Eco: Foucalt's Pendulum eco foucault (highly illogical behavior txt) 📖

the same ones found at Pedra Pintada inAmazonia? That Egypt possessed two plumed serpents, one on thethrone of Tutankhamen and the other on the pyramid of Saqqara, andthe latter serpent points to Quetzalcoatl?"

"What does Quetzalcoatlhave to do with Amazonia, if he's part of the Mexican pantheon?" Iasked.

"Well, maybe I missed aconnection. But for that matter, how do you explain the fact thatthe statues of Easter Island are megaliths exactly like the Celticones? Or that a Polynesian god called Ya is clearly the Yod of theJews, as is the ancient Hungarian Io-v', the great and good god? Orthat an ancient Mexican manuscript shows the earth as a squaresurrounded by sea, and in its center is a pyramid that has on itsbase the inscription Aztlan, which is close to Atlas and Atlantis?Why are pyramids found on both sides of the Atlantic?''

"Because it's easier tobuild pyramids than spheres. Because the wind produces dunes in theshape of pyramids and not in the shape of theParthenon."

"I hate the spirit ofthe Enlightenment," Diotallevi said.

"Let me continue. Thecult of Ra doesn't appear in Egyptian religion before the NewEmpire, and therefore it comes from the Celts. Remember SaintNicholas and his sleigh? In prehistoric Egypt the ship of the Sunwas a sleigh. Since there was no snow in Egypt, the sleigh's originmust have been Nordic..."

I couldn't let thatpass: "Before the invention of the wheel, sleighs were used also onsand."

"Don't interrupt. Thebook says that first you identify the analogies and then you findthe reasons. And it says that, in the end, the reasons arescientific. The Egyptians knew electricity. Without electricitythey wouldn't have been able to do what they did. A German engineerplaced in charge of the sewers of Baghdad discovered electricbatteries still operating that dated back to the Sassanids. In theexcavations of Babylon, accumulators were found that had been madefour thousand years ago. And, finally, the Ark of the Covenant(which contained the Tables of the Law, Aaron's rod, and a pot ofmanna from the desert) was a kind of electric strongbox capable ofproducing discharges on the order of five hundredvolts."

"I saw that in amovie."

"So what? Where do youthink scriptwriters get their ideas? The ark was made of acaciawood sheathed in gold inside and out¡Xthe same principle aselectric condensers, two conductors separated by an insulator. Itwas encircled by a garland, also of gold, and set in a dry regionwhere the magnetic field reached five hundred to six hundred voltsper vertical meter. It's said that Porsena used electricity to freehis realm from the presence of a frightful animal calledVolt."

"Which is why AlessandroVolta chose that exotic pseudonym. Before, his name was simplySzmrszlyn Khraznapahwsh-kij."

"Be serious. Also,besides the manuscripts, I have letters that offer revelations onthe connections between Joan of Arc and the Sibylline Books,between Lilith the Talmudic demon and the hermaphroditic GreatMother, between the genetic code and the Martian alphabet, betweenthe secret intelligence of plants, cosmology, psychoanalysis, andMarx and Nietzsche in the perspective of a new angelology, betweenthe Golden Number and the Grand Canyon, Kant and occultism, theEleusian mysteries and jazz, Cagliostro and atomic energy,homosexuality and gno-sis, the golem and the class struggle. Inconclusion, a letter promising a work in eight volumes on the Grailand the Sacred Heart."

"What's its thesis? Thatthe Grail is an allegory of the Sacred Heart or that the SacredHeart is an allegory of the Grail?''

"He wants it both ways,I think. In short, gentlemen, I don't know what course to follow.We should sound out Signor Gar-amond."

So we sounded him out.He said that, as a matter of principle, nothing should be thrownout, and we should give everyone a hearing.

"But most of thisstuff," I argued, "repeats things you can find on any stationnewsstand. Even published authors copy from one another, and citeone another as authorities, and all base their proofs on a sentenceof lamblicus, so to speak."

"Well," Garamond said,"would you try to sell readers something they knew nothing about?The Isis Unveiled books must deal with the exact same subjects asall the others. They confirm one another; therefore they're true.Never trust originality."

"Very well," Belbo said,"but we can't tell what's obvious and what isn't. We need aconsultant."

"What sort ofconsultant?"

"I don't know. He mustbe less credulous than a Diabolical, but he must know their world.And then tell us what direction we should take in Hermetics. Aserious student of Renaissance Hermeticism..."

"And the first time youhand him the Grail and the Sacred Heart," Diotallevi said, "hestorms out, slamming the door."

"Notnecessarily."

"I know someone whowould be just right," I said. "He's certainly erudite; he takesthese things fairly seriously, but with elegance, even irony, I'dsay. I met him in Brazil, but he should be in Milan now. I musthave his phone number somewhere."

"Contact him," Garamondsaid. "Tentatively. It depends on the cost. And try also to makeuse of him for the wonderful adventure of metals."

Aglie seemed happy tohear from me again. He inquired after the charming Amparo, and whenI hinted that was over, he apologized and made some tactful remarksabout how a young person could always begin, with ease, a newchapter in his life. I mentioned an editorial project. He showedinterest, said he would be glad to meet us, and set a time, at hishouse.

From the birth ofProject Hermes until that day, I had enjoyed myself heedlessly atthe expense of many people. Now, They were preparing to present thebill. I was as much of a bee as the ones we wanted to attract; and,like them, I was being quickly lured to a flower, though I didn'tyet know what that flower was.

46

During the day you willapproach the frog several times and will utter words of worship.And you will ask it to work the miracles you wish...Meanwhile youwill cut a cross on which to sacrifice it.

¡XFrom a ritual ofAleister Crowley

Aglifc lived in thePiazzale Susa area: a little secluded street, a turn-of-the-centurybuilding, soberly art nouveau. An elderly butler in a stripedjacket opened the door and led us into a small sitting room, wherehe asked us to wait for the count.

"So he's a count," Belbowhispered.

"Didn't I tell you? He'sSaint-Germain redivivus."

"He can't be redivivusif he's never died," Diotallevi said. "Sure he's not Ahasuerus, thewandering Jew?"

"According to some,