Aloha,
On Tue, 14 Oct 2014 17:38:59 -0700, Chas Clifton <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
> I did know Lew Welch slightly, and he had a a nature-mystic streak,
> but he was not an occultist in a formal sense that I know, if that makes
> sense.
My overall sense of the West Coast Beat poets goes toward their works
expressing nature mysticism over "formal" occultism. Post Gold Rush
poetry in California fairly quickly developed a notion that the California
landscape and ecology could expand mystical consciousness--more or
less via some immediate psychospiritual processes. They tapped into
this, I think.
For instance, during the post-WWII period, SF local/regional popular
culture pretty much took for granted that Mt. Tamalpais was a
sacred and possibly enchanting locale and that unmediated experiences
on the mountain could lead to spiritual enhancements. Beats did
hang out there. (And Big Sur, and such.) [Later, my friends and I
did, too, for just that reason.]
Partly thanks to direct experiences of the landscape. Partly thanks to
a response to the history of the missions. And partly thanks to some of
them carrying on and altering Western/Christian mystical currents.
As I posted earlier, it seems to be the women associated with the West
Coast Beat poets who drew on "formal" occultism. My guess is that, in
this time of nascent Neo-Paganism, they might have felt a little closer
to Witch-ness. And its tools and resources.
Let me add that I think that links between the West Coast Beat
Poets and the post-WWII LGBT/BDSM scenes probably influenced the
poets relationship to magic and occultism. I certainly had a limited
and fragmentary notion of the LGBT/BDSM scenes then (and these days,
for that matter.) What I recall is a growing public presence of activist
groups such as The Mattachine Society and The Daughters of Bilitis
working toward civil rights.
But the West Coast/SF LGBT/BDSM scenes undoubtedly incorporated
magical interests and performances.
Musing Magic In The Landscape & Its Life! Rose,
Pitch
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