[89:103] It is very, very important to realize that in Tears two distinct selves in me were writing two parallel but unconnected narratives: (1) the overt, explicated political one about forced labor camps and a U.S. ruled by five police marshals, the pols and nats; and (2) a latent religious narrative about Christ and Rome and St. Paul—and agape. Now, in 2-3-74, these two selves as (so to speak) thesis and antithesis ignited into one single ultra synthesis in which the apparently conflicting elements that divided them off from each other were fused in a totally new, vast vision of history, society, God, freedom, tyranny that constituted a revelation to each self. “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts,” but, more, this meant psychological integration for me, individuation in Jung’s sense, wholeness, etc., and an end to internal conflict.
This synthesis combined revolutionary political activism of a Marxist type with a form of Christianity unknown to me: apocalyptic millenarianism of a Jewish messianic nature, involving a Zoroastrian dialectic (much as the Essenes believed in). [ . . . ] My primary vision was of a conflict constant in history found, e.g., in the book of Daniel in which an enslaved people fight against a tyrannical empire to establish a just kingdom under messianic rule. Upon grasping this conception of history I resolved my inner conflicts by this, a higher organizing principle or structure that subsumed all parts of me. This all embracing conception of history, society, man and the dialectic I put forth in VALIS so that VALIS is simultaneously a religious and a political novel. (Technically, it presents the view of active millenarianism; we must act politically to establish the messianic kingdom.) (It will not come on its own. So VALIS is both a broad overview and a call for positive political action essentially revolutionary.)
This does not in any way involve an about-face in my political stance (i.e., that which I inherited from Berkeley). It simply fuses it with my metaphysical, religious, epistemological, philosophical views—note “epistemological”; all my years of epistemological preoccupation are involved in the synthesis: viz: I find that Christian apocalyptic history is the true, hidden essence of reality (which of course brings in the messianic salvific mission of Jesus Christ and ultimately God). Thus all areas of my worldview are involved and integrated in this synthesis. The political element has religious implications. The religious element has epistemological implications. There are exceedingly profound historical implications, since it is in history that all this is played out. But until yesterday when I reread VALIS once again I failed to notice just how political a book it is. All my thinking has been philosophical and theological; the political part just seemed to happen. For one thing, it was always there; what is new is the religious mystical part. Also, until Reagan got in office, the political part seemed merely theoretical, but now, suddenly it seems immediate and vital. Suddenly VALIS and the vision presented in VALIS is politically relevant, as if overnight so. This, simply, is because the Empire is back and stronger and worse than ever. The timing of the book is really extraordinary.
[89:105] Stoned insight: I assimilated my theology, metaphysics, epistemology and philosophy to my political beliefs. They are all changed but the political beliefs remain the same; they ratify my political beliefs. They give it cosmic timeless scope; it is validated by and issues from divine authority.
VALIS is a fusion of the political theme of Tears, the religious theme of Deus Irae, and the street patois and split personality and dope themes of Scanner—it logically follows the three previous novels.
and other aspects: death and loss, friends. So I am right; 2-3-74 represented a flash in which the independent areas of my thinking fused into one great new synthesis in which everything I had thought before was subsumed beneath a vision of God. [ . . . ]
VALIS is composed of:
(1) My 10 volume meta-novel
(2) Politics
(3) Religion
(4) My actual life
(5) History
all fused together into a total vision that is a structure emanating out of the mutual exchange of (between, among) these five elements up to then existing independent of one another in my mind.
[89:119] The fifth Savior Fat is looking for will lead the resistance against the regime (the BIP). (Like Che.) This time it won’t just be a deposing of the regime; the revolution of the 60s will take over the government and rule in its place; this did not happen in the 60s; once Nixon was out, the counterculture dissolved—because all its leaders had been killed (as the Sibyl pointed out); so the fifth Savior replaces them and leads the revolution to overthrow the regime (the BIP), Reagan himself. This is what VALIS is all about; it preaches revolution. [ . . . ]
I see VALIS as the Bible, a political handbook, a basic text like Mao’s Red Book. Copping to the fact that I saw Christ is in order to show my authority for preaching political revolution: we must not only overthrow the regime, we must seize power in its place. I must come out of the closet. I already have in VALIS; in confirming the suspicions raised by Tears!!
Progress is taking place. Deposing Nixon was not enough; we melted away; it was “business as usual,” now we will take over, after a terrible battle with the regime. I must stand behind VALIS theologically and politically: a wholly new thing: the invisible secret true Christians are surfacing, and I am one of them! They’ve existed for some time but in secret; now they come into the open. VALIS is a manifesto.
[89:137]
(1) You cannot apprehend the eide and still employ space, time and causation as ordering categories.
(2) You cannot employ space, time and causation as ordering categories and still apprehend the eide.
This is what I finally realized: twin realizations; or rather, twin aspects of one realization. The mind (brain) must choose. (I’ve read so many articles on philosophy that I finally learned to reason, not just to guess.)
[89:139] I just reread Flow My Tears. The mystery deepens. Obviously it is The Bacchae retold. Felix Buckman is King Pentheus, the “King of Tears.” Jason Taverner is the stranger, the priest of Dionysus, who is imprisoned by Pentheus, and who bursts the prison and causes Pentheus to become insane and dress up in women’s garb (alluded to by the character of Alys who “is Felix Buckman’s twin”). “King Felix” is Dionysus, “the joy God,” who was shown to me to be Christ by the dream I had in which I was shown the book page on which the name “Jesus” split apart into Zeus-Zagreus. Beyond doubt “King Felix” is a cypher and refers to the God who will—and does—pull down the King of Tears, the police tyranny; Dionysus does this (as that U.K. article described). So I am saying that “King Felix” refers primarily to Dionysus, and it was Dionysus who overthrew Nixon. My enthusiasmos in 2-3-74 was by Dionysus; I was intoxicated; it was Dionysus’ stoned magic that permitted me to see what I saw in 3-74. Greek—hence I heard Thomas thinking in Greek; hence the Sibyl and Cyclops. By the cypher Dionysus identified himself and his presence, but you had to be “mad” or intoxicated to read the cypher. Hence I dreamed of the maze at Minos, saw Crete beyond the 1:618034 doorway and Aphrodite. I was possessed—and saved—by Dionysus; he saved me from the Xerox missive trap; this is why I was manic—intoxicated. Dionysus! My equation is correct: