+|> + H 3 3 * P 3 N D V K V L + <|+ ... Thee PenduCult is built upon an intuited eclectic and syncretic collision of ideas and actions steeped in magick, transcendentalism, Taoism, radical mutualist anarchism, and left-hand path tantric thought. It is a reclaiming of these ideas from the world of burn-outs, hippies, and poseurs. The PenduCult is something different. Yes it’s true, there are no new ideas idea here, I don’t claim to have invented these ideas, but the presentation and combination of these ideas produces something very unique and different. The Major Themes behind the PenduCult involve the Relationships between ARCANE 12 – LE PENDU (THE HANGED-MAN), DYNAMIC ECSTATIC TRANSCENDENTALISM, THEE AKTIONS OV YES, SPONTANEOUS AND INTUITIVE ARTS, and the TRIAD OF OCCULTISM, ADHOCISM, and EROTICISM.
 Photo by Jeralyn Mason
Le Pendu is the Hanged-Man… the 12th Trump of the Major Arcana of the Tarot. The Hanged-Man is a card that is not easily understood in meaning. I see this Hanged-Man as a mystic who has forced himself in this strange position to see the world in a new way and literally turns himself upside down to readjust… I also see him as others have as putting Libido over Reason. Intuition over Intellect. The Hanged-Man to me represents the ‘pairing of opposites’; a synthesis of contradictions; the androgyny of the alchemists. Some have likened him as to Buddha, to Odin, to Prometheus, to Judas Iscariot. What seems to be agreed is that the Hanged-Man is hanging by CHOICE… of his own volition. Whether suffering or not, the Hanged-Man is not being punished for crimes. He is calm, clear-minded, focused, intense. This is not sacrifice. This is not a ‘Christ’ card. This is a transcendental card – a card of meditation. The Hanged-Man shares the numerological value of 3 in the Tarot with The Empress (III) and The World (XXI). It’s as if the Hanged-Man is suspended between the two. By hanging upside down, he also illustrates the principle of Inversion as Subversive Aktion. Taoist, Buddhists, Hindus, Satanists, and many others have used reversals as method. From standing on one’s head to reversing sacred symbols in blasphemous rites, many esoteric groups have used Inversion as a way of subverting dominant modes of thought. Inversion can be subversive and it is in this Aktion of Inversion that the Hanged-man becomes a symbol of defiance. Another interesting aspect of this card in relation to Pendu Org is that it embodies the Triad of Isms of Occultism, Adhocism, and Eroticism. 1.) Occultism – As a Trump of the Major Arcana, it holds mysteries and secrets of Occult nature.2.) Adhocism in the sense that the Hanged-Man only needs a Tree and a Rope, objects which already exist but are simply re-combined in a new way to produce a new result… 3.) Eroticism – As a card about Hanging, it is a card of suspension. Suspension is ultimately erotic because it is tension that is not resolved; desire without climax. An important aspect of the Hanged-Man hanging upside down is that it puts his Genitals above the Brain in other words, again, Libido over Reason.
What is the meaning behind the TRIAD OF OCCULTISM, ADHOCISM, and EROTICISM? These are the Isms that are understood by everyone and yet misunderstood by everyone. These are the Isms that are far too subjective for most academics to devote much time to. It is out of this triad that the phrase Dynamic Ecstatic Transcendentalism came to life. There are literally endless combinations and permutations. In the early days of Pendu, I used the tagline “Underground, Visionary, and Outsider” to describe the kinds of works that I was promoting, but soon realized this completely fell short of a total idea. As I span art and literary history, I have found that this triad of isms connects what I am attracted to in all early artforms of the Egyptians, Persians, Sumerians, Indians, Asians, Mayans, Africans. Some may call it the lure of primitivism. Now of course, it is given that in early art, their artforms were called neither adhocist, occultist or even art for that matter. It’s only a matter of history that we begin to inject our contemporary ideas into ancient work. In Europe the developments in the arts from the Renaissance to Mannerism inspired a renewed a development of occultism and eroticism in the arts followed by the Romantics, the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, and on to the Symbolists and Expressionists, to the Surrealists… Adhocism reared its head again and is illustrated most acutely in the works of Cubism, Dadaism, Arte Povera, Fluxus, Vienna Aktionists, etc. One could say that Occultism + Adhocism + Eroticism = a kind of formula-non-formula for Surrealism. All good poetry is veiled in secrecy, written with the hand or voice, and erotically-charged. This poetic quality can be found in most visual and aural artforms that I find to be notable.
On Art as ecstatic experience. Eliciting an Ecstatic Response…
The Arts as Stimuli for Ecstatic States in Mind, Body, and Spirit. To me, it’s not about defining what is art and what is not art. Does it really matter which is called art by some and not by others? Haven’t we had enough books and discussions on this subject. This analytical mode of thinking is a distraction from Mystery, a pulling away the veil. I am interested in the overall effect of an artwork, not necessarily technical prowess by the artist. The artist may find it matters a great deal, but the participator should not have to care. To the participator, it’s not important how an artist gets to the end. Does it stimulate, arouse, or excite? Does it confuse, disorient, or estrange? These are the questions that matter. Automatic writing & drawing, magick, great sex, entheogenic & shamanistic visions, and many many other actions can produce different levels of ecstatic experiences; experiences that are reached through the transcendence of logical and analytical modes of thinking into irrational, euphoric states of being. I’m interested in these kinds of spontaneous ecstatic actions; emotive outbursts of creativity; raw expression derived from intuition and the pineal imagination; uninhibited tantrums of frenetic and vital energies; visceral and cathartic artforms and artworks. I’m interested in the unknowable; the dark and the secret. It’s the give and take of an artist’s physical poetic expression with a participator’s psychical ecstatic reception. I’m interested in immersion; in ‘getting off’; in trance-like states of consciousness; constructing transports to euphoria; manufacturing tangible projections of visions and dreams. This leads me to a term I haven’t used here but is implied as a device toward creating Transcendental and Ecstatic works of art: Ostranenie. Ostranenie was coined by Viktor Shklovsky in 1917 as a term to describe an effect used by artists for making the ordinary strange or grotesque; to defamiliarize. It’s the use of warping, distorting, weirding, or exaggerating in artworks and literature. Trasncending the Ordinary is the goal. We could possibly get away with not using the word ‘art’ at all and instead focus on Ecstatic Experiences only. An Ecstatic Experience is not just about the ‘high’ or the climax, it’s about arousal, suspension, and the slow rise to climax. Any activity or imaginative creation that can produce an ecstatic experience is what I’m interested in. My interest begins to decline in any artwork the moment I sense a prudish quality in it… My impulse is always toward sex – from the erotic to the pornographic; not always in a literal sense (although that too), but always in a figurative sense; and not because it’s shocking as some would say. It would be quite difficult for me to find something that was actually shocking. A lot of times I come off as anti-academic, but it’s not the academy I have a problem with in “avant-garde” poetry, film, and music… it’s the lack of sensuality that I find in most of its art. Of course, there are always exceptions and the exceptions are what I’m drawn to. Outside the academy, there is a lot more freedom to experiment in sensualism. Visuals, sounds, or writings that excite, that speed up the vital signs, that push the blood through the veins a little harder… – well, that’s the good stuff… Dynamic Ecstatic Transcendentalism through Sex, Magick, Poetry, Music, and Art. When I speak of Dynamic Ecstatic Transcendentalism, I speak of a goal that most all interesting art aspires to whether the artist is consciously aware of it or not. It is an effect on the paticipator, an awakening of consciousness; a vibrational excitement. It’s the lifeblood of Thee Aktion Ov Yes. It is the realization of closeness to Total Freedom. I may just be inflating it beyond what it is, but so be it. Let it be; let it bleed.
On Dynamic Ecstatic Transcendentalism…
First off, I always reiterate that I’m only making experiential observations and giving these observations names… I am not inventing anything. One such phrase or term that I created and use often is “Dynamic Ecstatic Transcendentalism”; a term that pretty much explains itself. Combing through my vast eclectic and somewhat eccentric collection of memories and experiences of my past, I eventually discovered a commonality to the wide-range of music and arts that I have surrounded myself by… The Common Thread is found in each work’s ability to produce a kind of experience that could be called Dynamic Ecstatic Transcendentalism: Dynamic in that is always in flux, always changing, always moving, always new; Ecstatic in that it leads to excitation of the body, mind, and/or spirit; Transcendental in that the experiences raise one above Ordinariness and the Mundane. Dynamic Ecstatic Transcendentalism has a lineage beginning with the Cult of Dionysus to the Shamanistic & Entheogenic Cults to Left-hand Path Tantrism to the Abbey of Thelema.
On Eroticism
“I believe in eroticism a lot because it’s truly a rather widespread thing throughout the world, a thing that everyone understands.” – Marcel Duchamp
“Of course everything is erotic to me; if it isn’t erotic, it isn’t interesting.” – John Cage
TAOY! – Thee Aktions ov Yes…
“And all in all and on the whole: some day I wish to be only a Yes-sayer” – Friedrich Nietzsche
“No Gods, No Masters”
“Do Thy Will” – Austin Osman Spare
“Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.” – Aleister Crowley
“Nothing is True and Everything is Permitted” – Hassan-i Sabbah
TAOY! – Thee Aktions ov Yes…
Thee Aktions ov Yes! (TAOY!) is Non-Reactionary Pro-Active Dissent; Not rebellion for the sake of it, this is rebellion because the chains must be thrown off! TAOY! is an alternative model to past countercultures. Most so-called countercultural ideas are Reactionary and share a symbiotic relationship to the system they rebel against. TAOY! focuses on building a self-contained, self-sustaining system that can survive beyond the fall of the dominant systems in place. TAOY! is self-empowerment which requires self-control and self-restraint and as some will point out, not everyone can handle this mode of thought. There are those who will self-destruct or in some cases impose destruction on others. Excess for some is inevitable. TAOY! does not safegaurd us from Death and Pain. This is not utopia. YES Aktions are acts of Resistance; Actions based on doing what one wants to do; not based on reacting to things one is told not to do. We say Yes to Pleasure because we love life…NO is the favorite word of a parent to a child. NO is a reactionary word… NO gives power to that which it opposes. YES, on the other hand, always implies a NO but is not symbiotically tied to it’s counterpart… It is free… It is an offensive position rather than a defensive position… It is a declaration… Say Yes… Live Yes. Yes is pro-active- aktion, Yes is your Freedom. Freedom of Will not Freedom from Will. Freedom through Self-Discipline. Freedom through Self-Defined Constraints. Make your own rules, then change them, rewrite them.Your rules should never be fixed or static, they should remain dynamic and in flux. People are always talking about getting away from rules as a path to freedom. This is why so many of them eventually head back to the system they opposed. It is important to create your own system and revise as necessary. Only rules created by yourself or rules that you accept are legitimate. Break the current rules to make new ones for yourself. Destroy the False Order of Conditioning; Find your True Will; Rebuild a Stronger Order.This is the Aktions Ov Yes! Blaze your own Path, Walk in Light or Darkness… Live within Thee Aktions Ov Yes. As Wiliam Blake says, “I must create my own system, or be enslav’d by another man’s.”
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Gerard de Nerval and Other Pendu Saints
Gérard de Nerval was an eccentric literary figure, mystic, and pioneer of the avant-garde from the 19th Century who was made an outsider and finally ‘suicided by society’. In the 1830’s, Nerval was an integral member of the short-lived anti-bourgeois collective known as the Bouzingo, a preeminent gang of artistic rebels pre-dating Dada by almost a century. He is well-remembered for his collection of 12 cryptic and transcendental sonnets known as “Les Chimères” and for the book of prose containing his dreams and hallucinations known as “Aurelia” found tucked in his pocket at his death . He is also remembered for his outrageous behavior in his youth and for the fits of madness that forced him in and out of asylums for the last 10 years of his life. Tragically, while on a late night walk in the cold, Nerval was turned away from a safehouse and as a consequence committed suicide by hanging in the Rue de la Vieille-Lanterne on January 26, 1855. I am currently working on a historical biography of the Bouzingo entitled “Bouzingo Means Noise: Freaks, Weirdos, Visionaries, and Outsiders“.
“Our dreams are a second life. I have never been able to penetrate without a shudder those ivory or horned gates which separate us from the invisible world.” – Gérard de Nerval
Other Pendu Saints:
Judas Iscariot – betrayor of Christ
Ian Curtis of Joy Division
Rozz Williams of Christian Death
Michael Hutchence of INXS
Arshile Gorky – Painter
Phil Ochs – Folk Musician
David Foster Wallace – Writer
Pete Ham & Tom Evans of Badfinger
David Carradine – Actor
Alexander McQueen – Fashion Designer
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Pendu references from Tarot to Duchamp
*Tarot of the Bohemians – http://www.beyondweird.com/tarot/Bohemians/tob26.htm
*L’Arbre du Dieu Pendu a book by Alejandro Jodorowsky was inspired by the Tarot. See Jodorowsky’s writing on Tarot at http://www.hotweird.com/jodorowsky/tarot.html
*Gnostic Teachings – http://gnosticteachings.org/courses/twenty-two-arcana/arcanum-12-transcription
*Ritual Magick – http://www.ritualmagick.org/The+Hanged+Man+-+Thoth
*Northvegr Foundation – http://www.northvegr.org/lore/sanctum/006.php
*The Pythagorean Tarot – http://www.cs.utk.edu/~mclennan/BA/PT/M12.html
*The Hanged-Man on Wikipedia – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hanged_Man
*Library of Images from the Tarot from the 18th Century to Present – http://trionfi.com/tarot/cards/12-hanged-man
Library of Tarot Cards – In German – http://www.albideuter.de/html/gehangter.html
*The Hanged-Man on Tarot Journey – http://tarotjourney.net/tarot-cards/major-arcana/12-the-hanged-man
*Tarot Orat Rota Tora by Edgar T. Portisch – http://www.tarot-origins.net/12.html
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 Pendu Femelle - from Marcel Ducahamp's Large Glass *Le Jeu du Pendu is what the french call the vocabulary game “Hangman”
*Le Pendu – title for a song made famous by Jacques Brel
*Ballade du Pendus – one of the most famous poems from French Medieval poet, François Villon
*La Maison du Pendu (painting) – famous work by Paul Cezanne
* L’Homme pendu; orchid – The French name means “hanged man” because of the shape of the orchid which looks like a hanging body.
*Court-Pendu – A kind of apple
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*Pendu is also a Punjabi word meaning simpleton, usually considered a perjorative… a negative term for undereducated or rural peoples.
*Pendu Mazdoor Union – Punjabi Agricultural Labor Union |
