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Numinous Machines
Rudolf Otto coined the term numinous to refer to the primal experience of the holy. When captured and articulated, the numinous is the basis of religion and culture. But in our age of religious unbelief and cultural decline, where do we find the numinous sources of spiritual and cultural renewal? According to Christopher Pankhurst’s Numinous Machines, the answer is all around us — along the margins and even in the dregs of modern culture — if only we have eyes to see.
Numinous Machines collects thirteen essays and four short stories in which Christopher Pankhurst descrys the numinous from a number of different angles—philosophy, religion, Traditionalism, magic, visual art, classical and popular music, contemporary literature, and even the spirit of place. Pankhurst uses such figures as Spengler, Wagner, Nietzsche, Sibelius, Giacinto Scelsi, James MacMillan, Damien Hirst, Alan Garner, David Myatt, Aleister Crowley, Ananda Coomaraswamy, and even Derrida and Stephen King to open our minds and sharpen our discernment.
Numinous Machines establishes Christopher Pankhurst as one of the leading theorists and critics of the New Right.
PRAISE FOR NUMINOUS MACHINES
“This collection of Christopher Pankhurst’s essays will—or should—provide the groundwork from which springs an ongoing and lively dialectic for many years, one that has the potential to redefine much about the New Right in the Anglosphere and further afield. What Pankhurst has achieved is the articulation of a philosophy that is quite unique at a time when one might wonder whether there is anything unique left to say. Like any genuine work of philosophy, it prompts many questions, and therefore provokes—literally provokes—one to think, and in directions that are usually left derelict by the Right.”—Kerry Bolton, author of More Artists of the Right
“Christopher Pankhurst makes a compelling case for the numinous manifestations of our god, who is reborn again like a phoenix, if only we are willing to listen and see. This is one of the most important books of our time, one that transcends Spengler’s The Decline of the West like a shining aureole.”—Leo Yankevich, author of The Hypocrisies of Heaven
CONTENTS
Foreword by Kerry Bolton
Author’s Note
1. The Numinous Genesis of Culture
2. Music of the Future
3. Parsifal & the Possibility of Transcendence
4. Sibelius & the God of the Wood
5. The Confession of Isobel Gowdie
6. Giacinto A Soundtrack for Radical Traditionalism
7. The Dance Perichoresis in the Novels of Alan Garner
8. God Has Become Damien Hirst, Religion, & Death
9. Nexus of David Myatt & the Acausal
10. The Metaphysics of Death
11. Ashes Hollow
12. Liber III vel Jugorum & Self-Mutilation
13. The Yoke
14. The Immortal Death of Mishima
15. An Experiment in Relativity
16. The Presence of the From Ancestor Worship to Hauntology
17. The Grey Wood
Index
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Christopher Pankhurst’s writings on music, the visual arts, literature, religion, folklore, occultism, philosophy, and politics have appeared in Counter-Currents/North American New Right, Helios, Black Gnosis, and the Thoughts and Perspectives series. Numinous Machines is his first book.
Numinous Machines collects thirteen essays and four short stories in which Christopher Pankhurst descrys the numinous from a number of different angles—philosophy, religion, Traditionalism, magic, visual art, classical and popular music, contemporary literature, and even the spirit of place. Pankhurst uses such figures as Spengler, Wagner, Nietzsche, Sibelius, Giacinto Scelsi, James MacMillan, Damien Hirst, Alan Garner, David Myatt, Aleister Crowley, Ananda Coomaraswamy, and even Derrida and Stephen King to open our minds and sharpen our discernment.
Numinous Machines establishes Christopher Pankhurst as one of the leading theorists and critics of the New Right.
PRAISE FOR NUMINOUS MACHINES
“This collection of Christopher Pankhurst’s essays will—or should—provide the groundwork from which springs an ongoing and lively dialectic for many years, one that has the potential to redefine much about the New Right in the Anglosphere and further afield. What Pankhurst has achieved is the articulation of a philosophy that is quite unique at a time when one might wonder whether there is anything unique left to say. Like any genuine work of philosophy, it prompts many questions, and therefore provokes—literally provokes—one to think, and in directions that are usually left derelict by the Right.”—Kerry Bolton, author of More Artists of the Right
“Christopher Pankhurst makes a compelling case for the numinous manifestations of our god, who is reborn again like a phoenix, if only we are willing to listen and see. This is one of the most important books of our time, one that transcends Spengler’s The Decline of the West like a shining aureole.”—Leo Yankevich, author of The Hypocrisies of Heaven
CONTENTS
Foreword by Kerry Bolton
Author’s Note
1. The Numinous Genesis of Culture
2. Music of the Future
3. Parsifal & the Possibility of Transcendence
4. Sibelius & the God of the Wood
5. The Confession of Isobel Gowdie
6. Giacinto A Soundtrack for Radical Traditionalism
7. The Dance Perichoresis in the Novels of Alan Garner
8. God Has Become Damien Hirst, Religion, & Death
9. Nexus of David Myatt & the Acausal
10. The Metaphysics of Death
11. Ashes Hollow
12. Liber III vel Jugorum & Self-Mutilation
13. The Yoke
14. The Immortal Death of Mishima
15. An Experiment in Relativity
16. The Presence of the From Ancestor Worship to Hauntology
17. The Grey Wood
Index
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Christopher Pankhurst’s writings on music, the visual arts, literature, religion, folklore, occultism, philosophy, and politics have appeared in Counter-Currents/North American New Right, Helios, Black Gnosis, and the Thoughts and Perspectives series. Numinous Machines is his first book.
222 pages, Hardcover
Published December 10, 2017
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
June 24, 2019
A most stimulating collection of essays, which posits that our culture must become 'beautiful and threatening' again to be spiritually renewed.
The old culture (‘Western’ culture), whose acceptance of polyphony supposedly thanks to Palestrina at the Council of Trent meant an unparalleled flowering of genius but also contained the germ of its own decline, is dead. At least publicly - it can still live within us, giving seed to a new flowering of higher civilisation to come.
Pankhurst hints at where he thinks the growth of this new civilisation will be most nutritiously rooted. Not everyone will agree with his choices, but they are certainly stimulating.
The most interesting piece is ’The Metaphysics of Death’, examining whether true AI is possible.
There are also four short stories buried like hidden gems in among the essays (Pankhurst has good storytelling skills).
My main criticism is that he seems to dismiss the idea of space travel, which could the very ‘beautiful and threatening’ thing that would reinvigorate Faustian man!
Other contents include:
‘Tapiola: Sibelius and the God of the Wood’
‘Perichoresis in the Novels of Alan Garner’
‘Giacinto Scelsi: A Soundtrack for Radical Traditionalism’
‘The Immortal Death of Mishima’
‘Parsifal and the Possibility of Transcendence’
and
‘The Presence of the Past’
The old culture (‘Western’ culture), whose acceptance of polyphony supposedly thanks to Palestrina at the Council of Trent meant an unparalleled flowering of genius but also contained the germ of its own decline, is dead. At least publicly - it can still live within us, giving seed to a new flowering of higher civilisation to come.
Pankhurst hints at where he thinks the growth of this new civilisation will be most nutritiously rooted. Not everyone will agree with his choices, but they are certainly stimulating.
The most interesting piece is ’The Metaphysics of Death’, examining whether true AI is possible.
There are also four short stories buried like hidden gems in among the essays (Pankhurst has good storytelling skills).
My main criticism is that he seems to dismiss the idea of space travel, which could the very ‘beautiful and threatening’ thing that would reinvigorate Faustian man!
Other contents include:
‘Tapiola: Sibelius and the God of the Wood’
‘Perichoresis in the Novels of Alan Garner’
‘Giacinto Scelsi: A Soundtrack for Radical Traditionalism’
‘The Immortal Death of Mishima’
‘Parsifal and the Possibility of Transcendence’
and
‘The Presence of the Past’
Displaying 1 of 1 review