Jeff Russell

Eh, I don't question (taking claims at face value) they have a right to do so, but that doesn't by itself prove they aren't making the world worse - I think "condemning", in this sense, is quite fitting.

I wouldn't classify myself as a prude for having a problem with that; and, well, Kaldera also made a claim about it not being always about sex, but I might say the difference from the guys at National Geographic is that they aren't having sex while doing it (technically, some of the stuff about cultures on National Geographic omits sexual content Westerners would dislike, but well ...).

Yeah, I guess I don't have a specific theory of how they're making the world worse with these actions, just a negative gut reaction, and I don't feel like I'm knowledgeable or experienced enough to rely on that gut reaction in this field. It's further complicated by the fact that I've found some of their books rather helpful. Still, it does set off my "by their fruits ye shall know them" alarm to tread carefully.

I don't have any problem with the idea of his demanding respect, but I think he sounds like a pretty non-authoritarian (not to be mistaken for "nice") boss in the myths. (Of course, the culture that worshipped him had slavery, but that's a problem nearly any religion arguably "has" by our standards.)

C5.2) Just to make absolutely sure: you know that there's explicit mention of reincarnation in ancient Europe, right? ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myth_of_Er .)

Thank you, I did, but embarrassingly enough, I only learned about this about a year ago when I finally got around to reading The Republic in its entirety. I was *shocked* to discover that the most famous work of Western philosophy has a super weird, super detailed discussion of reincarnation for the finale. I was then amused that when I went looking for discussion of it, *every* academic article was like "what weird symbolic point was Plato trying to make here?" and absolutely no one took seriously that maybe he (and/or Socrates) was trying to present what he believed to be accurate information about how the world works that might help you live a better life.

Makes sense, but I might want to ask about half the population!

Indeed! Maybe dead women are too busy being called up by necromancers to prophesize about the future to get a dedicated place to hang out.

Was wondering about whether you had a better-informed opinion, actually. I read and heard a few interviews with him, but read none of his books. He helped spread Sigurd Agrell's Uthark Theory, which I think has merit, and I think so do some of his LHP interpretations (e.g., if I may just throw another Therion song at you, see The Blood of Pingu - sorry, I mean Kingu; what I mean is, again, "telluric current"); but to me he sounded like "pompous windbag too fixated on a supposed antinomianism and paying too much attention to the lower nature*", i.e. a Thelemite stereotype?

Ah, sorry not to have been able to help you out there. More and more it's becoming clear to me that just about every occultist is a mixed bag in some way. The very best you can hope for seems to be "you had your head on straight and did everything right, but you followed a spiritual path that doesn't suit me so well" (like, e.g. Dion Fortune and seemingly JMG).

*: note that his people having started from modern Scandinavians, frankly it's possible they need even *more* lower nature than what their LHP training may give them, but I'm definitely not Scandinavian, so even if that's true, I can't assume it relevant for me.

Heh, yeah, I hadn't exactly considered the cultural element here, but that does make good sense. In my own work, I've gotten the impression that I do indeed need to get more in touch with the Telluric current, but have been consistently getting the lesson "it's not just about sex! calm down and pay attention to what else is going on here."

I'll recommend Secret of the Runes and the 3 subsequent albums; the ones before are less symphonic and the ones after less metal IIRC. (Lyrics-wise, at least some of the albums before are no less well-written occult-wise, though they may be about parts of occultist you'd be (I am) less interested in; I think some of the later ones go away from occultism.)

Thanks much for this.

Bought Fire in the H...wite Stone - thanks! You know, Therion's a fairly well-known metal band that you did hear a bit about before, while, notwithstanding Dan Capp being well-connected enough to have called a bunch of other musicians, I think he's still pretty obscure; so, let me try to repay that - have you heard about Farya Faraji already (I just remembered I hadn't actually bought any of his albums.)? His work isn't mainly about religion, but there are themes from a bunch of religions, some of his YouTube videos debunk wrong impressions about musical history, and you might want to check the songs in Echoes of Byzantium Vol. I (as per the Bandcamp track list), and Thrymskvidha and The Varangians, including his commmentary.

You're welcome, and thanks for this! I had not heard of Faraji, I'm checking out his stuff now. Poking around, I was like "wait, is that the Misirlou I think it is?" and sure enough! I had no idea it originated as a folksong, I only knew the Dick Dale version and its many homages.

C7.1) I might be too Progressive (and maybe secondarily too history-minded) to remember that as often as I should, but it does appear to make sense.

I bring it up at least as much to remind myself as anything else!