Posts Tagged ‘apocalypse’
Apoc-cupy London!
The End is Nigh! Occupy!
“The End is Nigh!” is a delight to behold, written in bold on a sandwich board or screamed out on a street corner in the ecstasy of doom, but what does it mean?
Sadly our own Christian enthusiastics at Occupy London are too busy dancing jigs, hoisting enormous crucifixes about and berating strangers to preach about the latter days, but this relentless reverend does not tire in his evangelism. Once again, oh children of perpetual resistance, let us reoccupy scripture, and rescue the good news from bad translation.
“The End of the World” comes from Matthew 13, and the word translated as “world” is αἰών, or aeon. Aeon means pretty much the same in Greek as it does in English, an epoch or age, such as the Iron Age or the Age of Feudalism. It is a period of time defined by some theme. The Gnostics had a slightly more nuanced take on it, but the simple fact of the matter is that it doesn’t mean “world”. “There shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth”, as Matthew continues, but something survives, though it is entirely beyond our imagination. (Rev 21:1)
The translation of aeon is so suspect that it raises questions. In 1611 when the King James Bible was produced, England was gripped by revolutionary fever. Against a background of creeping inflation, the seizure of common lands, the wording of scripture was a serious business. A generation before, 5,000 Cornish Catholics chanting “Kill all the Gentlemen!” had perished in a revolt over a new prayer book, and in 1605 another Catholic had failed in his Gunpowder Plot. King James hoped to calm religious unrest by commissioning a standard Bible for all Englishmen, as simple and non-provocative as possible. Whereas “the end of the world” is beyond the imagination of all but the doomiest, “the end of the aeon” was exactly what many revolutionary Bible-bashers wanted to bring about. Read the rest of this entry »
Onward & Foreword!
Good Tidings, Bold Brethren!
My HEART is SHOUTNG, oh Sisters of Sense and Sweetness!
The author David Jay Brown has written a glowing foreword to Nemu’s End
He is, by way of introduction above and beyond his many honours and accolades, the guy who came up with “BS” for Belief System, as used in the books of his friend Robert Anton Wilson.
Scroll down for his bio and his foreword.
But first, the spirit of the Lord moves me to poetry, and to photoshop:
Reading Room
Nemu’s End is best read as a book, in an armchair, with tea and slippers (buy it here)
You can also read it online below, or download pdfs.
The pdfs are print-ready, but you have to make your own tea.
CONTENTS
PREAMBLE
MESSIAH APPREHENDED AT HEATHROW! *
Preface: What’s goin’ on ’ere then? *
PART 1: SCYENSE
1. Nemu’s Razor – Slashing theory
2. Fido’s Fight – The hazards of rationalism
3. The Churche of Scyense – Truth manufactured
4. Science Revealed – The two sides of the apocalyptic scientist *
————— INTERVAL: Piles of refinement ——————
PART 2: CROSSING THE BOUNDARY
5. São Miguel in Stockwell – A visit to the spiritualist church
6. The Pores of Deception – Drugs and their detractors
7. Shocking Subjects – Milgram’s nightmare and the question of Evil *
9. Ka-sensei’s Love-bite - The monk, the mystic, and the mosquito
10. From Layered Truths to Horns and Hooves – Exu’s journey
—————— INTERVAL: A trickster’s tail ——————
PART 3: NEURO-APOCALYSPE
11. Japanese Whispers – God in translation
12. Neuro-Apocalypse One: The Monkey Puzzle – Linguistics and limitations
13. Neuro-Apocalypse Two: The Lord of the Apes – Gnostic neurology
14. Neuro-Apocalypse Three: Monkey Magick – Autistic bliss in a mind undefined
15. Neuro-Apocalypse Four: The Monkey Wrench – Psychedelic scripture
16. Chaos in the Crèche - Magick bombs, blowing open doors
——— INTERVAL: The philosopher’s euphemism ———
PART 4: APOCALYPSES PAST AND PRESENT
17. Jürgen’s World – Seventeenth century apocalyptics
18. The Mark of Zoroaster - Early Jewish apocalyptics
19. Apocalypse Now!- Melting into a new world
20. The flippin’ Poles - Really?
21. Sines of the Times - The apocalypse, by the book
——————— INTERVAL: Serpentine ———————
PART 5: THE NEMMED IS I!
22. Autobiography of a No-body
23. The First Draught - The Brew, The ‘brews, and the King of the Jews. The End is Nu!
24. Baba-loca-lips - A Priestesses, A Prostitute, and a Persistent Priapism
25. Apocalypse Survival Kit - Tent, penknife, and a full sac
Chapel Perilous
The apocalypse is where the veiled is revealed. It is how the unconscious becomes conscious, and how discoveries hiding in the shadows have their covers dissed. Nemu’s End: The History, Psychology, and Poetry of the Apocalypse considers this process as it occurs in our society, in our history, and in our brains.
In science, revelation works through dreams, visions, insights and eureka moments, and is responsible for far more groundbreaking ideas and technologies than rational thinking and tapping on calculators. An apocalypse can be a personal event, when normal linguistic and psychological limitations are temporarily broken down. When this happens, whether spontaneously or through meditation or psychedelics, people may become capable of mental feats which were previously impossible, and aware of things which are usually invisible.
On another level, an apocalypse is an event which occurs collectively during intense periods of transformation. Each time this happens, horizons expand, new scales are opened up, new frontiers are discovered, and new philosophies and technologies are developed, invariably sparking social and political unrest. In seventeenth century Europe, a new order emerged, and was accompanied with an unprecedented body count. It also happened in first century Jerusalem, and there are signs that another upheaval is underway today, which will be global in its implications.
Despite the inelegance of street preachers and the disinterest of the sensible majority, the apocalypse is relevant to our lives, and becoming more so every day. Blinkered rationalism is a bulldozer lurching down a dark cul-de-sac at the end of the world; revelation is a magick bus bouncing down the path of understanding towards the light. This book is the story of the apocalypse, how it has been experienced in the past, and how it is unfolding today. It is written in the faith that revelation is open to everyone, and in the hope that we embrace it before our bulldozer squashes the life out of us.
Local apocalypse
Back in Brazil, in my girlfriend’s rural hometown. It’s alright, if a little Catholic, and her mum runs the prayer sessions at the church, whilst the neighbours are idol-smashing evangelists. There are five churches here, which is remarkable since there is almost nothing else – a chemist, a construction shop, a supermarket, but no internet cafe. Really, no internet?
