Week 59, Illuminatus online reading group

Sheila White as Messalina in the old BBC production of I Claudius

This week "Cars, except for official cars and the vehicles of the performers," page 617, to page 627, "Come over here and get the energies going with me.")

In the "Claudius" series of novels by Robert Graves, there is a memorable scene in which Messalina, the wife of the emperor Claudius, has sex in an orgy with many different men. Messalina is name-checked in Illuminatus! (page 606, "And how's the Miskatonic Messalina?"), so perhaps the scene had a cultic, pagan meaning that I missed at the time when I read it years ago. (But depicting women as promiscuous is a common smear tactic in history.)  In any event, it would seem to be too coincidental that Messalina is mentioned a few pages before the last few pages of this week's selection, which appears to feature a shapeshifting goddess.

A couple of notes:

"First the towers appeared ... " page 619. The design of the rock festival grounds recalls the design of the Nazi concentration camps, as Joe Malik notices on the next page.

EWIGE BLUMENKRAFT AND EWIGE SCHLAGENKRAFT, page 620. Wikipedia explains.  The whole entry is worth reading; excerpt: ""Ewige Blumenkraft und ewige Schlangenkraft" is also offered in Illuminatus! as the complete version of this motto. The text translates "Schlangenkraft" as "serpent power"; thus "Ewige Blumenkraft und ewige Schlangenkraft" means "eternal flower power and eternal serpent power" and may allude to the conjoinment of cross and rose within the alchemical furnace."

"Green and Pleasant Publications," page 622, the name Robert Shea gave to his publishing operation, which put out the anarchist fanzine No Governor. (Issues available here.)

"I hear you're good at that," page 625, this scene goes back to the Babalon working, Black Mass scene.

(Next week: "This is Danny Pricefixer," Dorus Horus said, page 627, to page 637, "Into the silence, Hagbard said ... ")