#new age literature

[creature-wizard]

Other Tongues - Other Flesh by George Hunt Williamson was an influential piece of work in the starseed movement. Released in the early 50's, the book has some... interesting things to say about certain alien beings and the economy. Here are some selected quotes:

People of Orion are not our kind of people, they do not belong to our Confederation. They interrupt and are unruly. At present time there is a small group of people on Earth working for Orion. These people are sometimes small in stature with strange, oriental type eyes. Their faces are thin and they possess weak bodies. They come among you to disperse all things not in keeping with their own ideas; they upset our plans. They run amuck and we avoid them. They prey on the unsuspecting; they are talkative; they astound intellects with their words of magnificence. While their wisdom may have merit, it is materialistic, and not of pure aspiration toward the Father. We have our own men who watch over these pirates of Creation. They have their own Council and the Orion Confederation; but they know little through their own ingenuity for they are the Universal parasites! Disturbers, negative elements; soon they will be eradicated.

...

"Serpent People", "Anti-Christs", or Intruders-they all represent the same thing: negative polarity.

...

Within a few years the whole world will learn that a false economic system, invented and fostered by a few greed crazed lusters after gold has caused every war on the face of the globe.

...

If you're familiar with antisemitic tropes and rhetoric, you'll easily be able to see what Williamson is doing here - he's proposing that Jews are actually hostile aliens. And let me reiterate, this was an influential book in the starseed movement.

George Hunt Williamson also paints mass depopulation in a rosy light:

What people on Earth will survive to inherit the New Age? The world population will be reduced greatly. Where there are now thousands there will be tens. But it is not tragic if one loses his physical equipment on Earth. Certain souls have evolved to the place where the old Earth can no longer teach them anything, therefore, either they or the Earth must graduate to a higher level. Shortly, the entire Earth will be made new in the new vibratory rate and the advanced souls, or The Remnant, will inherit the kingdom of God on Earth. The other souls, who refused to give up the old order of things, will be taken out of flesh life and will be re-settled on other worlds that can give them the lessons they need. So only the good and beautiful is to come to all men; there is no retrogression, for all are advancing toward the Father.

He also claims that climate change is part of the Earth entering the New Age:

Astronomers know that our entire Solar System is moving rapidly into an area of greater warmth—the Sun and its family of twelve planets is moving into a region of space where cosmic ray bombardment and intense vibrational frequency will cause many drastic changes.

As we know today, climate change has a deadly impact on people, plants, animals, etc. But it's unlikely Williamson would care. He'd just think that was a feature.

This is what I mean when I say that you can't start digging around New Age and the starseed movement without encountering some rancid shit. It's everywhere. It's what the entire thing was built on. If you haven't seen it, you haven't been looking.

#new age #new age literature #starseeds #starseed #antisemitism #george hunt williamson #other tongues other flesh

[ladycatashtrophe]

"Wow, you're so self-aware! It takes most people years of therapy and dedication to get to that point." Thanks, I constantly feel completely disconnected from my physical being and the material sensation of my body, brain, and spirit/soul is so overwhelming that I often have to see myself as an objective third-party instead of an integrated entity. Father son holy spirit and all that.

#yes I know that Unitarianism and Trinitarianism are different #let me be mentally ill #maladaptive daydreaming #immersive daydreaming #bpd #borderline personality disorder #adhd #just cptsd things #gothic literature #spirituality #new age spirituality #satanism #the satanic temple #dissociation #derealization #depersonalization #metal as fuck #i have a headache

[lionofchaeronea]

The dying Beowulf, having just defeated the dragon, is supported by his ally Wiglaf. Illustration by George T. Tobin from Siegfried, the Hero of the North, and Beowulf, the Hero of the Anglo-Saxons by Zenaide A. Ragozin, published in 1909. Now in the New York Public Library.

#art #art history #George T. Tobin #illustration #Beowulf #Germanic mythology #Old English #Old English literature #Middle Ages #medieval #medieval literature #American art #20th century art #New York Public Library

[thepersonalquotes]

Thoughts create emotions, emotions create feelings and feelings create behaviour. So it’s very important that our thoughts are positive, to attract the right people, events and circumstances into our lives.

Avis J. Williams, The Psychic Mind: A Practical Guide to Psychic Development & Spiritual Growth

#Avis J. Williams #The Psychic Mind: A Practical Guide to Psychic Development & Spiritual Growth #quotes #motivation #inspiration #thepersonalquotes #literature #lit #abundance-creation #believe #cosmic-ordering #fear #focus #goal-setting #happiness #law-of-attraction #life-changing #manifestation #manifesting #millionaire-mindset #mind-body-spirit #mind-power #new-age #new-thought #opportunity #positive-attitude #positive-thinking #positive-thoughts #positivity #self-belief

[newyorkthegoldenage]

Ex-Wife, published anonymously in 1929, was a succès de scandale. The very title aggressively challenged American mores and morals; divorce was almost unheard of in the middle classes at the time. And Manhattan high life in the 1920s (the novel takes place between 1923 and 1927) gave the prurient everything they could wish: not just divorce, but promiscuity, abortion, smoking, and drinking.

And I had, for an instant, that feeling that New York was an altogether beautiful place to live, no matter what happened to me living in it—a comforting feeling that had come to me sometimes, of late, when I stopped looking to people for comfort.

Narrated by Patricia, it tells of her life after her husband walked out on her. She goes from grief and despair to acceptance to indifference while becoming increasingly successful as an advertising copywriter in fashion, and bedding numerous men. Her friend Lucia, a slightly older and more experienced divorcee, supports and mentors her.

Surprisingly, the book is vehemently anti-feminist. The 1920s were a time when women could vote and were free of Victorian behavioral constraints, but systemic sexism ran deep and went largely unnoticed—at least by Patricia and Lucia.

The book was filmed in 1930 as The Divorcée, starring Norma Shearer, who won her only Oscar for it.

Norma Shearer in The Divorcee

In the forward to the 2023 edition (whose cover is shown above), Alissa Bennett writes, "It's easy to get caught in the trap of Ex-Wife's nostalgic charm; there are phonographs and jazz clubs and dresses from Vionnet; there are verboten cocktails and towering new buildings that reach toward a New York skyline so young that it still reveals its stars."

The author's son, Marc Parrott, agreed. "The New York described here," he wrote in an afterward to the 1989 edition, reprinted in the current edition, "and this was true, I think, for 20 years or more—was much smaller, much more intimate, much safer and much cheaper than the city from the '50s on to the present. It was also cleaner. My mother called it 'shining.'"

This is how Patricia and Lucia react to Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue:

"The tune matches New York," Lucia said. "The New York we know. It has gaiety and colour and irrelevancy and futility and glamour as beautifully blended as the ingredients in crêpes suzette." I said, "It makes me think of skyscrapers and Harlem and liners sailing and newsboys calling extras." "It makes me think I’m twenty years old and on the way to owning the city," Lucia said. "Start it over again, will you?"

Second & fourth photos: NYC Past Third photo: eBay

#vintage New York #1920s #Ursula Parrott #fiction #NYC fiction #novels #Ex-Wife #NYC in literature #Jazz Age #roaring '20s

[yourlocaldisneyvillain]

i wish there was a space for actual adults within this fandom. i guess i will have to create it, even if it's just me and other five people and a shoelace. i wonder how this whole thing is gonna develop!

#personal #the entire internet but also this fandom specifically is infested with ppl whose reading comprehension is lower than a 6th grader's #can't a gal enjoy a middle-aged actress without being pestered by toddlers with pitchforks #and i know i'm the pettiest bitch but i am ANNOYED esp when i see how old these ppl are. if you're over 25 you have no excuse daskjfhg #like i have cut my audience in half at least! if not more with this fic #but i'm happy bc i'm producing content i wanna produce #i wonder how my new fics are gonna be received #after i finish “particular” i have another thing coming up that ppl probs won't like lol #but i think it's important i post it #and then we have murder mysteries and gothic horror and wooooo you know #it's gonna be fun! and a bit disturbing! #wonder if imma be dragged on twitter again lol #but i sincerely hope no one will care lol #honestly i never expected ppl to care THAT much but i guess they did #it also annoys me that a concerningly small amount seems to care abt the actual quality of writing #and i'm over here agonising about Stylistic Choices(TM) lol #i feel like it flies over ppl's heads and they just wanna read abt larissa weems fucking them with a shapeshifted dick #which okay i guess but also what abt Literature #you could do smth creative with a shapeshifting character just saying. and include your magic cocks or whatever tf you're into #ah i am fuming in vain i will just write my lil fics and hope i don't get a new influx of kys messages lol

[criticalrolo]

why are so many stories nowadays about the end of things. the fall of civilizations. the end of eras. the sad slow death of the past into a grimmer future. this sense of living in the End Times has permeated sooo many genres for a literal Century and it just makes me sad that the change is. always towards the world getting smaller and darker and less magical

#I guess that reflects a lot of society fears etc #but like just off the top of my head in three seconds: #lord of the rings. pirates of the Caribbean. assassins creed valhalla. red dead redemption. Star Wars #that’s across like six different genres right there #and like yeah there’s obv Some hopeful endings to all of those #but the world they occupy is always about an age Coming To An End and the next one is going to be. Worse than the next #I actually have a lot to say about how wwii is the huge pivot point in literature #and in world society #where people stopped believing things are going to Get Better #and how that idea is reflected ALLL OVER in media from 1946 onwards #basically humanity saw just how terrible we can be and it was sooo much worse than the average person had ever dreamed #and since then. the general consensus has switched from bright new future to. racing against the clock before our time on earth is up #it’s actually a really interesting pivot because it’s SOOO widespread in famous media #anyway. just some thoughts #what if…. a story about the Beginning of a world and the insane hardships involved in THAT #it’s always an old guard story I wanna see. what a new guard looks like

[driftingoffthegrid]

holden caulfield wants you to know he is not like other girls

#catcher in the rye #holden caulfield #red hat #not like other girls #literature #booklr #reading #bookworm #ducks #day drinking #classics #coming of age #new york

[hypaalicious]

Hey. Do y’all like audiobooks? 👀

Cause the one for my novel just dropped! [Link]

Working with her was such a joy and I feel she did an amazing job! Part of my worries when it came to finding the right voice was ofc when it comes to AAVE, but she killed it and really made me feel like I was listening to a play being performed. She brought my characters to life in ways I’m still blown away by 🥹

Full disclosure: I normally do not indulge in audiobooks because I can read much faster than someone reading to me, and my ADHD causes my mind to wander and words just become background noise after awhile. It’s just hard to keep my attention 😭 But Rose kept me seated through each chapter. So for that alone she deserves her flowers!

Bullet Points about Fated to Flame:

Black female main character

Reluctant heroine? Check!

New Adult goodness

Portal Fantasy realness

Third person perspective

Shenanigans between (sexy) demons & dragons

Romance sub-plot with a hint of queerness

My pinned post has the real synopsis, but ya know… I’m tryna truncate for those who want the main deets. Also, I’m gonna plug the cover art again because it’s pretty!

#you know for a bitch who worked in marketing for years I am sadly incapable of promoting my own shit 😭 #it sucks how this day and age writers have to also be editors and publicity geniuses but I guess thems the breaks! #black literature #black fiction #debut author #audiobook #new adult

[erebius-moved]

I  HAVE  THE  FEELING  THAT  SOMETHING  TERRIBLE  HAS  HAPPENED  TO  ME  DURING  THESE  MONTHS,     BUT  I  DON’T  KNOW  MUCH  ABOUT  IT.

victor  conley,    a  private  &  selective  crime  oc,    based  on  an  original  novel.    written  by  ash.    18+.    read  guidelines  before  interacting.    est. 2018.

#indie crime rp #dragon age rp #crime rp #brba rp #indie literature rp #what even are tags anymore what do people use what are ppl rping in anymore LKJDHFKDSJ im not with the times #anyways! new one of these :)

[hairtusk]

going to try and finish the haunting of hill house tonight, it's kind of ridiculous that it's taken me so long to read

#just with moving and everything i haven't had time to sit down and read for ages #then I'm either going to finish middlemarch or pick a new book. but i really should try and finish middlemarch. :/ #sorry george eliot my final year of my literature degree made me illiterate

[creature-wizard]

Starseed Literature Review: Other Tongues - Other Flesh

Other Tongues - Other Flesh is an influential work in the starseed movement, setting up a lot of the lore commonly accepted today. It doesn't use the word "starseed" - here, they're called "Wanderers." But it's the exact same concept. Everything I can find says that this book was published in 1953; however, later parts of this book contain references to alleged alien sightings that took place in 1954. So I'm not sure yet whether this date is wrong, or if the book was updated, or if parts of it were published sequentially. I'm not going to detail everything written in it; that would make this already-long post even longer, so I'll try to keep it as brief as I possibly can.

The introduction to this book on Sacred Texts says, Even murkier is his association with the Nazi William Dudley Pelley, whom he worked for briefly in the early 1950s. That said, it is difficult to spot any explicit trace of extreme right-wing politics in this book. Personally, I don't think it's difficult at all. I think it blares from the pages like klaxon alarms. Early in the book, Williamson infantilizes the human race by comparing them to "naughty children" who require a higher, wiser power to make them behave. He also thinks humans are too stupid to have made modern scientific advances on their own and credits extraterrestrial influence. (Not only does this betray fascist modes of thinking, but it also betrays a gross ignorance of modern history.) He shows massive intolerance of other cultures by finding fault in the existence of religious diversity, and effectively calls for theocracy by declaring that science cannot contradict what he declares to be Capital-T Truth. And speaking of science, his scientific comprehension is appalling. He claims that we could be surrounded by invisible beings made of anti-matter, supposedly because our eyes can only see beings made of matter. Never mind that matter and antimatter, y'know, completely annihilate each other if they ever come into contact. He believes that an anisotropic crystal can split light into "positive" and "negative" forces, and tells us that an alien entity informed him that our bodies' energy comes from crystals in the blood "diffusing, refracting and reflecting the positive and negative light lines of force." He claims that "opposing polarized conditions" create blood flow, which causes the heart to beat. He doesn't believe that the sun is hot; in fact, he believes that it's a cool body, and that there are planets beneath its photosphere. He believes that all of the planets have the same climate as Earth.

The dude is also really, really obsessed with the swastika. He claims it's supposedly "the true clock of the universe," a "true universal symbol," and also a symbol of the Wanderers. Look folks, nobody with any investment in rehabilitating the swastika to a Western audience is up to any good. It doesn't matter what their reasoning is; fixating on a symbol that had zero relevance to Western culture until the Nazi party used it is a red flag. He believes that the asteroid belt was once a planet known as Lucifer or Maldek, and claims that it was destroyed by hydrogen bombs. Apparently, the Interplanetary Confederation is afraid that Earth might suffer the same fate. Which, like... yeah, it's true that hydrogen bombs would definitely be bad news for us people and most life on Earth, but the idea that they could shatter the planet is absolutely absurd. If we assume that the aliens are a figment of Williamson's ego, it's quite obviously a product of Cold War era anxiety coupled with scientific illiteracy. If we assume that the alien entity is real, then it's fear-mongering on the alien's part. Despite this, Williamson later on cheerfully reports that all spacecraft "operate in a Resonating Electro-Magnetic Field" that can also be used as "a deadly death ray." He believes that Atlantean and Egyptian kings carried around "Vril Sticks" which could be used as death rays against people. Massive amounts of destructive power are just fine so long as it's wielded by his guys, apparently. Williamson also believes that chimerical creatures such as griffins and sphinxes once existed, but were destroyed in the Great Flood. Why? Because he believed that hybrid creatures were spiritually inferior, if not aspiritual. He claims that after the Great Flood, God made such hybridization impossible. While this might not be the frothing-in-the-mouth condemnation of "race-mixing" one would expect from a Nazi, any amount of demonizing or moralizing the body is always cause for concern. Nothing good can ever come of trying to arbitrate what kind of body does and does not count as a person, let alone a person with a soul. This perception of chimerical creatures also displays gross cultural ignorance, because the notion that divinity was not to be found in the animal soul, or that hybrid creatures could not be wise and holy, is contradicted in many cultures. (Ganesha comes readily to mind.) The author claims that ancient gods were really aliens, and even claims that John the Baptist was a Wanderer. He claims that Wanderers often display symptoms of what most of us would recognize as anxiety, and claims that this is because they're incompatible with Earth's vibratory rate. This sets the stage for later beliefs that people with autism and ADHD are all actually starseeds. He also claims Wanderers often found in jobs relating to communication, transportation, and science. He claims that they've "infiltrated" radio and writing, and he attributes the rising popularity of science fiction to Wanderer writers. Williamson claims that climate change is part of the transition into the New Age, a belief that still persists today. He raises the specter of government mind control by suggesting that food additives could affect people's emotions. He references a prior channeling session in which an alleged alien entity said "There are now many young people in your world who understand our message. They will accept it quickly for they are of the New Age. The Great Awakening is here." The use of the term "Great Awakening" further speaks to just how long New Age and far right ideas have been linked.

Williamson says that Earth is being infiltrated by negative entities from Orion. He claims that "These people are sometimes small in stature with strange, oriental type eyes. Their faces are thin and they possess weak bodies," and refers to them as the "Universal parasites." He links them with "serpent people" of "ancient legends." Williamson does condemn the atrocities of WWII and the various abuses inflicted on people deemed "primitive," but this is an incredibly easy sentiment for almost anyone to drum up in the abstract, and doesn't say much about someone's moral character in the face of genuine adversity. The fact remains that even Nazis aren't a monolith, and some of them idealize the notion of a world filled with all kinds of people - just, with all of them in their "proper place" and not "forcing" their cultures on each other. Milquetoast "violence bad" statements just don't say much about a person's character. Furthermore, Williamson says later on, Within a few years the whole world will learn that a false economic system, invented and fostered by a few greed crazed lusters after gold has caused every war on the face of the globe. He also says, "What people on Earth will survive to inherit the New Age? The world population will be reduced greatly. Where there are now thousands there will be tens." Mass depopulation is fine by him because supposedly, the souls of deceased will have new incarnations. Sorry George, but a violent ideology prettied up with glitter and rainbows is still a violent ideology. If the atrocities of war bother you, then so should this death toll you're projecting. The book also includes a number of anecdotal reports of UFO sightings and other strange incidents, which honestly I skimmed over because there's no way to verify any of them. (Let's be real, anyone can claim to have had an extraterrestrial encounter for shits and giggles.) Williamson constantly claims that "the ancients" or "ancient texts" said this or that, but rarely gives citations. In one case where he actually does, he cites A Series of Lessons in Gnani Yoga, which was actually written by William Walker Aktinson and published in 1907 - hardly an ancient text!

All in all, this book just goes to show that the New Age and starseed movements have been full of peudoscience, pseudohistory, and hatred the whole time. If one believes that these alien beings are real, one must wonder why they keep reaching out to such awful people and why they keep encouraging harmful, hateful beliefs.

#other tongues - other flesh #new age #new agers #george hunt williamson #nazis #new age to alt right pipeline #starseeds #starseed #racism #antisemitism #ableism #pseudoscience #pseudohistory #aliens #extraterrestrials #other tongues other flesh #new age literature

[ladycatashtrophe]

Some kid just walked past me in the library singing "Ameno" quietly to himself and I've now been down an internet rabbit hole searching Dog Latin, the Roman Rite, and public perception of formal language & how linguistics influence class systems. Happy Tuesday.

#do you even domine bro #i love a good visceral chant #language is fake #make up your own words who cares #sometimes when writing essays i just make up words to aid my argument #chaotic academia #dark academia #gothic academia #light academia #latin language #latin literature #metal music #new age music #ambient music #performance art #gothic ambience #goth aesthetic #romantic goth #gothic style

[outstanding-quotes]

Sylvia Plath, “Poem for a Birthday”

#sylvia plath #poem for a birthday #poetry #quote #literature #lit #i think this might be one of my new favorite poems #childhood #aging #perspective #impermanence #appreciation #gratitude #flowers #memory

[thepersonalquotes]

A self-limiting belief is no stronger than the flimsy rope that tethers an elephant by its foot.

Stephen Richards, Six Figure Success: Time To Think Big - You Can Do It

#Stephen Richards #Six Figure Success: Time To Think Big - You Can Do It #quotes #motivation #inspiration #thepersonalquotes #literature #lit #abundance-creation #author-stephen-richards #believe #cosmic-ordering #fear #focus #goal-setting #happiness #law-of-attraction #life-changing #manifestation #manifesting #millionaire-mindset #mind-body-spirit #mind-power #new-age #new-thought #opportunity #positive-thoughts #positivity #self-belief #self-growth

[newyorkthegoldenage]

John Dos Passos, Manhattan Transfer, 1925.

Following the success of his second novel, “Three Soldiers” (1921), a hard-bitten work of realism partly inspired by his experiences as an ambulance driver in World War I, John Dos Passos seemingly became disenchanted with the constraints of traditional narrative. Any book aiming to portray the teeming masses of New York City in all their muck and glory needed, he must have reasoned, to boldly break with tried-and-true storytelling. As such, his fourth novel forgoes conventional plot structure, pacing and characterization, instead dipping in and out of the lives of dozens of the city’s locals: immigrants, day laborers, newly minted millionaires; a killer, a dishwasher, an actress. Their lives are entwined with the fortunes and pitfalls of the metropolis and—given bits and pieces of their encounters—readers play the role of straphangers, overhearing other people’s intimacies as they course through the city. Tracking how much the city changed from the end of the Gilded Age to the Roaring Twenties, Dos Passos reveals the grubby underside of industrialization. One moment a seamstress daydreams, the next the tulle she’s sewing catches fire, and her with it. “Manhattan Transfer” paved the way for scores of other gritty New York novels, but its blend of the poetic and the profane, not all of which has aged well, remains a product of its time. —Miguel Morales, NY Times

Picture: Original dust jacket, Wikimedia. Artist unknown.

#New York #NYC #vintage New York #1920s #John Dos Passos #Manhattan Transfer #novels #1920s novels #1920s literature #Jazz Age