Though much of it was speculative and/or bullshit - that wasn't the point; what they offered was a sense verticality to counter the flat plane (also bullshit) materialism of post-Enlightenment consciousness, of modernity. Sketches of aliens, incense holders, prophecy, apocrypha, sacred geometric forms, echoing vocalizations over percussion draped in reverb, books with fern green covers, the meaning of numbers, inexplicable monoliths, sacred syllables to chant, lucid dreaming - the great paradox, the meaning of canyons – terrestrial and marine, books with poorly printed off-white covers - something sparking in the eyes of the guru in the black & white photo, drab looking photos of postures to release trapped energy, tarot decks in crimson felt pouches, tasseled bookmarks, crystals, coins, geodes. These all said that what you see is not the limit of what there is. There is a door behind each object that shimmers into view and vanishes. But you may glimpse it. You may even step through it.
(photo: from the cassette section at Cafe Mustache (not a New Age bookstore))
1 comment:
Ha - I worked very briefly at Philadelphia's one and only NA bookstore (Philly ain't a New Age kind of place). It was replete with all that you mentioned (though you left out the inevitable owner/manager who was well-versed in all things NA, but was personally a tough and enxious human...applies also to NA-oriented retreat centers who had their hayday in the '90s). Oh...and for a brief moment in time, I thought that this was the jam: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTrk4X9ACtw
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