Inner Traditions, 1st edition

(20) THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF EROTIC WISDOM

It is part of my rule in my top tens to throw in a kinky entry amidst my wilder special mentions, usually as my final (twentieth) special mention, at least where the subject matter permits.

And here it certainly does – it is not surprising given how large sexuality looms in human biology that it similarly looms large in our mythology.

The subtitle of the original version of this alphabetical reference book by Rufus Camphausen says it all – “A Reference Guide to the Symbolism, Techniques, Rituals, Sacred Texts, Psychology, Anatomy, and History of Sexual Sexuality”. As indeed does the subtitle of the later version – “From Aphrodisiacs and Ecstasy to Yoni Worship and Zap-Lam Yoga”.

RATING: 4 STARS****
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Twitter account profile image as at 8 May 2024

(19) LEGENDARY CRYPTIDS

As “the biological equivalent of UFO sightings”, cryptids and cryptozoology are another modern mythology par excellence, hence my weird-tier special mention for the Legendary Cryptids X-Twitter account and Youtuber (because it is special mention for what is, after all, my top ten for mythology books).

Legendary Cryptids hasn’t published any books as far as I’m aware – but I anticipate would readily feature any books on cryptids or cryptozoology and has probably compiled enough material for a book.

My personal highlights are the cryptid maps he features for various countries and the ‘iceberg’ memes that in the style of such memes look at increasingly deep or esoteric cryptid lore the further you go below the surface.

RATING: 4 STARS****
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X-Twitter profile banner as at 7 May 2024 showcasing books available through their Folk Horror Revival website and Wyld Harvest online bookstore

(18) FOLK HORROR REVIVAL

“From the forest, from the furrows, from the field…and further”

Now we come to the first of my wild-tier special mentions for an X-Twitter account – hence wild-tier special mention for what is, after all, my top ten for mythology books. However, it does have a connection to books – it’s the account for the Folk Horror Revival website and the Wyld Harvest online bookstore.

“Welcome to the online store for Wyrd Harvest Press books exploring the landscapes of Folk Horror and related realms in film, tv, books, art, music, events and other media and also psychogeography, hauntology, urban wyrd, folklore, cultural rituals and costume, earth mysteries, archaic history, hauntings. southern gothic, ‘landscapism / visionary naturalism & geography’, backwoods horror, murder ballads, carnivalia, dark psychedelia, wyrd forteana and other strange edges.”

That pretty much sums it up really. While folk horror is a sub-genre of fiction – for which my personal archetype is The Wicker Man, albeit a non-supernatural example (or is it?) – it often has an origin in (or ambience of) folklore or mythology, and this account is a handy compendium for folklore or mythology, shared by itself or from other accounts.

RATING: 4 STARS****
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Cover of the last edition by Citadel Press in 2004 – it’s a pity as I think they should have kept going to 100

(17) JONATHAN VANKIN & JOHN WHALEN – GREATEST CONSPIRACIES OF ALL TIME

The other modern folklore par excellence, where history meets mythology – conspiracy theories need no introduction, particularly on the internet, that conspiracy theory kitchen sink(hole).

There is of course a plethora of conspiracy theories – it seems at least one for every significant contemporary event at this point. Enough for their own top ten – in some cases enough for their own top ten just with respect to particular events (hello 9/11 and JFK).

Or indeed for their own top ten a number of times over in general – which leads me to this special mention entry which does just that, and is of course irresistible to me combining top ten type lists with conspiracy theories. These compilations of Greatest Conspiracies of All Time went from 50 in its original edition before tapping out at the 80 Greatest Conspiracies of All Time in its last edition in 2004. No doubt they could have piled up more to at least 100 (or 200) in the two decades since.

Interestingly, both writers were also writers of comics and it is intriguing how often comic storylines overlap with conspiracy theories. Indeed, I suspect I could compile a top ten of comics based on the premise of overarching conspiracy theories – Grant Morrison’s The Invisibles, Nick Spencer’s Morning Glories, and Jonathan Hickman’s The Manhattan Projects to name a few.

Of course, my favorite section of the books was for the various overarching grand unifying theories of conspiracies – with the Illuminati as my favorite.
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Murray Rothbard proposed a model of types of conspiracy theory contrasting deep conspiracy theories to shallow ones, with the latter observing an event and asking cui bono or who benefits, “jumping to the conclusion that a posited beneficiary is responsible for covertly influencing events”.

As Vankin and Whalen lamented in their books, conspiracy theories have become pretty lazy these days – and they tapped out in 2004, before the internet truly transformed conspiracy theories into something which could spring into existence with the click of a button. Previously, conspiracy theories involved the meticulous, even obsessive, compilation of facts or evidence. Now, it’s mostly along the lines of Rothbard’s shallow conspiracy theories – simply proposing a beneficiary or motive behind any event, which is pretty easy to do, and asserting that as a conspiracy.

RATING: 4 STARS****
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2010 edition – Norton Agency 1st edition

(16) JAN HAROLD BRUNVAND –

THE VANISHING HITCHHIKER: AMERICAN URBAN LEGENDS & THEIR MEANINGS (1981)

Jan Harold Brunvand is a retired American folklorist best known as a prolific popularizer of that modern folklore par excellence, urban legends – in a series of books from The Vanishing Hitchhiker: American Urban Legends and their Meanings in 1981 onwards.

“Many urban legends are framed as complete stories with plot and characters. The compelling appeal of a typical urban legend is its elements of mystery, horror, fear, or humor. Often they serve as cautionary tales. Some urban legends are morality tales that depict someone acting in a disagreeable manner, only to wind up in trouble, hurt, or dead.”

“Urban legends will often try to invoke a feeling of disgust in the reader which tends to make these stories more memorable and potent. Elements of shock value can be found in almost every form of urban legend and are partially what makes these tales so impactful. An urban legend may include elements of the supernatural or paranormal”.

RATING:

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Kamakura Daibutsu of Kōtoku-in temple in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, photographed by H. Grobe in Wikipedia article “Japanese Zen” – licensed under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

(15) ZEN AND JAPANESE CULTURE

Zen and Japanese Culture was for Daisetz Suzuki, a lifelong student and teacher of Zen whose works popularized it in the West, his magnum opus – ” a classic that has influenced generations of readers and played a major role in shaping conceptions of Zen’s influence on Japanese traditional arts”. In it, he connects Zen to art, haiku, tea ceremonies and the Japanese love of nature – and above all to the philosophy of the samurai and swordsmanship. It is this last that particularly appeals to me, as I’ve always found swords to have a metaphorical resonance to life and how one lives it.

“Life is one long battle; we have to fight at every step…that if we succeed, it is at the point of the sword, and that we die with the weapon in our hand”

Or in my own words, I hold two swords – one in my hand and one in my heart.

RATING: 4 STARS****
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(14) TAO TE CHING

If only there had been some law requiring any foundational religious text be written by its founder like a university exam – within a prescribed time limit of an hour, or two at most.

Surely that would eliminate much of the source of religious conflict, which at heart often seems to be wars of literary interpretation. My book is better than your book. All those long rambling religious texts – really, less is more. Of course, that would also eliminate most, if not almost all religious books – there goes the Bible for one .

But it would leave the Tao Te Ching, jotted down by its founder Laozi or Lao Tzu as a literal afterthought or postscript, at the request of a city sentry to record his wisdom for the good of the kingdom before being permitted to pass – and literally ride off into the sunset on a water buffalo because he was that awesome.

Of course, that is probably pure legend in every respect, including the historicity of Laozi himself, but who cares when it’s that cool? And it’s apt enough for the source of Taoism, with its emphases on living in balance, naturalness, spontaneity, simplicity and detachment from desire – particularly living in the moment and wu wei, or the art of doing nothing effectively.

RATING: 4 STARS****
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(12) JONATHAN KIRSCH – A HISTORY OF THE END OF THE WORLD

Jonathan Kirsch is the author of some of my favorite studies of the Bible. Not of the whole Bible, mind you – for one thing, he tends towards a Jewish focus on the Old Testament (with one notable exception), and for another, he has a particular focus on points of interest there as well.

The Harlot by the Side of the Road was his first such book and its subtitle says it all – Forbidden Tales of the Bible. As does the usual expression of shock he quotes in his introduction – do you mean THAT’S in the Bible?!

“The stories you are about to read are some of the most violent and sexually explicit in all of Western literature. They are tales of human passion in all of its infinite variety: adultery, seduction, incest, rape, mutilation, assassination, torture, sacrifice, and murder”

We’re talking Lot and his daughters in Genesis, then echoed by the Levite and his concubine in Judges, only worse. Much like Abraham preparing to sacrifice his son Isaac in Genesis is echoed, only worse, as Jephthah actually sacrificing his daughter in Judges. Which pretty much sums up those two bloody books of the Bible, which would do Quentin Tarantino or Game of Thrones proud.

Indeed, most of the book is from either Genesis or Judges. There is a couple of exceptions, including the one where God tries to kill Moses, until Moses’ quick-thinking wife Zipporah does a spontaneous circumcision of their infant son and smears Moses’ forehead with the bloody foreskin. Which is just odd, akin to of those weird variants of vampire that can be held at bay by some bizarre obsessive-compulsive ritual.

Which perhaps brings us to his book on Moses, although I just don’t find Moses as intriguing a character as the subject of his similar book on King David. After all, Exodus and its related books might easily have been summed up with the subtitle Are We There Yet?

I do like how he compares God and Moses to a constantly bickering old married couple. I mean, I’m only paraphrasing slightly with this exchange:

GOD: “I have had it with these Israelites! I’ll kill all of them and start over with you and your descendants!”
MOSES: “And what would the Egyptians say? That you saved the Israelites from slavery only to kill them in the desert?”
GOD: “Hmmm. Okay – I’ll just kill some of them.”

I’ve always imagined one Israelite turning to another as the God in a box starts yelling again from the Ark of the Covenant – “I preferred the calf”.

As I said, I prefer King David to Moses, because despite the former’s many flaws – and David could be a monumental ass at times – he’s just such a charming rogue, so much so that even God was charmed by him as God’s golden boy. Or at least, he charmed the original author of the Bible – I particularly like the theory Kirsch references that the nucleus of the Bible started as a court biography of David, to which preceding events were added almost as a legendary Hebrew Dreamtime.

However, my absolute favorite Kirsch book remains his study of the Book of Apocalypse or Revelations, not coincidentally my absolute favorite book of the Bible, in A History of the End of the World (and that one notable exception to his focus on the Old Testament I noted at the outset).

Again, the subtitle of the book sums it up – How the Most Controversial Book in the Bible Changed the Course of Civilization. Or for that matter, the scholarly quip he quotes in his introduction – “Revelations either finds a man mad, or leaves him so”.

RATING: 4 STARS****
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Harper Collins, 50th anniversary edition

(11) HUSTON SMITH – THE WORLD’S RELIGIONS

The classic work on the subject of its title, by leading scholar of religious studies Huston Smith – himself almost the literal embodiment of that title, raised in China as a child of a Christian missionary family and student of philosophy in the United States.

By necessity, it uses a broad-brush approach to the eight world religions it examines in their respective chapters – Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Islam, Judaism, Christianity and what it calls primal or tribal religions. It prompts to mind German philosopher Karl Jasper’s characterization of an Axial Age as the crucible of modern world religions, Jasper ended his Axial Age prior to Christianity or Islam – but it is striking that no major world religion has yet emerged since either.

As per its subtitle “Our Wisdom Traditions”, it seeks to put each religion’s best foot forward and look past caricatures or stereotypes – perhaps most memorably expressed by Smith when it comes to Islam as a common perception of a religion of sword and harem.

My personal favorite chapter, and unfortunately also its shortest, was that on the primal or tribal religions, which despite its brevity, impressed upon me the most the merits of the primal or tribal worldview – including the lost strengths and versatility of an oral culture as opposed to a literate one, despite the obvious advantages of literacy to our society.

RATING: 4 STARS****
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