Fragment 39

Let us continue with Walter Yeeling Evans-Wentz's book "The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries''. Unlike Rolleston who wanted to make the ancient tales come to life, which he succeeded in doing, Evans -Wentz meant to write a scientific book (anthropology). This book was his doctorate thesis for his degree in anthropology. Most of us know Evans-Wentz for his books on Eastern religion. The most famous being his edition of the "Tibetan Book of the Dead". Before he went east he wrote his scholarly study of Fairies in 1911. For this book Evans-Wentz did a field study of the folklore of fairies. He interviewed people, read accounts, and studied the ancient folklore of fairies. When I say fairies this includes pixies, leprechauns, and so on. One of the first things that strikes the modern reader is that at the time of Evans-Wentz there were still two competing metaphysics of science. Vitalism still had its champions. Of course, the champions of the mechanistic cosmos won out. Although in present times there is a renewed interest in vitalism as the mechanistic paradigm is falling apart. Vitalism plays an important part in Evans-Wentz's theory of the entities behind the fairy phenomenon. He accepts that there is a reality to the entities of folklore. So let us examine Evans Wentz's Psychological theory that argues for the existence of fairies. Evans-Wentz shows in a detailed study that the beliefs in fairies or equivalent entities is a universal belief. I am not going to go over his study, for those interested go to the book. The theory states that people in different geographical regions throughout the world call these entities different names. Even in the Celtic countries that Evans-Wentz studied different names are used for these entities. Evans-Wentz makes a comparison with the German goblins, the elementals of Medieval times, and similar beliefs throughout the world. Evans-Wentz argues that the different entities found world wide are manifestations of the same phenomenon. In the late twentieth century there was some interest in a Unified Theory of Apparitions, and this is what Evans-Wentz is attempting. Both of the respected U.F.O. researchers J. Vallee, and J. Keel came to believe that the entities of U.F.O. mythology are not from another planet, but somehow connected to the Earth. So let us go to a quote from Evan-Wentz: "Again if we examine all fairy-like beings from a certain superficial point of view, or even from a mythological point of view it is easy to discern that they are universally credited with precisely the same characters, attributes, actions, or powers-as the particular peoples possess who have faith in them; and then the further fact emerges that this anthropomorphising is due directly to the more immediate social environment: we see merely an anthropomorphically colored picture of the whole of an age long social evolution of the tribe race, or nation who have fostered the particular aspect of this one world folk-religion." In simpler terms, that animism is true, that there is an energy leak from matter. That this energy is then turned into the familiar entities (pixies, fairies, gray aliens, etc.) by the culture anthropomorphizing the energy. Evans-Wentz relies heavily on the philosophy of William James' theory of an energy leak(vitalism). This energy leak is also the cause of life. This is Evans-Wentz's psychological theory. Let us again go to the words of Evans-Wentz. "If there were in the universe consistent form, or to take permanent possession of an organism yet always craving to do so, it might get its head into the air, parasitically so to speak by profiting by weak spots in the armour of human minds, and slipping in and stirring up there the sleeping tendencies to personate, Expanding this theory." Evans-Wentz follows this quote in the following words. "Expanding this theory into a pan psychic view of the universe and assuming a "Mother-sea of consciousness ``, a bank upon which we draw." This theory would be in agreement with the U.F.O. researchers J. Vallee and J. Keel. That the "extraterrestrials" are produced by the vitalism of the planet shaped by the peoples of modern society. Evans-Wentz is very ambitious in his theorizing, I am now going to change topics. to take up what might be the only existing material on the beliefs of the Druids. So let us move on to Evans-Wentz's examination of the Welsh ``Barddas". The "Barddas" can be traced back to 1560, so there is some question if it expresses authentic Druid beliefs, but it does express Non-Christian beliefs. Again we go to Evans-Wentz : "There are three circles of existence: the circle of Cengant (the circle of Infinity) where there is neither aminale nor inanimate matter save God, and God only can traverse it; The circle of Abred (the circle of Re-birth) where every principle existence is derived from the dead, and man has traversed it; the circle of Gwynvyd (The circle of the white i.e. the circle of perfecting), the living is stronger than the dead, and every principle existence is derived from the living and life, that is from God, and man shall the traverse it; nor will man attain perfect knowledge until he shall have fully traversed the circle of Gwynvyd, for no absolute knowledge can be obtained but by the experience of the senses from having borne and suffered every condition and incident... The tree stabilities of knowledge ; to have traversed every state of life; to remember every state and its incidents, and to be able to traverse every state, as one would wish, for the sake of experience and judgement; and this will be obtained in the circle of Gwynvyd." Yes, the Druids like almost all ancient religions believe in reincarnation. If the reader is reminded of Eastern philosophy and religion, they would be right. Again to the words of Evans-Wentz: "Thus the Barddas expounds the complete Bardic scheme of evolution as one in which the monad or soul, as a knowledge of physical existence is gradually unfolded to it passes the human kingdom, where for the first time exercising freewill in a physical body, it becomes responsible for all its acts, the Barddic doctrine as otherwise stated is that the soul commenced its course in the lowest water-animalcule and passed at death to other bodies of a superior orde, successively, and a regular gradation until it entered that of man. Humanity is a state of liberty, where man can attach himself to either good or evil as he pleases. Once in the human kingdom the soul begins a second period of growth altogether different from the preceding-a period of growth towards divinity; and with this in our study we are chiefly concerned. It seems clear that the circle of Gwynvyd finds its parallel in Nirvana of Buddhism being like it a state of absolute knowledge and felicity in which man becomes a divine being a veritable god." There is much else I could explore in Evans-Wentz; the book is rich in ideas and concepts, but it would make this "Fragment" too long.If the reader is interested in more the book awaits. I can recommend both books. Rolleston tells a good story while maintaining impeccable scholarship. Evans-Wentz offers the best and most scholarly book on the Fairy-Faith ever written, also with impeccable scholarship. To end this "Fragment" I want to give some thoughts on Evans-Wentz psychological theory, and then I shall pay tribute and relate the tale of my friend John Garner and his encounter with a mysterious entity. I am not going to endorse vitalism. I am still pondering it. I do believe these entities do manifest to us on the physical plane, but do not have a theory (I am still not convinced of my theory of realties phasing in and out), but I do have some thoughts I wish to share. As I have stated in previous "Fragments" the human mind or brain is constantly producing dreams. We think in scenarios. There are some people who are more sensitive or attuned to the dreams that humanity produces. In this category I would place F. Nietzsche, A. Crowley, A.O. Spare, and H.P. Lovecraft. As I said these entities do manifest and are conditioned by the dreams of the culture. In ancient Celtic mythology the choice was to live as a noble god or to degenerate into a fairy, pixie, or leprechaun. The dream of the Celts was different before the advent of Christianity where we all have degenerated into pixies. This can be observed in the story of Ossian. When Ossian comes back to Ireland from Fairyland he is a noble giant, surrounded by the shrunken, weak humans of Christian Ireland. As soon as he hits the ground, he becomes a withered, shrunken old man. Remember that Ossian lived in a heroic age, fear did not play the part in humanities dreams that if would with the Christian era. Even in the ghost stories of the ancients fear and horror were not there. We have examples of ancient ghost stories from Roman and Egypt Sources. They read more like detective stories than horror stories. Fear and evil were not intrinsic parts of the cosmos (dreams of the cosmos), as they would become in the Christian era. The fallen world, original sin, fear of Hell, and the end of the world is always coming are intrinsic features of the Christian dream. In Medieval times the entities would assume the form of demons, and elementals, the good entities became angels or apparitions of Mary. In our age these entities manifest as beautiful, shining alien gods to contactees, and Gray Aliens and M.I.B. to abductees. There is the utopian vision of the beautiful blonde aliens that compare to the angels of Medieval times, While the Gray Aliens and M.I.B. would be the demons. The dream of Christianity is the utopian vision of the New Jerusalem, and the nightmare was demons and Hell. In U.F.O. mythology the dream is the beautiful Aliens from some sort of Galactic council and the nightmare is the Grey Aliens experimenting on one, or the weird sinsterness of the M.I.B. The M.I.B. are degenerated sinister bureaucrats, the Gray Aliens are mad scientists that experiment on people. Again the aliens are moulded by our culture. In Crowley's vision of the mysterious entity known as Lam, we have the first Gray Alien. Crowley was ahead of his time in many ways, because he was more sensitive to the dreams of humanity than most people. In Lovecraft we observe monsters from space with a sinister technology. We are at a point where the Christian paradigm is falling apart, so our dreams and nightmares are changing. Of course a new paradigm shall arise. This is the question for humans of today, do we consciously build this paradigm or do we unconsciously evolve the new paradigm. This is of course the vision of F. Nietzsche, and A.O. Spare that we consciously build the paradigm and get rid of the fear of the old paradigm. It is our choice. To conclude I will give my tribute to my old friend John Garner, and tell his strange tale. It was in the early 1980s I was a quiet pensive young man in my twenties. Unlike other young people I was not concerned with my career of romance, instead I was obsessed with occultism and philosophy. The problems that bothered me the most were epistemological problems: whether altered states of consciousness could lead to secret knowledge. So it should be no surprise that I became interested in drugs for altered states of consciousness. At the time I got introduced to a group of well off old hippies that were associated with Terrence McKenna. I even got to meet McKenna. I listened to him talk, at this age I was more interested in listening than talking. This was before Mckenna's fame and fortune, his main outlet for his ideas was a late night slot on the radio station KPFK where they played a tape of his lectures, after an Alan Watts tape. I remember as I listened to him talk I was not impressed. It seemed a reboot of the Hippie philosophy of transformation through the use of psychedelic drugs to produce a utopian age. I also remember thinking that his advocacy for taking heroic doses of cancer causing mushrooms was a bad idea.I was not surprised when he died of brain cancer decades later. I left the group, I was never fond of old hippies and their sanctimoniousness, and pretensions. Soon after I met John Garner. John was slightly older than me, but was no hippie. He was totally different from McKenna with none of the sanctimony or pretensions. John was an opiate addict. I would say Heroin addict, but hohn usually found a way into the legal drug supply. His favorite drug was Dialaudid. John;s addiction was much more than a mere addiction; it was a vocation. He was devoted to the study of drugs and their effects on consciousness. The only books in his Spartan apartment were on drugs; National Formularies, Pharmacopoeias, and editions of the U.S.P. Not only did he study drugs he had taken almost every mind altering substance one could name. Unlike McKenna, John did not believe in any transformational value for drugs to create a utopian society, or even for superior knowledge. John was interested in the high for the high's sake. He regarded himself as materialistic and scientific, he would often laugh at my obsession with occultism and philosophy. He looked down on such things as occultism or U.F.O.s. He also knew nothing about such subjects and dismissed my interest in them. John's only intention was to get high. He was so sensitive and knowledgeable about the effects of drugs he could tell the difference between a seconal and a nembutal without looking. John was in many ways opposite of my uncle; his knowledge was deep but narrow. Physically he was tall and very thin, had thick black hair, a bad complexion and wore thick glasses. He usually wore jeans, white sneakers, and a Ramones t-shirt. He made his living by ticket scalping, he also dragged me into ticket scalping. I was not good at it. Anyone who went to concerts in the late 1970s to the 1980s in Los Angeles probably saw John or talked to him. In his ticket scalping career he smoked a joint with Jackson Brown and got chased down a block by Belinda Carlise. The problem John had was he was only successful at ticket scalping when he was high. When he was high he was outgoing, and talked like a radio you could not turn off. When he was sober he was quiet, withdrawn and avoided social interaction. He smoked marijuana when he had it . I remember many all night discussions smoking marijuana in his room, where I learned more about drugs and their effects than any credentialed Professor or old hippie could have told me. John was my Guru into drugs and their effects on the mind. Like most drug addicts except for rich Rock Stars John had many periods of sobriety, some forced, and some voluntary. My friendship with John had lots of good times and lots of bad times, but I do miss him.To the tale. During one of John's periods of sobriety in the early 1980s in Hollywood. (Both of us lived in Hollywood at the time this happened) John decided to go out for a walk. He found himself in front of the staircase on Wilton Place, and decided to climb the staircase up to the street above. At the top of the staircase was a red bearded man dressed in a black suit. (remember red is the color of magic in Celtic folklore, and the black resembles the M.I.B.) When JOhn reached the top the man told him he had been waiting for him. John replied that it was impossible because he did not know he was going to walk that way until he did it. The man had a strange accent, John said it was sort of like Scandinavian, but he could not place it. The accent was, of course, the familiar sing-song accent associated with the M.I.B. The man then lapsed into some crazy talk, that he had once owned one of the houses on the street, and predicted some sort of doom for the area. Then the man turned the conversation back to John. Telling him that everything started with his birthdate. At this point the man produced a new looking yearbook calendar for 1955, this was the year John was born. (the M.I.B. always seem to have new looking items) John stated freak out. The man seeing John's reaction tried to reassure John by showing and telling him that there was nothing written in the yearbook. This did nothing to reassure John the fear was rising. Then the man opened the book to the month of June, and told John he was born on a Thursday in June. (John was born on a Thursday in June, even though he did not know this at the time. The man then pinpointed his birthday to June 16 (John's birthday). John really wanted to get away at this point and told the man he had to go. The man then told him they needed to talk and that John did not have much time. This at least got a flare of anger from John who informed the man that he expected to live a normal lifespan. (John was always the scientist) The man told John that he would die in the 90s, the man told John the exact year, but John would never tell anyone what year it was, only saying that it was in the 90s. The fear became too much and John bolted, he ran down the steps, and did not stop until he got to a phone. He then called his drug connection to buy enough drugs to blot the experience out of his memory. Of course, this did not work, he was haunted by the experience for the rest of his life. For the rest of his life, John lived with a sense of impending doom, that only drugs gave some relief from. John Garner died of a Heroin overdose in 1991.