Sirius Rising In the Days of Synchromysticism

"John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King were not assassinated; they were ritually sacrificed."

So begins the liner notes of Jim Brandon's newly released 2018 revised edition of his audio book from 1974-1975, Sirius Rising, which has a new subtitle, Mr. Downard and the Synchromystical Boson.

The time does seem correct for Sirius Rising. Specifically, the work, by "coincidence" appears now, on the anniversary of the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan (March 30, 2018), right before Easter Sunday (April 1, 2018), and on the way to the anniversary of the killing of a King, Martin Luther King (April 4, 2018). This all is an appropriate temporal sync.

Before Brandon became well-known in Fortean circles for his classics, Weird America (1978) and The Rebirth of Pan (1983), he had created and shared with associates a now long-unavailable and difficult-to-obtain tape of his interviews with James Shelby Downard (March 13, 1913 – March 16, 1998). Yes, it was a reel-to-reel tape.

Brandon characterizes Downard as a "quasi-spiritual visionary who pioneered or advanced the mind-bending and spellbinding disciplines of 'mystical toponomy' and 'synchromysticism.'"

While some have talked only of Downard's work as that of a "conspiracy theorist" and a "mad genius," there is a core group, including Jim Brandon, Adam Parfrey, Michael Hoffman, Jim Keith, Adam Gorightly, Greg Bishop, Michael Bell, SMiles Lewis, Kenn Thomas, and me, Loren Coleman, who have framed Downward in the broader context of a Fortean examining the mysteries of the world cryptopolitically.

Jim Brandon, with all due credit to me and others, will soon expand the ranks of those discussing Downard to include a growing generation of synchromystics. I predict this CD will be played and pondered by a wide range of thoughtful researchers and followers of twilight language, cryptokubrology, sync worlds, name games, discordian works, and more.

The power of Brandon's previous audiobook, Sirius Rising (1974-1975) remains apparent in modern materials about Downard, as evidenced, for example, by a recent documentary series by Mandate33 to Adam Parfrey's published output from Feral House.

(Update: Will the shocking death of Adam Parfrey at 61 on May 10, 2018, have a quieting effect on Feral House's published works? Parfrey was the first to publish Downard's "King Kill 33" in the first 1987 edition of Apocalypse Culture, but it was not in subsequent editions.)

Adam Gorightly's recent book on Downard has much to do with Sirius Rising, as well:

Downard contended that the Illuminati arranged that the first man on the moon, Neil Armstrong, would be a 33rd degree Mason.
Downard’s King Kill 33° draws upon a larger conspiratorial canon, which surfaced in an audiocassette series produced by Downard protégé William Grimstad in the mid 1970’s entitled Sirius Rising. According to author Robert Anton Wilson, Grimstad’s Sirius Rising presented the theory that “the Illuminati were preparing Earth, in an occult manner, for extraterrestrial contact.” Part of this magickal preparation consisted of the founding of Cal Tech, the home of Parson’s JPL, on the 33rd degree latitude, near the SoCal town of La Canada. Located in the same vicinity is the fabled Devil’s Gate Dam, where Parsons conducted O.T.O. rituals. ~ Adam Golightly (James Shelby Downard's Mystical War)

It is remarkable how many of the subjects in Sirius Rising have become the background and foreground talking points for today's synchromystics and Forteans, in print, online, via social media, in podcasts, and in visual contexts.

For example, nowadays most people take it for granted that Aleister Crowley, the events at Boleskine House, and Loch Ness would appear in the same linkages. The association  appears, perhaps for the first time, in the midst of Brandon's talking book. There are several gems to be mined in Downard's words.

Sirius Rising (2018) covers many topics that serve as dots that Downard and Brandon connect in their free-ranging discussions. These include:
- the killing of John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King;
- sex magic;
- CERN;
- the killing of the king ritual;
- William Shakespeare's MacBeth/ Barbara Garson's MacBird;
- the Black Watch;
- Miss Chudleigh, the "Great Whore";
- Sir Francis Dashwood's Hellfire Club;
- Aleister Crowley;
- Loch Ness;
- "Scarlett Woman" Leila Waddell;
- Zorro;
- Ordo Templi Orientis;
- Jack Parson;
- Jet Propulsion Lab;
- Moon Child ritual;
- Lee Bouvier;
- Jacqueline Kennedy;
- Tres Hermanas / Three Sisters
- Kennedy Mountain;
- Johnson Mountain;
- Ruby Road;
- Alchemy;
- Jornada del Muerto / Journey of Death;
- 33 degree of latitude;
- Dealey Plaza;
- Dallas, Texas;
- Trinity River;
- Egyptian Masonry;
- Memphis;
- Mizraim;
- Little Egypt;
- Rite of Memphis;
- Scottish Rite of Freemasonry;
- Albert Pike;
- Coyote;
- Mt. Palomar;
- Orange Court;
- Phoenix;
- Rancho Sante Fe;
- Hotel del Carco;
- J. Edgar Hoover;
- Knights Templar;
- Ley Lines;
- Cal Tech;
- Jules Verne;
- Cape Canaveral;
- Star Cities;
- Jupiter;
- Sirius;
- Apollo 11;
- Trinity Site;
- Homunculus;
- Vacaville;
- SLA;
- Naga; and
- Patty Hearst.

Quite a list, and the connections to items of interest that continue to be discussed today are significant.

Highly recommended. (LOOK FOR COPIES ON EBAY.)

Sirius Rising: Mr. Downard and the Synchromystical Boson (© 2018) by Jim Brandon.

A new CD, with a new introduction and new eight-page booklet by Jim Brandon. Contains the original 1974-1975 recordings obtain by Brandon of several interviews with James Shelby Downard.

The titles of the 8 tracks are:
1. Mr. Downard speaks - Jim Brandon updates.
2. The matrix of symbols.
3. 'Voici le temps des assassins' (A. Rimbaud)
4. 23 Skidoo...plus 10.
5. Little Egypt is bigger than ever.
6. Memphis belle to Scarlett Woman of Revelation.
7. Amerika Alkhemika?
8. A spyshop Phoenix.

SORRY....

Sirius Rising (2018) is NO LONGER available THROUGH JIM BRANDON.

[This review is an independent critique. ~ Loren Coleman.]