ahead of the curve.

The curious & brilliant Gary Lachman was already familiar to me through his rather seminal 2014 biography on Aleister Crowley, the most extensive & revealing on the man I’ve read so far.

As a prolific & respected scholar on occultism, former bass player for Blondie, & a supposed practitioner of “the craft” himself, his knowledge & expertise carry even more weight on the subject.

So when I heard he had written a book on $ump – Dark Star Rising – relating to occultism & black magic, I was instantly allured & wanting to read it as soon as possible.

Unfortunately for me, missing book boxes on the other side of the orb in Brexile, I had to wait almost a year to get my clams on it, after which I shredded it in two-days flat in a state of enhanced engrossment.

And goddamn’, was it worth the lag!

In the months between devourment, with little information on the contents of the book divulged, I had pondered what would be revealed, & which scoundrels from $ump’s rogue’s freak show of nutters & knaves would come under the lens, & for what exactly?

Would it be a wracked, raving wrong’ un like Paula White Cain? a celebrity Televangelist & scam artist & $ump’s former, former (fast turnover in turd territory) personal pastor (not the other one, Robert Morris, who recently resigned from the role after admissions of child sexual abuse) & preacher of “the wealth gospel”. Paula had infamously given a rabid, insalubrious & frenzied “religious tongues” prayer/garble whilst imploring “angels” to deliver $ump’s second election attempt (he failed, she failed). It was so beyond-batshit, that it suggested “extracurricular” influence outside of the “wealth gospel” Evangelist permutation pollutant.

Or could it be a warped & insidious strain of deformed & esoteric Catholicism? With the likes of Steve Bannon, Peter Thiel, Mike Pompeo & the disturbed Kevin Roberts (president of the foul Heritage Foundation), all of whom are members of the shadowy & extreme Opus Dei sect, or was it “cult”?

Knowing the freewheeling hyper-depravity of $ump’s varlets, minions & malfeasants that frequent his ever degenerating “cabal” & circus of horrors, I could barley contain my intrigue as to what the book was going to disclose.

& Lachman certainly does not disappoint. Although none-of-the-above feature (beside Bannon, who is unsurprisingly a heavy presence), the author exposes an extraordinary rabble of malignant wrongdoers & murky bad actors further toxifying the $ump disease pooling.

$ump’s almost paranormal faculty – to seemingly survive any scandal – is a curious aptitude.

This is not simply down to the fink himself, but also an incredible ecosystem of highly coordinated & well-funded support that “sane-washes”, reconstitutes, buries, diverts, distracts & disinforms on his behalf around-the-clock. His survival relies on this support system & it’s constant updating & maintenance.

Gary would more likely argue that “other forces” contribute, & I’ll leave it to his own excellent writing to argue this case.

Another infamous & abstruse politician that seemed to miraculously survive scandal in a similar fashion was Tom Driberg. Driberg also happened to be an advanced occultist, so much so that Aleister Crowley appointed him as his successor to Thelema. Like $ump, Driberg was also suspected of being a Soviet spy, engaged in risky & untoward sexual impulses (intemperate cottaging, unlike $ump’s rape, sexual assault, incest & sex trafficking proclivity) & was also suspected of being “kompromatted” by Ronnie Kray along with the Conservative peer Lord Boothby ($ump has been well & truly “had” by the Epstein & Maxwell operation).

Parallels aside, Lachman’s astutely investigated research offers formulas & explanations – compellingly – that will be outside of the typical bracket of inspection, deriving from his speciality on the subject.

One such example is the discourse on Pepe the Frog, the co-opted & controversial far-right/blight nationalist & neo-Nazi mascot that agitated so hard on $ump’s behalf. Its a “craft” issue, where-by the icon becomes a kind of totem, “entity” or culvert for power …. I can’t say that I necessarily endorse the extent of Lachman’s assessment (I do not possess his scope or experience on matters of magic, nor am I really a subscriber), but the observation & argument is very clear, & this is fascinating & provocative stuff.

& speaking of frogs, weirdness & unsavoury occultism, It is also worth unearthing the ghoul Roy Cohn, the supremely malevolent & fantastically corrupt bent-lawyer, “fixer”, mentor & personal attorney to $ump (as well as Rupert Murdoch & “dirty trickster” Roger Stone).

It is difficult to over-exaggerative how bad Cohn was, & how vast & dynamic his “evil” was.

The veteran investigative journalist Wayne Barrett – who knew the real Donald $ump & Roy Cohn better than most – would refer to Cohn as “incandescent evil” & “Satanic” as well as a “chicken hawk for little boys” (Cohn was a serious predator to children & boys, & was involved in child pornography & child sex trafficking).

He also would collect & hoard figures of frogs …. yes frogs. statues, stuffed toys, etc.

just another random interlocked coincidence from “the weirdest guy” playing out in the advancing hell-scape.

Cohn was also tied up with the Son of Sam cult & the Devil’s Cave up in Untermyer Park (Cohn’s father, Albert Cohn, also a lawyer that ended up being disbarred like his son, had been involved with the park’s family & owner, Irwin & Samuel Untermyer), & Rupert Murdoch cut his teeth on the Son of Sam case (“Sam Sleeps”) with the help of Roy Cohn & members of his mob associates (along with Murdoch & $ump. Cohn also represented NY’s largest crime families, including “Fat Tony” Salerno, John Gotti & more).

And honestly, it just gets worse …. the point is, Cohn was active in some of the darkest “occultism”, & his direct protégés were/are $ump, Murdoch & Stone.

Incredibly, this book was written in 2018.

its a pity that more were not paying attention, as Lachman has been uncannily accurate & precocious in his alarm & augurism into $ump’s fascism, authoritarianism & banefully anti-democratic degradational-drive, along with the reprobates festering in his orbit or supporting his siege on civilisation & the humanities

He identified it early, called it for what it was, & knows his history very well.

Dark Star Rising is rippling with Hitler, Mussolini & Stalin quotations, often paired right next to $ump’s or accounts of his actions. Remember, the book was published in 2018, meaning this was a very advanced warning that has become highly accurate.

There has been a deplorable failure to recognize, & even more so react accordingly, to the enormity of extremity that swills in the $ump contaminant.

This guy got it early, & I have been warning you dozy fuckers about it from the git’.

Lachman rightfully identifies Richard Spencer, the neo-Nazi, & apparent occultists, who was such an ardent proponent of $ump & $umpism. The “Nazi” elements were stark (do also please strenuously research “shadow president” & $ump mega-donor Peter Thiel), but decoys, downplaying & dishonesty along with a slow-drip & delayed poisoning have been surprisingly successful in the curse of $ump.

Lachman also makes the critical connection to Putin’s Russia, & the colossal influence & indeed “coercion” that Putin & his circle have over the $ump presidency.

This guy really knows his stuff, & doubles as a kind of Peter Pomerantsev, harking to the kind of dark & fluid nihilistic cynicism & “super propaganda” that plagues modern Russia & was synthesized by the likes of Alexander Dugin, Victor Pelevin, Yevgeny Prigozhin, & other supra-spin-doctors & GRU truth scramblers.

Lachman would likely refer to them as “chaos magicians”.

Honestly, its a very interesting perspective on this dangerous & destabilising phenomenon.

The overlap/collusion between the co-opted/compromised or “pro”-Kremlin/Putin personnel in the $ump coven are significant, Michael Flynn, Erik Prince, Roger Stone, Tulsi Gabbard, Mike Pompeo, former fixer Michael Coen, Lev Parnas etc, etc, etc.

a free-flowing conduit.

Steve Bannon is a fairly regular feature. So to is Julius Evola, a nineteenth-century Italian occultist, fascist & philosopher.

Bannon is a self-professed devotee of Evola, something that initially grasped Lachman’s attentions & something he describes as a “game changer”.

Evola was known for being “too fascist” for Mussolini even (he was ejected from the movement).

Within the current cauldron we have, the excrescent Curtis Yarvin, a blogger, feudalist, corporate fascist/techno-authoritarian, neo-monarchist & surveillance state enthusiast posing as a philosopher.

Easy to dismiss as a closeted, socially-handicapped odious nerd flogging cack from the corners of an incel chatroom, but scrapes like Peter Thiel, Marc Andreessen, Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Dominic Cummings & JD Vance wallow in his excretions & take his dross very seriously.

Dark Star Rising is an intensely droll & fascinating read as a novel parallax on the rot & ruin coursing out of the $ump atrocity, but its far, far more than that.

Seriously, as somebody that has been studying this catastrophe in obsessive detail, this is one of the best books I have read on the subject, & its a vital compendium for scholars & specialists trying to understand & grapple with the menace.

Don’t be dissuaded by the “magic” or “occult” component, this is a very serious book with vital & critical information & study.

There are differing explanations for the effectiveness & persistence of the “curse” of $ump & $umpism. Irrespective of how one ultimately identifies this unique infection, the research & knowledge in this investigation is critical & should be taken very seriously.

Lachman also equates the blight of digital disinformation – one of the most grievous conditions of the current peril – with “chaos magic”.

& again, his deep knowledge of the occult means that he is informed enough to draw these conclusions, as well as possessing the acumen as an astute scribe to break these conclusions down for the rest of us.

This is an incredibly important & relevant triumph of work.

Gary Lachman, 2018, TeacherPerigee, 194 pages