Here is the talk I delivered for the Association for the Study of Esotericism
Philip K. Dick and Alchemy
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
notes from Umland, "To Flee from Dionysus"
Umland
83 Dionysus manifests himself in Dick's writings in both benevolent and malevolent incarnations... The demonic "Dionysus element" in Dick's fiction emerges again and again and is constantly expressed in various guises, from his earliest work to his last.
88 The universe in which "Upon the Dull Earth" takes place is not a recognizably Christian one but a Gnostic, perhaps Neoplatonic variant.
90 "Dionysian vertigo"
94 approaching him through historiographers of esoteric religion
83 Dionysus manifests himself in Dick's writings in both benevolent and malevolent incarnations... The demonic "Dionysus element" in Dick's fiction emerges again and again and is constantly expressed in various guises, from his earliest work to his last.
88 The universe in which "Upon the Dull Earth" takes place is not a recognizably Christian one but a Gnostic, perhaps Neoplatonic variant.
90 "Dionysian vertigo"
94 approaching him through historiographers of esoteric religion
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Ursula K. Le Guin on Lathe of Heaven as PKD homage
Le Guin: Oh yeah, definitely. You know, I couldn’t write a Phil Dick book, but I could steal some of his tricks, in a way. Pulling reality out from under the reader all the time, changing reality on them, the way he does. Well, I did it through dreams. Phil would have done it another way. But yeah, homage to Phil Dick is right.
Geek's Guide to the Galaxy Interview
Ursula K. Le Guin on movie adaptations of her work
Don’t believe what the people in Hollywood say! [laughs] Do not believe
these people, these people do not speak truly. They tell you that they
admire your work so much, and you’re going to have all the input over it
and so on. Forget it. You don’t have artistic control. Nobody but
Rowling ever got artistic control over a film made from their work, and
she got it because she’s so wealthy. You’re not going to get it.
Therefore you have to think: Do you mind if they make a travesty out of
your work? Is the money worth it to you? If it is, go for it. Take the
money and run, as whoever it was said. If it’s not worth it to you, just
run away.
Le Guin Interview at Wired / Geek's Guide to the Galaxy
Le Guin Interview at Wired / Geek's Guide to the Galaxy
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Alchemical Theology in Boehme
Böhme's correspondences in "Aurora" of the seven qualities, planets and humoral-elemental associations:
One can see “Boehme's alchemical understanding of salvation” where he translates his anthropological theology into alchemical language...
"the true Adamic man whom God made out of the Earth-matrix in whom stands the covenant and gift is similar to a tincture in coarse lead;the tincture consumes in itself, through its own desire, the coarsenessof the lead as the coarse Saturn, kills the saturnine will, leads his own will, understood as the tincture-will and selfhood up into lead and through the lead is transformed into gold."
100 -Mysterium Magnum; oder Erklarun uber das erste Buch Mosis in Theosophia Revelata... (Hamburg 1715) Chapter 51, in Miller, "The Theologies of Luther and Boehme," 2785)
http://ceu.academia.edu/FlorinGeorgeCalian/Papers/193940/Some_Modern_Controversies_on_the_Historiography_of_Alchemy
Boehme did however systematise the symbols of the alchemists and it is for this reason that his views deserve mention here. A recent expositor writes: ‘Boehme did more than borrow a large part of his vocabulary from alchemy, he took over the whole alchemistic world-view, which he developed into a philosophic system.’
http://ebooks.cambridge.org/chapter.jsf?bid=CBO9780511710285&cid=CBO9780511710285A009
His best-known treatises include Of the Three Principles of the Nature of God, (1619) and The Way to Christ, (1624), The Signature of all Things, and Mysterium Magnum.
As well as alchemical themes his writings contain Kabbalistic concepts. Boehme describes the absolute nature of God as the abyss, the nothing and the all, the primordial depths from which the creative will struggles forth to find manifestation and self-consciousness. The Father, who is groundless Will (c.f. Kabbalah - Keter the first principle is identified with Will), issues forth the Son, who is Love.
Boehme held that everything exists and is intelligible only through its opposite. Thus, he believed, evil is a necessary element in goodness, for without evil the will would become inert and progress would be impossible. Evil is a result of the striving of single elements of Deity to become the whole; conflict ensues as man and nature strive to achieve God. God himself, according to Boehme, contains conflicting elements and antithetical principles within His nature.
http://www.kheper.net/topics/christianmysticism/JacobBoehme.htm
Concerning the Three Principles of the Divine Essence
preface 7
the will of God is put into, and written in our minds, so that we very well know what we should do
9. Seeing therefore we are in such horrible
danger in this world, that we are environed with
enemies on every side, and have a very unsafe
pilgrimage or journey to walk ; and above all, we
carry our worst enemy within us, which we our-
selves hide, and desire not to learn to know it,
introduction:
The fundamental conception of Jacob Boehme's philo-
sophy might be characterized as Pantheo-dualistic ; that
is to say, he attempts to harmonize the undeniable claim
of Pantheism that God is not to be known out of and
apart from Nature, but in it and through it ; with the
equally undeniable fact of dualism, i.e. the evident
opposition in this divine world of good and evil.
ch1 6. Behold, there are especially three things in
the originalness, out of which all things are, both
spirit and life, motion and comprehensibility, viz.
Sulphur, Mercurius, and Sal. But you will say 2 wherein the
that these are in nature, and not in God ; which cousisteth.
indeed is so, but nature hath its ground in God,
according to the first Principle of the Father
...
"The tincture is nothing else but an exulting joyful mighty will, and a house of the soul, and a pleasant paradise of the soul..."
http://archive.org/stream/concerningthreep00bh/concerningthreep00bh_djvu.txt
"The principle of fire is the root, and it grows in its root. It has in
its proprium sour, bitter, fierceness and anguish. And these grow in its
proprium in poison and death the anguished stern life, which in itself
gives darkness, owing to the drawing in of the harshness. Its properties
make sulphur, mercury, and salt; through the fire's property makes not
Sul in sulphur, but the will of freedom makes Sul in sulphur, while the
principle goes forward."
(source?)
Linden Emblems and Alchemy p.61 "Boehme split sulphur in the Paracelsian trinity--sul, phur, mercury, and sal--in order to fit the four realms created by the cross. The seven metals of alchemy are also arranged in the diagram. Interestingly, only six are arranged on the wheel, the seventh, Mercury, is missing; it is represented by the wheel itself."
- 1. Dry - Saturn - melancholy, power of death;
- 2. Sweet - Jupiter - sanguine, gentle source of life;
- 3. Bitter - Mars - choleric, destructive source of life;
- 4. Fire - Sun/Moon - night/day; evil/good; sin/virtue; Moon, later = phlegmatic, watery;
- 5. Love - Venus - love of life, spiritual rebirth;
- 6. Sound - Mercury - keen spirit, illumination, expression;
- 7. Corpus - Earth - totality of forces awaiting rebirth.
- 1. The "dark world" of the Father (Qualities 1-2-3);
- 2. The "light world" of the Holy Spirit (Qualities 5-6-7);
- 3. "This world" of Satan and Christ (Quality 4).
One can see “Boehme's alchemical understanding of salvation” where he translates his anthropological theology into alchemical language...
"the true Adamic man whom God made out of the Earth-matrix in whom stands the covenant and gift is similar to a tincture in coarse lead;the tincture consumes in itself, through its own desire, the coarsenessof the lead as the coarse Saturn, kills the saturnine will, leads his own will, understood as the tincture-will and selfhood up into lead and through the lead is transformed into gold."
100 -Mysterium Magnum; oder Erklarun uber das erste Buch Mosis in Theosophia Revelata... (Hamburg 1715) Chapter 51, in Miller, "The Theologies of Luther and Boehme," 2785)
http://ceu.academia.edu/FlorinGeorgeCalian/Papers/193940/Some_Modern_Controversies_on_the_Historiography_of_Alchemy
Boehme did however systematise the symbols of the alchemists and it is for this reason that his views deserve mention here. A recent expositor writes: ‘Boehme did more than borrow a large part of his vocabulary from alchemy, he took over the whole alchemistic world-view, which he developed into a philosophic system.’
http://ebooks.cambridge.org/chapter.jsf?bid=CBO9780511710285&cid=CBO9780511710285A009
His best-known treatises include Of the Three Principles of the Nature of God, (1619) and The Way to Christ, (1624), The Signature of all Things, and Mysterium Magnum.
As well as alchemical themes his writings contain Kabbalistic concepts. Boehme describes the absolute nature of God as the abyss, the nothing and the all, the primordial depths from which the creative will struggles forth to find manifestation and self-consciousness. The Father, who is groundless Will (c.f. Kabbalah - Keter the first principle is identified with Will), issues forth the Son, who is Love.
Boehme held that everything exists and is intelligible only through its opposite. Thus, he believed, evil is a necessary element in goodness, for without evil the will would become inert and progress would be impossible. Evil is a result of the striving of single elements of Deity to become the whole; conflict ensues as man and nature strive to achieve God. God himself, according to Boehme, contains conflicting elements and antithetical principles within His nature.
http://www.kheper.net/topics/christianmysticism/JacobBoehme.htm
Concerning the Three Principles of the Divine Essence
preface 7
the will of God is put into, and written in our minds, so that we very well know what we should do
9. Seeing therefore we are in such horrible
danger in this world, that we are environed with
enemies on every side, and have a very unsafe
pilgrimage or journey to walk ; and above all, we
carry our worst enemy within us, which we our-
selves hide, and desire not to learn to know it,
introduction:
The fundamental conception of Jacob Boehme's philo-
sophy might be characterized as Pantheo-dualistic ; that
is to say, he attempts to harmonize the undeniable claim
of Pantheism that God is not to be known out of and
apart from Nature, but in it and through it ; with the
equally undeniable fact of dualism, i.e. the evident
opposition in this divine world of good and evil.
ch1 6. Behold, there are especially three things in
the originalness, out of which all things are, both
spirit and life, motion and comprehensibility, viz.
Sulphur, Mercurius, and Sal. But you will say 2 wherein the
that these are in nature, and not in God ; which cousisteth.
indeed is so, but nature hath its ground in God,
according to the first Principle of the Father
...
7. Now to speak in a creaturely way, Sulphur, Mercurius, and Sal, are understood to be thus. S U L is the soul or the spirit that is risen up, or in a similitude [it is] God : P H U R is the prima materia, or first matter out of which the spirit is generated, but especially the harshness : Mercurius hath a fourfold form in it, viz. harshness, bitterness, fire, and water : Sal is the child that is generated from these four, and is harsh, eager, and a cause of the comprehensibility.
"The tincture is nothing else but an exulting joyful mighty will, and a house of the soul, and a pleasant paradise of the soul..."
http://archive.org/stream/concerningthreep00bh/concerningthreep00bh_djvu.txt
Boehme on the Principle of Fire
(source?)
Linden Emblems and Alchemy p.61 "Boehme split sulphur in the Paracelsian trinity--sul, phur, mercury, and sal--in order to fit the four realms created by the cross. The seven metals of alchemy are also arranged in the diagram. Interestingly, only six are arranged on the wheel, the seventh, Mercury, is missing; it is represented by the wheel itself."
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
PKD and Edgar Cayce
(this was originally a Facebook comment on a thread between David Gill and Wa Da Ta)
I agree that there's plenty of interest in comparing the two, since Dick was plugging into a lotta post-Cayce New Age ideas about tapping into the unconscious using "channeling" type techniques. Like for instance the time recounted in the letters when he was high and called Tessa, told her to ask him anything since he had access to his unconscious. Sure he was skeptical, but he was able to suspend that skepticism in a way that skeptics are very uncomfortable about. Unfortunately, much of what is written about Cayce is unreadable, and much of what he himself wrote is pretty hard to swallow. I'd love to read a comparative study that distills out the interesting stuff in Cayce that doesn't require buying into his Atlantean belief system.
I agree that there's plenty of interest in comparing the two, since Dick was plugging into a lotta post-Cayce New Age ideas about tapping into the unconscious using "channeling" type techniques. Like for instance the time recounted in the letters when he was high and called Tessa, told her to ask him anything since he had access to his unconscious. Sure he was skeptical, but he was able to suspend that skepticism in a way that skeptics are very uncomfortable about. Unfortunately, much of what is written about Cayce is unreadable, and much of what he himself wrote is pretty hard to swallow. I'd love to read a comparative study that distills out the interesting stuff in Cayce that doesn't require buying into his Atlantean belief system.
Thursday, June 14, 2012
notes on my SF PKD Fest talk (coming in September)
One of the key problems of the Exegesis is Dick's conflict over whether or not he was a Christian. I'd like to discuss the influence of Neoplatonism on this conflict, which has not received enough scholarly attention. Gabriel McKee has notably argued for Dick's being a Christian in the end, and there is certainly a consistent strain of serious Christian thinking in Dick's writing, but doesn't cover the esoteric versions of Christianity that complicated Dick's voyage. McKee gives short shrift to Dick's Gnosticism--which by the way recently seen some interest from philosopher and Hans Jonas professor Simon Critchley--and doesn't cover Dick's interest in many of the more mystical and esoteric Christian thinkers that influenced Dick. Elsewhere I have discussed the crucial influence of Christian Hermeticists (per PKD) Paracelsus, Boehme, and Bruno, who all play a role in determining the weird ways that Dick thought about Christianity--at least in their legendary form if not in the specific details of their programs. Dick associated Neoplatonism with Hermeticism in a few interesting passages of the Exegesis that we will look at. At times he was worried that he had destroyed Christianity with his Neoplatonic thinking, that he had found an ancient true religion that predated Christianity. At other times he found himself back to orthodoxy, often by the very same Neoplatonic philosophical lines that led him astray.
Dick understood Neoplatonism as providing a legitimate philosophical ground for interpreting his own weird spiritual experiences. Looking at the ways Dick used Neoplatonism to interpret the Christian Hermetic authors can also give us an important window into his religious thinking.
Before I get into the nitty gritty details of Dick's Neoplatonism, Id like to say a few words about the problems facing the interpreter of his esoteric explorations, and thus the scholarly neglect. What is especially lacking is interpreters of Dick's work who have much expertise in the various esoteric religious and philosophical currents that he was involved with. But we don't necessarily need academic experts, as Dick himself was no expert, and often misunderstood the esoteric territories that he traveled through. We don't need an expert on esotericism in itself, but rather an expert in the ways that Dick made creative use of these esoteric materials. This specialist will still require a relatively comprehensive knowledge of the areas that Dick explored, but it will be better to look into Dick's actual sources -- largely the Britannica and the Bible itself, but especially into the many comments that Dick himself made about what he was reading (and
reading into!).
Then I will dive into Dick's treatment of the relationship between Neoplatonism and Christianity. I will attempt to fill in the context necessary for understanding why he was so troubled by the results of his research into esoteric philosophy, and give a prelimary sketch for a theory of Dick's Neoplatonism. Plotinus had a great deal to offer Dick not only in understanding the strange nature of his religious experiences, but also the difficulties of the theology and esoteric knowledge system that he built in order to understand those experiences. But it was in the Christian Neoplatonism of the Hermetic thinkers such as Bruno, Boehme, and Paracelsus, that Dick found a version of Christianity that has barely been mentioned by Dick scholars, and which occupied a great deal of Dick's time. This can best be seen in Dick's novel VALIS, in which the "entity made of information" is said to be a secret known to hermetic alchemists, and especially in the Exegesis.
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