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
–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:
Vatis=900,426,71
Yhvh=1116,378,63
The Gray Demons=820,924,154
Values listed above are for Jewish
Gematria, followed by English and simple Gematria.
Sources:
CS Lewis, The
Screwtape Letters
Gematria Calculator Online: http://www.gematrix.org/
The Red Goddess, Peter Grey
