VL-IV pgs. 98/99: Postmodern Mysticism

[Robin Landseadel]

The more I look at the term "Postmodern Mysticism" the more it seems  
to nail the issue on the head. When Pynchon speaks of "another deep  
nudge from forces unseen" he is pointing both to mysticism in general  
and how mysticism is viewed by the Zoyd Wheelers of the world, a post- 
hippie world where "what's yer sign?" is the second question you might  
receive from a stranger and the I Ching would be an expected part of  
your toolkit. Looking at definitions of mysticism it seems that many  
of Pynchon's writings are concerned with that subject in a rather  
specific fashion.

Back in the mid-eighties I lived with a pair who gave lessons in the  
Tarot and Kabbalah via a group called "Builders of the Adytum" or  
B.O.T.A. Though what you are saying concerning the disconnect between  
the Tarot and Kabbalah is no doubt true within the circles of your own  
involvement, within the circles that Pynchon describes in Gravity's  
Rainbow and [especially] Against the Day the connection of  Kabbalah  
and Tarot is very much the point. The "White Visitation" is filled  
with ex-pats from the Golden Dawn and other mystically inclined groups  
formed in the wake of the theosophists. Pynchon gets really deep [in  
his uniquely superficial way] into the history of these mystical  
movements in Against the Day, further providing the backdrop for the  
events in Gravity's Rainbow. Light and Illumination are the central  
themes of Against the Day, where Pynchon points out that the real  
revolutions in physics at the time where in the spheres of the  
electromagnetic energy and of light itself, and that illumination was  
a spiritual pursuit of many of the characters in AtD. Spiritual  
Illumination so blinding that it destroys the observer is a constant  
theme in all of Pynchon's books.

It appears that Pynchon usually cites the Rider/Waite deck when  
pointing to the cards, getting down to particulars in AtD. But I  
detect the influence of Crowley's  commentaries in "Book of Thoth" in  
Pynchon's "Weissman's Tarot" episode.

On Jan 19, 2009, at 3:39 PM, Simon Bryquer wrote:

> my intention was not to address the subject of Postmodern Mysticism,  
> a term which comes close to an oxymoron,