The Chapel of the Abyss

The Chapel of the Abyss is a virtual reliquary, a cenotaph devoted to the extravagant saints and angels who have fallen out of fashion and elsewhere. The kernel of this group is in the decadent and occult-themed literature of the 1890s and early 20th century. The focus, along with the theme, will continue to expand or metastasize as the mysteries of decay, of sickness, and of the wound, and their link to an original sin, perhaps one of omission, but nevertheless mortal and without appeal, are enduring and may be pursued at any point in time.

"And perhaps it was not perceptible to him in the midst of his tumultuous agitation, how much higher than all the voices of nature resounded here with a dissonant clamour the glaring disappropriation of all things - of the altar all the more majestic for being abandoned, of the useless lance, of the tomb as perturbing as a cenotaph, of the clock ticking for nothing outside of time, on which its gears had no more grip than a mill-wheel in a dried-up stream, of the lamp burning in full daylight, of the windows palpably made to be looked into from outside...."

- Julien Gracq, Chateau d'Argol

"Such is the nature of this place.... Horror and ecstasy abide here together."

- Fyodor Sologub, The Created Legend

"This life is a hospital where every patient is possessed with the desire to change beds; one man would like to suffer in front of the stove, and another believes that he would recover his health beside the window. It always seems to me that I should feel well in the place where I am not, and this question of removal is one which I discuss incessantly with my soul."

- Charles Baudelaire

"It is always Autumn at Bruges.... The sameness of this terribly constant old city seems to intensify the change that has come to oneself."

- Ernest Dowson

In his classic novel of the occult, Là-Bas, Joris Huysmans wrote “Now from lofty Mysticism to base Satanism there is but one step. In the Beyond all things touch.” Essence becomes the surface of things: the priesthood of art and the cult of the senses. By piety or perversion- through prayer, or by "the rational derangement of all the senses" -one must obtain to the Beyond.

The decadent is concerned with the mysteries of the artificial, the urban, masks, the passion play of the self. The city is the pool of Narcissus, a black mirror in which to scry one’s own voluptuous postures of decay.

"Let us dream of evanescence, and linger in the beautiful foolishness of things."

- Kakuzo Okakura

Over-refined, faithless and morbidly self-observant, the decadent is a mystic guided by "desire without light, curiosity without wisdom, seeking God by strange ways, by ways traced by the hands of men; offering rash incense upon the high places to an unknown God, who is the God of darkness." (Ernest Hello)

"The decadence is fundamentally a literature of deep religious concern."

- George Ross Ridge

One can keep to the well-worn way and aver that the kingdom of heaven is at hand, but entry demands devious routes. Christ thus advised the elect: go against nature, "Love one another as you love yourself."

For less hardy souls, sensual indulgence and depravity serve as stations of the cross. Severin’s journey into the dark and Durtal’s return to the Church indicate that the underlying theme is pilgrimage, quest (the dead end?)- if not for spiritual transcendence, then for moral transformation - for a new order of existence: to undertake oneself, "to create one's own aesthetic." The fate of Narcissus is henosis.

"Let everyone be his own lover...."

- Emile Hennequin

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Topics		messages	Last message
Jean Genet: Poet and Martyr		8	DavidX, Today 5:21pm
Film		50	tros, Thursday 12:29am
El Modernismo		58	VolupteFunebre, Wednesday 10:40pm
Books I would like to see available in English translation		90	benwaugh, Wednesday 2:15pm
Dandys, fops and swells		81	varielle, Wednesday 12:21pm
Music from the abyss, et tu		35	kswolff, Sunday 1:16pm
Odds and ends		166	VolupteFunebre, May 17
Opium Eaters		21	Dzerzhinsky, May 16
Pics from the abyss		85	kswolff, May 10
Queries		1	benwaugh, May 9
Robert Ziegler, scholar of the French decadents		7	kswolff, May 2
La poésie démoniaque de Maurice Rollinat		3	benwaugh, May 1
The Blind Owl		76	DavidX, April 27
Anarchist World		7	anarchistbanjo, April 27
Links		118	tros, April 20
Current reads? #2		100	kswolff, April 12
Eastern decadents		22	cinnamonshops, April 11
Bruno Schulz		17	cinnamonshops, April 11
René Guénon and others		27	keith418, April 6
Poetry, quotes, etc.		9	Quixada, March 31
Sex		13	kswolff, March 27
Edgar Jepson, John Gawsworth and Arthur Machen		4	benwaugh, March 25
Hanns Heinz Ewers		83	kswolff, March 20
Music from the abyss		230	Sandydog1, March 15
Modern Products for the Artificial Paradise		20	kswolff, February 6
Male Fatal(e)?		49	kswolff, January 29
Decadence and the Great War		5	anarchistbanjo, January 22
Pimps and carnies		51	kswolff, January 21
Karl Hans Strobl		15	anarchistbanjo, January 20
Baltic decadents		6	benwaugh, January 16
Illustrators of Decadence		122	benwaugh, January 4
The uncrowned King of Bohemia: George Sterling		8	Dead_Dreamer, January 1
Spiritual twins, uncanny soulmates		39	benwaugh, December 2012
Wedekind		3	benwaugh, November 2012
Kirsten Lodge: Scholar and Translator of Russian and Eastern European Decadents		14	timwtheov, November 2012
Thomas Pennefather Wade-Brown		2	benwaugh, November 2012
German literary journal "Pan" available in full PDF archive download		7	cinnamonshops, November 2012
Geerten Meijsing, contemporary novelist and translator		10	benwaugh, November 2012
Goddard Graves: Harmony Junction		1	benwaugh, November 2012
The Legacy of Cain and Austrian decadents		19	Sylak, October 2012
Fr Rolfe and Arnold Dolmetsch: a possible link?		7	HarryMacDonald, October 2012
The Studio, a magazine of fine and applied art		16	HarryMacDonald, October 2012
Ben Hecht: American decadent,		14	HarryMacDonald, October 2012
Boring shit!		77	varielle, October 2012
The Decadent Sportsman		14	benwaugh, September 2012
Chateau d'Argol: Thoughts and Impressions		10	Soukesian, September 2012
Decadent women writers		85	DavidX, August 2012
re Benwaugh		18	LolaWalser, August 2012
Julien Gracq		108	benwaugh, August 2012
Gloom, Spleen, Suffering, and Pessimism		68	BarkingMatt, August 2012
Stanislas de Guaita, Edouard Dubus and Alphonse Retté		8	benwaugh, July 2012
Encounters with the Green Fairy		18	7sistersapphist, July 2012
East Euro Symbolists		44	benwaugh, July 2012
On Not Resisting Temptation: Oscar Wilde		103	cinnamonshops, July 2012
Idle researches and impertinent inquiries		26	kswolff, June 2012
What we talk about when we talk about love		3	LolaWalser, June 2012
Current reads?		211	varielle, June 2012
Presses of the Abyss		57	benwaugh, June 2012
Cannibalism		36	kswolff, June 2012
the meme in weird fiction		20	kswolff, May 2012
The Scapigliatura movement		35	LolaWalser, May 2012
Our man in Paris: Vincent O'Sullivan		37	kswolff, April 2012
Dedalus Books		20	VolupteFunebre, April 2012
William Scott Home		1	gryeates, March 2012
Ernst Jünger		16	kswolff, March 2012
Decadence in rock		53	kswolff, March 2012
Books about Dandies		10	kswolff, February 2012
Re International Fiction Review		3	Asterixia, February 2012
Maldoror by Lautréamont and Les Diaboliques by Barbey d'Aurevilly		11	kswolff, December 2011
The Hemp Thread		4	tros, December 2011
seeking Abbe Boullan book by Bricaud		1	DarkSister, December 2011
Decadent Music		60	kswolff, December 2011
Tales of the occult and the supernatural		17	tros, November 2011
Vera Kryzhanovskaya-Rochester		7	benwaugh, November 2011
Henry Miller		8	Makifat, November 2011
A Repository of Interesting Words Encountered Whilst Reading		8	kswolff, October 2011
Leaves for Art: Regenerating the Literature of Symbolism		1	Dan_Corrick, October 2011
Some Unknown Gulf of Night by W.H. Pugmire		5	Soukesian, August 2011
A Rebours		16	kswolff, August 2011
Gormenghast		2	elenchus, August 2011
George Bacovia		7	gryeates, July 2011
Jeff Koons, the Chapman Bros. and Damien Hirst: Decadence in contemporary art		26	kswolff, July 2011
The Art of Jugend and Simplicissimus		1	anarchistbanjo, June 2011
Blackwood - Hearn		5	tros, June 2011
Max Stirner		1	anarchistbanjo, June 2011
Simplicissimus		5	anarchistbanjo, June 2011
Comte de Lautréamont		24	benwaugh, May 2011
In search for demons.		31	Makifat, May 2011
The Hasheesh Eater		10	benwaugh, April 2011
The Priapeia translations of Leonard Smithers and Sir Richard Burton		1	benwaugh, April 2011
My Reading List-Help me!		10	slickdpdx, April 2011
À la mémoire de l'anniversaire de J.K. Huysmans:		12	DavidX, April 2011
Delmira Agustini, Uruguay, 1886-1914		8	benwaugh, March 2011
Borges' Library of Babel in colaboration with Franco Maria Ricci		10	msjohns615, March 2011
Poets of La Revista Moderna (Mexico City, 1898 - 1911).		3	msjohns615, March 2011
Brazilian authors		6	Makifat, March 2011
Anti-Symbolist Criticism		17	poetontheone, February 2011
References		59	kswolff, February 2011
Oz Bizarre: Barry Humphries		15	Makifat, February 2011
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