The idea that there was the hidden secret at the heart of the band contradicted everything else I knew about them. It implied that they had a purpose, and that they knew what they were doing. This, to my way of thinking, seemed deeply out of character.

J M R Higgs, KLF: Chaos Magic Music Money [Amazon, Bookshop, Publisher, Local Library]

hermetic quote Higgs KLF Chaos Magic Music Money idea hidden secret contradicted everything else implied purpose knew what doing deeply out of character

Consider also:

  1. Aetheric Mechanics
  2. “Rationalism swept through Germany, more especially the illusion that man’s faculty could establish and secure a single, true, and salvation-guaranteeing religion. This rationalism expressed itself in pamphlets, in systems, in conversations, in secret societies and in many other institutions. It was not satisfied—indeed it did not even bother—to deny the distinctive doctrines of the Catholic church; its basis was rather the simple assertion: nothing in positive Christianity is acceptable except its ‘reasonable morality,’ the doctrine that God is the father of all things, and the proposition that man’s soul is immortal; what goes beyond these three assertions is either poetry or superstition or pure nonsense.”
  3. “Brighter than snow on glittering Alps, the soul Of my lost love was, bluer than the haze Of those same hills, more violent and deep Her eyes’ clear gaze, Dreaming of hidden wonders; and the goal Of life grew luminous o’er Time’s empurpled steep.”
  4. “Certain parts of the story had moved her and seemed to contain a germ of truth.”
  5. “Religion, like nations and individuals, passes through the regular gradation, first of infancy, when religious ideas and thoughts are crude in the extreme; the age of Puritanism, when innocent women and children are burned at the stake for witchcraft, when with gloomy faces and in unsightly dress the poor fanatics sacrificed every pleasure on the altar of duty; the time when Sunday was a day of horror to children from its gloom, a day when every innocent amusement was forbidden. After religion’s infancy comes youth. At that stage, the absurd dress and gloomy faces were not considered essential adjuncts to religion, but free discussion was not allowed upon religious subjects. Everything must be taken for granted, without any investigation on the part of the people. After youth comes manhood, the time when reason has full sway, when superstition and credulities form no part of religious teaching and thought. People are able to think, to reason for themselves. After the age of manhood, comes old age and that is the stage of agnosticism. Questions are being asked, and ideas propounded which must not be overlooked nor treated with contempt. All questions asked in a fair spirit, must be answered in a fair manner. It is not sufficient to say, ‘it is so’, but good and tangible reasons must be given to prove the truth of an assertion. We are now in the stage of ‘old age.’ Agnosticism and Infidelity are wide spread. After old age comes decay and the decline of the absolutely orthodox. From time immemorial, every religion has passed through the same gradation, of infancy, youth, old age and decay finally comes philosophy.”