LOVE SEX FEAR DEATH

"After many years of speculation, rumor and innuendo surrounding this enigmatic group LOVE SEX FEAR DEATH lends voice to those who were there. What began as a collaborative effort by Adam Parfrey and Genesis Breyer P-Orridge to publish a monograph of Process magazines produced by the group in the 1960s soon became something more. Original member of The Process Church Of The Final Judgment and it’s latter incarnations, Timothy Wyllie along with a host of former members were contacted and given the opportunity to contribute their stories, memories and experiences regarding their involvement with one of the most misunderstood cults of modern times." (More)

Pre-order a copy of The Immanence of Myth, published by Weaponized. (Or sign up to be notified of its release on Amazon.com)

Calling On Reviewers!

Got your attention?
Good. 

In the next three weeks, we are putting two books on the market: The Immanence of Myth published by Weaponized, and Fallen Nation: Party At The World's End.

Here's the deal: If you agree to read and review one of these books, I will give you a free eBook version of it. It's an honor system.

We make no stipulations on what that review contains, though I suggest you keep "I love it," "I hate it" out of it. A good review tells people whether they, in particular, will enjoy it or get something useful out of it. If you write a solid review of a book that you hate, it could just as easily tell someone else that they'd love it as hate it. There's no accounting for taste.

Post your review on the relevant Amazon page, Smashwords page (for Fallen Nation), on Goodreads. Any and all of these, and your own site if you have one. By the time you're finished reading it, these sites should all be updated, and the right product should be easy to find with a quick search.

Interested? Email me!

NOTE: The Immanence of Myth will be ready for review in 2-3 weeks. Fallen Nation: Party At The World's End is ready for review now.

What's Your Story?

What's Your Story? - Aryan Kaganof from one small seed on Vimeo.

I first encountered Aryan's work when I was editor for Alterati.com. Every now and then he sends me what he's up to- he sent this to me a few months ago but I've been so immersed in working on all these modern myth projects that it got lost in the shuffle. And resurfaced today, and woah.

Enjoy.

A definitive leader in the digital revolution in cinema, he was the first filmmaker across the globe to produce a digital feature film on video up to 35 mm with his release of naar de klote / wasted in 1996. Three years later, he took this process to Japan to produce the first-ever Japanese digital feature, entitled Shabondama Elegy aka Tokyo Elegy.

Aryan is also famed for making the world’s first mobile feature film sms sugar man in 2007. Recently he has produced the highly controversial The Uprising in Hangberg; a documentary that presents substantial evidence that metro police used unprovoked force when arriving in Hangberg on 21 September 2010 to tear down informal houses built on a fire break.

At times suspended naked, blood smeared and silhouetted by hostile global images, Aryan Kaganof’s work reminds us of the fragility of humankind. A subjective voyeur, he’s prolific. And he’s watching YOU.

Pre-order a copy of The Immanence of Myth, published by Weaponized. (Or sign up to be notified of its release on Amazon.com)

Murdoch, Media & Mythology: A Hermetic Tale?

By Mr. VI

When you get down to it, the news is Chinese whispers. Despite claims to be fair and balanced, or that they do things in the public interest, the news media have placed their own spin on every event you have read about, seen, heard, or experienced indirectly.

By definition that's what media does, it mediates experience. Marshall McLuhan famously wrote:

"The medium is the message."

Irrevocably, the information becomes part of the medium – events become part of the output of a given signal. The recent events in the UK regarding Rupert Murdoch and so-called 'phone hacking' are the property of those who disseminate them. For example, the BBC coverage of the event is just that – it becomes part of the BBC message. It's exactly the same with Fox, MSNBC or any of the rest of the outlets.

Unless you are directly experiencing the events yourself right now, then you are reliant on media. Even if you are directly experiencing events right now, they are mediated themselves through your senses. Of course we don't like to think about that, because if that's the case then the media could be altered – our senses are equally open to bias, just as a newspaper or television show.

Our culture places great primacy on the phenomenon of the eyewitness, yet recent research suggests that even eyewitnesses may not recall actual events, but in fact recall their own arrangement of events which are influenced by many factors, some internal and some external.

There is a level at which you may think that this is irrelevant, but consider this:

If in fact we cannot say for certain that what we perceive is some kind of truth, then by definition the whole duality of truth versus lie is called into question. The current coverage of the Murdoch scandal has provoked public outrage – employees of his corporation have allegedly committed criminal acts, conspiring to bribe police officers, obtain information illegally and intruded upon the privacy of the families of murder victims and war dead, not just politicians and celebrities.

It's not just Rupert Murdoch and News International which engage in dodgy dealings, because certain forms of journalism operate in grey areas – their acceptability is often backdated once their claim of "public interest" is validated by the audience. In fact, such things are pretty endemic within almost every form of communication, from the white lies you tell yourself and others, to the work of speechwriters and spin doctors.

I've previously referred to Murdoch as a "lizardly Methuselah", and indeed my inaugural post on Modern Mythology made a metaphorical reference to the reptilian agenda, an indirect nod to the wildly strange fears of David Icke and others. Consider this to be if you like, a statement of my credentials – I think Murdoch is a leathery old bastard with billions at his command, and exceedingly cunning ability to get what he wants at almost any cost.

But right now, in this place and time, he is widely regarded by some to be almost as bad as the devil himself. This makes an interesting to us because in actuality, Murdoch and his ilk have a long, long mythic pedigree…

Sacred Economics With Charles Eisenstein

I was introduced to Charles Eisenstein through Daniel Pinchbeck, to talk about his book Sacred Economics which is published by Evolver Editions. I suggest you check it out.


As we talked, it became apparent to me that we’ve both worked on projects with many similar intentions, and so there seems to be an element of serendipity involved here. I offered the opportunity to post here on Modern Mythology, so you will likely be hearing more from him in the future. 


I hope you enjoy the conversation we had about myth, post-economics, and the apocalyptic, evolutionary challenges facing our species. 

James Curcio: It seems to me that you're taking a lot of the issues now facing us as a species – economically and environmentally – and posing them as challenges.

It has long seemed to me that there is a sort of “evolve or die” challenge posed to us as a direct result of our own actions, and it's best to face those challenges with optimism rather than pessimism. Much of that challenge arises from the myth of the individual and our unwillingness to bring that back to actions for the greater collective good. It can be hard to remain optimistic in light of that.

Charles Eisenstein: It isn't so much that I see the crises we face as challenges, but as the drivers of a transformational process. I guess you could call them challenges – but only in the sense that they challenge the basic mythology of our civilization. They are not bumps in the road that we can overcome and continue our trajectory. As you mention, one of the primary, defining myths of our civilization is the “myth of the individual,” or what I would call our “story of self” – that we are discrete, separate beings living in an objective universe, bubbles of psychology isolated in genetically-determined flesh robots, seeking to maximize self-interest. I think that the crises converging upon us are making this story of self untenable, as we become most painfully aware that what we do unto the other, we do unto ourselves.

New Disease: How I Learnt to Stop Worrying and Love the Superbugs

By Mr. VI

Not to worry you, but you're going to die. If it's not old age that gets you, it's probably going to be some mutated form of the primordial killer – as much an apparent monster as Godzilla, rising up from the depths to cause chaos and destruction in your life.

Unless you're extraordinarily unusual, or a little bit morbid, you don't like to think about it much. After all, there is so much to see and do in life that thinking about it and can be a little distracting, can't it?

But vast amounts of future tech notwithstanding, you're not going to be rejuvenated, or immortal any time soon. Of course, even if the future tech arrives, initially it'll probably belong to this sinister lizardy Methuselah-types like Rupert Murdoch due to the billions of dollars they have in their bank accounts.

The fact is, the majority of the world still doesn't have access to decent healthcare – and those that do tend to live in the richer nations. In the UK there is state healthcare, but in America? Staying healthy is the province of those who can afford it. Now, imagine all those folks in countries which we laughably call the Third World or the developing world.

Imagine what happens when they get ill, and what they do when it comes time to die. Technology and medical care and such may have advanced way beyond the four humours – rationalism may be slowly doing away with snake oil sales but what good is that if you can't get your hands on what you need?

What stories do they tell themselves to make sense out of death and dying? Are they that different to the ones we tell ourselves when disease strikes, seemingly out of the blue?

Fallen Nation eBook 35% off

2012 Is Just The Beginning.

Fallen Nation Party At The World's End is a mad ride past the event horizon of sanity with a group of young, escaped mental patients that come to realize—or believe—that they are demigods.
They form Babylon, a band that captures the spirit of the age as sex, drugs, and chaos reign in the final years of the American Empire.

Metaphysical spoiler: this book is a modern take on the Bacchae of Euripides, or a practical how-to guide for hedonistic end times cults.

Available now as an eBook in multiple eBook formats
35% Fallen Nation eBook ($1.94) Good for 3 days, get it now!

Coupon Code: ZD88R

Note about reader formats: Though I have tested this version in all the formats by computer, if there are any major errors on your reader - an error that makes it unreadable for you - please report it to me immediately and I will look into fixing it and getting you a fixed version of the book.

Paperback version coming soon

All Your Eclipse Are Belong To Us

Let the cries be heard! Last week, three outer bullies—Saturn, Uranus, and Pluto—cornered the poor, unassuming planet of Earth within a vast ocean of disbelief and tired emotion. Pluto nearly stoned us to death, Uranus burned all that was left of our trivial self-image, and Saturn delegated the entire affair, making sure everyone got their turn.

All we had at our backs were our dreams, which were subsequently shattered and revealed to be nothing but feeble cries for attention.

Speaking of dreams, the New Year—which the start of happens in the summer, not the winter—will begin to resurface the dreams and mysticism that has so desperately been forgotten. Neptune, whose gradual temperament was not enlisted for the aforementioned beat-down, has just entered into Pisces, and is making its first full return since the planet’s discovery in 1846.

Birds of a Feather and the Playthings of the 12/ Part 2

By Brian George

In my own travels, I have often met with snake-beings and with bird-beings, who, as the guardians of the dimensions they inhabit, must first determine if we have any right to be there. To this end, they inspire fear. They torture both our bodies and our intellects, in order to resuscitate our memories. They may cut us, piece by piece, apart—to remind us of how we were originally put together. For this reason I have little patience with many of the current crop of conspiracy theorists—such as David Icke and Michael Tsarion—who have demonized these inter-dimensional helpers, and portrayed them as the dark oppressors of our race.

At the very least, it is counterproductive to demonize the energy of the Snake, which is, after all, the energy of Wisdom. One could even view it as a kind of psychic suicide. "It is we who are the good guys! Those bad Reptiles from Orion are the ones who are ruining the neighborhood!" This is little different from saying that the Jews killed Christ, and that this is why Christians have been forced to act so badly. This sort of "reasoning" never ends well. Fears projected into other-dimensional realms will still return to make us stupid.

The true enemy of any paranoid is the energy of his or her subconscious mind—or, to be more blunt, his or her tendency to systematic extermination; some prehistoric insult cries out to be avenged. To the one side, those with 12-strand DNA, an army of the Evolved. To the other side, the League of Aborted Fetuses from Orion. For it came to pass that Eugenics had not yet seen its finest hour. The New Age did not begin in 1985. It is more likely to have begun around 1885, and we ignore at our own risk the occult actions of the “Superman”—as revealed by the last century, bit by contradictory bit.

There is the Superman of Nietzsche and his later Fascist incarnation. There is the Superman of DC Comics and the Superman of New Age antediluvian nostalgia—oddly similar to the Fascist version. There is the real Superman and his almost exact duplicate. For our purposes there is very little difference between the two—except that one may kill you and the other one may not.

In any event, it is towards him that all archetypes converge. He is the shadow of the Apocalypse; the fulfillment of our dreams. It is he who whets our appetite for omnipotence. He prompts us to reclaim our birthright, and, at the same time, takes back what he gives.

Phish and the Ultimate Product: a mythology continues (to sell)

It seems to me that anyone into sound manipulation would be interested in what Phish accomplished after hours on Saturday night, at SuperBall IX, 2011. Allow me to set the stage. Watkins Glen, starting Wednesday, was slowly transformed into a skeleton movie set-type town in a matter of a few days. Marking off the corners of the field that made up the playground area at Watkins Glen, know as Ball Square, were four large speakers stacks at each corner of the park part of the glen, where they had made their makeshift town. The speakers hung suspended by some obviously study ropes. And at the "center" of this was of course the storage space, and the release of the "ultimate product". But now i am rushing to the end. Because unless you were there, or already read about this, then you are probably in the dark. And that is how we where, at first, in the dark about what was going on.

For those who are not fans of Phish, perhaps this is a good point at which to dole out some background.

Phish USA Storage with Time Machine

You see, Phish started playing at a place called Nectar's around 1988, and would come out with an album called Picture of Nectar in 1992. Nectar's was the bar where Phish got their start as a musical act, as it the very place they attribute to giving them the freedom to play around with their music, as well as the crowds of fans they would eventually gather into a loyal following. Nectar's was that all important space, a place where they could fail without having to pack it in. For a more complete history of Phish see the Mocking Bird Project.

Birds of a Feather and the Playthings of the 12/ Part 1

By Brian George

Pagan Moir wrote, “Now Zodiac means 'circle of living beings'—beings who live outside of time. Forget all the astrology—about Gemini the twins, Virgo the virgin, Aquarius the waterbearer—all those meanings are very new comparatively. We must let go of the signs as well; they have gone through the overlay of too many cultures. 

"Beings who live outside of time—so they dwell on the aetheric—I think they are groups; not just singular beings or symbolic archetypes, but very real groups. I also get the words 'tribe' and 'family' coming though. There are twelve of these groups, and each corresponds to one of the signs of the Zodiac.

"Ok, now to get to the crux of the matter, at least for me: these groups—and I think that I know three of the twelve—may be here to be of assistance to the members of their family who have somehow gotten stuck on the Earth. I think that the Zodiac was originally meant to be used as a kind of gateway; through with we could keep in contact with our group.

"The three groups that I have encountered are as follows:

1) The 'Felidae'—They are like big cats, and have a panther-like energy to them.

"2) The 'Draconni'—They have a dragon-like energy, but are white with blue eyes.

"3) The 'Wolverem'—The name speaks for itself; they are wolf-like, but their energy is golden.

"All of the energies have a humanoid aspect to them. They can morph into it. Brian, have you seen anything like this on your travels? I am most curious to compare notes with others.”

__

Just as every human may have one or more animal forms, so too every animal may have one or more humanoid forms. "Therianthropes,” or "man-animals,” are some of the oldest images in the history of art. They often appear on surfaces that are covered with zig-zags, arcane symbols, and geometric patterns—all indications of hallucinatory transport. In some cases these figures are clearly shamans, who have undergone a transformation. In other cases, they appear to be inter-dimensional beings—of some indeterminate anatomy, perhaps, whatever the masks they wear—who have chosen to appear in this particular hybrid form.

But why have these cosmonauts been transfixed by spears and arrows, sometimes by the dozen? And should we read these lines as acupuncture needles, placed within a network of meridians to heal, thus opening the cosmonaut to a flood of primordial energy? No, it is probably best to be practical; they are the technocratic probes of the Nephillim, whose doctors seek to reconstitute the genome.

One action is “good”; the other one is “bad.”

The Best of Modern Mythology 2011 (cover rough)

Best of Modern Mythology 2011 cover (rough), a photo by agent139 on Flickr.

Rough draft of the cover for the www.modernmythology.net 2011 anthology.

To be released Autumn 2011 as a $.99 eBook in multiple formats. Print versions TBA.

Pre-order a copy of The Immanence of Myth, published by Weaponized. (Or sign up to be notified of its release on Amazon.com)

Variations on a Theme

Tell me if this is a normal conversation to have while standing with the other groomsmen at a wedding.

“Never before has there been a generation of Americans so disillusioned by the American Dream.”

“Maybe in the 20s? It’s hard to compare.”

“Totally broken down. You can see it on everyone’s face. We all know we’ve been had.”

I was fidgeting with my sleeves. I’d never worn a tux before. “Just going through the motions. So. What you been doing lately?”

“Mixing cement.”

I’m not sure it is a normal conversation, but who wants to have those? Beautiful wedding, otherwise, at least what I remember through the haze of pain medication. But he had a point, didn’t he? Arguably that dream was always a bill of goods leveraged by the blood and sweat of the poor, but never before has the general public so generally recognized that we’ve been had. Many feel the downward slope yawning before us, as peak petroleum, an Empire over-extended, and an unstable climate push us into a troubled and horribly wondrous near future.

Or so it might appear. Our future runs through our past. In the first century AD, there were revolutions within Rome that made its history seem bleak. I imagine in times like those, it seems like the entire world is about to end. As it turned out, those were the explosions that birth a sun, not its death throes in nova. That wouldn’t come for three or four centuries when the Visigoths helped dismantle an already collapsing empire. It should come as no great revelation that systemic change comes about...systemically. Call it the hand of God, if you want. There will always be “the Visigoths,” in one form or another. Just as it seems there will always be fascists, the great organizing principle of Empire.

(READ article on The Nervous Breakdown.)

Pre-order a copy of The Immanence of Myth, published by Weaponized in July 2011. (Or sign up to be notified of its release on Amazon.com)

Bedtime Stories With The Antichrist

As Greylodge is no longer online, I wanted to get this file back up. Download MP3.

This is the pilot of a podcast I produced with Agent 156 in 2005. It received 25,000 listens in the first month. Agent 156 disappeared shortly thereafter. Today is his birthday.

Pre-order a copy of The Immanence of Myth, published by Weaponized in July 2011. (Or sign up to be notified of its release on Amazon.com)

Independence Day: Release Announcements

Meta: this is me,
telling you what I'm saying here. 

Happy blowing shit up day, folks!

We are very busy lately. By "we" I mean myself, and the people involved in the projects I'm about to tell you about. I can only imagine that it is difficult to keep track, so I thought I might help out:

• Citizen Y: Blueprint of a Ritual Experience was published a month or two ago by Weaponized. It is a script, but moreover, the blueprint for an initiation ceremony relevant to post-history. Check it out. ($15)
• 
  
• The Immanence of Myth will be published by August by Weaponized. It uses a deep but also conversational, honest and even subversive approach towards looking at the issue of mythology in our lives, especially as this almost 500 pg. oversize book moves towards personal mythology and conversations with current mythic artists. ($25)
• 
  
• The Best Of Modern Mythology 2011. I have decided. Mythos Media will be releasing an eBook featuring polished versions of some of what I consider to be the best articles that we've run on this site in 2011. The eBook will sell for $.99 through Smashwords, and will go towards the costs of running and maintaining the site, and promoting our mutual work. If it does well we may release it as paperback and/or hardcover. I expect to release this in September or October. 
• 
  
• Fallen Nation: Party At The World's End - I will be releasing the full and final version of this book either through Mythos Media or a publishing partner - if we find a suitable partner. This release will come in late 2011 or early 2012. I intend for it to remain the opening volley for a post-history, transmedia narrative that I've been planning these past few years. Listen: don't worry. It's got tits and machine guns, too. 
• 
  
• Hoodoo Engine's Murder The World, after almost 3 years of work, is nearly ready for the final mix and master through some very nice analog outboard gear. This album is a machine-metal tour through a terrain of conspiracy theories and cult leaders. We don't have a release date yet. I expect a September release through Bandcamp and iTunes, making it one year after the release of our debut, EgoWhore. ($.99 / track or $10 for the CD.) 
• Here's a track from the album, "In The Flesh": 
• InTheFlesh 150bpm by agent139

Looking towards 2012: 

• I am talking with Pearry Teo about working with him and the rest of the Bedlam Stories production team, including Chad Michael Ward and P. Emerson Williams. I can't say more than that at this time, but it looks like it will be a really exciting project to be involved in. 
• 
  
• I am still talking with S Jenx from The Fall Studios about the production of Nyssa, which is the illustrated prequel / sequel to Fallen Nation: Party At The World's End. 

I hope you are as excited about this material as we are. Please support the work, so there can be more of it. If you write reviews or have other involvement with the media/press, please contact me, as there is a lot of need to spread the word about all this work.