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

Total members: 323 members

Recent members: therealdavidsmith, HarmonyKorine, Dzerzhinsky, lokidragon, Odihnson, Emrayfo, jen.s, pomonomo2003, Wrong9, chrysotheme, drfrankbraun, Walsingham, VioletDroll, StevenTX, Crypto-Willobie, CalicoGal, straygray, PisceanCreed, JoLynnsbooks, Sam.and.his.Pangolin, a36x, iori, hipgnosis, Mr.Durick, Koffeecat, tomcatMurr, SebastianAveryMorris, notsew, PatrickMurtha, timwtheov

 
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Topics messagesLast message 
Jean Genet: Poet and Martyr 8DavidX, Today 5:21pmignore
Film 50tros, Thursday 12:29amignore
El Modernismo 58VolupteFunebre, Wednesday 10:40pmignore
Books I would like to see available in English translation 90benwaugh, Wednesday 2:15pmignore
Dandys, fops and swells 81varielle, Wednesday 12:21pmignore
Music from the abyss, et tu 35kswolff, Sunday 1:16pmignore
Odds and ends 166VolupteFunebre, May 17ignore
Opium Eaters 21Dzerzhinsky, May 16ignore
Pics from the abyss 85kswolff, May 10ignore
Queries 1benwaugh, May 9ignore
Robert Ziegler, scholar of the French decadents 7kswolff, May 2ignore
La poésie démoniaque de Maurice Rollinat 3benwaugh, May 1ignore
The Blind Owl 76DavidX, April 27ignore
Anarchist World 7anarchistbanjo, April 27ignore
Links 118tros, April 20ignore
Current reads? #2 100kswolff, April 12ignore
Eastern decadents 22cinnamonshops, April 11ignore
Bruno Schulz 17cinnamonshops, April 11ignore
René Guénon and others 27keith418, April 6ignore
Poetry, quotes, etc. 9Quixada, March 31ignore
Sex 13kswolff, March 27ignore
Edgar Jepson, John Gawsworth and Arthur Machen 4benwaugh, March 25ignore
Hanns Heinz Ewers 83kswolff, March 20ignore
Music from the abyss 230Sandydog1, March 15ignore
Modern Products for the Artificial Paradise 20kswolff, February 6ignore
Male Fatal(e)? 49kswolff, January 29ignore
Decadence and the Great War 5anarchistbanjo, January 22ignore
Pimps and carnies 51kswolff, January 21ignore
Karl Hans Strobl 15anarchistbanjo, January 20ignore
Baltic decadents 6benwaugh, January 16ignore
Illustrators of Decadence 122benwaugh, January 4ignore
The uncrowned King of Bohemia: George Sterling 8Dead_Dreamer, January 1ignore
Spiritual twins, uncanny soulmates 39benwaugh, December 2012ignore
Wedekind 3benwaugh, November 2012ignore
Kirsten Lodge: Scholar and Translator of Russian and Eastern European Decadents 14timwtheov, November 2012ignore
Thomas Pennefather Wade-Brown 2benwaugh, November 2012ignore
German literary journal "Pan" available in full PDF archive download 7cinnamonshops, November 2012ignore
Geerten Meijsing, contemporary novelist and translator 10benwaugh, November 2012ignore
Goddard Graves: Harmony Junction 1benwaugh, November 2012ignore
The Legacy of Cain and Austrian decadents 19Sylak, October 2012ignore
Fr Rolfe and Arnold Dolmetsch: a possible link? 7HarryMacDonald, October 2012ignore
The Studio, a magazine of fine and applied art 16HarryMacDonald, October 2012ignore
Ben Hecht: American decadent, 14HarryMacDonald, October 2012ignore
Boring shit! 77varielle, October 2012ignore
The Decadent Sportsman 14benwaugh, September 2012ignore
Chateau d'Argol: Thoughts and Impressions 10Soukesian, September 2012ignore
Decadent women writers 85DavidX, August 2012ignore
re Benwaugh 18LolaWalser, August 2012ignore
Julien Gracq 108benwaugh, August 2012ignore
Gloom, Spleen, Suffering, and Pessimism 68BarkingMatt, August 2012ignore
Stanislas de Guaita, Edouard Dubus and Alphonse Retté 8benwaugh, July 2012ignore
Encounters with the Green Fairy 187sistersapphist, July 2012ignore
East Euro Symbolists 44benwaugh, July 2012ignore
On Not Resisting Temptation: Oscar Wilde 103cinnamonshops, July 2012ignore
Idle researches and impertinent inquiries 26kswolff, June 2012ignore
What we talk about when we talk about love 3LolaWalser, June 2012ignore
Current reads? 211varielle, June 2012ignore
Presses of the Abyss 57benwaugh, June 2012ignore
Cannibalism 36kswolff, June 2012ignore
the meme in weird fiction 20kswolff, May 2012ignore
The Scapigliatura movement 35LolaWalser, May 2012ignore
Our man in Paris: Vincent O'Sullivan 37kswolff, April 2012ignore
Dedalus Books 20VolupteFunebre, April 2012ignore
William Scott Home 1gryeates, March 2012ignore
Ernst Jünger 16kswolff, March 2012ignore
Decadence in rock 53kswolff, March 2012ignore
Books about Dandies 10kswolff, February 2012ignore
Re International Fiction Review 3Asterixia, February 2012ignore
Maldoror by Lautréamont and Les Diaboliques by Barbey d'Aurevilly 11kswolff, December 2011ignore
The Hemp Thread 4tros, December 2011ignore
seeking Abbe Boullan book by Bricaud 1DarkSister, December 2011ignore
Decadent Music 60kswolff, December 2011ignore
Tales of the occult and the supernatural 17tros, November 2011ignore
Vera Kryzhanovskaya-Rochester 7benwaugh, November 2011ignore
Henry Miller 8Makifat, November 2011ignore
A Repository of Interesting Words Encountered Whilst Reading 8kswolff, October 2011ignore
Leaves for Art: Regenerating the Literature of Symbolism 1Dan_Corrick, October 2011ignore
Some Unknown Gulf of Night by W.H. Pugmire 5Soukesian, August 2011ignore
A Rebours 16kswolff, August 2011ignore
Gormenghast 2elenchus, August 2011ignore
George Bacovia 7gryeates, July 2011ignore
Jeff Koons, the Chapman Bros. and Damien Hirst: Decadence in contemporary art 26kswolff, July 2011ignore
The Art of Jugend and Simplicissimus 1anarchistbanjo, June 2011ignore
Blackwood - Hearn 5tros, June 2011ignore
Max Stirner 1anarchistbanjo, June 2011ignore
Simplicissimus 5anarchistbanjo, June 2011ignore
Comte de Lautréamont 24benwaugh, May 2011ignore
In search for demons. 31Makifat, May 2011ignore
The Hasheesh Eater 10benwaugh, April 2011ignore
The Priapeia translations of Leonard Smithers and Sir Richard Burton 1benwaugh, April 2011ignore
My Reading List-Help me! 10slickdpdx, April 2011ignore
À la mémoire de l'anniversaire de J.K. Huysmans: 12DavidX, April 2011ignore
Delmira Agustini, Uruguay, 1886-1914 8benwaugh, March 2011ignore
Borges' Library of Babel in colaboration with Franco Maria Ricci 10msjohns615, March 2011ignore
Poets of La Revista Moderna (Mexico City, 1898 - 1911). 3msjohns615, March 2011ignore
Brazilian authors 6Makifat, March 2011ignore
Anti-Symbolist Criticism 17poetontheone, February 2011ignore
References 59kswolff, February 2011ignore
Oz Bizarre: Barry Humphries 15Makifat, February 2011ignore
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Members: 323
Languages: English, French
Group id: decadencethemetamorp
Created: Oct 20, 2006

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