Name: The Garden of Hermetic Dreams (The Dedalus Occult Reader)
Rating: 3.83 (3 reviews)
ISBN: 9781903517321

Shawn

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January 29, 2022

So, I generally don't read excerpts of larger works that I have already read or intend to read. However, this one is an exception and I can easily explain why (of the 19 offerings here, 13 are excerpts from novels or longer texts). As Gary Lachman says in the succinct introduction ("Foraging In Atlantis"), this book could been seen as the second half of a much larger text published in two pieces, that first being The Dedalus Book of the Occult (which I don't own yet) and the intention of this overall text was a look at how the "Occult Tradition" (whether Hermeticism, Rosicrucianism, Satanism, Swedenborgism, etc.) manifested in the literature of the 19th and early 20th centuries. The first volume was full of essays on that topic, as well as excerpts of "non-fictional" occult texts. Here, we get some of the actual writings (with choices, I presume, dictated somewhat by public domain status and Dedalus' own catalog). So, this book touches on two topics I find interesting, and the chance to see excerpts contextualized within this framework proved promising enough for me to add it to my read-list.

FIRST TIER REVIEW
Who would want to read this book?. Perhaps, not the average fan of "weird", supernatural or horror fiction as it doesn't really serve the purpose of an anthology of "stories". Those with an interest in the occult and how it was presented in literature may find it useful, as well as specific sections for those interested in, say Alchemy or Freemasonry. Honestly, it probably best serves as a sampler for those interested in reading two or more of the works excerpted here - you get a chunk of a bunch of things to see what fits your tastes.

SECOND TIER REVIEW
A somewhat successful compilation that, I felt, could have been a bit more rigorous in its selection of texts (what, none of Aleister Crowley's fiction? No W.B. Yeats?) and that perhaps serves its stated purpose less effectively than it succeeds at being a sampler of a nice variety of interesting texts. The contrast created by the works, especially near the end of the selection, achieves an interesting effect. But, honestly, only track it down if you think you're going to be reading a few of the things here and want a taster to save you some time.

THIRD TIER REVIEW
As the above reductions note, this was something of an oddity. There is a sense that perhaps we are reading a collection not so much driven by the stated theme but by the publishing status (public domain or available from Dedalus) of the works. Still, as the earliest pieces shift from classic Diabolism/Satanic evil into symbolic and allusive systems of thought (Alchemy, Freemasonry) that hoped to make order and sense out of the unknowable, and from there back into Diabolism which focuses more on the psyche, and then awareness of the vast conceptual vistas being opened up by advances in science, only to eventually grasp that such vistas are around us everywhere and being dwelt "in", and that these "unseen realms" may influence the psyche ("the outside is the inside") - or in fact be the unconscious - well, a curious effect is achieved, and so I must consider the book a success, if not a complete one (that H.G. Wells story is surely a ringer - excellent though it may be!).

So lets look at the selections, as they are given to us.

The excerpts of William Beckford's Vathek are less about "revelatory occult thought or philosophy" than they are indicative of the basic concept of the dangers of consorting with Satanic (or would that be Eblistic?) forces. Still, it was fun to take a short revisit to this sprawling and ornate Gothic/Orientalist text (which I reviewed here, with some follow-up here) and watch the incredibly powerful and incredibly bored Caliph Vathek (his gloriously appointed "sense palaces" a nice echo of Prospero's chambers in Poe's "Masque of the Red Death") deal with the hideous, inscrutable Giaour - a sorcerer (or perhaps Eblis himself) who offers untold knowledge and power for the blood sacrifice of a mere 50 boys (and this after Vathek has been talked out of murdering anyone who offered to help him decipher a mysterious inscription but failed at the task)!

Next we have an excerpt from Jacques Cazotte's The Devil In Love (on my to-read list). Similarly, while this section involves the calling up of spirits (as an impetuous youth tutored by a mysterious stranger has just learned to do), there's not a lot of occult theory beyond the usual "don't call up what you can't send back" - and in this case, it seems likely that this is less because of a mistake in ritual magic procedure as it is that the spirit - Beelzebub itself - has fallen in love with the punk mage!

I've read a few excerpts from The Manuscript Found in Saragossa by Jan Potocki (who ended his life by shooting himself with a silver bullet because he thought he was a werewolf!) over the years and am itching to get to it soon. The extensive selection here is a nice taste of this strangely recursive narrative of stories within stories, as we hear of a traveler in bandit-haunted wastelands who loses his retinue, stays the night at an abandoned refuge and is awakened by two beautiful women (or are they) who tell him stories about how they are related to him, and have been raised without any knowledge of men (there's some coy intimation of lesbian incest here) and how he need only renounce his God to have access to their family's fortune. He does so, and things do not turn out as he expected. Next day, traveling again, he lodges with a priest who is caring for a demon possessed man, whose story of an illicit love for his Step-Aunt (and his Stepmother's illicit love for him) eventually leads to an outcome very similar to the traveler's earlier experience. Again, not much Occult Theory, per se, but the wily and mercurial ways of the demonic are nicely sketched and contrasted with the traveler's knowledge from folklore versus what he actually encounters - and I love the weird circularity the text is working in, which adds to the bad-dream feeling.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's "The Fairy Tale Of The Green Snake And The Beautiful Lilly" was new to me. It's also the first solidly "occult" piece here, being an alchemical allegory written in symbolic language. Unfortunately, for me, that's kind of like trying to read a manual on repairing a shortwave radio when you don't know anything about electronics. I'm sure it all *means* something, and no doubt could be deciphered by a scholar but the only thing I got out of it were some fun re-envisioning of standard fairy tale characters (Will-o-the-wisps who need a ferry to cross a river, a giant who has no strength but whose shadow is powerful) despite the inscrutability.

I've previously read the entirety of The Golden Flower Pot by E.T.A. Hoffmann and, in truth, as a full text it has some of the same problems of oblique impenetrability of the preceding Goethe. But in short form, these problems are undone by Hoffmann's skill at character writing and setting his scenes in a recognizable world in which the mundane interacts with the numinous. We follow young student Anselm (whose kind of like an unlucky, Jerry Lewis "disastrous fool" figure but placed in 19th Century Germany) as he has a sudden and unlikely "peak experience" type transcendent vision of hidden, celestial powers inhabiting the world around him. Later, employed by a mysterious sorcerer-figure (The Archivist) to transcribe magical texts, he is given a vision of ancient Atlantis explaining the strange and alchemical spirits who have been interacting with him, and with one of whom he has fallen in love!

Honoré de Balzac's Seraphita: is also on my to-read list, but the excerpt here is a bit of a drag as a small cast of characters are allowed an audience with some 17-year-old Swedish girl who is also some form of enlightened being. I say a drag because the "audience" is merely a long lecture by Seraphita (the being's name) about how questioning the way we conceive of God, logically, leads one to higher understanding. This is standard Swedenbourgian thought (If God is *this*, then how can he be *that*, but if he is not *that* then neither can he be *this other*) and is totally valid as a way of undoing Christian religious indoctrination, but here rather pedantically deployed.

Next, an excerpt from Gérard de Nerval's Journey To The Orient gives us a heaping helping of Freemasonic lore while discoursing on the life and times of Solomon. Eh.

The excerpt from Zanoni: A Rosicrucian Tale by Edward Bulwer-Lytton (which I read years ago and the only thing I remember from it was that that climax took place on Mt. Vesuvius) is rather short, the scene involving a magical ritual which conjures the malignant "Dweller On The Threshold." Eh, again.

I'd previously read the short story "Occult Memories" by Villiers de L'Isle-Adam (inventor of the conté cruel) and seemingly liked it a lot, but it was so long ago I needed to re-read it for the official Goodreads record. It's a good piece, only really vaguely related to the book's theme. A melancholy Lord recounts his ancestor's adventures among the jungles and "dead cities" of India, vast temple metropoli whose tombs of dead kings he raids for jeweled treasures (one can feel a young Clark Ashton Smith reading along). But holding on to such loot is not very easy. A nicely brooding, atmospheric piece.

And yet again, I'd read Joris-Karl Huysmans' LÃ -Bas long enough ago that it's due for a re-read. The excerpt here is quite fun, as main character Durtal is invited to a Satanic Mass in the outskirts of Paris, and gives his report of foul incense, sniggering "sodomites," lewd behavior and the standard inversion of the Catholic Mass.

Not read yet but on the to-read list is The Fiery Angel by Valery Bryusov. The excerpt here is promising - our narrator becomes involved with a seemingly demon-possessed woman who relates her youthful dalliance with the titular figure. But was the figure demonic, or is she herself evil and leading him astray? She cajoles him into attending a Witch's Sabbath (through one of the traditional means, applying a salve that transports him - aboard a flying goat - to a remote mountaintop) where he indulges in the oft-reported revels: obeisance to Satan (including kissing his hind quarters, which resemble a face), feasting, dancing (the witches roundelay, as described - "the main figure of the dance appeared to consist in us, turning halfway and not unlocking her hands, knocking our buttocks against each other" - sounds like "The Hustle"!) and, of course, orgies.

Then there's H.G. Wells "The Remarkable Case Of Davidson's Eyes" which is a really interesting, fun story but is also a solid indication that we're not really reading a specifically curated book on occult theory reflected in popular fictions, but instead a compilation of related materials drawn from the public domain and the publisher's back catalog. Because, while I guess you could call it a story about "remote viewing", there is really nothing "occult" about it - it's a straight up science fiction story in which a lab accident affects a scientist's sight, causing him to see a strange landscape distantly removed from his body's geographic locale, but his movements in that landscape he views correlate to the movements of his body. There's a marvelous sequence in which, being pushed in a wheelchair as an invalid, he goes into paroxysms of fright - as his corresponding vision of the movement takes him across a beach and deeper and deeper into black water, populated by drifting, luminous animals.

Back on the book's theme, we have an installment from Algernon Blackwood's occult physician/spiritual psychiatrist Dr. John Silence, "A Victim Of Higher Spaces". Silence (whose treatment office comes complete with observatory peephole, nailed down chair and easily deployed narcotic gas!) is consulted by a strange, furtive gentleman who quite simply seems to only halfway exist (he occasionally fades from view). This man was a mathematician who utilized new theories of time/space and geometry to open up access to "higher spaces", but now finds himself slipping back into these fourth (and more) dimensional spaces by uncontrollable aspects of our third dimensional world like certain music, colors or emotions. Silence fails to help in the immediate, but ultimately succeeds in that oddly passive way Blackwood tends to culminate the character's stories. Still, fun.

"The Hashish Man" by Lord Dunsany is a charming, somewhat Orientalist fantasy involving the transportative powers of the titular drug (in the sense of astral projection) as a user finds himself in a spirit battle and astral chase. But, in the end, a thin trifle, really.

Arthur Machen's "The Hill of Dreams" is excerpted in a segment in which Lucian Taylor (an aesthetically-inclined, antisocial, somewhat elitist student of the occult, and an antiquarian) finds a mental process by which he can dis-involve himself from the constant press of the rabble and explore his sensory and aesthetic sensitivities while visiting old ruins. He devises a concept of something like a voluntary synesthesia and begins to wonder if the symbolism of alchemy hides deeper knowledge of the senses, as he slowly begins drifting further from human concerns. Lots of lush, sensual writing in this.

It is always a pleasure to re-read "The Horla" by Guy de Maupassant, one of my top-ten favorite stories ever. If you've never read it, the plot is simplicity itself. A happy man, prone to occasional bouts of melancholia, finds these bouts increasing in frequency and now paired with lassitude, depression and general anxiety. As these feeling increase, and he seeks to dispel them through travel and camaraderie, he experiences night terrors (and a classic "nightmare/old hag" event) which cause him to begin to believe that there is an invisible, intelligent being plaguing him and sapping his energy. On the other hand, we could also just be reading a step-by-step description of a mental breakdown from an articulate man succumbing to madness as the relentless new complexities of modernity (including news media, and breakthroughs in psychology and the natural sciences) overwhelm him, eventually transforming them into an "other" to resist, and then become subjugated to. In the end, his distress leads to a rash action with terrible results and abject despair. I really can't give this story enough accolades - Maupassant's subtle handling of the material is astonishing its its balance and the narrator's vacillation between transports of paranoid despair (in which he sees the natural world as crude and ugly) and cosmic transcendence are masterful.

CONTINUED IN FIRST COMMENT

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The Garden of Hermetic Dreams

Gary Lachman (Editor, Introduction), William Beckford (Contributor), Andrei Bely (Contributor)

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