The prophecies of Rachel, verse 139.

The scene is the base-point of the bridge of Hyborian Hosts a week hence, which has needed shoring-up to establish a firm grounding. The work complete, a horse-and-rider emerge from the castle gates and onto the wooden span, the bridge arching majestically over a sweeping chasm and swirling green-grey mists, seeming to suspend it in space. Awaiting his approach stands another horse-and-rider.

“My lady Brigitte”

“Sire”

Emmanuel, now dubbed knight of Hyborian Hosts, bestrode his magnificent piebald charger clad in a rusty grey mailcoat. By his side, riding sidesaddle on only a slightly lesser mare, now sat the dainty form of Brigitte. The archaic scene was a study in contrasts; the lofty turrets and swirling mists soaring darkly over the gaily clad lady and her knight on their s snorting steeds.

“I thank you for joining me on my quest to re-establish the European-heart. The gay pennants of nobility that go hand-in-hand with shtetlan mystique.”

“My lord, it was either that or become a laughing stock. I confess, though, there is something in these mists that braces the soul.. Hehar!. something ancient and lost.”

“Hyboria – land of darkness.. the darkness that restores gladness. ‘For darkness lay upon the face of the deep’”

“Genesis?”

“We start there.. and finish with Revelations.”

(to be continued)

It is because I have such a high and admiring opinion of his capacities that I am trying to argue him out of his anti-civilised attitude. I have repeatedly urged him to utilise his fine ability and deep erudition in writing a history of Texas—as well a vivid, coördinated account of the various frontier desperadoes. (Lovecraft letter)

I think one has to make the point that being content with your lot can be an illusion, and the way the illusion works I’ve attempted to elucidate. Life is apocalyptic because at the end of it lies death. This was the theme of Louise Simonson’s epic X-Factor arc “Apocalypse”. It’s completely not nice but still has a certain appeal and Caliban, for one, joined Apocalypse as his trained hell-hound. Life is nasty, filthy, squalid, sordid but can be one of two things: strong or weak.

The acolytes by my reckoning are weaklings. Psychic strength has a decadent side to it because not everything is comfortable. Physical strength is the pure expressive force of the body in motion. I think we probably agree that comic books contain both these (as noted prev).

It’s even more prevalent in Weird Tales, Lovecraft and Howard. The question you could ask is why should one bother about ancient lusts that come from the primordial side of the human psyche? Maybe, but you might as well ask why still read Greek tragedy, and why bother about the grotesque cruelty and pan-eroticism of Greek myth?

The Grand Guignol picture of the sorcerer (prev) as vulture is being true to a strand of nature prevalent in Weird Tales and Howard. Louise Simonson has a line in X-Factor #21 about “gathering round the corpse” of Warren Worthington, who was assumed dead (later transformed into Archangel).

Weird Tales is being true to the ethnology of Man, while modern Man retreats to pathological life-support systems. The trickster or scavenger or bird of carrion is a universal figure in myth, being mid-way between predator and prey (Claude Levi-Strauss). The trickster is a mediator to the gods, as with Prometheus who stole fire. These dangerous, macabre forces of nature are there, whether modern Man chooses to live in his happy illusion or not.

As I tend to say, the predator-prey cycle is the destroyer of pathological tendencies. It is the resource-base of myth and the strength of primitive culture. Yes, but most things ARE primitive. Birds are a million years old. We humans are 50,000 years gone. The lie “they” are selling is that we live in the future when, in fact, what they mean is that all we are is our heads.

The future to “them” is the human head dislocated from nasty things like predator-prey cycles. Consequently, pathogens build-up and all “they” are doing is continually coming up with new life-support systems for the pathogens in our midst.

The ultimate pathogen is AI since it consists of pure light, without the dark, underground forces that are living systems and all the myths Man is heir to. AI is simply the end-product of Faraday-relativity (see quote Hyborian Bridge 21) – the ultimate reflection. Everything is a support-system of light (electricity), and so is very convincing (see Pictorial 27) except it lacks the primordial lust and rhythmic cycles that are strong and pure, that are NOT PATHOGENIC.

The warrior – the pure knight – like Clair Noto’s Unicorn from Red Sonja #1, slays the dragon of impure lust, with courage and muscular prowess (Hyborian Bridge 1.) The lusts that Man and nature are heirs to cannot be denied and will out in “their” illusory future that lets pathological tendencies loose into the world. Once out there, new pathological life-support systems are needed to contain them. 

“As AIs progress they will become more general-purpose and rely less on data. The next big breakthrough of AI will be reducing the dependence of the data, and transforming it to be generalised in capability.” (Kazuo Yano)

Translation: AI will hybridise with the head to the abandonment of primal muscular strength of athletic body and proportionate head (Samurais and Geishas of Japanese legend). The body that is able to slay improper lusts of the mind to subjugate and control sexual norms (gene-editing).

There is no denying the dark, underground forces because they are strength and strength is life. The way out of that conundrum is for the warrior to slay the sorcerer. Strength is called for and it’s not always nice, like the comics aren’t always nice, like Weird Tales isn’t nice and like the Grand Guignol isn’t nice.

But ravens and vultures hover over battlefields. They clear away the blood and gore and the cycle goes on to the next battle. This is psychic strength and physical strength that we as humans are heirs to. Nature is strong, and it’s not necessary to swallow entire Howard’s aversion to civilization to see that the future is a pathological trap of weaklings who serve but one master, the ego of the supreme-sorcerer, the ego that dislocates the head from primordial lust and rhythmic cycles that are strong and pure, flying on dark wings of peril.

The prophecies of Rachel, verse 140.

“It has been written that the dragon shall run loose, spreading impure lusts of the dislocated head.”

“Now, I have to say, you and Donal Tusk have zero in common. How does that translate into red tape, green belts, stuff like that? CNN’s Coral Armstrong here, “getting down” in Transylvania with Moshe, high priest of the nouveau shtetlan.”

“It doesn’t. I only talk in aphorisms. I was trained in aphorisms 12,000 years ago.”

“I’ll let that pass. So how can you expect to have diplomatic relations with Europe’s masters?”

“Current masters. All things pass, yeh, even the holy of holies that was burnt even as Saracen and knight stood back to back in 1244”

“How is that going to happen, though? How is reverting to a medieval economy – picturesque though it might be – going to worry the trillians flowing through Swiss banks ? Or the wider global economy that all, for better or worse, belong to?”

“The entire economy is a reflection, not a reality”

“A reflection? Of what?”

“Of light. You think dark can reflect?!”

“-sigh- Thankyou, Moshe, and goodbye for now from what some are calling the new centre of an old Europe.”

(to be continued)