Sometimes a thing is so awesome I must forgo my BoingBoing policy.

In the clip I posted the other day of John and Yoko, John Lennon made a passing reference to a Chinese book Yoko turned him onto about war. In it he paraphrased that “if your castle is being attacked, lock all your doors but one, that way you know where your enemies will enter”. I thought this was a fantastic piece wisdom especially in how Lennon was using it as the reason for wearing his hair long.

I have turned this sage advice over and over in my head for the past few days and, in light of this, I’ve come upon at least one application of our present circumstances that I can’t help feel a bit uneasy about.

If you venture with me in so far as to make the fairly extensible stretch that our government has successfully been taken over by a well articulated conspiracy of the few where the goal is to bankrupt the people for the ends of a greater mechanism of control and deeper reservoir of invasive protocol through the implementation of a well considered single party system existing under the auspice of a two party struggle, than wouldn’t Sarah Palin be the finest door to leave open in this our present battles?

I mean if we’re being honest we can see that the McCain agenda varies only slightly from the Obama concerns. Neither is calling for peace in our modern world (and frankly, as an aside, I’m very comfortable with that… but let’s continue with our War Games here), both were strongly in favor of the greatest socialist effort in human history with the government bail outs, both are outspoken about their interests in nuclear energy and coastal drilling, both are in support and have been in support of continued invasion of U.S. citizen’s privacy. And both, unflinchingly, are working to trump up Russia’s roll in it’s ongoing - and many would argue, justified - struggle with Georgia.

So many Obama supporters - of which, outside of this scenario, I now firmly and enthusiastically count myself among - are projecting so much of their liberal idealism on the guy that they can’t seem to notice that, ultimately, an Obama presidency will change very little about how our government conducts itself financially and militarily, at home and abroad.

If I was running a theoretical oligarchical conspiracy I could see a candidate like Obama being just the note I needed to play at this time. As national support for my military campaigns continue to decelerate into one of the most unpopular presidencies in history a candidate so completely anti-thetical to everything the current rogue administration has put forward - so seemingly young, new, intelligent and compassionate, so able to galvanize the American people into a fury of elated support on the “Anything But” ticket - is just what the doctor ordered. For an inky underworld shadow-government of a proud, rich few, Barack Obama could be the ideal candidate.

And, as anyone who has read any good super hero tomes or religious screeds will know; a great hero needs an even greater enemy. And, let there be no words minced about this cunt Sarah Palin is the greatest enemy our country’s presidential races has ever grown. She is the Moriarity to Obama’s Holmes, the Joker to Obama’s Batman (eww, sorry Joker), the Satan to Obama’s Christ, the mean spirited Lucy to Obama’s very earnest Charlie Brown.

So as we see the nationalization of our banks and the federal government taking control over our economic system and as we continue to extend ourselves militarily to a point of both depleting our national resource of military and foreign relations, as we see state’s unemployment rates sky-rocketing and running out of money of employment programs, as we see a country and a world spiraling farther and farther out of control leaving the theatrics of the solution to the dim scripting of simply softening the fall for only the wealthiest involved, perhaps it is time we begin looking at this entire scenario as a war against humanity by a conspiracy of the few. And perhaps we should start looking at what is happening under the terms of war strategies and how those strategies are being used against us to further a rather telegraphed agenda. And perhaps, as we look at our national and planetary narrative unfold in an increasingly predictable, frustrating, and destructive fashion, we should keep our eyes a little more keenly pried for where the open door may be. And practice caution before haste as we trip over our future to run right through it.

“A network of supernaturally ‘neutral’ paths of cosmic energy, or ‘Ley-Lines’, exists throughout the world and tourists can journey in comparative safety by following those running through Transylvania. Generations of travellers using these ’safe’ routes have marked them quite clearly.

The most common method is the Cairn System; piles of stones built at regular intervals. Beware any cairn not marked with a protective cross. If in doubt, consult a qualified medium.”

Michael Bertiaux, the well regarded author of the classic “Voudon Gnostic Workbook“, will be making a rare public appearance at Chicago’s Occult Book Store on November 2. Viking Jason and myself will be there, we’ll be the one’s with bells on.

From the website:

“Bertiaux stands unique in the spiritual world. His system of occultism and gnosis is unlike any other. Instead of reworking the occult past and clinging to classical theories, he works mainly on gnostic-radionic lines and esoteric creativity. Deeply rooted and based in the magical world and traditions of Esoteric Voudon, a very elaborate and specialized form of Voudon taught to Bertiaux by his Haitian master Jean-Maine, Bertiaux has managed to introduce a great number of other spiritual currents into his system and thus empowering it even further. Esoteric Voudon being a highly complex and living tradition, allowed the adepts of the Ordo Templi Orientis Antiqua and La Couleuvre Noire headed by Jean-Maine and Bertiaux, to absorb other systems in a true syncretic and universal gnostic fashion. To unite areas so seemingly apart as German Idealism and theosophy, to Shinto and Bon-Po, Bertiaux has spun a metaphysical web connecting and bringing them into occult harmony through the threads and cabalah of Esoteric Voudon. Throughout the papers that form the lessons of the O.T.O.A. and L.C.N., Bertiaux outlines not only a system of occult practice but also a spiritual philosophy through which students may develop a technology applicable to any desired working. The raw energy generated by the elemental sorcery and congress of adepts, spirits and Les Vudu are used to empower the phantastic worlds of esoteric logic, enabling the fiends and fiendesses of the system to completely transform themselves, move outside the circles of time and to enter a state of absolute immortality and infinity.”

Be aware you need to RSVP to attend this event.

They’ve got some more very interesting looking events coming up in the future:

* Mysteries of the Dogon
* Enochian Book and Lecture | Lon Milo Duquette
* Anthroposophy of Rudolf Stiener Lecture | September
* Real Hatian Voodoo with Mambo Racine

It’s stuff like this that really makes me happy I live in this city.

“Some of the most delicious vegetables in the known world are produced by the undead Gardeners of Sheloth, a small group of enthusiasts who sold their souls in exchange for supernatural botanic skills.”

“The newcomer to Transylvania will find himself in a world of overwhelming mystery and alien phenomena and time is needed to adjust to its unique environment. The towns and hamlets, though themselves steeped in a tradition of occult participation, offer the visitor some semblence of normality and the opportunity to acclimatize to the darker realities that exist here.”

I think it’s fair to say that the single most profound influence on my life, both directly and indirectly, has been John Lennon. From his music, to his art, to his unflinching exploration of his relationship with Yoko Ono, and his working class attitude toward life, politics, drugs and spirit, John Lennon, however unlikely a candidate, shaped the person I am today unlike anything else.

When I was ten my older sister’s boyfriend turned me on to punk rock. JFA, Dead Kennedy’s, Circle Jerks, the Ramone’s, Rabbid Rabbit, Agent Orange… all the greats. The energy, edge, and anarchistic attitude of punk rock shook me to my core and ignited my own strange orgone with a voltage that would not, from that point on, take much umbrage in suburban ideals. I took a hard left at that point, so hard I damaged my tires alignment for the rest of my life.

But where punk rock fired up my synapses for individualistic expression I was never fully nurtured on that promise until 2 years later I was turned onto the Beatles and most specifically the work and life of John Lennon. From that point on John Lennon would become the tensile point from which I would discover eastern religion, psychedelic drugs, magick, audio recording, anarchist and leftist politics, and, most importantly, the unparralleled power of music.

Also from Lennon I learned how to be curious and curious with a passion. Rarely stopping for too long at any point of exploration, I would indulge deeply, seriously, and then furiously turn my back against whatever point of exploration when I found the bottom of the pool. I learned from him a means to life as art and, in my summation, that means is a very disciplined egalitarian curiosity coupled and balanced with a ferocious loyalty not to that point of exploration but to exploration itself.

But perhaps the most positive and proud effect John Lennon has had on my life is in his public approach to his relationship with Yoko Ono. As a 13 year old discovering sexuality at the same time I was discovering John Lennon I received a gift that has paid dividends up to this day as I’m sure it will well into the future. I found myself, from the earliest stirrings of my longing for a mate, to want a partner that would be more than the traditional models of wife that I was so surrounded by. And while I saw that there was no dishonor in a woman serving a man and vice versa I saw that that model of compatibility was flawed in that it saw any act that a man would do for his woman as serving. In John and Yoko I saw two people who became one, who no more served one another than a hand serves an arm. I longed for a mate who would be a friend, a passionate lover, a challenge to my ideas, a supporter of my efforts, and a child in the face of a viscious world. I expected a woman who could be gentle and smart and defined enough to leave herself behind in service of our union. This is what I saw in the public image of John and Yoko and this is what I sought out.

And I am thrilled on this and just about every (good) day of my life to realize that I have found that companion in my wife.

When I sit and think about it I still cannot rectify a world that would first be able to create the circumstances that would become John Lennon and then in the same breath create the circumstances that would allow Mark David Chapman to shoot him down in cold blood. And while it tears me to pieces to think that this kind of mongoloid ardour could come to pass, there is also a kind of poetic rhythm and working class discomfort that seemed to have first forged John Lennon, and then, finally, allowed for the means of his death. In there somewhere is an expression of the great duality of the world John Lennon did some much to help me love. And in there, also, is a watershed moment on the in-folding of Western Civility that I believe has yet to be fully realized.

Happy Birthday John Lennon and thanks for all the chuckles…

In celebration of the best dirn month of the year I will be posting some of my favorite pages from one of my favorite books from my youth. At the end of the month, it’s my plan to post the entire volume of A Tourist’s Guide to Transylvania in PDF form.

A Tourist’s Guide to Transylvania is an odd collection of licensed fantasy and horror illustrations, magical and occult references, and awkward humor. Released by Octopus Books in 1981, my seven year old self stumbled across this at the local K-Mart while out shopping for, as I remember, school supplies for my first year at school. What an odd world 1981 must have been that a first grader in an affluent suburb in the midwest could stumble across such a peculiar collection of horror and occult doctrine.

Stay tuned for the entire collection of A Tourist’s Guide to Transylvania, I promise it is a wonderful ride.