreed with Wells: that without this luxury he had no desire to stay alive.’ (p. 251)

I’ve found that mental health-related issues could arise here, perhaps in the form of inner voices or compulsions, if anything; as well as a focus on cosmic creativity, and an attraction to supernatural fiction or encounters—quite ambiguous, yes. This particular topic—the description and analysis of the relationship between criminality and creativity with astrology, specifically prominent planetary placements conjunct Spica—as well as the individuals listed above, is the focus and purpose of the website I write when evaluating local New England true crime narratives, where I include symbolic archetypal analyses of similar individuals.24

Beginning under the surface with Lovecraft’s writing, you can identify patterns of his frustrations with “required” forms of literature submissions to the detriment that he spent his lifetime exploring, categorizing, and fuming over.25 Yet, Wilson was correct to see that the work Lovecraft put into speculative fiction creation was often differing from Lovecraft’s own mechanistic viewpoint in essays, letters, and newspaper contributions. One correspondence was notable: while having a strong interest and foundational knowledge in astronomy, Lovecraft was steadfastly resistant to the notion that astrology was anything other than charlatanism–a definite contradiction for one concerned with subtlety.

Wilson’s critique on Lovecraft—“If he is not a major writer, he is psychologically one of the most interesting men of his generation. And his work makes the best possible beginning to a study of the problems of imagination”26—also rings true with observing Lovecraft through the lens of traditional astrology. Excerpts from Lovecraft’s oddly notable article, “The Fall of Astrology,” reveal not only his disdain of the discipline but a snapshot of Wilson’s own interest in Lovecraft’s psychology:

Astrology was coeval with astronomy. It was indeed, as I pointed out in a previous article, the natural result of the contemplation of the celestial vault by a young an undeveloped race. In very ancient times it was of real value to science on account of the incentive which it offered to the precise observation and careful study of the heavenly bodies. The astronomical knowledge of the Chaldaeans was in fact wholly due to the zeal of their astrologers. Thus before the advent of modern scientific exactitude, the true and the false studies of the sky were pursued side by side and in perfect harmony. If either one might be said to have precedence over the other, astrology was the one so favored. Throughout the Middle Ages and the early Modern Period astrology enjoyed the condition of a respected branch of learning. Each monarch had his astrologer or astrologers, to whom he referred all projected affairs of state, both in war and in peace. Though at the time of the Renaissance some keener minds penetrated the specious exterior and discovered the fundamental unsoundness of the art, it was none the less very generally cultivated by all classes, foremost among them being the astronomers. Kepler, while discarding many of its more patently absurd notions, stoutly defended the underlying truth of astrology, and made known his views in a pamphlet entitled ‘De Fundamentis Astrologiae Certioribus’ (1602). Lord Bacon and Sir Thomas Browne were likewise believers in the influence of the heavens.

As late as Charles the Second’s reign the public had scarcely begun to doubt the genuineness of astrology, and the notorious William Lilly, though probably a conscious charlatan himself, was credited to a marvelous degree, even being summoned at one time by a committee of the House of Commons to predict the result of a certain piece of legislation. Thus it may be perceived, that before the discovery of conclusive contrary evidence, astrology encountered no opposition either from the astronomers or from the people in general. So long as any man of science could find any reason to believe it true, it was accepted on a plane of equality with other serious studies. The only bigotry and blind prejudice which astrology ever aroused emanated from the early church; but this hostility did not extend to every department of the subject, and has no [connection] with the later overthrow of the art on rational grounds.

The downfall of astrology was the inevitable result of intellectual progress; of new discoveries in science, improved methods of reasoning, more intelligent examination of history, and more discriminating investigation of the prophecies of astrologers. It became apparent that very few definite astrological predictions had ever been fulfilled even approximately, that almost all forecasts were couched in a vague style which might be interpreted in practically any way, that the most successful astrologers were obviously imposters who arrived at their conclusions only through shrewd guesses or profound knowledge of human nature, and that those who most honestly practiced astrology were the most conspicuous in their failures…But the study of pseudo-science naturally disappeared amongst the intelligent as soon as its falsity was well demonstrated.27

Astrologer Richard Tarnas’ following expansion in Cosmos and Psyche, roughly 100 years later, delivers a poignant response to Lovecraft’s own misunderstandings of astrology:

However, compared with ancient astrology, which appears to have been strongly divinatory in character and based on a considerably smaller body of astronomical observations, the situation that has now emerged provides a radically different as well as greatly expanded basis for research in the area of collective historical correspondences. The discovery of the three outermost planets by telescope in the modern period, combined with the gradual but eventually universal consensus in the astrological community on the empirical correlation of those planets with specific archetypal principles, has dramatically opened up new horizons for research and understanding. Scarcely less significant is the development of computer technology and programming, as well as continued improvements in historical scholarship, which have brought an extraordinary increase in the accuracy and extent of both astronomical and historical data for many centuries into the past. All these factors have produced a very different context for such research. Correlations that in earlier eras were entirely impossible to examine or even imagine are now suddenly visible and open to critical assessment.28

I suspect Lovecraft would have thought differently about astrology today, especially given the current understanding of new paradigms in science, cosmology, and consciousness. Due to the correspondence these theories share with occult themes, it is best to revisit and explain occult traditions in retrospect as they are not only Newtonian in character, but they seem to touch on the very quantum natures of the consciousness of the universe, in particular, Dr. Shelli Renee Joye’s Holoflux Theory.29

As Lovecraft pointed out, intellectual progress led to astrology’s downfall. It can also be blamed for Lovecraft’s blind adherence to mechanistic science, demonstratedin his reluctance to show how hermetic traditions as avenues for human consciousness have any use other than for horror themes.

Whether Lovecraft could have known how far western science would come, in relation to cosmic theories today, his strict mechanistic mindset was too crystallized to experiment with subtle possibilities; however, his creative fiction alone teased the fact that this intrinsic motivation was very busy and influential within him. Wilson pointed this out: “But the great artist tries to reveal the extraordinary that is always present in the world; Lovecraft, a hypochondriac, creates ‘other worlds’ in a fever of spite.”30

Whether an escapist or hypochondriac, there is a definite spookiness desiring a psychologist’s attention. Take Wilson’s depiction of the Lovecraft story, The Call of Cthulhu:

Lovecraft was here connecting his horrors with ancient cults – the worship of Cybele and Atys. (One wonders if he was influenced by Professor Margaret Murray, whose Witch Cult in Western Europe came out in 1921; Professor Murray believed witchcraft to be a survival of pre-Christian nature deities.)…he was interested in archaeology, and spent much time in antiquarian exploration in New Orleans, Natchez, and other ‘old cities’ of America.

The subject of the story is the idea that a certain times, the ‘dark powers’ find conditions better for influencing the earth. A sensitive young artist has dreams of the early civilization of Cthulhu. All over the world disturbing things happen: cranks and visionaries multiply, there are voodoo orgies in Africa and Haiti, a painter exhibits a ‘blasphemous Dream Landscape’ at the Paris Spring Salon of 1926, people commit suicide, etc. Then follows a narrative of a police inspector who arrested a gang of men engaged in black magic orgies in the swamps near New Orleans, and gathers more evidence about ‘Great Old Ones who lived ages before there were any men.’ The third part of the story tells of the experience of a sailor who lands on a strange island that had risen out of the sea and finds a city of great stone blocks carved according to some ‘non-terrestrial geometry’. (This is one of Lovecraft’s favourite phrases; it occurs in many of the tales, and proves that Lovecraft was no mathematician, since he thought there could be a difference between geometry on earth and elsewhere.)31

Wilson was also drawn to the unknown like Lovecraft. But Wilson’s last sentence above deserves scrutiny. Dr. F. S. Lubnow, an American environmental scientist and writer on Lovecraft, expands on the Lovecraft mythos by writing biologically oriented chapbooks that provide taxonomic descriptions of the creatures, dimensions, and theories described in the mythos, observing how some of the mythos’ own cosmic notions, however far-fetched to readers crystallized by their adherence to Newtonian physics alone, are rooted in a rational but vast imaginal realm of the unknown:

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries mathematicians were investigating geometry beyond the three known spatial dimensions, as well as working on “non-Euclidean” geometry, which is essentially a description of curved space and shapes. A lot of misinformation and pseudoscience was developed in light of these investigations, essentially from people who knew very little about the science. However, to many a mathematician’s surprise, such investigations into curved fourth dimensional space-time had a practical application in Einstein’s work on gravity.32

Some of these other universes, baby or otherwise, may be very similar to ours, while others may be very different (e.g. not operating under the same four fundamental forces our universe does–gravity, electromagnetism, weak nuclear force, and strong nuclear force). Such ‘alternative’ universes may not be conducive to life as we know it but if they are so extremely different than our universe, we may not have the capacity, ability or inherent sense to detect such alien forms of life. Indeed, one of the central themes of Lovecraft’s short story From Beyond is that there is another universe layered over ours that is not perceivable until the Tillinghast device is in operation. 33

So, if Cthulhu and/or Ghatanothoa are not native to our universe, how can they be detected and observed in our universe? One explanation to this is linking the inflationary multiverse to quantum-mechanical processes, through some of the potential mechanisms proposed above such as baby universes or the constant but ambiguous creation of universes.34

Dr. C. S. Matthews, an American writer, teacher, and scholar specializing in researching the paranormal in popular culture, provides an example of an occultist’s perspective, demonstrating not only how Lovecraft can draw in interest but that Lovecraft’s particular form of psychology and creative expression aligns with Wilson’s own observations:

[Don] Webb is thoroughly versed in Lovecraft’s history, philosophy and world-view and is, himself, ‘atheistic’ and scientific, in the sense that he agrees with the basic tenets of Lovecraft’s cosmicism. For Webb, Lovecraft was a genius in creatively articulating the deep unconscious desires, fears, and atavistic creative tendencies of the human psyche. He sees Lovecraft as having many of the same insights as the infamous magician Aleister Crowley, who anticipated Freud in understanding ‘the dangers of [psychological] repression.’ Repression and denial of impulses leads to unhealthy, imbalanced projection onto others.35

Our Newtonian universe of space and time planetary-aspect geometry is key to contemplating more about what we cannot perceive as subtle psychological drives and motivations, which is why occult traditions found fascination with this discipline. For instance, when considering the nature of the universe and life within it, it’s essential to understand that the Earth emits a torus/biofield from the planet’s core in the same way that the heart emits an electromagnetic wavelength in every living creature, including human beings.What we experience as consciousness is the interrelation between the human, the Earth, and the other planetary spheres36. That is, the impact of the Earth’s own biofield in relation to the native’s birth date, time, and location allows for a comprehensive diagnostic tool when researched. While not expanding on the methods used in traditional astrology and tarot in this article, the website I write is dedicated to this effort, so I encourage readers to explore the posts if interested.

However, there are important qualitative realizations that occur between psychology and the occult. The relationship between the left-brain hemisphere and the Sun (and tropical zodiac sign Leo) and the right-brain hemisphere and the Moon (and tropical zodiac sign Cancer)—another revelation made by Wilson through his study of Robert Graves’ The White Goddess and the cult of Cybele37—can also reveal insight via the theories of Julian Jaynes and bicameralism.38 Rudolph Steiner was also quite aware of how the egoic, astral, etheric, and physical natures of the human body—energetic states—serve as components to best be understood by analysis, and that it reflects the nature of the cosmos. Thanks to Dr. Joye’s interpretation of the physics of the four domains from Steiner’s An Occult Philosophy,39 when these quantitative approaches are applied to traditional astrology a living blueprint of the nature of an individual person, given their birth chart, comes alive when considering the tropical zodiac.

  • Fire signs equate to spirit energy: radiant energy plasma (ego/I)—nondual frequency domain (Bohm’s implicate order), or biophotonic energy (e.g., mitogenic radiation, ultraviolet biophotons emitted from DNA)
  • Water signs equate to the astral body: magnetic energy activity—blood plasma (Pribram’s quantum brain dynamics), or biomagnetic energy (e.g., by-products or cardiac, nerve, and brain activity; by-products of cellular activity; and subtle energies [Qi, Prana, and etheric energy])
  • Air signs equate etheric body: electrical energy activity—nervous system (brain and central nervous system), or bioelectric energy (e.g., nerve signal transmission, cardiac electrical rhythms, neuroelectrical brain activity, piezoelectrical bone currents)–also, bioelectronic energy (e.g., inherent cellular/DNA activity; DNA vibrating at GHz frequencies)
  • Earth signs equate to physical body: molecular energy structure—organic chemistry in space-time and biochemical processes), or biochemical energy (e.g., glucose, adenosine triphosphate, fats, protein). This last part is the foundation of western science; however, it seems the previous three have been recognized only in The East, until modern times.

This Steiner model then allows a more effective understanding of why traditional astrological methods correspond with zodiacal elemental triplicities when delineating a birth chart: natal charts are effective diagnostic assessments of the native’s archetypal energy. Wilson’s comment earlier—“But, unlike Yeats, [Lovecraft] is sick, and his closest relations is with Peter Kürten, the Düsseldorf murderer, who admitted that his days in solitary confinement were spent conjuring up sexual-sadistic fantasies”40—was quite specific, yet, possibly a bit misaligned. Why would Wilson make such a comparison?41 One guy was a legitimate monster; the other a creative writer. But what’s even more interesting is the fact that Wilson was born merely six days before Kürten was executed for his crimes.42 And both of their rising signs were only two degrees away.43

It has been Wilson today that has led audiences to have an interest in true crime; the discipline itself has evolved based on his own analytical work. And through that work, there is plenty of evidence in the form of non-fiction and creative non-fiction narratives to apply traditional astrology to the spectrum of creativity and true crime: to learn patterns and observe new breakthroughs when natives like Lovecraft are conditioned and adhere to the negative conceptual forms of their early educational experiences, rather than reintegrate those traumas with positive examples. True crime narratives seem to be voluminous expressions of authors’ left-brain recollections given the subjects’ right-brain experiences. They are symbolic of pirate maps generalizing observable information and potential value. When narratives are lit under the occult spotlight reading lamp (i.e., traditional astrology and tarot when able to use and understand these tools) they reveal the hidden, luminescent ink; they become the lamp that allows secrets to be revealed and contemplated.


References

1 Wilson, The Strength to Dream, 23-34.

2 Muraresku, The Immortality Key, 43.

3 Lovecraft had his Moon conjunct Uranus conjunct Spica.

4 Lovecraft’s most notable researcher and bibliographer, S. T. Joshi, has his Jupiter conjunct Spica.

5 Protagonist in Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead franchise, Bruce Campbell was born the same day as S. T. Joshi.

6 Hitler his Ascendant conjunct Spica.

7 Russian dictator Vladimir Putin has his Mercury-Neptune conjunction conjunct Spica.

8 “The Wickedest Man in the World,” Aleister Crowley, had his Venus conjunct Spica.

9 American Satanist and founder of the Temple of Set, Michae Aquino, had his Sun conjunct Spica.

10 New York City killer, the “Son of Sam,” David Berkowitz, had his Saturn conjunct Spica.

11 Film director, David Lynch, has his Jupiter conjunct Spica.

12 Swiss psychiatrist and author, Carl Gustav Jung, has his Jupiter conjunct Spica.

13 Jungian artist, Peter Birkhauser, had his Moon conjunct Spica.

14 American religious leader and founder of Mormonism and the Latter Day Saints, Joseph Smith, had his Saturn-Uranus conjunction conjunct Spica.

15 German philosopher and victim of mental-health bouts, Friedrich Nietzsche, was born with his Sun conjunct Spica.

16 Author of the Harry Potter franchise, J. K. Rowling was born with her Mars conjunct Spica.

17 19-20th author of “The Harbor-Master” and “The King in Yellow” had his Saturn conjunct Spica.

18 British poet of the English Romantic age, Percy Shelley, had his Mars-Jupiter-Neptune conjunction conjunct Spica.

19 New Hampshire black widow serial killer, Shelia LaBarre, born 12 days after S. T. Joshi, has her Jupiter conjunct Spica.

20 Alabama multiple-identity murderer, Audrey Marie Hilley, had her Moon conjunct Spica.

21 Canadian kitten and human killer from Netflix’s documentary Don’t Fuck With Cats: Hunting an Internet Killer, Luka Magnotta, has his Mars-Pluto conjunction conjunct Spica.

22 The possessed protagonist that film The Exorcism of Emily Rose was based on, Anneliese Michel, had her Neptune, the Moon, and Venus stellium conjunct Spica.

23 Mazzaglia and McDonough were a BDSM couple convicted of killing a third woman during sexual intercourse. Mazzaglia had his Saturn-Pluto conjunction conjunct Spica; McDonough had her Venus-Jupiter conjunction conjunct Spica.

24 Qualitative empirical research for each individual found on https://www.plutosquared.wordpress.com.

25 Joshi, H. P. Lovecraft: Collected Essays, 268-269. According to S. T. Joshi, “Lovecraft was the first to admit that his habit of writing specifically for Weird Tales resulted in a corrupting of his style so that it became more explicit, less suggestive, and more ‘pulpish’. [Pulp magazine editors] aim to please the very lowest grade of readers–probably because these constitute a large numerical majority. When you glance at the advertisements in these cheap magazines (& they wouldn’t continue to be inserted if they weren’t answered) you can see what a hopelessly vulgar & stupid rabble comprise the bulk of the clientele. These yaps & nitwits probably can’t grasp anything even remotely approaching subtlety. Suggestion–the most artistic way to present a [marvelous] event–means absolutely nothing to them. One has to draw a full diagram & drive the idea into their heads with a hammer before they ‘get’ it.”

26 Wilson, The Strength to Dream, 34.

27 Joshi, H. P. Lovecraft: Collected Essays, 268-269. Lovecraft’s contributions to the Providence Evening News, in response to an astrologer’s article that appeared in the section where Lovecraft’s own astronomy articles had previously occupied, not only argued the legitimacy of the discipline, but Lovecraft himself also assumed a silly pseudonym in a separate article’s contributions for the purpose of making wild, farcical, and blatantly offensive “futuristic” astrological claims to satirize, while mischievously “befriend,” the astrologer’s own knowledge and practice of the discipline. This was the notable tête-à-tête with astrologer J. F. Hartmann in 1914.

28 Tarnas, Cosmos and Psyche, 144.

29 Joye, Developing Supersensible Perception, 118-120. According to Joye, “The holoflux theory rests on two fundamental paradigms: Karl Pribram’s holonomic brain theory and David Bohm’s ontological interpretation of quantum theory. These theories have been shown to be congruent, supported and knit together by established principles of electrical-communication engineering.”

30 Wilson, The Strength to Dream, 32.

31 Wilson, The Strength to Dream, 28-29.

32 Lubnow, Journal of Lovecraftian Science, 42.

33 In the story, the Tillinghast device emitted a resonance wave that stimulated one’s pineal gland, resulting in the perception of unknown dimensions or universes.

34 Lubnow, Journal of Lovecraftian Science, 7.

35 Matthews, Letting Sleeping Abnormalities Lie, 180. According to Matthews, “Lovecraft’s appeal to occultists, especially considering his own materialism, may seem very strange to some people. John Engle, in ‘Cults of Lovecraft,’ appears to believe that occultists are apparently the ‘sort of people who would likely not respond in any meaningful way to a demonstration of Lovecraft’s true views,’ as if they are somehow either unaware of, or unaffected by them (96). This is, at best, a gross simplification, if not misunderstanding, of

the occult quest generally, at least insofar as many occultists have actually described their own endeavors. One of the best counter-examples to Engle’s assertion is the work, both creative and magical, of the occultist Don Webb, who has been a High Priest in the Temple of Set, the best-known offshoot of the Church of Satan begun by Anton LeVey, and who is also a relatively well-known writer of Lovecraftian themed fiction.” Webb also noted that “Lovecraft completed [Aleister Crowley’s] magickal system. His tales featured creatures that live through aeons of time, sending dreams to mankind (choosing a few as an immortal elect and most as, well, lunch).”

36 McKusick, Tuning the Human Biofield, 111. According to McKusick, “While Rubik, Tiller, Hunt, and other scientists discuss electromagnetic waves and frequencies, German biophysicist and researcher Fritz-Albert Popp describes the same phenomenon suing a different term: biophotons. In modern quantum theory, light occurs in small packets or particles of energy called photons. In living processes, certain specific types of photons are emitted and received primarily by DNA, as well as a few large biomolecules. They serve as a function of communications, stimulation of biochemical reactions, and coordination within the body. In other words, biophotons are quanta of coherent light that are thought to be emitted and absorbed by the DNA present in cells. Discovered by Popp in the 1970s, biophotons appear to create a holographic, coherent electromagnetic field throughout the body that uses EM frequencies for instantaneous communication throughout the systems.”

37 Graves, The White Goddess, 56.

38 Woodward, Julian Jaynes, 70. According to the Woodward and Tower, “Jaynes wrote of this again in the ‘Afterword’ to the 1990 edition of his book. He urged that there was no single red thread to his argument. Rather, it consisted of four main hypotheses, any one of which might be shown to be wrong without the others collapsing. He reviewed each in turn:

  1. Consciousness is based on language and it goes beyond sense perception. To Bertrand Russell’s example of logical atomism, ‘I see a table,’ Jaynes replied, ‘I suggest Russel was not being conscious of the table, but of the argument he was writing about. He should have found a more ethologically valid example…such as…How can I afford alimony for another Lady Russell?’ He concluded, ‘such examples are consciousness in action.’
  2. As for the bicameral mind, his second main hypothesis, he invoked new evidence that a third of all people experience auditory hallucinations. Congenital quadriplegics understand language and hear voices of gods, without ever having moved or spoken. In short, we continue to show artifacts of bicamerality.
  3. In the hypothesis of dating, he adds a weak form of the theory, dating consciousness from 12,000 B.C., assuming that both mentalities developed together and then the bicameral one was ‘sloughed off.’ The stronger form of the dating argument, the one he presented in the book, was that consciousness arose around 1200 B.C.
  4. Finally, his double brain hypothesis about hallucinations occurring in the right hemisphere and ‘heard’ by the left, could now be tested, he suggested, using cerebral glucography with positron emission tomography (PET) scans. Jaynes cited a study showing more glucose uptake occurred in the right hemisphere when a patient was hearing voices.”

39 Joye, Developing Supersensible Perception, 31. Steiner’s four domains of a human being are ego/I, astral body, etheric body, and physical body.

  • Ego: Complete fire sign triplicity (intuition/understanding): the nature of access to the enfolded holoflux energy from Bohmian implicate/intent/frequency realm; this access seems to be potential for what occultists like Aleister Crowley called “magick” (will to power), or “spirit,” and house placement/sign dignity of planet in relation to aspect to sign indicates what, how, and where that access occurs in reference to “meaning-making.”
  • Astral: Complete water sign triplicity (feeling/imagination): nature of access to the ability draw out the holoflux energy into our own entropic explicate EM realm; to navigate psi via magnetic relationship to emotion depending on dignity; there seems to be a strong bond between the natures of fire and water, as there is with the nature of the explicate/implicate. Archetypal.
  • Etheric: Complete air sign triplicity (thinking/perceiving): nature of access to the highest ideals/thoughts of man, the frequency transmit/receive functions as antennas we portray—very challenging to the role of water’s mystic relationship to fire; yet, the information “served up on a platter” that, while expanded in our time/space, informs/stimulates what’s within the explicate.
  • Physical: Complete earth sign triplicity (five senses): access to the end-state of energy as matter in the forms of wealth, structure, power, anything that can be concrete/touched, etc.

40 Wilson, The Strength to Dream, 23.

41 Wilson, A Criminal History of Mankind, 234-345. According to Wilson, “Crime can be understood only as a part of the total evolutionary pattern. Man developed his ‘divided consciousness’ as a means of survival. In a sense, he was better off as an animal, for the animal’s consciousness is simpler and richer. (We can gain some inkling of it from the effects of alcohol—that sudden feeling of warmth and reality.) But this instinctive consciousness has one major disadvantage; it is too narrow. It restricts us to the present moment. So man developed the left brain to escape this narrowness. It has the power of reaching beyond the present moment: the power of abstraction. And it does this by turning reality into symbols and ideas. The left brain is fundamentally a map-maker. This is man’s present position. In fact, he spends a large part of his early life at school, acquiring a ‘map’ of the world he lives in. Yet when he leaves school, his knowledge of the reality of that world is very patchy. And modern life is so complex and confusing that huge areas of the map are bound to remain unexplored and ‘unrealized’. A savage who has spent the same number of years hunting and fishing will admittedly have a narrower view of the world; but what he does know will have the genuine flavour of reality. In a sense, modern man seems to have made a very poor bargain. He has acquired a map, and not much else. The ‘map’ concept explains the problem of crime. A man whose actual acquaintance with the real world is fairly limited looks at his map and imagines he can see a number of short-cuts. Robbery is a short-cut to wealth. Rape is a short-cut to sexual fulfilment. Violence is a short-cut to getting his own way. Of course, each of these shortcuts has major disadvantages; but he is unaware of these until he tries them out in the real world. When he learned to use his mind, this ability to steer made him also the first truly creative and inventive creature. He has poured that narrow jet of energy into discovery and exploration. But the sheer force of the jet has meant that whenever it has been obstructed—or whenever men have lacked the self-discipline to control it—the result has been chaos and destruction. Crime is the negative aspect of creativity. So the Christian rejection of sexual pleasure was more than a reaction against Roman sensuality. It was a recognition that when man idealizes woman, he also creates a false image of her. This masculine distortion can be seen in any piece of cheap pornography; the seduction is described in minute physical detail, and the final coupling made to sound like the climax of a symphony. But missing from all this is the interaction of two personalities. It is two persons who find themselves in bed together when the excitement has died down, and their future relationship will depend on whether they like each other. When we consider the mechanism of the sexual delusion, we can see that it depends on the tendency of the human imagination to exaggerate the importance of the ‘forbidden’. And this same obsession with the forbidden is—as we have seen—the basis of criminality.

42 Peter Kürten died July 2, 1931.

43 Ascendant/rising sign: the symbolic location of the psychological/physical “self,” indicated by the point in the east where the sun had risen that morning at the native’s moment of birth. Kürten’s was conjunct the fixed star Algol in the last degrees of Taurus, which is notorious for being a symbol of behaviors and philosophies considered “evil” throughout history in many different cultures throughout the world. In fact, Algol is the eye in the constellation of Medusa, and natives with placements here have had a strange history with “losing one’s head,” like Perseus removed Medusa’s, whether figuratively or literally: Kürten was executed by guillotine.

Bibliography

Graves, Robert. The White Goddess: A Historical Grammar of Poetic Myth. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2013. Kindle.

Joshi, S. T. H. P. Lovecraft: Collected Essays, Volume 3: Science. New York: Hippocampus Press, 2005.

Joshi, S. T. Lovecraft and a World in Transition: Collected Essays on H. P. Lovecraft. New York: Hippocampus Press, 2015. Kindle.

Joye, Shelli Renee. Developing Supersensible Perception. Rochester: Inner Traditions, 2019. Kindle.

Lubnow, F. S. Journal of Lovecraftian Science 3 (2021): 5-8. PDF.

Matthews, Carol. “Letting Sleeping Abnormalities Lie: Lovecraft and The Futility of Divination.” Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature 36, no. 2 (2018): 180. PDF.

McKusick, Eileen Day. Tuning the Human Biofield. Rochester: Healing Arts Press, 2014. Kindle.

Muraresku, Brian. The Immortality Key: The Secret History of the Religion with No Name. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2020. Kindle.

Tarnas, Richard. Cosmos and Psyche: Intimation of a New World View. Toronto: Plume, 2006. Kindle.

Webb, Don. Overthrowing the Old Gods: Aleister Crowley and the Book of the Law. Rochester: Inner Traditions/Bear & Company, 2013. Kindle.

Wilson, Colin. A Criminal History of Mankind. New York: Diversion Books, 2015. Kindle.

Wilson, Colin. The Strength to Dream: Literature and the Imagination (Outsider Cycle). London: Aristeia Press, 2021. Kindle.

Woodward, W. R, and Tower, J. F. “Julian Jaynes: Introducing His Life and Thought.” Reflections on the Dawn of Consciousness: Julian Jaynes’s Bicameral Mind Theory Revisited. Kuijesten, Marcel, ed. Julian Jaynes Society, 2013. Kindle.

Birth Data and Sources

Aquino, Michael, born October 16, 1946, San Francisco, CA, US, at 12:34. Astro-Databank (https://www.astro.com/astro-databank/Aquino,_Michael). Source: Quoted birth chart/record (Rodden Rating: AA).

Birkhauser, Peter, born June 7, 1911, Basel, Switzerland, time unknown. Wikipedia (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Birkh%C3%A4user). Source: Unknown.

Berkowitz, David, born June 2, 1953, Brooklyn, NY, US, at 16:52. Astro-Databank (www.astro.com/astro-databank/Berkowitz,_David). Source: Birth chart/record in hand (Rodden Rating: AA).

Campbell, Bruce, born June 22, 1958, Royal Oak, MI, US, time unknown. AstroTheme (https://www.astrotheme.com/astrology/Bruce_Campbell). Source: Unknown.

Chambers, Robert, born May 26, 1865, Brooklyn, NY, US, time unknown. AstroTheme (https://www.astrotheme.com/astrology/Robert_W._Chambers). Source: Unknown.

Crowley, Aleister, born October 12, 1875, Leamington Spa, UK, at 23:42. Astro-Databank (www.astro.com/astro-databank/Crowley,_Aleister). Source: Rectified from approximate time (Rodden Rating: C).

Hilley, Audrey Marie, born June 4, 1933, Blue Mountain, AL, US, time unknown. Poisoned Blood: A True Story of Murder, Passion, and an Astonishing Hoax. Source: Philip E. Ginsburg.

Hitler, Adolf, born April 20, 1889, Braunau, Austria, at 18:30. Astro-Databank (www.astro.com/astro-databank/Hitler,_Adolf). Source: Birth chart/record in hand (Rodden Rating: AA).

Joshi, S. T., born June 22, 1958, Pune, India, time unknown. Wikipedia (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/S._T._Joshi). Source: Unknown.

Jung, C. G, born July 26, 1875, Kesswil, Switzerland, at 19:24. Astro-Databank (https://www.astro.com/astro-databank/Jung,_Carl). Source: Rectified from approximate time (Rodden Rating: C).

Kürten, Peter, born May 26, 1883, Mülheim/Köln, Germany, at 03:30. Astro-Databank (www.astro.com/astro-databank/Kürten,_Peter,). Source: Birth chart/record in hand (Rodden Rating: AA).

LaBarre, Sheila, born July 4, 1958, Ft. Payne, AL, US, time unknown. Wicked Intentions: A Remote Farmhouse, a Beautiful Temptress, and the Lovers She Murdered. Source: Kevin Flynn.

Lynch, David, born January 20, 1946, Missoula, MT, US, at 03:00. Astro-Databank (www.astro.com/astro-databank/Lynch,_David). Source: Birth chart/record in hand (Rodden Rating: AA).

Lovecraft, H. P., born August 20, 1890, Providence, RI, US, at 09:00. Astro-Databank (www.astro.com/astro-databank/Lovecraft,_H.P.). Source: From memory (Rodden Rating: A).

Magnotta, Luka, born July 24, 1982, Toronto, Canada, time unknown. Wikipedia (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Jun_Lin). Source: Unknown.

Mazzaglia, Seth, born October 18, 1982, location unknown (likely NH seacoast), time unknown.

McDonough, Kathryn, born November 1, 1993, location unknown (likely NH seacoast), time unknown. Dark Heart: A True Story of Sex, Manipulation, and Murder. Source: Kevin Flynn.

Michel, Anneliese, born September 21, 1952, Leiblfing, Germany, time unknown. The Exorcism of Anneliese Michel. Source: Felicitas D. Goodman.

Nietzsche, Friedrich, born October 15, 1844, Rõcken, Germany, at 10:00. Astro-Databank (www.astro.com/astro-databank/Nietzsche,_Friedrich). Source: Bio/autobiography (Rodden Rating: B).

Putin, Vladimir, born October 7, 1952, St. Petersburg, RU, at 09:30. Astro-Databank (www.astro.com/astro-databank/Putin,_Vladimir). Source: Conflicting/unverified: (Rodden Rating: DD).

Rowling, J. K., born July 31, 1965, Yate, UK, at 21:10. Astro-Databank (www.astro.com/astro-databank/Rowling,_J._K.). Source: Rectified from approximate time (Rodden Rating: C).

Shelley, Percy, born August 4, 1792, Horsham, UK, at 22:00. Astro-Databank (www.astro.com/astro-databank/Shelley,_Percy_Bysshe). Source: Quoted birth chart/record (Rodden Rating: AA).

Smith, Joseph, born December 23, 1805, Sharon, Vermont, US, at 18:00. Astro-Databank (www.astro.com/astro-databank/Smith,_Joseph). Source: Accuracy in question (Rodden Rating: C).

Wilson, Colin, born June 26, 1931, Leicester, England, at 04:30. Astro-Databank (www.astro.com/astro-databank/Wilson,_Colin). Source: From memory (Rodden Rating: A).

Anthony Wynands has interests in topics like traditional astrology and tarot, the Younger Dryas Extinction Event, the rise and fall of historical civilizations, human consciousness, biofield tuning-fork sound therapies, New England true crime, cosmic horror, and the new wave of traditional heavy metal (NWOTHM). His background is in military and law enforcement, editing publications, and teaching writing and English as a second language. Currently, he works for the US Army. His blog site is weirdastrology.wordpress.com.

17 thoughts on “Part 1: Astrology and the “Escapist Imagination” of H. P. Lovecraft”

  1. Edmond Furter says:

    In the scheme you mention, which Tarot trump corresponds to fixed or ‘Ptolemaic’ Virgo alpha star Spica? And which trump corresponds to celestial sign Virgo?

    1. Edmond Furter says:

      And which trump corresponds to celestial sign Libra?

  2. Anthony Wynands says:

    In the Golden Dawn and Crowley tradition, the Hermit trump corresponds to the tropical zodiac 30 degrees of Virgo; there wasn’t a major arcana dedicated to Spica/Arista. But Vivian E. Robson’s “The Fixed Stars and Constellations in Astrology” provides “According to Ptolemy…it gives success, renown, riches, a sweet disposition, love of art and science, unscrupulousness, unfruitfulness and injustice to innocence,” nothing else. Please feel free to read this same article but with the astrological/tarot methods included on https://pluto-squared.com. You’ll be able to observe these correspondences.

  3. Edmond Furter says:

    Anthony, Golden Dawn, Crowley, etc, used a consciously construed or fabricated set of Tarot correspondences. I explain those correspondence errors in the Stoneprint Journal edition about London p2, and in my Tarot article here:
    https://mindprintart.wordpress.com/2020/04/15/tarot-trumps-re-express-archetype-not-petrarchs-love-poem/

    “Trump 9 Hermit as tropical zodiac Virgo”?
    Actually, trump 9 Hermit expresses the same archetype that constellation Scorpius head always does, and in the last 2000 years the ‘sign’ Libra also did (currently at the very end of sign Virgo by recent precession). I give some of the relevant recurrent, archetypal features in the Tarot article.
    Nothing about the Hermit (trance, staffs, antlers, bent forward, prophet, etc) expresses any feature of Virgo at all.
    Perhaps the unusual overlap on the constellations Virgo-Libra border (Bootes star Arcturus directly north of Virgo star Spica in ecliptic terms, or ‘genitals over womb’) may be synchronous to your finding. If signs carry some of the star positions with them, thus stars may be accounted for twice if you mix celestial and ecliptic methods (but astrology is not my field, and apparently ‘Ptolemaic’ methods are out of fashion).

    Trump 11 Justice expresses the same archetype that constellation Virgo always does, and in the last 2000 years the ‘sign’ Leo also did (currently at the very end of sign Cancer by recent precession).

    Are those features in Ptolemy’s list for Spica? They contradict the general ‘womb and crops’ icons. ’Art and science? Unscrupulous? Unfruitful? Injustice to innocence?’ They do not seem relevant to Libra either. Perhaps Ptolemy also consciously fabricated some correspondences, as he did for countries’ national stars, where his lists could be ignored.

    1. Anthony Wynands says:

      I believe this is why in the Hellenistic period, when the integration of Chaldean, Egyptian, and Greek divination methods occurred, this is such a concrete moment for the understanding of the zodiac ecliptics. The sidereal ecliptic today in comparison to the the tropical ecliptic is roughly 22-23 degrees away, so the Hellenistic Libra would have been closer to where fixed star Spica began. Jyotish, or Indian astrology, use primarily the sidereal zodiac. However, the tropical zodiac is crucial in the northern hemisphere as it allows the interpretation of the season changes that the sidereal of course cannot. Being 22-23 degrees away from that, the spring equinox (0 degrees Aries) would have started closer to where Andromeda is today. It appears the Hellenistic axis of Andromeda-Spica as spring-autumnal equinox as original tropical zodiacal wheel division is something not contemplated as much today. Personally, I feel the relationship between the planets EM field generated by its core is directly related to the tropical zodiac and the subtle influences/synchronicities/divination that astrology seems spookily to interpret. What we may have occurring for sensitives like Crowley when attempting to interpret the imagination is the relationship between the sidereal EM influence and the tropical. Attempting to evaluate and compare subtleties in imaginative interpretations between opinions in trumps would be more effective in this light.

      1. Edmond Furter says:

        Anthony, in response to some of your stimulating comments:

        “Hellenist period integration of Chaldean, Egyptian, Greek [astrological] divination methods.”
        But all divination methods, and all astrologies, are integrated as multi-media crafts involving calendar, myth, geometry, icons, healing (psychology), etc. They use synchronicity without any theory. As natural as we use gravity without knowing its causes.
        The late Egyptian Dendera round and rectangular zodiacs offer evidence of Egyptian and Greek integration, and other media indicating contact for millennia. Chaldea apparently used a mythic method, which in Greek culture was embedded in landscape features of the Hercules myth cycle.
        All cultures were, and are, subject to the same precession, and use various elements of calendars and divination.

        “Sidereal ecliptic [annual orbit plane] today v tropical [celestial, daily rotation plane] 23 degrees,
        so Hellenist Libra was closer to Spica.“
        But obliquity is relevant only if you use the slowly changing celestial equator as an ‘activator’ of its stellar background. Is there such a method of astrology?

        “Indian astrology uses primarily the sidereal [ecliptic] zodiac… Tropical zodiac co-incides with northern hemisphere seasons.”
        But zodiac signs are not based on seasonal features. The same archetypal structure (as in icons and other media), and the same celestial calendar (as in astrology), applies to both hemispheres. India is in the northern hemisphere, but it tends to popularise multiple calendars and crafts.

        “The spring equinox, or zero degrees Aries ‘sign’, was near where Andromeda is today.
        But the two equinoxes are always on the ecliptic. About BC 80, the spring equinox was between Aries constellation and Pisces constellation, 60 degrees from the fixed galactic gate between Gemini constellation and Taurus (Orion) constellation, thus 30 degrees (all of Pisces constellation) from the Pisces-Aquarius transition (which it crossed in 2016, as I had demonstrated elsewhere).
        Andromeda constellation is broad, north of Aries and Pisces (and of most of Pegasus). If you mean Andromeda galaxy, on the ecliptic grid it lies about 10 degrees from the end of Pisces (or 10 degrees form the precessional start of Ages Pisces). Thus either Andromeda could not have had a prominent role in the calendar, or in the Ages.

        “Hellenist [celestial] axis between Andromeda-Spica [4v11 or 3v10], as spring-autumn, as original[?] tropical zodiac division.”
        But Andromeda galaxy and Spica star form an axis on the fixed ecliptic (annual orbit) star map. Astrology works on the slowly moving celestial (daily rotation) star map. It seems you may be grappling with the differences between these two planes, typical of using astrology and actual star positions together. Your Spica horoscope study could bring major evidence of how these two crafts could be used together.

        “Planets [earth?] EM field generated by the core is directly related to the tropical [celestial] zodiac and the subtle influences /synchronicities /divination that astrology seems to interpret.
        But synchronicity, the theory of why causally unrelated patterns co-incide, does not involve any force or causes or effects at all. And forces such as EM do not involve synchronicity, or at least that is not theorised. And the EM field on earth fluctuates, and does not form a plane. The best EM astrology theory I know of is by Maurice Cotterell, based on twelve parts of earth orbit in solar wind, each having slightly more or less positive v negative charge.

        “Interpretations between [stars and] trumps.”
        The only ‘subtle’ element is that assumed conscious correspondences tend to camouflage archetypal features. We are suckers for similarities. Every astrological interpretation of the Tarot trumps I have ever seen, is fanciful, and most of them disagree. I have published the subconscious correspondences between these two iconic sets, as two expressions of archetypal structure, in Mindprint 2014, in Stoneprint 2016, and in a post about archetypal features in the Tarot trumps as linked to above.

        1. Anthony Wynands says:

          These are great questions and explanations, Edmond. It is challenging to substantively explain as an amateur the application of a forensic lens to the omission of a divine theory. Individuals like Fourier, Leibniz, Steiner, Planck, Bohm, Pribram, Jung, Tarnas, Grof, etc., made the closest attempts to that. Actually learning and practicing the act of delineating a natal chart with transits and observing subjective and objective outcomes glean insights that are unexplainable. In fact, Shelli Renee Joye’s holoflux theory, Stanislav Grof’s holographic breathwork, Richard Tarnas’ cultural and historical astrological research, and Eileen McKusick’s tuning-fork subtle energy work deliver empirical evidence of synchronicities and planetary timing; however, we just don’t know entirely how and why that works. I too has a very hard time to accept astrology, but was keen on learning more and more, overlapping, synthesizing, all that. And when I observed something potentially terrible happening one day to me, weeks in advance, resulting in a motorcycle accident that very day, using the traditional rules gleaned from the works translated and written from Ben Dykes, Demetra George, Chris Brennan, etc., in retrospect, the archetypal cosmological symbolism of that moment in my own natal placements and transits of that day clearly and concisely demonstrated that symbolic picture. But I guess not everyone can see that, and always differences in subjective opinions will show.

    2. Anthony Wynands says:

      Ptolemy’s geometry is a dowsing rod when one understands its intent; astrology is an attempt to make sense of what Carlos Castañeda was hinting at with his “luminous egg”; however, often in history repeated patterns and methods lose their origins and become rote, so the purpose gets lost. We often find ourselves sifting through fragmented notions to make sense, often down rabbit holes and false trails only to hit a dead end and double-back. Like Abū Ma’shar and Kepler, attempting to learn some hermetic traditional astrological principles can aide any research materialistic research and expand it.

  4. Josh C says:

    “There came to that room wild streams of violet midnight glittering with dust of gold; vortices of dust and fire, swirling out of the ultimate spaces and heavy with perfumes from beyond the worlds. Opiate oceans poured there, litten by suns that the eye may never behold and having in their whirlpools strange dolphins and sea-nymphs of unrememberable deeps. Noiseless infinity eddied around the dreamer and wafted him away without even touching the body that leaned stiffly from the lonely window; and for days not counted in men’s calendars the tides of far spheres bare him gently to join the dreams for which he longed; the dreams that men have lost. And in the course of many cycles they tenderly left him sleeping on a green sunrise shore; a green shore fragrant with lotus-blossoms and starred by red camalotes.”

    https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/az.aspx

    1. Anthony Wynands says:

      With that description, in the perspective of a native born with Spica placements, and the canon of escapist imaginative literature he wrote, apply the Tree of Life sephiroth Chesed as equivalent to Azathoth and you can see how Crowley and Don Webb use those forms in occult understanding.

  5. Reality Ain't Rational Baby says:

    The original, and by far the most interesting and subtle, exploration of unintended links between Lovecraft’s work and various occult traditions of the period, has been made by Kenneth Grant, who himself knew Crowley and studied under him. He also personally introduced Austin Spare to Lovecraft’s work. His Typhonian Trilogies are the main body of work, unique and were written over the span from the late sixties until his death in 2010. Wilson’s fiction is good but he never really “got” occultism, and his hyper-rationalistic fear of Lovecraft’s actual message has always amused and disappointed.

    1. Anthony Wynands says:

      Thank you for the references! I will definitely read them. I’m learning also, not certain yet if I “get” occultism other than the pattern observations and synchronicities experienced. I think Wilson’s stuff is good for the mercurial mind to initially consider, like his summaries on Gurdjieff and Ouspenskii, etc.

    2. Anthony Wynands says:

      As Peter Levenda wrote, “However, this is only the tip of an eldritch iceberg.”

      1. Reality Ain't Rational Baby says:

        Cheers Anthony – Grant’s is a unique if challenging body of work, but well worth visiting and revisiting over time if you have the mental stomach for it, so to speak. He writes not to address the rational part of the reader, but to knock directly upon depths (albeit without one being aware of this until it is too late… less a matter of “getting” occultism, as of it “getting” you). The content is imo very much between the lines, which imo are there to give the ego something to read whilst he gets to work at the back end, flipping your lid. Thus the data and equations provided are props for the operation rather than intended to be of any value to the reader in themselves. Academic it ain’t!. Enjoy!

        1. Anthony Wynands says:

          Thank you. More Levenda: “That is why such an experienced occultist as Francis Israel Regardie—a one-time secretary to Aleister Crowley and a Golden Dawn and Rosicrucian initiate—strongly recommended that those interested in entering onto a path of occult practice first go through several years of psychological analysis in order to identify as much as possible any deeply hidden problems that would be inadvertently triggered or exacerbated by occult practice.” Makes sense.

          1. Reality Ain't Rational Baby says:

            That quote would be entirely missing the point, actually. “Problems” to the modern cult of “psychoanalytical analysis” are not really what is being discussed (but rather, unsought breakthroughs in ontology) and I would in fact strongly disagree with the entire notion of having submit one’s spiritual practices to an immature, pseudorationalistic, materialistic pseudoscience like psychoanalytical analysis, simply because Regardie said so (or because someone else quoted him saying so). I know Regardie’s work extremely well, and after several decades, I would say Regardie was projecting his own phobias and complexes and wishes in that statement whilst promoting his own business as a practitioner of psychotherapy. Crowley did not think much of him as a magician at all (and was a complete psychopath to boot – perhaps his bullying was one cause for Regardie’s statement about future occultists seeking analysis – but would AC have achieved the great stuff he did if tamed through this pedestrian approach? Psychoanalysis exists to plug one right back into the matrix which genuine occultism exists to liberate one from). In fact I would say that is just Regardie’s Crowley-bruised ego imposing itself on everyone else, inspired by fear, and Levenda just writes books to sell them, not driven from a desire (or capability) to initiate. My point was that Grant’s work is well-known to directly affect reality for some people, by no means all, and if attempting to reduce the experience to some kind of modern jargon is procrustean, and it is, I would add that, directly opposing the quote, “going through several years of psychoanalytical analysis” as a way to start one’s spiritual quest is akin to spending several years in a Catholic seminary to find God. Ain’t gonna work. Reality ain’t rational, as much as the ego, with its delusions of contrl, may complain about this fact. And that, my friend, is the point. Deep End or go home imo, but horses for courses (or is it, courses for horses?). Cheers

          2. Anthony Wynands says:

            Is there a difference between a desire or capability to initiate? Would Levenda be wrong to exercise a cautionary tale, potentially? His reflection, “It may be a truism that what demands to be known in our dreams is not some beautiful image of heaven or some pleasing, loving memory–but something more sinister, something uglier that needed to be ‘put down,’ that needed to be suppressed in order that the rest of the personality could survive in the real world. The only persons who deliberately evoked those nightmares to visible appearance were the mystics, the magicians, and the shamans,” can sum up the demonstrable havoc from events like what occurred in Point Pleasant, WV in the late 60s, for example. What separates an author like this from the subject? Will? Restraint? Boundaries? It doesn’t seem that it’s the deep end that’s the question, but about the intent in the deep end. Cixin Liu’s “The Three-Body Problem” is comparable, where there divisions of humans pro-humanity and against. Is will then equated with patronage to kind? Or is the beauty and thrill of the nature of spirit, like Thelema, the possibilities moving forward? Seems developing skills to navigate the deep end is more effective than simply all in, but I’m probably missing the entire point here.

Comments are closed.