Scene from The Magic Flute.
This week, please read from page 267 (the start of Part Seven) to Page 293 ("Dimly, all of the pieces fit together, and he understood part of what it meant to be a Freemason.")
This is the chapter in which Sigismundo is initiated into becoming a Freemason, and I appreciated the fact that Wilson took the time, on Page 272, to give a definition of what "Freemason" means, for the benefit of people who don't know much about the subject (such as, for example, myself -- this is going to be a fairly short blog entry.)
The fact that Freemasons stood for freedom, and freedom of conscience, helps explain why figures such as Beethoven and Mozart were interested in the movement. As I've written before, Mozart's opera The Magic Flute has elements of Freemasonry, and it was Beethoven's favorite Mozart opera. Beethoven himself was influenced by members of the Illuminati.
So why is this section interspersed with a passage about Maria Maldonado's dream journal?
A recent Metropolitan Opera production of The Magic Flute.
3 comments:
The initiation that Sigismundo goes through is an amalgamation of at least a couple breeds of Masonry as well as some elements that are purely Wilson. I really enjoyed reading it- like Abraham's unlicensed Pentagram therapy I think this gives a valuable perspective of what RAW considered to be the major components and meanings of those rituals.
I like that Maria's journal comes in as Sigismundo's consciousness is expanding. I think that both of them are connected in the text- although, having haven't actually read the series in a few years I could be overestimating their parallels.
p. 272: "Sigismundo skipped down the page to
What is the purpose of life and consciousness?
That was a rare beauty, that one."
In my far gone, wild impetuous youth I once asked Robert Anton Wilson, "What is the purpose of evolution?"
He dismissively replied, "Only at the Open Center do I get questions like this." He continued, " the purpose of evolution is to make a more comfortable pair of shoes for me to lecture in."
That may sound facetious, but could be interpreted more profoundly by considering the Divine WoMan superimposed upon the Tree of Life.
p. 278: "Sigismundo Celine's initiation as a Speculative Freemason occurred on the night of July 23, 1768." - nice date for an initiation.
"On the evening of July 23, Sigismundo was in the living room of Giancarlo Tennone, his fencing teacher, with Uncle Pietro."
Uncle Pietro = UP. Compare Tennone's last name with Tyrone Slothrop's first name. He's the main character in Pynchon's "Gravity's Rainbow." Tennone and Tyrone, both names end with "one"; A Tyrone anagram = "try one." Pynchon continues this pattern in his next novel "Vineland" with the characters Ralph Wayvone Sr. and Ralph Wayvone Jr. Compare all this with the first quote above. Read my first blog on "Gravity's Rainbow" for an interpretation on the use of "one" in this context.
Sigismundo's decision on page 269 not to major in music reminds me of pianist Charles Rosen who earned his doctorate in French literature. I coincidentally have Rosen's recording of the Goldberg Variations playing right now.
I love Bobby's illustration of Sigismundo playing the keyboard.
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