S2 #21 / Dr Tomas Vincente on The Faceless God

Dr. Tomas Vincente is a scholar of ancient religion, magic and esotericism. His past work explores the emergence of Christian monotheism and the resulting decline of the chthonic cults of the ancient Mediterranean and Near East. He is dedicated to recovering the integrity of this archaic spirituality of blood and fire, which has been demonised by the Abrahamic religions for two millennia. In the show we discuss his work The Faceless God. The book has a triple focus—Lovecraftian, Egyptian and Sabbatic—which may seem bizarre at first glance. Through an initiated reading of Lovecraft’s fiction, relating especially to the figure of Nyarlathotep, certain hitherto unexplored connections are revealed between European witch lore and the Egyptian mysteries of Osiris and Anubis. The claim that there was a germ of truth beneath the diabolical stereotypes and accusations of European witchcraft was advanced long ago by Margaret Murray, who argued that witchcraft was an organised cult of pagan origin, which had somehow survived the processes of Christianization. Dr Vincente’s argument is much more subtle, and closer in spirit to the more recent research of Carlo Ginzburg. He would not speak of an organised witch cult, but rather of diverse and analogous survivals of shamanistic practice, which carried forward certain symbolic and ritual elements of archaic and pre-Christian origin. The most novel aspect of his argument lies in the unearthing of the deep symbolic resonances between the lore of witchcraft, relating to the black man and the Goat of Mendes, and the archaic fertility cult of the ram-headed Banebdjedet, who was a totemistic representation of Osiris—or more precisely Osiris in union with Ra in his netherworld aspect. In the Plus show we get into similarities between the Dark Man and the King of the Fairies. We discuss the importance of art and artists and what they bring back from the dark womb. We get into why this experience happens? What is the point of it? Dr Vincente goes on to describe the response to this summons is a radical openness to profound mystery not about the application of will. Big stuff. Show notes: https://theionpublishing.com/authors/tomas-vincente/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nyarlathotephttps://www.facebook.com/people/Tomas-Vincente/pfbid0sXCvHBXuU7m5LHtDZs1CzYJUjGFLsPZ9ustA13tCXdqSD1ZGA5isNhLxu441MAgJl/?fref=ts https://skepticaloccultist.com/post/159757289693/the-faceless-god https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azathoth Keep in touch? https://linktr.ee/darraghmason Music by Obliqka https://soundcloud.com/obliqka