The Forest of Symbols

In the penultimate episode, we step into the abyss.

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The continuing story of the false messiah as recounted by Gershom Scholem.

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With special guest William Blake.

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Scholem deals with moderate Sabbateanism, its revival/inversion of gnostic ideas, and I try to stay on point.

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The growing importance of the messianic idea in Jewish history; the story of Esther; the "Faustian" nature of the West, etc.

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Author & podcaster Brad Kelly (https://twitter.com/bradkelly) returns to talk Art of Darkness (https://artofdarkpod.com/), the new McCarthy novels, the tarot in Blood Meridian, the Bung-Plug of the Void, and more.

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For destruction, ice is great.

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To support the show, and get early access to episodes and bonus content, go to https://www.patreon.com/symbolpod.

A survey of most of the PKD reading and rereading done in preparation to guest on the Art of Darkness Podcast.  

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The room was suddenly rich and the great bay-window was

Spawning snow and pink roses against it

Soundlessly collateral and incompatible:

World is suddener than we fancy it.

World is crazier and more of it than we think,

Incorrigibly plural. I peel and portion

A tangerine and spit the pips and feel

The drunkenness of things being various.

And the fire flames with a bubbling sound for world

Is more spiteful and gay than one supposes—

On the tongue on the eyes on the ears in the palms of one's hands—

There is more than glass between the snow and the huge roses.

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Blood, Time, and the Cosmic Dance.

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With the gargantuan achievements of Ulysses and Finnegans Wake, and the revolution of A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man, it's easy to overlook Joyce's first breakthrough: the 1914 short story collection Dubliners. Here's why you shouldn't.  

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One of the best I've done in this series so far. Stay tuned for more. Please visit https://www.patreon.com/symbolpod and become a patron for as little as $3 to listen to this and many other episodes today.

Please visit https://www.patreon.com/symbolpod and become a patron for as little as $3 to listen to this and many other episodes today.

Please visit https://www.patreon.com/symbolpod and become a patron for as little as $3 to listen to this and many other episodes today.

Presenting Thee Grace Hoper that Lies Heavy, Crucified Bug Man, Thee Waste Land or Decline of the (Natan I El) West, (you never did) the Kenoma Kid, Jovial and Saturnine MM (Mystical Messiah) 1666 [https://ordoabchao.ca/volume-two/1666].

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“People generally can not believe themselves so easily manipulated and controllable. This is precisely why they are so easy to manpulate and contol.”
― Wilson Bryan Key

For more stellar mixes please go to https://www.patreon.com/symbolpod. 

"The eye is the first circle; the horizon which it forms is the second; and throughout nature this primary figure is repeated without end. It is the highest emblem in the cipher of the world."

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"After such knowledge what forgiveness? Think now/History has many cunning passages, contrived corridors/And issues, deceives us with whispering ambitions,/Guides us by vanities."

In all honesty, I was too lenient on Angleton; he was an evil man. But the connection between his modernist, New-Critical literary training and the way he shaped the practice of intelligence in the 20th Century remains under-analyzed. As a gesture to this end, I read T.S. Eliot's poem "Gerontion" and compared some of its lines to Angleton's life and career.  

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In 1666 the world was full of apocalyptic expectations. Onto this stage stepped Sabbatai Zevi, who proclaimed himself messiah. It was a new era, in which the Law was annihilated. Gershom Scholem's classic essay reevaluated the legacy of the false prophet of the 17th century. This is part 1 of 8. For the rest of this series, go to https://www.patreon.com/symbolpod and become a patron of the podcast. 

I joined the Art of Darkness Podcast, hosted by Kevin Kautzman (https://twitter.com/kautzmania) and Brad Kelly (https://twitter.com/bradkelly), to discuss the life and works of Philip K. Dick. 

Follow the podcast on twitter at https://twitter.com/artofdarkpod.

Artwork by https://twitter.com/pinealcolada. 

Follow me at https://twitter.com/AldousAsterion.

Why do we become the Joker? A reading of and commentary on Carl Jung's essay, "Christ, a Symbol of the Self," from Aion: Researches into the Phenomenology of the Self (1951).  

I make for you the honey of the mind. 

[Music by PhaseGoht]

Kevin Kautzman and Brad Kelley were gracious enough to let me ramble a bit about the works of James Joyce on their podcast Art of Darkness (https://artofdarkpod.com/), "about the dark side of artists, creatives, intellectuals and the people who made history and continue to move culture." BK does an excellent job of providing the bio. It's a long episode, but imho the best all-around introduction to the life and work Joyce you're going to find in audio form. 

Owen Briggs is an astrologer and Steiner enthusiast. His website is https://apisastrology.com/. Follow him on twitter @BullOfHeaven_. We focus on the Austrian spiritual scientist and thinker Rudolf Steiner, but this is a wide-ranging discussion covering astrology, music, ethics, technology and magic. 

Playwright Kevin Kautzman (follow @KevinKautzman) is the author of Moderation and the co-host of the podcast Art of Darkness (@artofdarkpod).

https://moderationplay.com/

https://artofdarkpod.com/

Inspired by the incredible compilation Psych Funk Sa-Re-Ga: Aesthetic Expressions of Psychedelic Funk Music in India, I ransacked dozens of world psych music compilations for samples to make this long, trippy mix. 

Go to https://www.patreon.com/symbolpod for more Interplanetary Music. 

This recording is from 2016, a demo for a podcast that never happened, where I would have just reviewed books in the off-the-cuff manner I do here. I may do more like it in the future. I would not necessarily say the exact same things today, but I'm uploading this because all of the topics the book addresses are germane to recent and future episodes of The Forest of Symbols. You can think of this as an appendix of sorts to the main episodes. 

Frog went a courtin' and he did ride
King kong kitchie kitchie ki-me-o
With a sword and pistol by his side
King kong kitchie kitchie ki-me-o

Ki-mo-ki-mo-ki-mo-ki
Way down yonder in a hollow tree
An owl and a bat and a bumblebee
King kong kitchie kitchie ki-me-o

He rode 'til he came to miss mouse's door
King kong kitchie kitchie ki-me-o
And there he knelt upon the floor
King kong kitchie kitchie ki-me-o

Ki-mo-ki-mo-ki-mo-ki
Way down yonder in the hollow tree
An owl and a bat and a bumblebee
King kong kitchie kitchie ki-me-o

He took Miss Mouse upon his knee
King kong kitchie kitchie ki-me-o
And he said, "Little mouse will you marry me?"
King kong kitchie kitchie ki-me-o

Ki-mo-ki-mo-ki-mo-ki
Way down yonder in a hollow tree
An owl and a bat and a bumblebee
King kong kitchie kitchie ki-me-o

[Music by PhaseGoht]

Brad Kelly is the author of the 2021 novel House of Sleep, and many short stories & essays available at https://www.bradkellyesque.com/. Follow him on Twitter @bradkelly.

Music by PhaseGoht

YOU WILL BE SEEING UNUSUAL ACCOMPLISHMENT

There Will Be Frogs

Music by PhaseGoht

In your fortune lie our fortunes all. Every man for himself and God against us all. I am better than thou art now; I am a fool, thou art nothing. Nothing will come of nothing. I have X'd myself from your world. 

Music by PhaseGoht

Should you pity the Fool? Was Jesus insane? Do figs have human rights? How many words can I mispronounce? I promise to answer none of these questions and more in this foolish episode. 

Music by PhaseGoht

It may not or maybe a no concern of the Guinnesses but here is a personal introduction and reading from Finnegans Wake. 

Music by PhaseGoht

Of snakes and sex, of time and twins and the trinity, of everything all over again.  

Music by PhaseGoht

An introduction to the podcast, tracing the origin of the symbol (and the devil), analyzing poems by Charles Baudelaire, Wallace Stevens, and Walt Whitman, and responding to the challenge of John Zerzan's "The Case Against Art." 

Music by PhaseGoht