If sorcery is a
sort of “bridge” between here and Hyboria, one can only thank the gods and
goddesses that Thoth Amon never gained a stranglehold on the Hyborian lands.
And it may give a clue as to why sorcery is so vastly more proficient in our
own lands; the ego of acolytes of the sorcery of straight lines.
In order for
sorcery to succeed, it almost has to convince people that it’s right, that the
benighted realms of men-serpents and serpent-men fulfill some psychological or
physical function. Stygians live with reptiles because they believe in their
unholy power. The Hyborian lands on the whole realize the downsides are too
much to put up with for mastery of the serpentine race. The sacrificial
aspects, slippery footfalls, temples of abomination, nighted vaults and
ghastly screams – you name it.
Conan comes
across his fair share of that, and Milius’s 1982 film – despite being not
really Howard – has scenes that really are Howard’s primeval vision. If a film
were only scenes it would be good but, of course, Conan is a whole mythos.
You might well
ask, “Where are the serpents in our midst if sorcery is triumphant?” As I say,
many people are persuaded – psychologically – that serpentine aspects of
behaviour are right, because it’s just the other side of the coin to the
Newtonian modern era of light and movement.
As a fan of Paul
Kantner and Jefferson Starship, I’m always surprised by their worship of
the sun, and the reason seems to be they consider this the.
So how is it
that Newton’s god-like equations of motion that set the planets in orbit round
the sun can be considered anything other than light and one of the great
achievements?
Yes, it’s a
thorny issue. On the one hand, Saturn boosters and Musk’s Mars racket are
really something and stir the soul. It would be folly to deny it. It would be
folly to say the Earth is flat and it’s all stage-managed.
On the other
hand, there is another type of movement that is not travel; it’s dance. Kubrick’s
“2001 A Space Odyssey is one of my favorite films and it is astonishing
how the Blue Danube waltz so perfectly fits the perambulations of the shuttle
to the “ring” station in mid Earth-moon orbit.
The film is
almost the best advertisement there has ever been for the romance of space
travel, but reality is not like that. I’m as disappointed as anyone, but it
seems like it’s 99% a drag. Newton’s laws just aren’t really that romantic. I
almost feels that 2001 is the
most realistic lie of all cinema!
If you get down
to brass tacks, then a dance and spaceflight are not really similar atall. A
voyage goes somewhere; a dance goes nowhere. A good way to put it is to look at
one of Joan Armatrading’s performances as she pirouettes round the stage
ME MYSELF I (1980)
Now, she goes
forward, backward, twirls left and right, hunches down onto the mike, also
rolls her eyes skyward. All that is really symmetrical movement, as opposed to
straight-line progression (see Weird 11 "The Enchantment")
A dance is
really to do with symmetries and balances. As it says in Hyborian Bridge 97,
movement in the natural world is spontaneous – and this will lead to symmetries
and balances (a cheetah chasing a gazelle; what Darwin says is that the
gazelles that are caught are less fit, however all gazelles have the same symmetries
of proportion).
Before animals
compete, they are symmetrical and balanced. Animals compete in the physical
world, which is again symmetrical and balanced. On a cosmic scale, the moon is
perfectly in balance with the sun.
Movement in the
natural world is not really Newtonian since that’s just two billiard balls
colliding. It’s symmetrically balanced and proportionate. So, really, our
reality – the sorcerous one – is replacing another. Newton is all about
straight lines (where the ego of acolytes resides); even a circle is just a
straight line that’s bent into a circle.
Nature is all
about roughness, irregularity, broken rhythms (Bruce Lee, prev.) In space it’s
true that things are straight – or bent into circles – however, what seems also
to be true is that spontaneity produces symmetries – the sun and moon.
If the universe
were planned, it would resemble the sun as a unit of order. Instead, it seems
to be more to do with a lot of disorder and some balance. It may simple be that
spontaneity is the same as symmetry – they’re a priori.
Whereas the
modern order seems to verge towards planning and order (sun) it’s noticeable
how different things seem when one looks back at old serials such as Nyoka
from the 40s (Drama1.) Nyoka and the Tigermen has vast amounts of galloping horses riding
in splendid groups. What often happens is Vultura’s riders intersect with Nyoka’s
and engage in a shootout. At the end, the Bedouin ride in to add to the melee.
The movement is physical and graceful. Or, in other words, in rugged,
craggy territory with boulders and trees but no straight lines. Straight lines –a
as noted previously – represent the sun and order, and are associated with the
immaterial world (electro-impulses).
The movements you see in Nyoka are also well-plotted; they have
a manifestation of psyche in the characters’ interactions and intentions. So
you have movements which are psychic and very physical, as opposed to our
modern era of order and planning.
Animal movements have in general to have psychic manifestations to show
their behaviour (instinct). So, none of that, nor the physical balance, are
Newtonian, which is to do with the sun and order (and planning). Newton – and by
extension Darwin – are orders, and therefore not to do with freedom and
spontaneity (of expression, instinct).
However, if spontaneous line is a priori (see Hyborian
Bridge 91 Leonardo cartoon) that would seem to be quite a big omission. In
fact, it would include the entire natural “order” as well as the cosmic one!
In the Hyborian world all this would be quite impossible, since
sorcerers can only set themselves up as advisers to rulers of Hyborian states
that are feudal, rugged, fairly filthy etc. They cannot establish an empire,
except in the relatively quiescent and decadent Stygia.
A sorcerous order only seems to be light, since the fact that it is
order means there is no freedom (spontaneity). This is where the reptile comes
in, since it is a type of mental drowsiness that is attracted to the sun. While
we are surrounded by light, our heads are almost asleep from the multitude of
facts and figures.
The head cannot deny its own physique, and there is a type of physical
boredom associated with compulsive behaviour – numerical, monetary (see Outtake
6 O Lucky Man, Hyborian Bridge 62/1). This is our
sorcerous reality, which has the appearance of the sun (Apollo = appearance)
but is rooted in reptilian sleep, the sleep of talk and thought so attractive
to acolytes..
