The ancient Tibetan metaphysical texts state that all sound is music, all music is mantra, and mantra is the essence of all sound. Through the use of ritual and mantric power, the Tibetans use sound to effect a specific change in the individual and the environment. Mantra is a pattern of sound or sound vibration…
Author: David Metcalfe
In addition to writing De Umbris Idearum, David Metcalfe is the Books Editor for THE REVEALER, the online journal for NYU's Center for Religion and Media. He's also an independent researcher, cultural historian, and artist. He regularly contributes articles and reviews to Modern Mythology.net, Evolutionary Landscapes, Reality Sandwich, and Alarm Magazine.
Philosophy as Martial Art in the Shadow of Apocalypse
De Umbris Idearum: the shadows of ideas. Giordano Bruno used this as the title of one of his treatises on the art of memory. As thematic inspiration for this weekly column, the notion of shadows is taken for its most expansive potential. Everything we encounter in the environment is in some way a shadow of…
In Praise of Hellfire & Brimstone
“Another night as the holy Father entered the church he saw the evil one seated, as it were, with a paper in his hand which he appeared to be reading by the light of the lamp, and his hand was hideous to behold and furnished with iron claws. The saint approached him, and asked him…
“Till immersed in that mighty ocean”: Perils of Awakening in a Universe of Hungry Ghosts
Down, down, I sank, till immersed in that mighty ocean where conflicting elements were swallowed by a mountain wave of darkness, which grasped me within its mighty folds and I sank to the lowest depths of forgetfulness. — Andrew Jackson Davis, quoted by James Webb in The Occult Underground It is not possible for anyone…
“Thou seest, O Son, with thine eyes”: Magic, Metaphysics, and the Actionable Expression of Misdirection
16. Thou seest, O Son, with thine eyes; but though thou look never so steadfastly upon me, with the Body, and bodily sight, thou canst not see, nor understand what I am now. 17. Tat. Thou hast driven me, O Father, into no small fury and distraction of mind, for I do not now see…
Parapsychology and Intellectual Integrity: Words of Advice from Dr. Krippner
Forgive me; I just returned from this year’s Parapsychological Association conference, and my mind is still digesting five days of intense engagement with the scientific study of exceptional human experiences. So this column will necessarily be very brief. Rather than regurgitate some half-chewed material, I’d like to share a few insights from Dr. Stanley Krippner,…
His Strange Confession: Self-help, natural philosophy, and what Napoleon Hill learned from the devil
The good man went into his chapel then to fetch a book and a stole which he put around his neck, and on his return he set about conjuring the Enemy. He had been reading the invocation for some while, when he looked up and saw the Enemy before him in such a hideous guise…
The Light of Natural Philosophy
Let us ask the Apostle Paul, that vessel of election, in what activity he saw the armies of the Cherubim engaged when he was rapt into the third heaven. He will answer, according to the interpretation of Dionysius, that he saw them first being purified, then illuminated, and finally made perfect. We, therefore, imitating the…
“That’s a Man Standing There Solid As Me” – Some Reflections on the Nature of Ghosts
For a moment leave aside whether you believe or disbelieve in the existence of ghosts. Would you know one if you saw it? Once, I would have said yes. I would have had a picture in mind of a spectral figure — the familiar trope of popular media — or perhaps an orb, a shadowy…
Phantom Histories: Thoughts on the Work of Medievalist Claude Lecouteux
In those days it was common to bury people at night and by torchlight: and it was noticed that whenever a funeral was toward, John Poole was always at his window, either on the ground floor or upstairs, according as he could get the better view from one or the other … There came a…