MYSTERIES of the OCCULT

someone should do a government conspiracies one

TEMPLARS

oh fuck i forgot templars i thought i put that in!

<3 the theosophists. I am kind of granting them the responsibility behind the insane genderfuck trip that was L. Frank Baum's second Oz book (he was a theosophist).

I love that Templars are a huge part of Dragon Quest games now.

Wow, I didn't know Baum was a theosophist. I need to do more research on him. FWIW, I think Bobby Beausoleil, who among other things, was tight w/Kenneth Anger as well as being mixed up in the Manson murders, was really into the Oz books.

Other: http://www.subgenius.com/bigfist/pics2/logoart/TheBOB.jpeg

a lot of early 20th century writers were theosophists! it was pretty trendy.

Lost City of Atlanta

aleister crowley's bullshit trip

The stories of Crowleyites Jack Parsons and L. Ron Hubbard are pretty fascinating, esp. since Hubbard's evil legacy continues to this day...

Crowley: 'Apparently Parsons or Hubbard or somebody is producing a Moonchild. I get fairly frantic when I contemplate the idiocy of these louts.'

xposta

Yeah, I guess it's along the lines of Yeats being in The Golden Dawn...

yeats was a bigtime theosophist too

Where do chemtrails fit into the occult/unexplained dichotomy?

Cthulhu Mythos... That'd be Other, yes?

i thought about adding cthulhu mythos but nobody actually thought that was real, did they? i mean are the practicing cthulhu worshipers?

The book Sex and Rockets about Jack Parsons' life is fucking fab! And his wife (the aka 'moonchild' he tried to build) is in Kenneth Anger's "Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome," some Mansoner murder kid is in his "Lucifer Rising," scored (weirfly) by Jimmy Page, who bought Crowley's old house. So how the HELL did this scene start and get all artskool psychedelica hip?

"his" meaning "Kenneth Anger's" who also did a (boring) movie wherein he filmed Crowley's paintings, "The Man We'd like to Hang."

Yeah, I have not read "Sex and Rockets", but have read a bunch about the whole deal on various websites. I think there is a second book out about Parsons, as well. Most of the Hubbard bios that you can find reprinted online e.g., "Bare-Faced Messiah", go into quite a bit of detail on the crazy Parsons/Hubbard saga, as well.

some Mansoner murder kid is in his "Lucifer Rising,"

Yeah, that's Bobby Beausoleil

xxpost: nobody actually believes in Burning Man either...

So how the HELL did this scene start and get all artskool psychedelica hip?

Good question. Certainly the weird rooming house or whatever that Parsons kept seemed to have attracted all matter of freaks at the time. I think there are occult-oriented people really into this stuff who entertain the idea that Parsons' and Crowley's experiments somehow brought all of the sixties cultural upheavals into being.

I dunno, weird times, man...like supposedly a lot of Hollywood folk were flirting with occult stuff, and a lot of musicians (not just the Beach Boys) hung out with Manson but would subsequently deny having contact with him, and then you've got the Rolling Stones mixing it up with the Process Church or whatever. Drugs + spirit of experimentation, Pandora's box being opened up, as it were?..All sorts of repressed contents of the psyche coming out

Other - Chaos Magic, Yorkshire's greatest export after Geoff Boycott.

tend to prefer 20th century religious cults like the Roberts Group which make for great low-budget 70s movies

http://processmediainc.com/process_blog/spiritof76.posed-thumb.jpg

also apparently a great source of 1950s style fearmongering --

In 1998 the group was featured on ABC’s Prime Time:

And now, we bring you a report on what has been called one of the most secretive and impenetrable religious cults in this country.

They are known as The Brethren or more commonly the Garbage Eaters because of the way they live. Experts say over the years, they and their leader, Jim Roberts, have targeted religious college kids and convinced hundreds of them to reject their parents and disappear into the shadows.

There was a time, of course, when parents tried to seize and deprogram these kids. But in recent years, many courts have made that difficult. So tonight, the parents have come to television with a message — tell your children to be beware of these strangers quoting scriptures from the Bible.

(Voice Over) You may have walked right by them in a crowd, bearded men in tunics who look pious and a little strange. Look closely, because some parents believe they are scriptural robots assigned to target and capture your college - age children.

DOLPHINS ARE THE BEST

also apparently a great source of 1950s style fearmongering

exactly, I am addicted to that kinda shit the way some people are addicted to Britney or soap operas

ARE YOUR CHILDREN AT RISK? WHAT CAN YOU DO TO SAFEGUARD THEM FROM THE INVISIBLE SVENGALI FROM PADUCAH, KY etc

Roberts Group anyway is the king of all these as practically nothing is known about them - the chief source is an ex-member who's now a born-again schoolteacher in La Verne

i thought about adding cthulhu mythos but nobody actually thought that was real, did they? i mean are the practicing cthulhu worshipers?

-- bell_labs, Saturday, January 5, 2008 9:59 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Link

actually yes! believe it or not.

that's partially why/how all these fake Necronomicons kept popping up

Yeah, I think there are people who take myth/novels/pop culture stuff and utilize them as part of their magical practices. Chaos Magic, for instance, as moley mentioned above. I think Genesis P. Orridge was into that stuff w/TOPY and all that. Also I think Crowley student Kenneth Grant has done stuff like this.

Genesis was so pissed when TOPY ppl decided that they didn't have to stop practicing just because he said TOPY had been dissolved

(x-post) The Chaos people went over the top with this - anything was fair game for working into a ritual, even Noddy or Gonzo the Great. I liked the combination of irreverence and slightly unhinged humour. They were more like artists than conventional religious types for a while there.

Roberts Group/"Garbage Eaters" is so fucked-up. A decade or so ago I used to see them hanging out or riding on their bicycles in their tunics and talking w/curious passerby. I had no idea what they were about until a few years later when I read about them on internets. It seems really tragic...parents having no communication with their kids for years on end.

Living some freegan dumpster-salvaging, bible-literalism, no-sex, bowing to some weird fascist patriarch dude lifestyle is one thing, but closing off all contact with parents is really sad for all involved.

wow where do you live dell? I've only ever read about them, to the best of my knowledge - never seen one. The only other religious cult as fascinating to me is one whose name I totally didn't note when I read the scare-tactic article about them in, like, whatever the Winnipeg equivalent to the New York Times Sunday Magazine was - some guy who's Canadian but fled to Holland who doesn't speak, just stares at his followers, who evidently see all kinds of shit happening on his face (like, it changes into Christ or Lord Nrisimhadeva or Kali or who-have-you) and give him all their property. Which is diff. from Roberts who doesn't appear to actually be in it for money or sex, as far as anybody knows.

some guy who's Canadian but fled to Holland who doesn't speak, just stares at his followers, who evidently see all kinds of shit happening on his face (like, it changes into Christ or Lord Nrisimhadeva or Kali or who-have-you) and give him all their property.

holy shit that's a creative scam!

yeah, the fact that I haven't been able to re-find that info is one of the major things that compelled me to finally do what people've been telling me to do for years & carry a notebook for writing down stray bits of information. Because that story was fucking AWESOME - the opening scene was all these people in some tiny third-floor Amsterdam temple staring at some dude who's staring back at them & suddenly they start crying or freaking out - I am helpless before narratives like these

J0hn, this was in DC back in '96 (I'm in Filay at the moment). The city's changed tons since then, and of course, the Roberts group is totally nomadic, but anyhow, I definitely remember seeing them in Adams Morgan as well as dwntwn near the K St. Corridor, and not far from the White House and stuff. I always wondered what they were about, but part of me assumed that it was some relatively benign free love update on the Jesus People or something. Reading the stuff about them a couple of years later online was weird, because not only did I then have a name to attach to them, but part of me wished that I could go back and engage them in conversation, in some weird (and likely misguided!) hope of extricating them from the situation.

Yeah, that's the weird thing about the Roberts guy; from what I've read he's not motivated by the usual money or sex stuff, but more from sincere belief (plus throw in whatever psychopathologies one cares to diagnose from a distance).

yeah, the fact that I haven't been able to re-find that info is one of the major things that compelled me to finally do what people've been telling me to do for years & carry a notebook for writing down stray bits of information.

Hmmm. An excellent idea.

Because that story was fucking AWESOME - the opening scene was all these people in some tiny third-floor Amsterdam temple staring at some dude who's staring back at them & suddenly they start crying or freaking out - I am helpless before narratives like these

Wow, the Canada/Holland parts don't add up, but otherwise that sounds much like Bubba Free John in the seventies. He would "meditate on people" and give them shakti blasts that would give them all kinds of amazing experiences. The group associated around him ended up mired in all sorts of typical cultic stuff, but from what I understand, even his greatest detractors to this day still report that had some mighty powerful psychophysical transformational stuff going on, for whatever that's worth. His whole story is fascinating for any number of reasons...

The Illuminati are responsible for all the other shit, so I voted for them. Best not to get on their bad side.

Bubba Free John is Da Free John also, right? I remember reading one analysis of the "new religions" (could have been Burke, he was a sociologist doing a lot of work on cults) who thought Da Free John was the most sophisticated religion thinker of all the early 70s bunch, or at least that his seminal work was a serious piece of religious thinking. But no, I'm sure this wasn't him - this was a much less Hindu/Buddhist-derivative, much more transparently messianic deal.

Yeah, he's changed his name several times. And yeah, in addition to his ex-devotees testifying to the powerful shakti that he was able to transmit, many of them still are of the opinion that some of his first published works are pretty brilliant as far as literature on spiritual practice goes. But, there are reasons why the ex-'s are ex-'s! As far as I can tell, his story is a weird, complex, sorta tragic one.

Anyhow, now I'm really curious as to who this guy you read about in Canada is. I'm gonna see if I can dig anything up...

OK I found the article I read - the guy's name is John de Ruiter. The silence bit is only part of the gimmick - other than that there's a lot of I Am Who You Say I Am sorta post-hypnotic-suggestion hoo-hah. Still, this story is exactly the sort of culty treat I like.

http://www.rickross.com/reference/ruiter/ruiter3.html

ok yeah this dude is awesome

http://www.collegeofintegratedphilosophy.com/AV_excerpts/DVD_Excerpt.html

Oh, okay. I had come across de Ruiter's name before, but never investigated what he was all about. Wow.

I love Rick Ross' site. Some of my favorites that I've read on there in the past:
the immortality cult
http://rickross.com/reference/flame/flame4.html
"beta dominion xenophilia"
http://rickross.com/reference/bdx/bdx1.html
aggressive christianity missionary training camps
http://www.rickross.com/groups/ACMTC.html

and then, this one, which used to be on his site, concerns a woman who started a cult involving channeling aliens via a ouiji board
http://www.sptimes.com/News/webspecials/exorcist/

wau, that video!

wow.

so silly.

Comte de St. Germain

That exorcist thing looks interesting but shitfuck is there ever a lot of pointless exposition:

All of us are drawn to the unknowable. Mysteries sustain us, just like food and water. They get us out of bed, give us something to do, provide our lives with depth, texture, meaning.

Obviously, Laura has taken this pursuit to a whole different level. Many people are willing to accept the possible existence of aliens; few would try, as Laura has, to chat with them during a makeshift seance in the living room.

Once I started spending time with her, I found myself wondering what her quest for answers meant for her and her family. Whatever was happening to her, whatever she was experiencing or thought she was experiencing, where would it lead?

Doubt the things Laura believes she has seen, if you want. Doubt her conclusions, her logic, her state of mind. But know that Laura herself is real. She has a driver's license and pays taxes. She has a family. And like many of us, she is simply trying to make sense of herself, her life, her place in the world.

BAH Do not care! Get to the money shot!

Not even charmingly bad writing like this stuff usually is.

wau, that video!

somebody needs to dub Jeff Spicoli dialogue over it

Yeah, Abbott, it's not surely not the greatest prose. If I'm not mistaken, the author is a Pulitzer Prize winner, as well? I think I read that somewheres...

I read an iUniverse-published book by some Alaskan teenager called Death to All Cheerleaders that read about the same.

Watching that video I couldn't help but imagine what it would be like to be cornered by that guy at a party and have him fixing that crepey stare on me and going into his stupid rap. I can't quite figure out if he is just a total bs artist, or if he really believes his whole deal. I suspect that, (as is the case w/many others who have weirdo cult leader as their profession) it's a combination of both. Probably mucho self-deception going on, like w/pathological liars who manage to believe their own lies or who are so habitually full of it that after a while they cease to realize whether they are even being truthful or not.

xpost ahahah

Now I keep re-reading those paragraphs you snipped and they are driving me crazy! How and why do people write in that weird style?

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Damn, missed my opportunity for "No spring queen for the may queen. No credibility"

Elaine Pagels pwns RAW?

I didn't vote, but prob'ly woulda voted psychonauts?

dell and anyone else who is fascinated by Hubbard-Jack Parsons-Crowley etc connections should probably check out this very clever film that lost me around the 30-min mark:

http://www.techgnosis.com/chunkshow-single.php?chunk=chunkfrom-2008-05-25-1501-0.txt

(it just opened in NYC, disc might be a year away I guess)

thx for the tip :D

huh

familiar with this guy from Sonic Outlaws, various shared acquaintances - had no idea about this one tho. thx morbz!

Thanks. Intriguing. Be looking for this at at festivals, like to see some extracts online.

In theory, it should be easier to be the next Kenneth Anger in the youtube era, but in practise, it's NEVER gonna be easy to be Kenneth Anger.

MOO MOO

stonehenge 0
burning man 0
aleister crowley's bullshit trip 0

ilx otm

Tribulation 99 > Mock Up on Mu

Are there any good histories of 19th & 20th century occultism?

Until I get home and dig through my library, start here..

Eden Ahbez, Jack Parsons, and other LA kooks...

how 'bout that Time-Life series, the one that had all the freaky ads during daytime television?

http://www.amazon.com/Man-Myth-Magic-Illustrated-Encyclopedia/dp/0863070418

"Religious and Spiritual Groups in Modern America"
http://www.amazon.com/Religious-Spiritual-Groups-America-Edition/dp/0137730454

This one is real great, chronologically following alternative traditions through American history up to the printing date (1973). The majority of the book is a case-by-case catalog of groups divided up into Cargo Cults, early communes, Theosophy, Spiritualism, UFO Cults, imported Hindu traditions, etc, and each section contains writings from the groups themselves. It starts with "History of an Alternative Reality in the West", a good chapter that traces occult stuff from pre-Christian (Egyptian/Hermetic/pagan) through Freemasons and right up to "Esoteric Buddhism".

"Drawing Down the Moon: Witches, Druids, Goddess-Worshippers, and Other Pagans in America"
http://www.amazon.com/Drawing-Down-Moon-Witches-Goddess-Worshippers/dp/0143038192

Large, exhaustively researched history of witches, with an emphasis on exploring matriarchal traditions that have long been suppressed by official churches. Includes rad photos of hippies performing pagan ceremonies. I was lucky enough to find a first edition, which has one of the coolest-looking book covers ever. Amazon says "Almost thirty years since its original publication, Drawing Down the Moon continues to be the only detailed history of the burgeoning but still widely misunderstood Neo- Pagan subculture". Both this and the above book I would highly recommend, as they take a serious and scholarly approach in exploring their subjects.

In theory, it should be easier to be the next Kenneth Anger in the youtube era, but in practise, it's NEVER gonna be easy to be Kenneth Anger.

― Soukesian, Tuesday, January 13, 2009 6:25 PM (5 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

It should be easier, but people are lazy, don't really want to read, don't really have faith, and for the most part when attempting to use occult symbols are for the most part into it for selfish/superficial reasons (ego glorification).

ah, too many for the most parts

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/ancient-passage-tomb-found-beneath-dublin-s-hellfire-club-1.2835325