An interesting blog

A blogger who likes J.R.R. Tolkien, James Joyce and Robert Anton Wilson would seem to be very promising, and indeed Groupname for Grapejuice is an interesting blog. I got the same sense of discovery going through his postings that I got when I first discovered  The Oz Mix.

In a new blog post, PQ kindly mentions this blog's Masks of the Illuminati discussion and then writes, "I've got a new favorite blog and, as you can probably ascertain from reading this space, it's a weird one. Entitled Groupname for Grapejuice (a phrase from Finnegans Wake), this blog uses a mix of comparative mythology, occult knowledge, numerology, and some subjective free association to engage in what I can only call synchronicity detective work."

Robert Anton Wilson fans might want to try "The 108-Year Rosicrucian Cycle, Part One," which takes a sentence from Cosmic Trigger as a jumping-off point for a post suggesting that a 108-year period that began in 1904 came to an end in 2012.

Here is a passage relevant to our ongoing discussion of Masks:

If there is such a 108-year plan then who is behind it? It would seem that the Golden Dawn is a good place to start, although the scope of this plan would certainly be much larger than even this important occult organization. It is revealing to look at a list of people directly involved in the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.

In addition to Yeats and Crowley, members included authors Gustav Meyrink and Bram Stoker, Allan Bennett, who introduced Buddhism to the West, Charles Williams, who formed the Inklings with C.S. Lewis and Tolkien, Algernon Blackwood, who heavily influenced H.P. Lovecraft, and so on. The combined cultural influence of these people on the 20th century to the present is gigantic. Is it because of this influence that the Hermetic philosophy is now everywhere, to the point where it seems to be built into the structure of events? Is it there by design?

The blog is written by znore, about whom no information is provided.

Richard Geis has died

Prominent science fiction fan Richard Geis has died. There are appreciations up from Supergee and Andy Porter.

One of Geis' famous fanzines, Science Fiction Review, published a memorable interview with Robert Anton Wilson. Excerpts ran in the Illuminati Papers; the full interview is reprinted at Rawilsonfans.com.

Physics paper mentioned in Illuminatus!

 Our friend Nick Helweg-Larsen, scouring libraries in England, finds a 1960s paper on physics. It's mentioned on Page 241 of The Eye in the Pyramid in Illuminatus! when Joe Malik says, "This tomorrow-today-yesterday time is beginning to get under my skin."

Simon sighed, "You want words to put around it. You can't accept it until it has labels dangling off it, like a new suit. OK. And your favorite word-game is science. Fine, right on! Tomorrow we'll drop by the Main Library and you can look up the English science journal Nature for Summer nineteen sixtysix. There's an article in there by the University College physicist F. R. Stannard about what he calls the Faustian Universe. He tells how the behavior of K-mesons can't be explained assuming a one way time-track, but fits into a neat pattern if you assume our universe overlaps another where time runs in the opposite direction. He calls it the Faustian universe, but I'll bet he has no idea that Goethe wrote Faust after experiencing that universe directly, just as you're doing lately. Incidentally, Stannard points out that everything in physics is symmetrical, except our present concept of one-way time. Once you admit two -way time traffic, you've got a completely symmetrical universe. Fits the Occamite's demand for simplicity. Stannard'll give you lots of words, man.

Nick emailed me a PDF of Stannard's paper, "Symmetry of the Time Axis," and I have uploaded it here so that the rest of you can read it. Some of the physics are beyond me, but some of the passages I do understand are pretty mind-blowing.

Pound's "The Spirit of Romance"

Over at Overweening Generalist, Michael Johnson has a post on "Gnostic Diffusion Down Through the Ages" that discusses Ezra Pound's book, The Spirit of Romance, which apparently talks about the Cathars in 13th century France and the "courtly love" movement, topics which are focused upon in the Robert Shea novel I just wrote about, All Things Are Lights.

While I try to figure out whether Shea might have been influenced by Pound's book, I wanted to point out that The Spirit of Romance is available as a free download from the Internet Archive.

Maybe "Richard Dawkins" is Richard Dawkins

John Higgs does an fine job of explaining Robert Anton Wilson's ideas, as you may have noticed if you've read his new book, KLF: Chaos Magic Music Money.

Here is another example of Higgs discussing RAW: His July 23, 2009, column for the Guardian on "Happy Maybe Day" explains "maybe logic" and why Wilson advocated an attitude of agnosticism in sifting through theories.

The comments section provides unexpected confirmation for Higgs' thesis that you should never be too sure of yourself.

Higgs' piece drew 134 comments, including from one person who proposed "Can't Be Arsed Day." What does that mean? What language do they speak over there?

Several of the commenters took Higgs to task for his use of a quote from Richard Dawkins, the famous atheist, and then Higgs defended his use on the quote, noting that Dawkins had Tweeted a link to the piece.

Then someone using the name Richard Dawkins (who I will call RichardDawkins1) weighed in, saying that he did feel misquoted. As for the Tweet (from RichardDawkins2), RichardDawkins1 said, "I did no such thing. I wouldn't know how to tweet to save my life."

I will note that as of AD February 27, 2013,  there is a Richard Dawkins Twitter account, seemingly authentic, with 624,824 followers. The owner of the account -- let's call him RichardDawkins3 -- has issued 8,834 Tweets. Perhaps RichardDawkins1 could save his life, after all, if he had to issue a Tweet to remain alive, as he has had (maybe, if he's the same person) 8,834 opportunities to practice the lifesaving maneuver. We report, you decide.

One more bit: Richard Dawkins1 says " 'Maybe Day' is, of course, admirable." So RAW fans can say that Richard Dawkins has endorsed maybe logic. Maybe.

Thanks to Nick Helweg-Larsen for the link. I'm pretty sure it's the real Nick Helweg-Larsen helping me out here, but as Mr. Higgs would tell you, you never know.

More JMR Higgs weirdness here.

Radio23.org

Has anyone listened to the programs offered at Radio23.org? I noticed him on Twitter; whoever runs it appears to be a RAW fan.

Masks of the Illuminati discussion part two

Dell edition, pages 35-76; Pocket Books edition pages 29-64; up to about 20 percent in an e-book (up to Sir John Babcock's answer to the I.N.R.I. question

"Joyce looked at it and at every part of it with a meticulous curiosity that seemed almost obsessive to Babcock," page 45 of Dell edition; RAW believes the cure for boredom was paying closer attention.

"a most singular person," page 46, Lenin.u

"You behold in me," page 48. Leftist statists like to claim RAW as one of their own, but notice how RAW claims Joyce for libertarianism.

"only the madman is absolutely sure," page 48. A succinct statement of Wilson's philosophy, and a restatement of his "maybe logic" philosophy, i.e. the world would be a saner place if people made a habit of qualifying their dogmatic statements with maybe, i.e. "Maybe the economy would be better off if the U.S. returned to the gold standard." Consistent with the workings of quantum mechanics, Wilson suggested using probabilities rather than certainties for many statements. A statement of Wilson's generalized agnosticism."

"a book so vile," page 51, the Necronomicon invented by H.P. Lovecraft. Dan Clore says references to Lovecraft's work permeates Masks.

"another hermetic dream" page 60. Although Masks supposedly originally was intended as "an ordinary detective story," the dream sequences suggest this plan was given up early in the process of writing the novel.

Paragraph beginning with "A true initiation never ends," page 62. Statement of a major theme of the novel.

UPDATE: Wikipedia article on George Cecil Jones.

Arthur Machen exhibition. Link via Dan Clore, who remarks, "Arthur Machen had a big influence on Masks of the Illuminati."