Prop Anon on Tale of the Tribe

 

George Antheil

RAW  biographer Prop Anon has begun posting material to his new Chapel Perilous website.  While it is obviously a work in progress, the first post, on RAW's never-completed Tale of the Tribe project, is interesting. 

"Since Wilson's death in 2007, no other documents have been uncovered regarding his unfinished book. At the moment, it appears as if Wilson never wrote anything besides that prologue. However, he did host a class at his Maybe Logic Academy in 2005 called The Tale of the Tribe that discussed the themes and characters of his unfinished symphony," Prop writes.

Prop discusses that class and he even posts the first week of assignments by RAW for the course. I particularly liked the bit about how Ezra Pound and James Joyce both liked the music of American modernist composer George Antheil; you can read about him at the Wikipedia biography. 

Steve Fly has a book on the Tale of the Tribe.

Prometheus Rising exercise and discussion group, Episode 83, Chapter 15

 

Photo by Daniel Klaffke on Unsplash

What are your favorite exercises? 

While much of our efforts have focused on discussing the text in Prometheus Rising, Robert Anton Wilson (and Eric Wagner) both emphasize the importance of doing the exercises at the end of each chapter to really grasp what RAW is talking about. I cannot claim that I've attempted each exercise, but I've done some of them. 

I would point to two exercises that are my favorites so far.

The first is one that I did last year. It is the second exercise for Chapter Two. "Sit in a room where you will not be disturbed for a half hour and begin thinking, 'I am sitting in this room doing this exercize because ....' and think of as many of the 'causes' as you can think of.

"For instance, you are doing this exercize because, obviously, you read about it in this book. Why did you buy this book? Did somebody recommend it? How did that person come into your life? If you just picked the book up in a store, why did you just happen to be in just that store on just that day?"

RAW goes on in this vein, discussing possible answers.

As you can see from my blog post from last year, I was able to come up with a long list of reasons for why I happened to be sitting in a living room in a particular house in Berea, Ohio, working on the exercise. 

RAW asks the reader working on the exercise to "Avoid all metaphysical speculations (e.g. karma, reincarnation, 'destiny' etc.) The point of the exercize will be mind-blowing enough without introducing 'occult' theories, and it will be more startling if you carefully avoid such overtly 'mystical' speculations."

And in fact, I did find the exercise mind-blowing and startling; as you can see, I was able to come up with many reasons why I happened to be in that particular time and place.

The other exercise that made a particular impression on me was the one I mentioned in my last entry in this discussion group.  It's the first exercise at the end of Chapter 14:

"1. If all you can know is your own brain programs operating, the whole universe you experience is inside your head. Try to hold onto that model for at least an hour. Note how often you relapse into feeling the universe as outside you." 

I was not able to do the exercise for a whole hour, but I worked on it much of the day, coming back to it. As I looked at everything, I tried to remember that all of what I was seeing was inside my head. As I walked, I looked at the ground and realized that the feeling of touching the ground with my feet was inside my head. It felt consciousness altering. (In Insight Meditation, the Theravada school, one of the main meditations is to walk and concentrate on your walking.)

Do you have favorite exercises that seemed particularly effective? 

Sunday links

A marijuana dispensary. Unsplash photo by Bret Kavanaugh. 

Discussion of Hakim Bey on Twitter.   See also the comments at my recent blog post. 

 Twitter comment on Aleister Crowley. 

Rhode Island legalizes marijuana, it is the 19th state. 

Evidence for panspermia? 

Advice from Bertrand Russell.

New 'Map Is Not the Territory' video series

I unfortunately cannot do a separate blog post on every item covered in Michelle Olley's recent newsletter, which you should read if you missed, but here is an offering from someone I have not written about before: A new YouTube video series, "The Map Is Not the Territory," launched by Dolly Rae Star.

These are described as "adventures in awareness" on the website, here is Michelle's description: "Here's a fun thing. Our pilgrim pal Dolly Rae Star has started a RAW-inspired YouTube channel of advice and exercises for the cosmically inclined. It's a charming - and helpful - shot of positivity."

The first video in the series, above, describes how to do a five-minute face stretching exercise. 

Dolly is on Twitter.  You can also check out her book, play stance. 

Eglantyne Books launches

One of the items mentioned in Michelle Olley's recent Mycellium newsletter was the launch of Eglantyne Books. 

Here is what Michelle wrote: "The Sirius Mystery author Robert Temple and his wife Olivia have a new publishing company, Eglantyne Books, specialising in ‘new books and reprints of rare material, in a variety of fields’. Expect to see masterpieces of World Literature, Secret History, Early Modern and Modern History, Original Reprints of English Civil War Pamphlets, Egyptology, Classical Studies, Short Story Anthologies, Poetry in Translation - and more!"

The Sirius Mystery of course is mentioned in Cosmic Trigger. I was curious that the new publishing company would be like, so I went to the website, where I found six titles listed so far, and they do look pretty interesting.

I live in Ohio, and one particular book caught my attention, Red-Headed Woman by Katharine Brush, which has a protagonist from Ohio. Here is part of the publisher's description: 

"Red-Headed Woman was a sensational best-seller, and it is believed that during the height of the Great Depression, the author earned more than a million dollars in royalties from it. It was made into the film Red-Headed Woman (1932) with Jean Harlow playing the role of the anti-heroine Lillian Andrews, who in the book is aged 19 to 21 during the two years, 1929- 1931 when the story is set. (Harlow was aged 21.) F. Scott Fitzgerald and Anita Loos both worked on the screenplay. The resulting film was considered so shocking that it was officially banned in the United Kingdom. Lillian has no heart whatever, she wants money, she wants things, she wants social status. From Ohio to the highest levels of Manhattan society, we follow her relentless trail of ascent, spellbound and unable to avert our eyes. It is the ultimate portrait of an entirely amoral gold-digger. She has such overwhelming sex appeal that no man can resist her, and all the women hate her. Brush writes with a direct style resembling that of Hemingway, never using an unnecessary word."

As Englantyne Books is a British publisher, it might be hard for Americans to find some titles on site such as Amazon. I have had good luck ordering British books from Book Depository, which provides free delivery worldwide. 

An eglantyne, by the way, is an English rose. 

Reminder

 

RAW Semantics comments on Twitter, "WARNING: Directing your anger at *group* categories (includes 'lefties', 'Tories', 'liberals', 'Dems', 'Republicans' etc.) may result in permanent brain damage & likely doesn't improve your IQ."

Hakim Bey has died

Peter Lamborn Wilson (photo from anarchistnews.org)

Peter Lamborn Wilson, who wrote under the pen name of Hakim Bey, has died, according to this report and also reports that I have seen on Twitter the last couple of days. As the Wikipedia bio notes, he was "primarily known for his concept of Temporary Autonomous Zones, short-lived spaces which elude formal structures of control."

Robert Anton Wilson reviewed his book TAZ: The Temporary Autonomous Zone, Ontological Anarchy, Poetic Terrorism for his Trajectories newsletter, and the review is reprinted in RAW's Chaos and Beyond: The Best of Trajectories. 

RAW was particularly impressed with the long essay "The Temporary Autonomous Zone," which makes up the last third of the book, writing, "I regard this long essay, frankly, as the most important contribution to anarchist and/or libertarian thinking since the heyday of Emma Goldman and Benjamin R. Tucker." 

On Twitter, Prop Anon wrote, "Just learned that Peter Lamborn Wilson died a couple of days ago. I was really into his work until I saw all his essays supporting pedophilia. I interviewed him (which I have yet to release) and went off the record to ask him about his NAMBLA support. He didn't wanna talk about it."

New Hilaritas podcast on Eight Circuit Model

The Hilaritas Press podcast series continued Monday with a release might be  relevant to our long-running Prometheus Rising discussion group: For the ninth episode, Mike Gathers interviews Antero Alli, who has written and taught about the Eight Circuit Model.

Here's the show description: "In this episode, we chat with underground film maker, professional astrologer, paratheater ritualist, teacher, writer, forest walker, dreamer and no form engineer Antero Alli on Chapel Perilous, paratheater, and the Eight Circuit model."

As usual, the episode website has useful links for more information. 

The June episode of the podcast -- look for it June 23 -- will feature Jesse Walker. 

Prometheus Rising exercise and discussion group, episode 82, Chapter 15

By Apuleius Charlton
Special guest blogger 

When I was younger and thus different than I am now (and thus beknighted and ignorant according to my current self) I vowed and swore and declared that I would not purposefully manipulate my daughter’s religious viewpoints. I take religion/spirituality/the lack thereof rather seriously and at the time compared raising a child in a religious ideology as a spiritual violation of autonomy. It wasn’t until recently I realized how gravely I had forsook my noble vow and broke my promise time and again. My daughter was playing with a wand. 

Indeed, as I looked over it I had manipulated, corralled and exposed my daughter to everything that I love, my gods, my universe and magic from the youngest age. When she was an infant I surrounded her with fairies and read her The 1001 Nights. I conducted Enochian investigations in the room across from her where she’d come and visit as a toddler. When she was older I took her for long walks telling her stories about The Great God Pan and grey-eyed Athene. I filled her head with ideas about magic and hinted at possibilities outside the realm of the everyday. We made a game/exercise of her grabbing statues or items off my various altars and her asking what they were, as if learning a catechism. I immersed her in my beliefs and she is well on the way to making them her own and eventually something new. 

I can’t say that I regret reworking the terms of my vow- after all, I never blatantly told her what to believe and now she is old enough to debate and consider ideas I bring up on her own. I’m pleased by what she is and might be. Did he smile his work to see?

Yesterday, at a rare family gathering one of my relatives remarked that my daughter acted “exactly” like me and was my “mini-Me.” I could only respond “that’s why I am so fond of her, I like things that resemble myself.” Did he who made the Lamb make thee? 

I have lived most of my adult life in spaces that were consciously designed to suffuse me in my own bullshit. Consequently, I am nigh-neurotic in my preference for meeting with others in my own spaces. It is the same at school; I will always choose to stay in my room and insist that I teach in my room during classes outside the regular day. 

Reading the material in this chapter is imminently familiar as I know it by rote, it is one of the things I digested easily when first reading Wilson, and it made me feel awfully smug about being on the right track as an adolescent. (He even refers to Blake as "The Poet," which tremendously warms the cockles of my heart.) In many ways it is the satisfaction of what one must feel when they hear the letter of their version of Natural Law. I guess I’m still awfully smug, although I am aware that I have become somewhat addicted to my exteriorized world to the point where being in another’s is decently uncomfortable after a short span of time. 

I intend to do the exercises concerning mapping others on the four terrestrial circuits. I believe this is one I have done before and I hope I can find my notes as it would be interesting to see how my impressions have changed. While not listed as an exercise, I will give a brief example by notationally dissecting myself: 

1st Circuit: Strongly oral characteristics with a deep aversion to adversity or pain

2nd Circuit: Primary “I’m not okay, you’re not okay” script coupled with “I’m okay, you’re not okay” paranoiac-leaning subscript 

3rd Circuit: Deeply devoted to their own sense of logic and semantics, very dismissive of contradictory “logics”

4th Circuit: Strong currents of moralism and “ethics” obsession coupled with recalcitrant attitude toward many societal structures and norms

:( With that going for me, I should be able to write a pretty good fundamentalist Christian critique. All in good fun, one hopes!  

Michelle Olley's big news roundup

 

Michelle Olley (the Bobby Campbell remix)

I expect news when I get the Mycellium Newsletter, but the May issue just issued by Michelle Olley is exceptional; it has a ton of events in Britain for Discordians to consider attending, and new products that everyone around the world can access. Much is going on in Liverpool, in London and in Brighton and many projects and new releases are available, so scroll down for all the news. Note that the Liverpool event is Monday, so you need to scramble if you didn't get the memo earlier. Probably a good idea to sign up for the newsletter. Daisy Campbell, by the way, is busy writing something, but Michelle isn't ready to reveal anything yet; "more on this when we get it," she says. 

Some of these announcements deserve a separate blog entry -- well, maybe all of them do, but I will at least cover some in the next couple of days. 

Podcast tips from Joseph Matheny

 From Joseph Matheny on Twitter: "This podcast has quickly become my favorite "Conspiracy" related show. The hosts are amusing and engaging, they research their material and they, most importantly, keep their sense of humor front and center." Here are the episodes for The Nonsense Bazaar. 

Joseph also likes the Fear is the Mind Killer podcast, and the latest episode features the Nonsense Bazaar hosts. 

Your can also read Matheny's Substack newsletter. 

RAW on reality tunnels and the eight circuits

Martin Wagner announces yet another rediscovery, a Robert Anton Wilson piece called "How to Tell Your Friends From the Apes," published in 1985 in Magical Blend. Much of it covers material also covered in Prometheus Rising.

Excerpt:

"It appears that the simple Aristotelian idea that we are either conscious or unconscious (asleep or awake is inadequate. We have seen a whole spectrum of consciousness; it seems clear that each level of consciousness opens many possibilities for reality-tunnels, and that consciousness has evolved, and it is still evolving; we absolutely cannot predict what we might become and what we might know after the next evolutionary leap. In particular, the seemingly net intractable problems of life on this planet—such as injustice, exploitation, crime and, above all, war—seem to be maintained by rigid reality-tunnels which prevent further learning or which “hypnotize” us so that we do not see who were or what we are doing. But such mechanical stupidity or maya, or “sleep-walking” is, in this perspective, an early evolutionary state out of which we are, as individuals and as a species, slowly growing toward higher and higher levels of awareness."

Lots of other material at Robert Anton Fans Germania, both in German and English. 

Thursday links

Facebook deletes huge numbers of posts that don't violate its guidelines. 

Adam Gorightly on the UFO hearing in Congress.  If you missed it, see my review of Adam's excellent UFO book, his most recent title. And here is a report on the hearings. 

@amoebadesign reviews Who Killed the KLF? 

Robert Anton Wilson on "capitalized nouns and other abstractions."

Edison Denisov, Pink Floyd fan.