Tentative bibliography of synchromystic and related titles....

This is a woefully incomplete list of titles I've read (except for one), that have informed my vision of what may be called "synchromysticism".  Only one book actually uses the term and deals with the genre directly, but all of them I think are useful "primary sources".  That said, they probably aren't the best choices to start with if you want to know what self-identified synchromystics have read and written; the list may be of most use to those who have already read some of those books and are looking for precursors or related works that may not have occurred to them to read.  Please feel free to add titles you've read in the comments section, bearing in mind I make no pretense of this list being either comprehensive or the most pertinent selection.  You can find many blogs and websites which identify themselves or are generally regarded as having a synchromystic approach to history and current events.  Like I said, this is only a list of books I've read; there are certainly other books out there that may be obvious but I can't vouch for them.  Dates refer to the first publication, not necessarily the edition I read, nor the date the book was actually written.

Plastic Tub, a Wiki project I contributed to predates my knowledge of synchromysticism but shares a lot of features with it.

• Brandon, Jim.  Weird America.  1978.  (The only book on this list I haven't read, but I recommend it on the basis of its connection to Downard, Hoffman and Coleman and its status as a precursor and a "classic" of the genre).
• Breton, Andre.  Surrealist Manifesto.  1924.
• Breton, Andre.  Nadja.  1928. 
• Burroughs, William S.  The Adding Machine.  1985.
• Coverly, Merlin.  Psychogeography.  2010.
• Debord, Guy.  Theory of the Dérive.  First published in French in 1956.  In English?
• de Sède, Gerard.  The Accursed Treasure of Rennes le Chateau.  First published in French in 1958.  In English, 2001.
• Downard, James Shelby and Hoffman, Michael.  King-Kill 33.  Published by Adam Parfrey in Apocalypse Culture in 1988, but Hoffman prefaces his online version by saying the book had been out of print since 1987.  He sells a longer version on his website.  Loren Coleman says the text circulated "for years" prior to being published by Parfrey and was written "sometime before 1978."
• Downard. "The Call to Chaos".  Apocalypse Culture, 2nd ed.  1990.
• Downard. "America, The Possessed Corpse".  Apocalypse Culture II.  2000.
• Downard.  Carnivals of Life and Death. (The only book-length work by the generally-acknowledged Godfather of the genre).  2006.    
• Eco, Umberto.  Foucault's Pendulum.  First published in Italian in 1988.  In English, 1989.
• Fort, Charles.  The Book of the Damned.  1919.
• Gorightly, Adam.  James Shelby Downard's Mystical War.  2008
• Guffey, Robert.  Cryptoscatology: Conspiracy Theory as Art Form.  2012.
• Hoffman, Michael.  Secret Societies and Psychological Warfare.  2001.
• The Holy Bible.
• Jung, Carl.  Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle.  1960.
• Mackey, Albert G.  An Encyclopedia of Freemasonry.  1873.
• Malaclypse the Younger.  Principia Discordia.  1965.
• Parfrey, Adam, Riding the Downardian Nightmare.  Cult Rapture. 
• Pynchon, Thomas.  Gravity's Rainbow.  1973.
• Spence, Richard.  "Searching for James Shelby Downard".  2012.
• Waite, Arthur E.  A New Encyclopedia of Freemasonry.  1921.  
• Wilson, Robert Anton and Shea, Robert.  Illuminatus! trilogy.
• Wilson, Robert Anton.  Cosmic Trigger, vols. I, II and III.  1977; 1991; 1995.

Sometimes it just dawns on you

From Cryptomundo

Sniffing around after my last post 20 rosy fingers, I arrived at Loren Coleman's blog Twilight Language and a post entitled Predicting Aurora.  It's an interesting post, as are his other Aurora-related posts, but I was confused to a certain degree.  Was he writing conspiracy theory, or not?  So I asked him the question.  

Coleman's response was more than I'd hoped for.  He included my question in a separate post, Understanding Aurora As A Synchromystic Fortean, a post which, among other things, answers the question and acts a a kind of "mission statement" that underpins his work:

"Humans don't know all the answers. I certainly don't. But like Fort, I see my role, as my name informs, as a "Coal man" ("Coleman"), one of those who lit the fires on the hills along the ley lines, as a "perceiver." It may be for others to find in the data what they will. I certainly don't claim any conspiracies, connections, or covert operations in Aurora. I shall give you the facts, no matter how grounded or beguiling, and you can come to your own conclusions."

I really appreciate Coleman's candor, as well as the compassion he displays in this post.

Incidentally, Loren is apparently a name that denotes someone from a place of laurel trees.  The laurel has a lot of symbolism behind it, from the resurrection of Christ to its association with a Chinese analogue to Sysiphus (which may not be encouraging to Mr.Coleman!)  It is also the material used to make the victory wreaths given to the winners of competitions since the heyday of ancient Greece and has left us the expression, "don't rest on your laurels" as well as the word "laureate."  Very timely, as these wreaths were given to the winners in athletic competitions, including the Olympics, an event which Coleman examines in his Aurora posts.  The Greek name of these crowns was στέφανος, or "stephanos".  Which is....the origin of my first name, Steven.  It does seem all rather connected, once you do a little digging; you don't even have to dig too deep.

Coleman does come from the Old English "coal man" but it's also an Anglicized version of the Gaelic Ó Colmáin, rendered in other languages as Colombano (It.) and Colombain (Fr.)  The feminine of this name is Columbine, which we discussed in the last post and whose relevance to a shooting in Colorado explains itself.

And for me, ex-Boy Scout, Coleman always makes me think of a high-quality brand of propane lamp, bringing some light into cold nights in the dark forest....