Lucifer and Cassandra
There are lots of furious arguments online and in schools these days about the end of reading. Kids aren’t doing it, neither are college students, and even the so-called writers churning out hot takes in newsletters and in the Atlantic seem to be missing the mark, which is that the human capacity for thought and reading has very little to do with yelling about lack for likes and Stripe payouts. Instead, the ability to read a sentence, a tarot card, a children’s book, a canonical tome, or the stars themselves has something very much to do with the spiritual principle of looking as if to see. So what can spiritual awakening do for one’s reading ability in an age where the drama over mechanized attention is one that surely spells apparent doom? Episode Four of Wake Up, Underworld! begins with a look at such concerns before following an account of Justin’s second awakening into a conversation on the nature of demons, spiritual ancestors, and how the subversive move of “reclaiming” one’s weaknesses or evil inclinations as one’s power is only a shadow of the true realization of weakness in strength and strength in weakness. The truth of such a realization is the mystery of magickal reality, which is one reason Justin and Cameron find themselves at a loss for words when mystics or occultist podcasters try to eschew magick, on the one hand, or God, on the other. Are there specific struggles that men and women face in articulating their spiritual or magickal paths? What roles does existence seem to force us into? We tackle these questions through exploring personal relationships to myth. Finally, the conversation comes full circle as it turns toward the growing understanding that one of the first steps toward knowing one’s Self comes from learning how to read, not as an educational exercise but as a simple expression of your spiritual birthright.
Texts Mentioned
Rudolph Steiner’s The Incarnation of Ahriman
Cameron’s essay “We Are Already AI”
Duncan Barford’s The Book of Raziel
Aleister Crowley’s The Vision and the Voice
Aleister Crowley’s Magick In Theory and Practice
Aleister Crowley’s Magick Without Tears, edited by Alan Chapman and Duncan Barford
Alan Chapman’s “Is God to Live In a Dog?”
Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching, translated by Aleister Crowley
Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are
Philip K. Dick’s The Owl in Daylight
For a wonderful Weird Studies conversation on PKD's unfinished work, listen to episode 90 "The Owl in Daylight" https://www.weirdstudies.com/90
Alan Chapman’s Magia
CG Jung’s Memories, Dreams, Reflections
Liz Greene’s Jung’s Studies In Astrology
Samuel Taylor Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
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