Alan Moore’s Promethea: Countercultural Gnosis and the End of the World
In: Gnosis: Journal of Gnostic StudiesSearch for other papers by Wouter J. Hanegraaff in
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Alan Moore’s Promethea (1999 to 2005) is among the most explicitly “gnostic,” “esoteric,” and “occultist” comics strips ever published. Hailed as a virtuoso performance in the art of comics writing, its intellectual content and the nature of its spiritual message have been neglected by scholars. While the attainment of gnosis is clearly central to Moore’s message, the underlying metaphysics is more congenial to the panentheist perspective of ancient Hermetism than to Gnosticism in its classic typological sense defined by dualism and anti-cosmic pessimism. Most importantly, Promethea is among the most explicit and intellectually sophisticated manifestoes of a significant new religious trend in contemporary popular culture. Its basic assumption is that there is ultimately no difference between imagination and reality, so that the question of whether gods, demons, or other spiritual entities are “real” or just “imaginary” becomes pointless. As a result, the factor of religious belief becomes largely irrelevant, and its place is taken by the factors of personal experience and meaningful practice.
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Asprem Egil The Problem of Disenchantment: Scientific Naturalism and Esoteric Discourse, 1900–1939 2014 Leiden / Boston Brill
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Baudrillard Jean Simulacra and Simulation 1994 University of Michigan Press
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Braden Gregg et alii The Mystery of 2012: Predictions, Prophecies & Possibilities 2007 Boulder Sounds True
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Cusack Carole Invented Religions: Imagination, Fiction and Faith 2010 Farnham / Burlington Ashgate
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Davidsen Markus Altena The Spiritual Tolkien Milieu: A Study of Fiction-Based Religion 2014 Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Leiden
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Debord Guy French Orig. 1967 The Society of the Spectacle 2000 Detroit Black & Red
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DeConick April D. The Gnostic New Age: How a Countercultural Spirituality Revolutionized Religion from Antiquity to Today 2016 New York Columbia University Press
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Fischer Craig “Review Essay: Charmageddon! Or the Day Aleister Crowley Wrote Wonder Woman” Iowa Journal of Cultural Studies 2005 6 122 127
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Flannery-Dailey Frances & Wagner Rachel “Wake Up! Gnosticism and Buddhism in The Matrix” Journal of Religion and Film 2001 5 2 https://www.unomaha.edu/jrf/gnostic.htm (no pagination)
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Green Matthew J.A. “ ‘She Brings Apocalypse’: Sex, Imagination and Redemptive Transgression in William Blake and the Graphic Novels of Alan Moore” Literature Compass 2011 8 739 756
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Grey Alex Net of Being 2012 Rochester Inner Traditions
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Hanegraaff Wouter J. “Fiction in the Desert of the Real: Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos” Aries 2007 7 85 109
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Hanegraaff Wouter J. Hanegraaff Wouter J. & Kripal Jeffrey J. “Under the Mantle of Love: The Mystical Eroticisms of Marsilio Ficino and Giordano Bruno” Hidden Intercourse: Eros and Sexuality in the History of Western Esotericism 2011 New York Fordham University Press 175 207 Pages
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Hanegraaff Wouter J. Esotericism and the Academy: Rejected Knowledge in Western Culture 2012 Cambridge Cambridge University Press
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Hoff Kraemer Christine & Winslade J. Lawton Lewis A. David & Kraemer Christine Hoff “ ‘The Magic Circus of the Mind’: Alan Moore’s Promethea and the Transformation of Consciousness through Comics” Graven Images: Religion in Comic Books and Graphic Novels 2010 London Continuum 274 291 Pages
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Khoury George The Extraordinary Works of Alan Moore: Indispensable Edition 2008 Raleigh TwoMorrows
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Kripal Jeff Mutants & Mystics: Science Fiction, Superhero Comics, and the Paranormal 2011 Chicago The University of Chicago Press
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Moore Alan, Williams J.H. & Gray Mick Promethea 1999–2000 La Jolla DC Comics Book 1 (# 1–6)
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Moore Alan, Williams J.H. & Gray Mick Promethea 2000–2001 La Jolla DC Comics Book 2 (# 7–12)
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Moore Alan, Williams J.H. & Gray Mick Promethea 2001–2002 La Jolla DC Comics Book 3 (# 13–18)
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Moore Alan, Williams J.H. & Gray Mick Promethea 2003 La Jolla DC Comics Book 4 (# 19–25)
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Moore Alan, Williams J.H. & Gray Mick Promethea 2005 La Jolla DC Comics Book 5 (# 26–32)
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1
Kripal 2011.
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3
Kripal 2011, 8–16.
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4
Kripal 2011, 15–16; with reference to Moore and Babcock 2007, 131.
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5
Cf. Green 2011.
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6
Khoury 2008.
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7
Moore and Babcock 2007, 125.
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8
Pasi 2011, 143–160.
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9
Robert 1981.
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10
Moore and Babcock 2007, 126.
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11
Moore and Babcock 2007, 126.
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12
Moore and Babcock 2007, 127.
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13
Moore and Babcock 2007, 128–129.
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14
Hanegraaff 2013b. In this article I draw a distinction between Entheogenic Religion in a strict sense (defined by the use of psychoactive substances) and in a wider sense (referring to the use of other techniques for altering consciousness, such as specific breathing techniques, rhythmic drumming, ritual prayer and incantations, and so on). For a short systematic overview of these different types of trance induction and their relevance to religion, cf. Hanegraaff 2015. Entheogenic Religion becomes Entheogenic Esotericism if these entheogenic experiences are interpreted in terms of previous traditions currently classed under the “esotericism” rubric (for a short overview, see Hanegraaff 2013a, 18–44).
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16
Moore and Babcock 2007, 127.
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17
Moore and Babcock 2007, 128, with reference to Narby 1998. Ayahuasca is a famous entheogenic agent from the Amazon region (see e.g. Shanon 2002; Labate and Cavnar 2014).
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19
Asprem 2014.
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20
Di Liddo 2009, 99.
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21
Davidsen 2014.
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22
Possamai 2012.
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23
Cusack 2010.
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24
Cf. Hanegraaff 2007.
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26
Baudrillard 1994, 1.
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31
Martin 2014; Moore 2011, 189.
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34
E.g. Fischer 2004, 124, with reference to Linda Santiman.
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35
Hanegraaff 2011.
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36
Cf. Locke 2012, 391–394.
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38
See Owen 2004, 198.
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44
Myers 1903, xviii; and cf Promethea # 32 about the Promethea moth, Callosamia promethea.
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46
Braden et al. 2007; cf Hanegraaff 2010.
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47
Debord 2000.
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48
Sellars 2010, 85.
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54
Leadbeater 1896.
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56
Fischer 2005, 126.
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Alan Moore’s Promethea: Countercultural Gnosis and the End of the World
In: Gnosis: Journal of Gnostic StudiesSearch for other papers by Wouter J. Hanegraaff in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Alan Moore’s Promethea (1999 to 2005) is among the most explicitly “gnostic,” “esoteric,” and “occultist” comics strips ever published. Hailed as a virtuoso performance in the art of comics writing, its intellectual content and the nature of its spiritual message have been neglected by scholars. While the attainment of gnosis is clearly central to Moore’s message, the underlying metaphysics is more congenial to the panentheist perspective of ancient Hermetism than to Gnosticism in its classic typological sense defined by dualism and anti-cosmic pessimism. Most importantly, Promethea is among the most explicit and intellectually sophisticated manifestoes of a significant new religious trend in contemporary popular culture. Its basic assumption is that there is ultimately no difference between imagination and reality, so that the question of whether gods, demons, or other spiritual entities are “real” or just “imaginary” becomes pointless. As a result, the factor of religious belief becomes largely irrelevant, and its place is taken by the factors of personal experience and meaningful practice.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 1474 | 227 | 41 |
| Full Text Views | 366 | 31 | 3 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 183 | 71 | 10 |