Ep162: Lovecraft and the Occult (Part 1, Long Cut)
Added 2019-08-07 12:51:52 +0000 UTCThis is the full version* of our recording of episode 162, and is for backers only. The standard issue is available as always through the regular channels.
(*there may have been some slight edits)
Comments
You OK Steve - was there a hand at the window? Were you struck by papers falling from an attic window? (-Paul)
The Good Friends of Jackson Elias
2019-08-15 11:47:32 +0000 UTCYes, science as you describe in para 1 above. Someone else has done the science to provide the machine I'm using to communicate my thoughts here. I'm very glad about that. It's real, it works. Science got us to the moon, it was real, it worked. I guess my contrast of science and occult were centred IRL. In fiction, I guess the occult can be a science like you describe.
The Good Friends of Jackson Elias
2019-08-15 11:45:58 +0000 UTCAre you commenting on his beliefs based upon what he wrote in his fiction? I would agree that art can reveal things about its creator. However in this instance, I think the mind/body split (which is what I think you're referring to) required for Dreamlands can just be a simple flight of fancy on the authors part, and I see no reason to think it reflects upon HPLs actual beliefs at all. - Paul
The Good Friends of Jackson Elias
2019-08-15 11:38:57 +0000 UTCAlso, with further reference to Dan Harms, he recently did a great talk at Treadwell's on the structure of English magical rituals in the Early Modern period. The Conjuration involves: a declaration, the address, the invocation and finally instructions. I could say more but
Steve
2019-08-10 16:36:24 +0000 UTCPretty much all the Victorian magical revival is based on Masonic and/or Christian rites, startlingly so perhaps for people who professed to be anti-Christian.
Steve
2019-08-10 16:31:07 +0000 UTCIt's not very clear what you mean by Science in this podcast. If it's empirical knowledge gained through experimentation and testing hypotheses to generate theories, there's no reason that the Occult shouldn't fall into this category. You don't need to understand Science to use a microwave, make bread or listen to a podcast. In effect the science is occulted. It's just an occult we're more used to. In the same way, you don't need to understand Aklo, the process of creating obsidian mirrors, or astrology, to question Byakhees under Fomalhaut in the broken tower. The fact that it works every time if you do it properly suggests that it is related to fundamental principles of the universe, and is a form of science. The same for working with essential saltes.
Steve
2019-08-10 16:15:19 +0000 UTCThat said, The Call of Cthulhu is very inspired by Margaret Murray's dodgy anthropology.
Steve
2019-08-10 16:05:11 +0000 UTCHPL in his letter clearly states that he's not very interested in historical magic, except for a few references. So the magic that he does have is, to a very large extent, made up by him to serve the fiction.
Steve
2019-08-10 15:56:21 +0000 UTCI'm not sure about HPL's materialist credentials. He seems only too happy to embrace Cartesian dualism, especially in the Dreamlands.
Steve
2019-08-10 15:53:28 +0000 UTCScapulimancy, surely.
Steve
2019-08-10 15:29:17 +0000 UTC
