Where Time Turns into Space: Wormwood Star

Wormwood, or mugwort, is a species of herb, also known as St. John’s plant. St John the Divine is most well known for being the author of the New Testament’s Book of Revelations. The book of Revelations is a visionary manuscript, the ecstatic vision of a shamanic trance, accepted into the bible as an allegory of evil.

In the opening of the Seventh Seal, in Revelations Chapter 8, verse 10 and 11: “… the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters; And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.”

The allegory here with wormwood is that it is a bitter herb, although wormwood itself is also a drug, and is associated with visions of a certain sort.

“A wormwood user may also become disoriented and experience an altered, dream-like perception of reality. Some users report wormwood effects such as an increase in clarity of thought, euphoria, and sensation of relaxing. A curious phenomenon known as the "doll-house" effect is one of the more distinctive wormwood effects. Users describe perceiving objects as idealized representations of themselves or as simplified copies of the real objects, as though they belonged in a doll house. This effect is often experienced along with wormwood's other common effects. Objects may be perceived with a striking clarity of definition and color, however, wormwood only serves to enhance perception and has no hallucinogenic properties.”
–Source 1

On that note I must point out that one of the main themes of Philip K Dicks Gnostic Science Fiction work The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldrich may have been based on the experiences of a similar “drug trip.” In this novel, interstellar colonists on a harsh terraforming assignment use “Can-D,” a drug which allows them to vicariously inhabit and experience the life of little miniature dolls. The colonists buy and set up little doll houses and then communally live artificial lives through the effects of the Can-D drug. Philip K Dick is simply a modern St John, interpreting his visions into Science Fiction rather than biblical testament.

Wormwood is also a primary ingredient to traditional absinthe, a green colored and licorice flavored liquor once common in France and Europe. Now, I can go on and discuss how Aleister Crowley was a famous absinthe drinker, or how the word Chernobyl translates to “place where wormwood grows” but I would like to do you one better.

Wormwood, the Daemonic Connection:

The Screwtape Letters, by CS Lewis, (another famous Science Fiction writer) are a series of polemic essays disguised as correspondence letters between two demons, discussing demonic stratagems for luring a man away from God. In them, Screwtape, the elder demon, tutors his nephew Wormwood on the finer points of corrupting a soul.

Wormwood is an herb also known for its anti-parasitic properties, which is a very telling clue to the hierarchal nature of these demonic entities. The text can be read from a magical perspective; Lewis clearly has a deep understanding of the topic at hand. It has been speculated by many that Lewis and Tolkien may have been members of The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. If not, I would at least assert that Lewis understood the esoteric undercurrents of Christianity. The political and materialist philosophies within Lewis’s Letters smash any misconception that modern politics are anything but black magic, and common morality a befuddlement of truth. But don’t take my word for it. From CS Lewis The Screwtape Letters:

“I wonder you should ask me whether it is essential to keep the patient in ignorance of your own existence. That question, at least for the present phase of the struggle, has been answered for us by the High Command. Our policy, for the moment, is to conceal ourselves. Of course this has not always been so. We are really faced with a cruel dilemma. When the humans disbelieve in our existence we lose all he pleasing results of direct terrorism and we make no magicians. On the other hand, when they believe in us, we cannot make them materialists and sceptics. At least, not yet. I have great hopes that we shall learn in due time how to emotionalise and mythologise their science to such an extent that what is, in effect, belief in us, (though not under that name) will creep in while the human mind remains closed to belief in the Enemy. The "Life Force", the worship of sex, and some aspects of Psychoanalysis, may here prove useful. If once we can produce our perfect work - the Materialist Magician, the man, not using, but veritably worshipping, what he vaguely calls "Forces" while denying the existence of "spirits" - then the end of the war will be in sight. But in the meantime we must obey our orders. I do not think you will have much difficulty in keeping the patient in the dark. The fact that "devils" are predominantly comic figures in the modern imagination will help you. If any faint suspicion of your existence begins to arise in his mind, suggest to him a picture of something in red tights, and persuade him that since he cannot believe in that (it is an old textbook method of confusing them) he therefore cannot believe in you."

"I had not forgotten my promise to consider whether we should make the patient an extreme patriot or an extreme pacifist. All extremes, except extreme devotion to the Enemy, are to be encouraged.”

I read the above as an interesting denouncement of Crowley’s hermeticim. Although it should be noted that not all Gnostics are tantrics; (sometimes a snake is only a snake.)

From another letter we have the Church compared to a Goddess: “One of our great allies at present is the Church itself. Do not misunderstand me. I do not mean the Church as we see her spread but through all time and space and rooted in eternity, terrible as an army with banners. That, I confess, is a spectacle which makes I our boldest tempters uneasy. But fortunately it is quite invisible to these humans.”

“Terrible as an army with banners” is a biblical phrase from the Song of Solomon, 6:10: “Who is she that looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners?”

In The Red Goddess, Peter Grey states the woman referred to here is Babalon, and that John and Solomon were both inspired by the same “Red Goddess.” Grey goes as far as suggesting that John used a preexistent (pre-Christian) text as a basis for his work, expanding upon it to create Revelations.

"And there appeared a great sign in heaven; a woman clothed with the Sun, and the Moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars. She was pregnant and screamed in the anguish of delivery." -Revelations

How should we interpret the statements of CS Lewis, whose truth is hiding between the lines? Lewis’s own advice on understanding these letters is this:

“There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight. The sort of script which is used in this book can be very easily obtained by anyone who has once learned the knack; but disposed or excitable people who might make a bad use of it shall not learn it from me.

Readers are advised to remember that the devil is a liar. Not everything that Screwtape says should be assumed to be true even from his own angle.”

When everything is politically polemicised, every man is set upon his own world, the final resulting philosophy is “nothing is true, everything is permitted,” with every man justifying his own personal desires. A truthful writer actually studies the argument of his enemy with equal respect, considering it for its merits, and wrestling with the part of his own mind which wants to believe one thing or another. Then, an honest writer asks themselves why.

What is absent in mainstream Christianity is the discourse, the option to doubt, and therefore the ability to let a truth stand on its own two feet, and not on “faith alone.” Clearly, CS Lewis was able to discern the depth of the issue, and consider all sides of the argument. From one of CS Lewis’s personal letters, we can see the “demons” he was struggling with:

“Now the story of Christ is simply a true myth: a myth working on us in the same way as the others, but with this tremendous difference that it really happened: and one must be content to accept it in the same way, remembering that it is God's myth where the others are men's myth: i.e. the Pagan stories are God expressing Himself through the minds of poets, using such images as He found there, while Christianity is God expressing Himself through what we call 'real things'. Therefore it is true, not in the sense of being a 'description' of God (that no finite mind could take in) but in the sense of being the way in which God chooses to (or can) appear to our faculties. The 'doctrines' we get out of the true myths are of course less true: they are translations into our concepts and ideas of the wh. God has already expressed in a language more adequate, namely the actual incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection. Does this amount to a belief in Christianity? At any rate I am now certain (a) That this Christian story is to be approached, in a sense, as I approach the other myths. (b) That it is the most important and full of meaning. I am also nearly certain that it really happened.”

In other words, it’s a complex issue. Or you can just accept that the myth transcends religious or phenomenological precepts and tenets? And exists outside of time?

I want to end this post with some Gematria, Just for fun. Philip K Dick’s book Valis has a Jewish Gematria value of 820. Another phrase which equals 820 is The Gray Demons. Valis is an interesting word all on its own; perhaps PKD chose it for its similarity with the word Vatis. Vatis is a Latin word which means prophetess, mouthpiece of deity, oracle or soothsayer. So why not just title the book Vatis, you say? PKD may have chosen to change the word for a more appropriate Gematria value. See for yourself:

Valis=820,378, 63