The Book of Thoth

Third, the parallels to Pynchon's other novels, recalling rocket scientists who have now made home in America after the end of the war, and who bear pseudo-religious ideologies that will brainwash the future Earth.

And fourth, a certain allusion within The Crying of Lot 49 itself, a character, Mr. Thoth, likely being a reference to Aleister Crowley's The Book of Thoth.

On to Oedipa Moss.

Normally, I would analyze Oedipa Mas' name in the analysis of the first chapter of the novel, however, we're going to have quite a bit to go over there, so this will save some time.

Right, pushing himself to physical extremes in the Alps.

He made the first recorded ascent of the Mech without a professional guide in 1897, which shocked the climbing community.

But Cambridge also brought about a profound personal and sexual awakening.

It did.

Yes.

In April 1920, an exhausted Crowley consulted the I Ching, asking where to establish his new world.

It guided him to the quiet fishing town of Cefalu in Sicily.

Where he rents a dilapidated old villa called Santa Barbara.

Page famously portrayed this character in the band's concert film, The Song Remains the Same.

In Crowley's Book of Thoth, the hermit represents the path of the adept, one who seeks the light of ancient wisdom in isolation.

Jimmy Page's adoption of this persona signaled his role as the band's megas, the silent director of their sonic and spiritual trajectory.

Now, the conspiracy regarding Page's occultism often centers on the string of tragedies that struck the band between 1975 and 1980.

That's kind of offensive to me, but I, I'll stick with it for a little bit here, because- There is this idea that the Pan or the Cernunnos or the Baphomet can appear to physical presence.

Crowley says in The Book of Thoth how ancient this idea may be, claiming that Jewish blood libel lies at the root of the Christian fear of witchcraft.

He says in The Book of Thoth

Quote, "The cult of the mountain is an exact parallel.

The Old Testament is full of attacks upon kings who celebrated worship in high places.

She's of the earth.

And, and they're, they're spiritual emissaries, right? She assists him in manifesting on this realm the, the energies of this new aeon that's coming, right? He, he writes later in, in the Book of Thoth that we're gonna come to, he, he's discussing the philosophy underpinning the tarot deck he's going to co-design later.

This is much later with Lady Frieda H- Harris.

He describes the scarlet woman.

Uh, it, it's very, very helpful if you have the Thoth tarot deck to have Liber 777-

Mm-hmm

... and the Book of Thoth, because it'll help you sort of understand his, his syncretic system of s- of symbolic, um, of symbolism.

Um, it was his first attempt at a biography.

The, this one piece of explanation from, uh, Aleister Crowley can explain, not all, but I would say a good amount of the main differences between RWS and Thoth, uh, which is this disk thing.

So in the book of Thoth, he explains how disks are a more universal symbol than pentacles or coins.

Mm-hmm.

Coins being a human invention, money, and, uh, currency.

Sometimes people see the card and they're like, "I'm not involved in any legal situation."

Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

"I don't understand why I'm getting this card." And very often if you bring your understanding of the card from the Book of Thoth in, it can really open up the interpretive meanings and make it a lot-

Absolutely