Anomalistics of the Mage: Alan Moore and the Beyond

Seldom does so fertile a mind emerge from the crowd-consciousness of Terra Firma that its psychic influence resounds across cultures, generations, and in all likelihood, other worlds.Then again, to think anything less of a scribe and scholar the likes of Alan Moore, inventor of Watchmen and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, would be outright heresy.

A gentle recluse of a man, to mention here that Moore resembles (far more than vaguely) a towering wizard ascending the steps of Sauron's lookout is almost passe'; although in truth, there is far more magic behind Moore's wizardry than merely what he commits to paper while envisioning fantastic universes... in fact, Moore claims to have had some limited contact with other realms--actual anomalous foreign states of being--in very real ways.

But before we detail Moore's actual magical experiences, we must afford a brief lineage of his influence through art. Tremendous laud and praise has echoed the man's exploits, especially since his magnum opus Watchmen helped initiate the Dark Age of comics (achieved in tandem with Frank Miller's publication of another comic classic, The Dark Night). In Moore's story, characters ranging from Dr. Manhattan, a glowing nudist embodying the atomic prowess of all the universe, to a poverty-stricken, schizophrenic conservative with a shape-shifting face mask called Rorschach, made an eternal mark on not only the comics industry, but also the way stories would be told in the genre forever after; departing from the conventional story lines of super-hero rags typical to the 1980s, offering instead what became some of the most mature Cold War commentary imaginable within the colored panels of a comic book.

Such mind-expanding storytelling doesn't come naturally to just anyone; therefore, it is hardly surprising that Moore's personal experiences reflect a little less of the mundane sorts of things that transpire during most people's daily lives. "I've had years of bizarre hallucinogenic magical experiences," Moore recently told the Guardian. Moore took time during the interview to describe Unearthing, a new audio-project he has undertaken which is semi-autobiographical, making frequent mention of one of his greatest influences, author Steve Moore. It was Steve who apparently introduced Alan Moore to another of his lifelong passions, the study of magic, and during an abrupt manifestation one evening, the unrelated-Moores together witnessed Steve summon Selene, a Greek moon goddess, in Alan's study. Moore notes that the experience was likely hallucinatory, although he and his companion were adamant they were "both seeing the same hallucination behaving in the same way" (a tulpa, perhaps?).

Alan's unique experiences didn't end with his introduction to Selene, however. The author also describes how 0ver the years he has "communicated with entities that may well have been disassociated parts of my own personality or conceivably some independent entity of a metaphysical nature." Moore's accounts, though no doubt limited in scope with the scant descriptions afforded here, bear remarkable similarity to those of psychonauts, individuals who have used psychedelic drugs to enter altered states of consciousness, in which many similar experiences occur. Could some of Moore's strangest characters have been entities he met while in these altered states?

If such were the case, it would hardly diminish the extraordinary mental prowess Moore exhibits; if anything, it might seem only fitting that the magic Moore has managed to spin around his words for years had stemmed from knowledge of something a bit beyond the conventional. Then, however, it would also be apparent that Moore, rather than being a master-crafter of fiction, had all along been a historian of sorts instead, although the lands and peoples he documented belonged to a realm wholly apart from our own. Regardless, whatever the mage's mind maketh, it will be well-received and heartily praised: Hence go forth, oh Mightiest Moore, and create.