AtDTDA: (8) 220 Nicholas Nookshaft, Grand Cohen

[robinlandseadel at comcast.net]

"At last we meet! Face to mask!!!"
"Giant Rat of Sumatra", Firesign Theater.

We are shown the sacred Tetractys:

        Sacred Tetractys

        The Pythagoreans were particularly interested in 
        this polygon because each triangular number 
        forms an equilateral triangle. One special 
        triangular number is the triangular number for 
        what they called the decad, or ten, the sacred 
        tetractys.

        Ten is important because it is, of course, the 
        number of fingers. The tetractys became a 
        symbol of the Pythagorean brotherhood. We've 
        seen it before in the School of Athens.

http://www.dartmouth.edu/~matc/math5.geometry/unit5/unit5.html

Ten is also crucial to qabalah, as the 10/4 combo.

I'm also pretty sure it's parodistic way of pointing to the quabalistic 
tree of life,

        . . . .occupying not two dimensions but three, set 
        in a regular tetrahedron---and then four dimensions, 
        and so on, until you found yourself getting strange, 
        which was taken to be a sign of impending 
        enlightment." (220. 6/8)

Then's there's also T.W.I.T. =  Twat

http://www.holodaro.com/crowley-tarot/Grosse_Arkana/Lust/t11lust.jpg

Lew's gettin inducted (electrical term, nicht whar?) but has to take off 
his shoes and boots:

        "What, not even socks?"
        "Not even if that tartan were authentic," 
        (220. 15/16)

Crowley was famously---petulantly---Scottish.

Caen stone:

        Fine grained limestone, yellow or yellow/white in colour. 
        Imported from France, mainly for ecclesiastical use.

http://tinyurl.com/yvseoq

This is a great big, flat-out gorgeous photo of Caen stone, but it 
does take a while to open.:

http://www.puginireland.com/Pictures/12screens.jpg

        . . . .set back behind iron fencework in almost a miniature 
        park, in which masses of shadow which might or might 
        not have had counterparts in the animal kingdom 
        moved with a sinister impatience. "Nice little hacienda," 
        Lew nodded. (220. 20/23)

Sounds like something out of "Giant Rat of Sumatra":

http://www.firesigntheatre.com/albums/gros1.mp3

(though maybe that particular excerpt might not be as vectorally
specific as others. Good though. . . .)

Duet on syrinx and lyre (220. 24)

Syrinx = Pan pipes

        In classical mythology, Syrinx (Greek ??????) was 
        a nymph and a follower of Artemis, known for her 
        chastity. Pursued by the amorous Greek god Pan, 
        she ran to the river's edge and asked for assistance 
        from the river nymphs. In answer, she was 
        transformed into hollow water reeds that made a 
        haunting sound when the god's frustrated breath 
        blew across them. Pan cut the reeds to fashion
        the first set of pan pipes, which were thence forth 
        known as syrinx. (Ovid, Metamorphoses 1.689ff) 
        The word syringe originated from this word.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syrinx

        The lyre is a stringed musical instrument well known for 
        its use in Classical Antiquity and later. The recitations of 
        the Ancient Greeks were accompanied by lyre playing. 
        The lyre of Classical Antiquity was ordinarily played by 
        strumming with a plectrum, like a guitar, rather than 
        being plucked, like a harp.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyre

Note the Pythagorean nature of both instruments. Note as well at the notion of a 
neo-Pythagorean movement in the 1900's, a mirror to 2000's neo-pagans. My niece 
in the O.T.O. laughed out loud at neo-Pythagorean, hearing a pun of neo-phyte, a 
term heard with much frequency in her charming circles.

And seriously, can you get any more new age than that combo?:

        "Lew thought he knew the tune, but then it went off 
        in some direction he couldn't follow. Englishfolk, not 
        obviously exotic, were down on the carpeting in 
        poses reminding Lew of contortionists at the 
        ten-in-one." (220. 24/27)

Crowley had a legitimate interest in yoga.

        People strolled around in peculiar outfits or 
        often next to nothing at all." (220. 27/28)

Sounds like Robert Heinlein's neo-Crowlian "Stranger in a Strange Land" and 
many a group household in Berkeley/San Francisco/Marin County/Vineland. . . .


        Faces well known from the illustrated press went 
        drifting by. (220. 28)

Crowley loved nothing more than his reputation as the sine qua non of evil in 
London's tabloid press. He encouraged his reputation as the "Great Beast".  

The following passage gives a nod to the possibility that there is in fact some 
sort of strange power here goin 'round this "nice little hacienda":

        Light was subject to strange modifications not at all 
        accounted for by the smoke in the air, as bright 
        presences appeared from nowhere into full view and 
        then as abruptly vanished from it. Humans 
        reincarnated as cats, dogs and mice crept about or 
        slept by the fire. Stone pillars loomed in the further 
        reaches of the place, with the impression of steps 
        descending into subterranean mystery. (220. 29/34)

Sounds kinda like Hogwarts, eh?

Nicholas Nookshaft, has nook & shaft thus the co-joining of male and female, 
for Crowley the essential magickal operation, for Sex Magick was the primary 
source of Crowley's Neo-Voldemortorean legacy, his allure to the likes of 
Jimmy Page and a major attractor of the man's vile cult to earnest, horny 
youth. But Crowley's sexual alchemy went much further, as he was bisexual
 before his time. This further complicated a life that has yet one more 
neo-Pynchonian aspect of the co-joining of Magick, quabalah and 
espionage. For that rendering of. . . . 

        "the London chapter of the T.W.I.T."  (220/221)

. . . .let us note that the O.T.O. in London was a chapter of a group founded in 
Germany:

        During the war he went to America and participated in
        German counter-espionage, declaring that he did this 
        at the request of the British Naval Intelligence Department. 

Can't find the link right now, but it was via the German office of the O.T.O.
that Crowley got his ideas of combining Magickal action and espionage, two 
features that are constants in Pynchon.

http://www.lashtal.com/nuke/module-subjects-viewpage-pageid-29.phtml

http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a713830084~db=all

Crowley was the man behind the curtain, the Oz great and powerful, of the Crying 
of Lot 49 and Gravity's Rainbow, the great McGuffin attractor, the Big Khuna, 
the Big Cheese. . . .

And he just might be Voldemort too. . . .