Entropy, Codes, Information Theory, Threads, Towers, Pentacost, Networks, Signs and Wonders.

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

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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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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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A B R A C A D A B R A

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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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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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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.

• The Riddle of Samson
• The Ritual Resurrection of Bees
• A Legend from the Book of Mormon
• The Simile of Virgil and Milton
• Prophetic Science Fiction from Ernst Junger
• The Dark Side of Swarm Intelligence 

Heghoulian is back to discuss the second half of Ballard's career, focusing in particular on the novels Empire of the Sun (1984) and Millennium People (2003). Themes include war, class, modernity, hauntology, and psychopathology. Read Heghoulian's writing at https://heghoulian.substack.com/ and follow him on Twitter @Heghoulian.

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. 

J.G. Ballard was the 20th-century's master of disaster, fusing surrealism, sex and science fiction to create a distinctive apocalyptic vision. Heghoulian (https://heghoulian.substack.com/) joins me to explore the first half of this prolific career.

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/

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. 

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

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

This is a little PhaseGoht/Forest of Symbols collab intended for the Mirrors series that I wasn't able to fit in. Enjoy!

As Above, so Below

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To interpret or not to interpret?

Susan Sontag, 1966

In the penultimate episode, we step into the abyss.

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Please join me as I ramble about my two favorite holiday stories: (after a brief prelude on Dickens' A Christmas Carol) the 1993 film Groundhog Day, and James Joyce's 1914 (long) short story, "The Dead."

To support the show, and get early access to episodes and bonus content (written and audio), please visit https://www.patreon.com/symbolpod.--AA

Can I offer you a nice egg in this trying time?

For the full episode and other bonus content (written and audio), or to support the show, please visit Patreon.com/symbolpod. --AA

Are we all amphibians?

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Spiegel Im Spiegel Im Spiegel

It has been said that it is a symbol of the imagination--or of consciousness--in its capacity to reflect the formal reality of the visible world. It has also been related to thought, in so far as thought--for Scheler and other philosophers--is the instrument of self-contemplation as well as the reflection of the universe. This links mirror-symbolism with water as a reflector and with the Narcissus myth: the cosmos appears as a huge Narcissus regarding his own reflections in the human consciousness. --J.E. Cirlot

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More foolishness. Mere foolishness.

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With a new Pynchon novel and a new PT Anderson movie based on Pynchon's Vineland out, it's probably a good time to let this one out of the vault.

Let's visit ground zero of literary criticism.

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I analyze another children's tale, using Nietzsche, JG Frazer, and others.

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Delving into one of Borges' lesser-known works.

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Happy New Year, listeners!

To read the essay and access other bonus content (written and audio), or to support the show, please visit Patreon.com/symbolpod. --AA