The Soviet synthesizer that bridged occultism and electronic music

The Soviet synthesizer that bridged occultism and electronic music

You don’t play the ANS synthesizer with a keyboard. Instead you etch images onto glass sheets covered in black putty and feed them into a machine that shines light through the etchings, trigging a wide range of tones. Etchings made low on the sheets make low tones. High etchings make high tones. The sound is generated in real-time and the tempo depends on how fast you insert the sheets.


This isn’t a new Dorkbot or Maker Faire oddity. It’s a nearly forgotten Russian synthesizer designed by Evgeny Murzin in 1938. The synth was named after and dedicated to the Russian experimental composer and occultist Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin (1872–1915). The name might not mean much to you, but it illuminates a long running connection between electronic music and the occult.



You can find traces of the occult throughout the history of electronic music. The occult obsessed Italian Futurist Luigi Russolo built his own mechanical instruments around 1917. The famous Moog synthesizer made an early appearance in Mick Jagger’s soundtrack to Kenneth Anger’s occult film Invocation of My Demon Brother in 1969. And in the late 1970s Throbbing Gristle built their own electronic instruments for their occult sound experiments, setting the stage for many of the occult themed industrial bands who followed. The witch house genre keeps this tradition alive today.


It’s little the surprise otherworldly sounds and limitless possibilities of synthesizers and samplers would evoke the luminous. But there’s more to the connection. The aim of the alchemist is not just the literal synthesis of chemicals, but also synthesis in the Hegelian sense: the combination of ideas. Solve et Coagula. From the Hermetic magi of antiquity, to Aleister Crowley’s OTO to modern chaos magicians, western occultists have sought to combine traditions and customs into a single universal system of thought and practice.


Electronic music grew from similar intellectual ground, and it all started with Scriabin … READ the full article by Klint Finley on Boing Boing.


The Soviet synthesizer that bridged occultism and electronic music

Saint-Jean-Baptiste, Fête nationale du Québec, Montréal p.Q.

Saint-Jean-Baptiste, Fête nationale du Québec, Montréal p.Q.

Saint-Jean-Baptiste, Fête nationale du Québec, Montréal p.Q.

Saint-Jean-Baptiste, Fête nationale du Québec, Montréal p.Q.

‘Le hibou est le symbole à la fois d’une conscience aiguisée (l’invisible observateur dans l’obscurité) et du pouvoir stupéfiant de la mort : la terreur mortelle du visiteur furtif dans la nuit … Les puissances de la mort sont également celles de la transformation et le hibou est symboliquement lié au renouveau de la vie, mythiquement implicite dans la mort (cycle perpétuel de la mort et de la régénération) … L’histoire naturelle du hibou nous invite à imaginer ce qui se trouve derrière le voile du crépuscule …


Saint-Jean-Baptiste, Fête nationale du Québec, Montréal p.Q.

Toutefois, la profonde sagesse du hibou inclut, outre la facilité d’amener ce que est obscur à la lumière, celle de vivre lui-même dans l’obscurité’ …


Saint-Jean-Baptiste, Fête nationale du Québec, Montréal p.Q.

Solstitium, Samradh, Vestalia, Alban Hefin, Midsommar, Litha, Solstice d’été MMXII

The summer solstice usually falls on June 21 but moved up in 2012 because it’s a leap year. On this day, the Earth’s axis is tilted at 23.4 degrees to the plane of the solar system, and the North Pole is most tipped toward the sun, which means more daylight than any other day if you live north of the equator …

 

 

 

Summer Solstice 2011 (Reuters/Kieran Doherty)

 

Over the years, the solstice triggered massive celebrations at places like Stonehenge and the Great Pyramids of Egypt, which were designed to have the sun set exactly between two pyramids on the solstice itself’ …

 

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In Quebec, Canada, the celebration of (the summer solstice on) June 24 was brought to New France by the first French colonists. Great fires were lit at night. According to the Jesuit Relations, the first celebrations of St John’s day in New France took place around 1638. In 1834, Ludger Duvernay, printer and editor of La Minerve took the leadership of an effort to make June 24 the national holiday of the Canadiens (French Canadians). In 1908, Pope Pius X designated John the Baptist as the patron saint of the French-Canadians. In 1925, June 24 became a legal holiday in Quebec and in 1977, it became the secular National Holiday of Quebec. It still is the tradition to light great fires on the night of the 24th of June.

Church where toddler’s anti-gay song was filmed: We don’t condone hate


A church in Indiana said it does not condone hate in the wake of a video, apparently shot inside the church, that shows a child singing « ain’t no homo going to make it to heaven » – to the delight of a cheering congregation.


The video surfaced last week on YouTube. According to CNN’s Belief Blog, about 20 people gathered outside Apostolic Truth Tabernacle in Greensburg on Sunday to protest. According to CNN, journalists were not allowed inside the church on Sunday, and church leaders refused to comment on the video or protest.


Late last week, the church posted a statement on its website addressing the controversy:


‘The Pastor and members of Apostolic Truth Tabernacle do not condone, teach, or practice hate of any person for any reason. We believe and hope that every person can find true Bible salvation and the mercy and grace of God in their lives. We are a strong advocate of the family unit according to the teachings and precepts found in the Holy Bible. We believe the Holy Bible is the Divinely-inspired Word of God and we will continue to uphold and preach that which is found in scripture.’


According to Time magazine, church members « ratcheted up security » following reports of death threats aimed at pastor Jeff Sangl over the video, though a local sheriff later said he was unaware of such threats.


The video and is the latest in a series of church videos featuring anti-gay speech – a response, in part, to President Barack Obama’s historic public support for same sex marriage.


Last month, a North Carolina pastor delivered a homophobic sermon that suggested rounding up all « queers and homosexuals » and quarantining them inside an electric fence.


« I figured a way to get rid of all the lesbians and queers, » Charles L. Worley told worshippers at Providence Road Baptist Church on May 13. « Build a great big large fence – 50 or 100 mile long – put all the lesbians in there. Fly over and drop some food. Do the same thing with the queers and the homosexuals, and have that fence electrified so they can’t get out. And you know what, in a few years, they’ll die out. Do you know why? They can’t reproduce! »


« It makes me pukin’ sick to think about, » Worley added. « Can you imagine kissing some man? »


A video of his comments went viral, drawing hundreds of protesters last month to the Catawba County Justice Center, 12 miles from the Maiden, N.C., church where Worley delivered his Mother’s Day rant.



Dylan Stableford
Yahoo News

Transit de Vénus MMXII, Montréal p.Q.

Catégorie Moeurs, libellé Nouvel Âge



‘On voit rien’. Ciel couvert, impossible d’assister au transit de Vénus. J’ai plutôt mis des images ensemble : C’était samedi le 2 juin dernier, une soirée présentée par le festival Mutek.


‘On voit rien non plus’ de la collaboration entre Tim Hecker et Stephen O’Malley parce qu’on voyait effectivement absolument rien (les projections c’était les Momies de Palerme, en première partie).


Pour tous ceux et celles donc qui n’ont rien vu.



‘Ces rares transits de Vénus sont toujours très importants. Celui-ci, arrivant peu de temps après l’Éclipse Solaire du 20 Mai, ajoute de l’importance aux dernières étapes qui nous rapprochent du Solstice de Décembre 2012.


L’Éclipse du 20 Mai concernait la libération et la guérison des expressions anciennes, déséquilibrées, basées sur le pouvoir, abusives et destructrices de l’énergie masculine et sur la mise en place des germes d’une nouvelle expression positive, créative, centrée sur le cœur du guerrier spirituel masculin … Le transit de Vénus va ‘éclipser’ les anciens schémas de relation et de co-dépendance qui ne fonctionnent plus maintenant que l’énergie masculine pure a commencé à prendre racine.


Transit de Vénus MMXII

Le transit de Vénus est la prochaine étape du processus de guérison du masculin et du féminin. Puis le 13 Novembre 2012, l’Éclipse Solaire Totale dans le Pacifique sud permettra au féminin, que ce soit à l’intérieur ou dans le monde, de trouver sa relation juste, saine et complète avec le masculin dans sa pure expression. Alors nous pourrons avancer avec les germes de l’équilibre qui auront été semés dans la Terre Mère et dans ses grilles énergétiques(!) dans toutes nos relations et ensuite dans nos structures locales, mondiales et dans nos institutions’ …