Crrection Re: VL-IV pgs. 98/99: Postmodern Mysticism

[Simon Bryquer]

All that in 1988  Philly.

Should read 1888.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Simon Bryquer" <sbryquer at nyc.rr.com>
To: "Robin Landseadel" <robinlandseadel at comcast.net>; <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Thursday, January 22, 2009 12:38 AM
Subject: Re: VL-IV pgs. 98/99: Postmodern Mysticism


> Once upon a time in New York City on Fourth Avenue below 14th Street was 
> an area known as 'Rare Book Row of America'.  In actuality both sides of 
> the avenue was lined with second-hand, rare bookstores. But the time I got 
> there in the late Sixties it's golden age was gone but still many 
> bookstores remained.  One the last remaining one was the Pageant which was 
> featured in quite a few movies, the one that comes to mind is Woody 
> Allen's 'Hannah and Her Sisters' --- the scene with Michael Caine and 
> Barbara Hersey. The Pageant closed in the early 90's from it's last 
> location on 9th St and 4th. Anyway to the point, one of those bookstores 
> was Samuel Weiser's, which I believe was founded in the 1920's and then 
> run by his son Donald, and had over the years evolved in to specializing 
> in rare, secondhand, and out-of-print books on the occult, mysticism, and 
> comparative religion. and since had moved many times and since, I believe 
> disappeared to Boston. But when I first frequented the store it was 
> located on Broadway and Waverly. They also became a publisher of reprint 
> in this area. In the late Sixties Weiser's sold a chart which consisted of 
> the Kabbalistic Tree of Life where all the connecting paths between the 
> Sefiroths was illustrated with one of the Waite Tarot deck of the major 
> Arcana. That is 22, also the number of letters of the Hebrew alphabet. BTW 
> Weiser's re-publisher an extremely interesting book on the Kabbalah by an 
> American of the late 19th century living in Philadephia.  Keep in mind 
> that very people had even heard of Kabbalah in the US least of all in 
> Philly. Anyway the man's name is Isaac Myer's 'Qabbalah: The Philosophical 
> Writing of Avicebron.  And subtitled among many others : The Hebrew 
> Qabbalah and Sepher Zohar,The Vedic Upanishads, the Bhagavad-Gita, and the 
> Vedantas, the Book Called I Ching, the Chinese Qabbalah and on and on with 
> illustrations. All that in 1988 Philly.
>
> I reread those pages which Heikki provided -- thank you. BTW I haven't 
> opened GR in such a long time that he began to fall apart on me --- have 
> to get a new copy but this one holds special value and meaning to me -- it 
> was mailed to me when I was living on Mallorca, not in Palma. First 
> Pynchon merely describes the images/illustration of the Tarot and in the 
> case of the Kabbalistic interpretation of Weismann he describes the Tarot 
> cards as illustrated on this chart, such as the path between 
> Netzach/Victory and Hod/Glory also known as Splendor. Weissman's cards are 
> in the formation of the mystic cross.  Pynchon  describes these very 
> dramatically as well as with humor. Pynchon essentially gives a Tarot 
> reading. I will not at this time give a Tarot reading of this formation 
> because it is of no interest for me to do so, nor should I say  I believe, 
> yours.
>
> 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.
>
> Granted, but who layed out the Tarot cards that leads to the Weismann 
> reading?  Was it some unknown Tarot card reader, or is the ever changing 
> narrator who probably does subscribe to your above description or is 
> Pynchon himself employing a literary device as a knowlegeable voice above 
> it all in on the true power or lack thereof of the Tarot and Kabbalah.
>
> 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.
>
> I did not evaluate Pynchon's knowledge of Kabbalah based on what is 
> acceptable to me in this realm, I merely followed his story and his using 
> this leitmotive and not whether he spoke for all these 'Wild Talents' but 
> when playing with these mystic toys what did Pynchon know and how much did 
> really know in order to play his chosen literary fugues.
>
> Simon Bryquer
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Robin Landseadel" <robinlandseadel at comcast.net>
> To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
> Sent: Wednesday, January 21, 2009 9:27 AM
> Subject: Re: VL-IV pgs. 98/99: Postmodern Mysticism
>
>
>> 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,
>>
>>
>