Die in the Dungeon: A review of This Inevitable Ruin

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Afterwords and Afterthoughts: wrapping up The Sex Magicians

art by Harry Smith, Magus

I asked Tom and Adie to pen a couple responses to the afterword for The Sex Magicians. They graciously did so. I've combined their remarks to wrap up our series. 

from Tom Jackson (Archivist and Reporter)

Anyone who reads The Sex Magicians by Robert Anton Wilson can tell it is both a porn novel and a work that aspires to be more than just porn. The sex magic aspects of the novel are pretty clear, and Gregory Arnott's afterward, "Tracking Down the Mama Vibe: Sexual Fantasy and the Nature of Magical Fiction," is largely aimed at readers such as myself who don't know much about sex magick. (Put it this way: Almost all of what I do know is derived from reading other work by Wilson).

Gregory ranges widely in his afterword, but I want to point out that he succeeds in two things that a reader might ask for. He provides a "for further reading" guide to the interested reader who might want to learn more about sex magick, directing us to books by authors such as Louis T. Culling, Francis King and Kenneth Grant.

And if the reader wants to try another novel in which sex plays an important role, Gregory recommends Somnium by Steve Moore. I totally agree with Gregory that Somnium is a classic fantasy novel which many readers would enjoy.

Gregory admits that Wilson "isn't exactly known for the subtlety of his sex scenes in the first place," and I have to admit, I thought the sex in The Sex Magicians was the least interesting part of the book.

The question of how well a "serious" writer of fiction has succeeded when tackling a book that has elements of porn can be an interesting one. One of my favorite contemporary novelists, Janice Weber, also wrote a novel permeated with sex, Swing Set.

To my mind, the sex in Weber's novel is much more interesting than the sex in Wilson's. That might be partially because ultimately the two wrote novels for different audiences. Wilson's book is written explicitly for a porn publisher marketing books to people looking to buy porn; Weber's book is likely aimed, at least mostly, at the sort of people who read literary fiction such as Weber's other novels.



from Adie (Magical Dilettante)

Sex is not a lot of fun these days. At least, for many people it isn’t, fraught as it is with constant questions of ethics, boundaries, and our own seemingly bottomless anxieties. Worldwide, people are increasingly uninterested and unengaged in sex, or unable to find sexual partners, with record numbers of Gen Z-ers reporting being single and celibate. While there’s no right answer to the question “how many people should be having sex”, it’s hard to believe that these trends point to a particularly healthy cultural relationship with sex. People are scared, disillusioned, and frustrated. Men and women are increasingly distrustful and dismissive of each other.

I don’t believe that this state of affairs, no pun intended, is in any way sustainable. While I’m certainly not saying that everyone needs to be fucking all the time, or that everyone should be engaging in heterosexual P in V, the fact is that men and women need each other, to be able to engage in mutually respectful sexual, romantic, intellectual and emotional relationships. In The Moon and Serpent Bumper Book of Magic, Alan Moore hints at the damage the male/female divide has done to magic with his (nearly) equally dismissive treatment of the ooey-gooey, unrigorous, largely female world of neo-Paganism and the cynical, grasping, dudebro-infested milieu of Chaos Magic(k). The solve is well underway, with no real indications of how and if it will ever end. So how do we coagula?

In his typically erudite afterword to The Sex Magicians, Gregory Arnott, my husband and frankly the best magical partner and guide one could ask for, makes an excellent case for sex magic, and Wilson’s approach in particular, as a necessary step in reuniting the masculine and the feminine. While his essay doesn’t specifically address the concerns I’ve outlined above, he laments the “psychedelic swirled world of instant pornography and spiritual depredation” and implores us to “heed the call of [Wilson’s] revolution”. While of course The Sex Magicians does not hold up in some ways, in other ways it just might be the book we need at the moment, as a gateway into the Yesodian world of fantasy, play, and liberation. Gregory is completely right that we need to find a responsible balance between the imagination and the real; we see far too many examples of slippage between these realms, ranging from people getting engaged to Chat GPT boyfriends to extreme porn-obsessed guys hurting and even killing their partners to fulfill their fantasies of choking or testicular inflation. I guess the key is also in what kind of fantasies we want to entertain. Are they about communion or isolation? Are we using our fellow humans as toys and objects, or as partners in mutual exploration and alchemical balance? Are we recognizing the joyous, silly-yet-extremely serious, transformative potential in sex?

Robert Anton Wilson is guiding us towards the right kinds of fantasies, and it’s up to us to bring them into the 21st century. And we should follow Gregory’s, and Wilson’s, advice and use one of the tried-and true magical frameworks, like the Kabbalistic Tree of Life, to guide us. Our current definition of sexual freedom, quite frankly, isn’t working. We’re unmoored and imbalanced. We need to balance freedom with connection and mutual responsibility, emotion with intellect, the inner masculine with the inner feminine. The unrestrained imagination of Yesod must be grounded by the earthly awareness of Malkuth. This is a tall order, and it’s probably easier for people to cling to their grievances against the opposite sex and look for meaning in escapism, in porn or video games or social media circle-jerking. But the path is out there, for anyone brave enough to find it.

TESTAMENT #6 “West of Eden, Part I of II: Breishit”

 

LINK TO FREE WEB COMIC VERSION OF TESTAMENT #6 (NSFW)

Quick reminder that TESTAMENT can get pretty explicit!

Original solicitation copy for TESTAMENT #6:

“The series Variety.com calls "impossible to put down" delivers the

mind-bending 2-part story "West of Eden," featuring guest; Art by

Gary Erskine (THE FILTH) and Peter Gross (LUCIFER). Decades

ago, young Alan Stern may have created life — inside his laptop.

Now, he's about to discover the terrible consequences of playing

God.”

Rushkoff’s Chapter Six (#6) Notes are available here.

I’ll add my two cents in the comments again!

And we’ll be back on October 22nd, for issue #7

same TESTAMENT time, same Jechidah channel :)))

And the next day, October 23rd, Tales of Illuminatus! #2 will be released!

TESTAMENT #5 Battle With the Anakim

LINK TO FREE WEB COMIC VERSION OF TESTAMENT #5 (NSFW)

Quick reminder that TESTAMENT can get pretty explicit!

Original solicitation copy for TESTAMENT #5:

“Concluding the controversial first story arc. While Abraham dispatches the giants with his spear, Alan Stern must rely on more high-tech methods to destroy the deadly demolition robots. But the Pharaohs past and present will not take this defeat lying down.”

As per usual, Rushkoff’s Chapter Five (#5) Notes provide a guide through the biblical material.

I’m going to forgo the pre-analysis this month, as it’s my busy time of year, finishing up Tales of Illuminatus! #2 and starting the 2025-2026 school year, but will pop into the comments to cuss and discuss!

And we’ll be back on September 22nd, for issue #6

same TESTAMENT time, same Jechidah channel :)))

 

A million and one conflicting test-patterns: Wrapping up The Sex Magicians

 

Bobby Campbell (from RAW Art)

Happy Maybe Day!

The Sex Magicians Chapters 15-18

After my long absence, I'm going to cover the last four chapters of The Sex Magicians. Much of the end of the book is composed of the pornographic climax of the novel and we see greater examples of sexual excess and greater doses of profane humor. Wilson needed to give the reader what they came for, right? I could spend a lot of time talking about the potentially uncomfortable or disturbing aspects of the orgy at the Kelly house and along Hugo de Naranja's milk route before he arrives and joins said orgy. But I feel as if I've already dissected so many of the potentially ethical issues and developments in attitude while also pointing out that the novel was supposed to be sensationally salacious, so I'm going to refrain. (This is a LIE. I ended up doing this despite my intentions.) Instead, I'll go ahead and point out the "moral" of The Sex Magicians, if it can be said to have a moral. 

Being penned by Wilson, I think it is understandable to presume there is some messaging herein. I'd say that one of the first messages can be picked up on in Sput's asides to his butler as he contemplates the tribadic encounter long after his party has otherwise died down. "The whole world is crazy...Literally crazy. Stark raving mad. Imagine, there are guys busy tonight, crawling through stinking fly-infested jungles to blow up other guys- or women and children even. And other guys trying to square circles or find subatomic particles smaller than the quark. Imagine! when we could all be balling each other. The whole world is mad." Now, being Sput it is going to have some irrational element (he later has the two girls sit astride his penis and face while making them pretend to be Gloria Steinem and Kate Millet): I don't think Wilson thought mathematics or physics was a waste of time. I also believe Wilson was aware that many people in Vietnam (or other warzones) didn't want to be there. But, I think that if anyone were to raise a contemporary objection, Wilson could have pointedly asked why is a fictional work of pornography more upsetting or pressing than the myriad of larger issues we have in the world? 

This has been used often in defense of pornography and other "obscene" materials. What does it matter what a fictional character does? What does it matter if people consensually film or photograph themselves in sexual situations? Now, this argument isn't foolproof: the objector can point out that it is possible to have multiple concerns, that elements of the porn industry have always been rife with exploitative practices; they could even ask you to think about the children. But, I will say this: those voices are usually very focused on pornography (and, seemingly inevitably, the private sex lives of others) and not antiwar activism, they don't seem to think very highly of pornographic actors in the first place and I'll be damned if I ever let someone of a conservative persuasion convince me they actually care about any children that aren't in front of their goddamn face. Napoleon, famed pacifist and benefactor of humanity, was very concerned about the effects that de Sade's writing could have on society. So, in conclusion to this paragraph; if someone is concerned about the contents of The Sex Magicians or other such similar materials in 2025- go fuck yourself. 

I believe that message could be taken literally, as anyone overly concerned about "obscene" books could probably deal with a bit of relaxation and self-exploration. 

Some more elements of Illuminatus! appear in these closing chapters: the first published appearance of Miss Portinari in Chapter 15 is notable and the further integration of the Illuminati and the Church of Scientific Illuminism in Chapter 17 brings up the mention of Weishaupt's science of fives, funfwissenschaft, which evidently he uncovered during a game of strip poker. It is also during Chapter 17 (and Chapter 18) that Wilson portrays his contemporaneous beliefs in the energies that arise during sex. Having been influenced by the work of Crowley and the (mis-)interpretations of Louis T. Culling, Wilson would have experimented with sex and magic by this point in his life. We can also see his conviction that sex is a way of merging together, of greater understanding, evident in the final pages of his first novel. With a greater awareness of consent and exploitation, our current times don't always have the same rosy view of sexuality as the counter culture of the Seventies; and, somewhat conversely, we have a greater idea of expression and spectrums than that day and age. 

In today's world, most of us would rankle at the idea of John Kelly propositioning his fourteen year old little sister, while simultaneously having a negative reaction to the portrayal of gay men in the YMCA and the racial aspects of some of the sex scenes. Then again, is that not perhaps the public face that we put atop the desires of the unconscious and preconscious mind? It is easy to find thinkpieces written in the last decade about the prevalence of incest porn. Craigslist was famous pre-Pandemic for the sheer variety and the scope of imagination demonstrated by sleazy advertisements for gay hookups. The rate of Grindr downloads explodes wherever the Republican National Committee is holding a convention. And it doesn't take much effort at all to find pornographic content centered around race. There will, most likely, always be a seediness to sex; whether this is because of moral failings, or manifestations of the id that should be tamped down upon, or because of societal shame and repression is for each person to ruminate over. 

So we leave The Sex Magicians with the Mama Vibe defused, Josie and Markoff Chaney inducted into the Church of Scientific Illuminism and Dr. Prong's new relaxation method. The relationship between Stella, Tarantella and himself is as sexually charged as anything else in this book, but with a distinct element of love. We say goodbye to Mongolian Cluster Fucks and pornographic Tarot cards with Dr. Prong relieved of his anxieties about Ezra Pound and living in a world that is a good place to be. Like most of Wilson's protagonists, the end is illumination- a greater awareness of the pleasurable and the beautiful suffusing the character's worldview and hopefully the reader's. I do believe that is what Wilson was trying to turn us all onto over the course of his career and we can find here that his commitment goes back to the beginning of his career. A dirty mind and a great soul can accomplish a lot. 

Love is the law, love under will. 

TESTAMENT #4 - The Valley of Siddim

 

LINK TO FREE WEB COMIC VERSION OF TESTAMENT #4 (NSFW)

Quick reminder that TESTAMENT can get pretty explicit!

Original solicitation copy for TESTAMENT #4:

“Abraham's epic war with the Anakim giants reverberates through time,

as Alan Stern steels himself to do battle with an army of gargantuan

war machines. But his true enemy is a force more powerful than any robot.”

As expected, Rushkoff’s Chapter Four (#4) Notes help illuminate the biblical details!

Liam Sharp’s art is especially great in this issue. The visual language of the world has,

at this point, been well established, and he’s wielding it very effectively.

I especially enjoy the stylistic tweaks that make the biblical scenes feel ancient and the cyberpunk scenes feel modern, but also that the split is not so extreme that the resonances are lost.

This is such a great image!

I’m reminded of Jack Kirby’s Granny Goodness from New Gods and the wild organic tech from Frank Miller’s Ronin.

Also, the recurring christo-fascist imagery of a plasticine blonde woman advocating

for heartless cruelty with a gold cross dangling just above her cleavage. 

We’re starting to get into the plot elements that inspired this group re-reading,

where you can see the emergent prescience of the work.

Weaponized robotics, data tracking, neuroscience, and soon digital currency,

“coin of the realm.”

Our villain is revealed as a decadent tech bro billionaire, really kinda before

that archetype was well established, I think?

I feel like we mostly still had Kingpin/Lex Luther style business magnate/industrialist villains

back in 2006. (Both of whom had specific and intentional DJT inspired make

overs in the mid 80’s.)

Maybe Bill Gates inspired villains started popping up, but Fallow seems more

in the contemporary mold of a Peter Thiel character type.

Dr. Green and Alan Stern both speak of control, which reminded me of the

Law of Eristic Escalation: Imposition of Order = Escalation of Disorder.

Though both order and disorder represent a false dichotomy of pure chaos :))) 

It would be interesting to ask the creators, and maybe I will at some point,

to what degree do they consider this work expository vs. visionary?

Certainly sometimes they give us specific opinionated messaging,

but other times it seems like maybe the story takes on a life of its own, and

things emerge organically.

There’s an interesting tension between the early vision of the internet/digital

technology as a tool of decentralized empowerment and the current mood

of authoritarian control. Underneath both of these trends the

McLuhanesque/physical biases of these devices continues to reshape reality

in ways too ubiquitous for us to reasonably perceive:

THE DISSOLUTION OF BOUNDARIES.

I like this line:

“They are slaves-- they fight against the strength of their own will, and cannot win.”

And we’ll be back on August 22nd, for issue #5

same TESTAMENT time, same Jechidah channel :)))

And don’t forget, tomorrow is MAYBE DAY 2025!

TESTAMENT #3 - Virgin Daughters

 

LINK TO FREE WEB COMIC VERSION OF TESTAMENT #3 (NSFW)
Quick reminder that TESTAMENT can get pretty explicit!

Original solicitation copy for TESTAMENT #3:

“Dr. Green's troops abduct the catatonic protesters — including Jake's former love Miriam — for ‘reprogramming.’ Jake recklessly chases them on a motorcycle, only to plunge violently off a cliff. Still, the gods won't let his story end. They have plans for him — and his pupil Dinah, who may be linked to a long line of powerful ‘virgins.’”

And now for some scattered thoughts and observations!

As someone coming at this story as an outsider to the Biblical tradition, I must once again ask, what the fuck is up with that Lot story?!

Rushkoff’s Chapter Three (#3) Notes gives some contextualization, but it remains pretty wild that the book that gets bandied about as the moral barometer of civilization has weird incest porn in it!

I’m not sure that I understand the resonance between Jake/Dinah & Lot/Daughter #2, these seem to be two very different relationships and situations, but maybe it’s as simple as Astarte manifesting and influencing events through sexual activity?

Discourse around the sex work taboo seems appropriate here, but I also vaguely remember it becoming much more pronounced as the series continues, so can take it or leave it at this early juncture.

I like the idea that since Jake doesn’t have a RFID tag the soldiers can’t perceive him, despite him essentially being right in front of them. There’s something to the idea that as authoritarian control invades digital technology and environments that they cede much more valuable ground in the real world.

The story logic of the world seems to be expanding in both its mythic and sci-fi capacity, with divine interventions and giant cybernetic bug monsters!

Liam Sharp’s art this issue is especially tight and seems very in sync with Jamie Grant’s colors. The mixed media look is coming together nicely.

The motorcycle jumping scene has got to be inspired by Steve McQueen’s stunt in The Great Escape, right?

Last week I went to see Dogma in Kevin Smith’s movie theatre, complete with a Q & A so long that I tapped out long before he did! The connection being Dogma is another modern story told in a world where the Bible is literally true and real, but also up for reinterpretation.

And really the central thesis of the movie is basically just the Catma of Maybe Logic:

"He said mankind got it all wrong by taking a good idea and building a belief structure on it."

"I think it's better to have ideas. You can change an idea. Changing a belief is trickier..."

Rufus: “Are you saying you believe?” · Bethany: “No. But I have a good idea.”

And we’ll be back on July 22nd, for issue #4
same TESTAMENT time, same Jechidah channel :)))

And the day after that is MAYBE DAY 2025!

This year featuring such in person events as