Tag Archives: buckminster fuller

Jesus Christ, Sun of God

Hermetic Library fellow T Polyphilus reviews Jesus Christ, Sun of God: Ancient Cosmology and Early Christian Symbolism by David Fideler from Quest Books:

David Fideler's Jesus Christ, Sun of God from Quest Books

 

“Ancient Cosmology and Early Christian Symbolism” barely suggests the profound topics addressed in this wonderful book. Besides drawing out many of the continuities between the Pythagorean tradition and the Christian mysteries, Fideler’s text demonstrates the span and depth of the idea of harmony as the metaphysical basis for universal brotherhood.

There is a certain palpable sympathy between the doctrines expressed by Fideler and the elegant and powerful work of Buckminster Fuller, which becomes a matter of direct allusion in the final chapter with Fideler’s appeal to “the Philosophy of Whole Systems.”

A great strength of the book is its host of illustrative diagrams, conveying the logos of the author’s thesis in a more varied and powerful manner than text alone could ever accomplish. Jesus Christ: Sun of God is a master’s piece, showing how its author can apply all seven of the arts and sciences to a single, essential topic, and encouraging any fellow craftsman to follow such a course to “the Invocation of Harmony and the Unification of Culture.”

Anyone interested in the real spiritual value of Christianity (or arithmetic!) can enjoy this book, and will be likely to learn much from it. [via]

 

 

The Hermetic Library Reading Room is an imaginary and speculative future reification of the library in the physical world, a place to experience a cabinet of curiosities offering a confabulation of curation, context and community that engages, archives and encourages a living Western Esoteric Tradition. If you would like to contribute to the Hermetic Library Reading Room, consider supporting the library or contact the librarian.

The Book of the Breast

Hermetic Library fellow T Polyphilus reviews The Book of the Breast (also published as Ishtar Rising: Or, Why the Goddess Went to Hell and What to Expect Now That She’s Returning) by Robert Anton Wilson:

Robert Anton Wilson's The Book of the Breast (Ishtar Rising)

 

The Book of the Breast is a sort of quintessential Robert Anton Wilson manifesto. It plainly shows his background in the Freudian mind-control Madison Avenue culture of the 1950s and 60s, along with his libertarian futurist aspirations. On these bases he offers a wide-ranging theory of society and religion. Wilson’s canon of heroes are on display: Aleister Crowley, Lenny Bruce, Timothy Leary, and Buckminster Fuller, among others. There are a modest number of black-and-white photo illustrations of women and their breasts as featured in different cultures.

The intellectual framework is a little overdetermined, tending to straightjacket all human behaviors and perspectives into oral and anal categories. While Wilson admits the shortcomings of oral mentalities, he doesn’t seem to allow for any possible benefit of the anal. A genital cathexis must be inferred or brought from other sources by the reader. Also, the book includes a number of factual errors. In particular, the history is weak. (Cathars as sex cultists? I don’t think so.) But it is chatty, entertaining, and basically sane. The final chapter is especially good, combining a plea for erotic liberty with remarks on technique, rousing misquotes from Liber Legis, and sadly over-optimistic forecasts of cultural emancipation. [via]

 

 

The Hermetic Library Reading Room is an imaginary and speculative future reification of the library in the physical world, a place to experience a cabinet of curiosities offering a confabulation of curation, context and community that engages, archives and encourages a living Western Esoteric Tradition. If you would like to contribute to the Hermetic Library Reading Room, consider supporting the library or contact the librarian.