{"id":14267,"date":"2026-05-22T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=14267"},"modified":"2026-05-21T20:45:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T02:45:18","slug":"what-wines-to-pair-with-esotericism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=14267","title":{"rendered":"What Wines to Pair with Esotericism?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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John Crowley’s<\/a> novel \u00c6gypt <\/em><\/a>came out in 1987. It gained three sequels: “The series describes the life and work of Pierce Moffett, a history professor who prepares a manuscript for publication even as it prepares him for some as-yet unknown destiny, all set amidst strange and subtle Hermetic<\/a> manipulations among the Faraway Hills at the border of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania” (Wikipedia).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u00c6gypt is set in the late 1970s (Crowley’s preferred title for it was The Solitudes<\/a><\/em>\u2014follow the link for longer plot summary). The imaginary Hudson Valley (?) town of Blackberry Jambs seized my imagination, because at the point of my life my wife and I had ended up in Ca\u00f1on City, an unglamorous small town in Colorado, both unemployed or unemployed (1987 was the “bottom” year of my life), and I, at least, wondered if I would ever leave or if this was the quiet backwater in which I would build some kind of writer’s life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first introduction to Crowley’s writing was Engine Summer <\/a> <\/em>(1979), an America-after-the-Big Collapse story, that has stuck with me. Little, Big <\/a><\/em>gets more attention, maybe because of the large part played by the Fae in it. Phil Ford and J. F. Martel of the Weird Studies <\/em>podcast gave it an entire episode,<\/a> with the assistance of Erik Davis<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Unlike Little, Big<\/em>, the \u00c6gypt books do require some familiarity with the Western esoteric tradition, which is bookish. If you don’t know of Giordano Bruno, or the magickal partnership of John Dee and Edward Kelley, a lot if going to go right past you,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or the scene in the prologue where ten-year-old Piece Moffatt (the main character), a Catholic boy in a Kentucky mining town, rises early to serve as an altar boy at 6:45 a.m. weekday Mass, and stumbling off into the predawn thinks, “I’m not from here. I’m from someplace different from this.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That’s a big foreshadowing, (There is more on the novels’ structure here.<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But to this re-reading, I can add one thing: wine pairings! Such has my taste changed since my first reading in that little 1908 smelter worker”s cottage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have selected two wines to go with the reading because I can do that now. The Theurgist (red blend) comes from the Abbey Winery<\/a> in Ca\u00f1on City, so there is that connection, while Lapis Luna (Stone Moon) winery <\/a>in Lodi, California, makes a red blend whose label proclaims, “This way one gets to the stars.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you want to know when I publish these musings, enter your address in the “Subscribe to Blog via Email” box. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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John Crowley’s novel \u00c6gypt came out in 1987. It gained three sequels: “The series describes the life and work of Pierce Moffett, a history professor who prepares a manuscript for publication even as it prepares him for some as-yet unknown destiny, all set amidst strange and subtle Hermetic manipulations among the Faraway Hills at the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"An introduction and background for John Crowley's novel The Solitudes.","jetpack_seo_html_title":"Re-introducig John Crowley's \u00c6gypt series of novels.","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[89,425,72,12,478],"class_list":["post-14267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-esotericism","tag-fiction","tag-magick","tag-writing","tag-aegypt"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-3I7","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3509,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=3509","url_meta":{"origin":14267,"position":0},"title":"\u00c6gypt in Northern California: Isis Oasis","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"November 27, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"In 1957, a young artist named Lora Vign\u00e9 and her husband moved from Southern California to San Francisco. \"It was 1957, the beginning of the Beatnik era, and we fitted the description,\" she writes in her memoir, The Goddess Bade Me Do It! No poser bohemian, she was already producing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/Loreon2_sm-246x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6775,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=6775","url_meta":{"origin":14267,"position":1},"title":"Queen Nefertiti Goes Cuckoo","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"October 12, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"\"It's kind of fascinating but it's kind of horrifying,\" I said to M. across the breakfast table when I saw an ad for \"the only cuckoo clock inspired by the Wonders of Ancient Egypt.\" \"'Queen Nefertiti's regal procession rotates,' it says,\" I added. \"Horrifying, completely horrifying,\" she replied. She detests\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"culture\"","block_context":{"text":"culture","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=culture"},"img":{"alt_text":"clock","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/clock-161x300.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8422,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=8422","url_meta":{"origin":14267,"position":2},"title":"CFP: Irish Network for the Study of Esotericism and Paganism","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"January 11, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"(Extended) DEADLINE APPROACHING In association with the Study of Religions Department, University College Cork To be held on Friday, 31st March 2017 We are pleased to invite scholars to take part in the launch and first workshop of the Irish Network for the Study of Esotericism and Paganism (INSEP), a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"esotericism\"","block_context":{"text":"esotericism","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=esotericism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/INSEP-Twitter-Image-square-White-BG.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1301,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1301","url_meta":{"origin":14267,"position":3},"title":"The World of Esotericism","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 4, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"The University of Amsterdam has one of just a few graduate programs in the study of Western Esotericism, which is often contrasted with Christianity as follows (from a lecture handout based on work of Antoine Faivre).Christianity\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 EsotericismPersonal deity \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Christianity\"","block_context":{"text":"Christianity","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=christianity"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11953,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=11953","url_meta":{"origin":14267,"position":4},"title":"New Collection on Western Esotericism, Downloadable","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"December 16, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Quick, while it's free, you can download New Approaches to the Study of Esotericism, edited by Egil Asprem (he has published in The Pomegranate) and Julian Strube. The blurb: This volume offers new approaches to some of the biggest persistent challenges in the study of esotericism and beyond. Commonly understood\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"esotericism\"","block_context":{"text":"esotericism","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=esotericism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/coverimage-199x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10135,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=10135","url_meta":{"origin":14267,"position":5},"title":"Marco Pasi on Sex and Esotericism","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"December 17, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"?? Scholar of esotericism Marco Pasi (University of Amsterdam) speaks at a conference in Estonia. Or is that Esoteronia? If that video does not play for you, try this link: \"The Social and Cultural Aspects of Esoteric Sex.\"","rel":"","context":"In \"esotericism\"","block_context":{"text":"esotericism","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=esotericism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14267"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14267\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14273,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14267\/revisions\/14273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}