Union of the Snake

I've done a whole series about snake imagery as it relates to the Crucifixion and the medical profession, as well as the sculpture of Bourdelle, the shenanigans of Moses, and the Black Virgins. Not sure I have more to say on the theme, but in the cause of my ongoing psychogeographical-like efforts to invest the drab and humdrum commute I am obliged to undertake in my ongoing struggle as a wage slave with some meaning, I post this. The Toulouse metro uses a symbol for each station, and the Phaculté de Pharmacie uses a serpent. 

Of course, this is self-evident. What is not is that it's one of the stations I now use frequently in my current pursuit of gainful employment. Signs and symbols keep reoccurring in my personal geography.  My psychogeography. Apophenia, red car phenomenon. Whatever.  Both objectively "true" and subjectively meaningful. As if subjective and objective mean anything anymore, if they ever did.

And hey, it sets my thoughts in motion and makes the drab and deary navigation through the stultifying urban shitscape somehow a little better than completely meaningless..... 

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.

Georgia on My Mind

Update October 27:  "Herschel Walker is a hypocrite and he is not fit to be a U.S. senator."

Second woman says Ga. Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker paid for abortion (NPR)  

BTW, even National Review has written that the first claim is "almost certainly true."

Grab 'em by the....

from The Atlantic: Herschel Walker’s Candidacy Is Just Insulting:

Until this week, Christian [Walker's son] had appeared to earnestly support Walker even after revelations that he had fathered two more children than he had publicly disclosed and that he had lied about working in law enforcement, his academic record at the University of Georgia, and his business success. Christian appeared at an early campaign event for his father even though his mother, Cindy Grossman, had told ABC News in 2008 that when she and Walker were married, he’d pointed a gun at her head.

Oh yeah, Walker also paid for one abortion and urged his girlfriend to have another, yet is campaigning as a strict "pro-lifer" forced birther. Liar.  Hypocrite. And ignorant. A incompetence trifecta.

Walker on China putting fluoride in our water supply corrupting our air:  

“Do you know we don’t control this air?  No matter how much money we put in controlling our air, it goes over to China or to somewhere else, and it messes it up. All of a sudden, it comes back over here. All we’re doing is spending money.”

It messes it up.

Let's face it, Walker is a barely coherent hypocrite, and, yeah, I'll go there, a token, a pawn for rich, white people using him to show how not racist they are, while adding a malleable vote for Team MAGA.  He's an embarrassment to Georgia and the nation.  But not the GOP!  His Democrat opponent is also African-American, with a proven track-record.  And I know why people who dig Walker don't dig Raphael Warnock; his education:

Warnock graduated from Sol C. Johnson High School in 1987, and, having wanted to follow in the footsteps of Martin Luther King Jr., attended Morehouse College, from which he graduated cum laude in 1991 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology. He credits his participation in the Upward Bound program for making him college-ready, as he was able to enroll in early college courses through Savannah State University. He then earned Master of Divinity, Master of Philosophy, and Doctor of Philosophy degrees from Union Theological Seminary, a school affiliated with Columbia University.

I think it's safe to say today, the GOP's base is leery of people with too many degrees.  Universities are seen as bastions of left-wing radicalism.  Obama they didn't like because he seemed too professorial, as if he was talking down to us.  They loved that Bush had a tendency to mangle his sentences.  Despite the fact he's a teetotaler, I think it was during the Bush/Gore election he was chosen in a poll as the guy those asked would most want to share a beer with (with whom they'd most like to share a beer?)  I think a lot of people find those who use "whom" suspect.  I was once sneered at as being "some kind of college boy" for using the word "ludicrous" in a small dispute. 

I'm sure there's a racial component in the animus towards Warnock or Obama for some people.  I don't want to say that everyone who was leery of Obama hated that an African-American guy was so educated.  But to think there aren't people who dislike him for his eloquence, intelligence and academic record would be as naive as to suggest all of his antagonists are somehow racist.  Sadly, I think it's basically the old antipathy for the "uppity negro." I'm sorry to offend by using the expression, but what's really offensive is the attitude to which it refers. 

I think part of Walker's appeal are the very things that people who want serious and effective governance find so ridiculous; he's a party-line parrot with enough charisma to pull off a viable campaign.  His tenuous grasp on subjects such as air quality is really just folksy charm.  Bonus that he's African-American, as is the incumbent.  It reduces a lot of the extra weight from the racial baggage in the South.  That both candidates are black, in a state like Georgia, is a step in the right direction, especially given the state's large African-American population.  Atlanta is a very important part of African-American "psychogeography."

But the Walker revelations mentioned in The Atlantic don't seem to have affected the polls one iota.  In my opinion, I think this joke of a candidate doesn't even deserve to be elected village fence-watcher, but the GOP is shameless, and will pull any stunt and put any dunce up for election, no matter how stupid, bat-shit crazy, or ignorant.  As long as they can get elected and help create a GOP majority, so the big boys can play around and wreak more havoc on this country than they did from '16 to '20 with that ridiculous, piss-bathing, bloviating turd I won't even deign to name.  Imagine if the turd made a comeback?

For shame.  Georgia, if you elect this nitwit, you deserve all the incompetence headed your way.  Plenty of you are buying this Super Gulp of snake oil....you already elected the heinously hateful Marjorie Taylor Greene, just how much lower are you aiming?

Call the Guinness Book, I think a record is being set for "Largest shit smear on the idea of democracy" in history.  Except for Hitler maybe.  He was elected, innit?  

(BTW, that "shit-smear" isn't specifically Walker, but Greene, Boebert Gosar, Palin....along with the whole atavistic crew of "slap-your-head in disbelief" candidates the GOP has managed to get elected.) 

Heck, MJT loves comparing opponents to Nazis.  Legally-required vaccines? Nein! MJT nearly blew a gasket...acted like Fauci was advocating racial purity tests in order to shop at Wal-Mart.  So, yeah, I'll invoke lil' 'Dolphy, as we liberals so affectionately call out Dear Leader, that is, if Lucifer isn't around.

And I know that all this is ridiculous and is as "See Dick Run" is to Shakespeare, satire-wise.  About the same relationship MJT and Walker are to legitimate politicians.

Enough with know-nothings and wearing ignorance like a badge of honor.  I want smarty-pants professors, educated people, eggheads, and intellectuals in office.  Call me crazy.  I'm tired of listening to politicians dumber than I am; because to be frank (as opposed to Bill or John),  I ain't very clever to start with....

The choice is clear....