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Brian James's avatar

WH Auden wrote, “We are lived by powers we pretend to understand.” Lynch, unlike the occultists, never pretended to understand. He operated with poetic faith and let the images from his unconscious speak for themselves. That’s why I love him.

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Samantha Blackadder's avatar

D.L was definitely a shaman. I felt so grief stricken by his death it made me look at his Astrology. Heavy 8th house, including a debilitated & fallen Saturn Mars in Cancer conjunction (Mars being L1). The below quote really reminded me of that configuration. He turned it into genius!

"Lynch says that the secrets belong in the closet. That is where they are supposed to be. They are not being concealed from us like a parent hiding a child’s Christmas gifts before Christmas morning. They belong there, like sharks in the ocean".

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Georgiana T's avatar

I am glad we can finally be open with the terminology. The man was not a movie director, he was a healer and a powerful magician. The same with David Bowie and many others. These were powerful shamans, disguised as artists. Words have immense power. If we call someone an artist, it isn't as strong as calling someone a shaman. It feels like it takes some of their magic away. So , yes the reason why David Lynch healed and helped awaken so many people was because of his strong healing magic. He learned to feed his inner fire and it shows. Let's say it like it is, so we can open up the energy even more. I am sure he'd love that.

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SL Stone's avatar

"A supernaturalist is aware of the lodge. The occultist recruits for it." Genius, says the Log Lady in Colorado atop a peak.

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Shaun's avatar

I always found Crowley's Simon Iff stories a bit stiff, where Iff is always arriving on cue to clear the air around his befuddled associates with a rehearsed-sounding explanation. Better to read the works of Dion Fortune, whose stories have believable persons being healed of trauma and blockages by enlightened priests and priestesses who do explain but would rather show. Theory is good, but results matter.

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Eden Ariel's avatar

Brilliant, and I agree!

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Oliver Cooperman's avatar

The shamanic worldview needs to stay in the closet only because of western religion, the unified view of reality it insists on, and its murderous behaviors toward anyone who disagrees—witch trials, burning heretics at the stake etc.

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Muna Askar's avatar

I would highly recommend trying TM, the same technique David was such an enthusiast for. Or at least checking out the teachings of the Vedas if you haven't done so already!

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Peter Sanderson's avatar

I genuinely thought you had a problem with renowned author of the magical weird, John Crowley, until others pointed out you were more likely referencing Aleister who is not really known for his novels!

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Grimalkin's avatar

How was the ayahuasca experience? I listened to some of the Lynch dream podcast and during the discussion of playing "catch", I realized it relates to the book I am currently reading: Beyond the Robot, the Life and Work of Colin Wilson by Gary Lachman. Thank you for steering me to Weird Studies. 🤘🏼

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Su Terry's avatar

If Pandora's Box (originally an urn) was the naturalist Closet of Secrets (and look what happened when it got opened!) it sounds like Lynch's is the supernaturalist one.

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STR4nG3's avatar

Thank you for sharing <3

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Parsifal Solomon's avatar

A worldview founded on fixed things, always struggling against change (life), in an eternal quest to stabilise 'things' by controlling, defining, and killing them; or a (shamanic, if you want) cosmology which recognises things and also that they are temporary manifestations of greater flows of change, and so is free to change with them and ride the tides of time. Searching for eternal truths (that can be expressed as 'laws') can be very dismissive, even disrespectful, of the moment itself. It could be said that Lynch was an excellent 'pataphysician, practising an exquisite science of the particular and present...

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R. G. Miga's avatar

Michael S. Judge over at Death is Just Around the Corner has done some outstanding analysis of Lynch's work. more in the vein of standard media criticism than anything explicitly wizardly, but still some of the bar-none best takes out there.

MSJ himself might himself be a junior shaman who doesn't realize it. (addiction issues + chronic pain and crippling migraines + childhood trauma + occasionally severe psychiatric episodes, all of which his work is very candid about + dogged determination to peel away the layers of reality = some absolutely dark-brilliant perspectives on the world.)

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Gor's avatar

LA Fire🔥 broke his heart 💜 and He left us 👼 to join the Angels 🙏

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