Book Review: Under the Arch Night of Pan by Erfan Rezaei

Erfan Rezaei is a native of Arak, the industrial capital of Iran. It is a city located in the middle of the interior foothills of the Zagros Mountains. This region is linked to Ferdowsi’s epic poem, the Shahnameh, and Parsua, a proto state of what is known today as Persia. In fact, Erfan’s poem The Golden Honeybee practically channels long forgotten whispers along the Great Khorasan Road with incantations like:

Zisurrû! Do it daily,

Šamaš annûtu șalmū ēpišiya,

Enki is not dead, The Lost bracelet of Enki is now yours,

Uni-Verse,

Duality,

Energy,

And Wisdom,

All are yours.

This is a volume of occult poetry and Persia is a land where the Grail has been exalted for centuries and the dew of Nuit’s light has nourished many mystics and spiritual seekers. What is the value in delving into esoterica at a time when governments exhibit deplorable stupidity and The Law of Liberty (the freedom of the individual) is being disregarded on a historically unprecedented scale? Restriction is sin and we are seeing everything Aleister Crowley had written about so eloquently a century ago: mass destruction of forests, adulteration of food, etc. Nevertheless the dictum of finding oneself to be the center of one’s own universe and being vigilant to resist that which interferes with one’s destiny is as important as ever.

Erfan’s poetry reminds us that there is a hidden flame in all that lives. Here every student of the secret wisdom will discover a most precious source of scientific analysis and artistic contemplation because the author chose insects to represent various forces working in the invisible worlds. The Fire Ant — an apt celebration of the solar force — opens this book with an invocation of red and black, two primary colors of Binah in Atziluth.

Why were insects given special significance in the folklore of different cultures? We have Masonic beehives, Egyptian scarabs, Selket’s scorpions, Psyche’s personification as a butterfly, American Indian Spider Gods…Once the sanctuaries of the soul are cleansed, a mystic becomes able to perceive the hum of the universe or the astral sound which resembles the white noise of crickets and bees. Reading Erfan’s book reminded me of hearing this sound with an unparalleled intensity shortly after crossing the Tropic of Capricorn whilst traveling down the Bruce Highway from the Gold Coast to Cairns in Australia. Interestingly, Albert Pike mentions the Tropic of Capricorn as a gateway though which souls ascend to higher dimensions in his monumental book of esoteric philosophy, Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry.

Poems like The Giant Centipede and The Glow Worm are a curious mixture of Lovecraftian darkness of night moths and spiritual transcendence and tranquillity reminiscent of the Dhammapada. I also couldn’t help remembering being utterly mesmerized by a recent and spectacular conjunction between Venus and Antares, a goddess of love and a dark scorpion guardian of the sun…

Science is ecstasy, and duality in equilibrium.

GOD is concealed in the whirling energy of Nature and manifested in gathering.

Under the arch night of Pan, glow worms lit the path.

Erfan’s interest in both science fiction and Crowley’s teachings may seem baffling to some. However Gareth Knight, one of the foremost authorities on the Western esoteric tradition and practical ritual magic, wrote of science fiction being a natural continuation of the Mysteries in his most excellent tribute to Dion Fortune, Dion Fortune and The Inner Light. Even the author’s fascination with the ancient astronaut theory leads us back to Crowley’s Amalaranth working which resulted in channeling an extra-dimensional entity Lam. Crowley’s portrait of Lam is considered to be the first introduction of the Gray Alien into our collective consciousness.

Writing and reading poetry is often an act of shamanism and poets are shamans of words. Conversely, an occultist engages in a theater of consciousness. Under the Arch Night of Pan remains a dreamlike journey infused with magical imagery. It’s an invitation to recover the power of rhythm, trance, color, possession, creativity, death and re-birth…

Diana Thoresen

Palm Cove, Australia

11/11/2021