From Russia to Eridanus: The Taoist Psychogeographic Ecosphere of Malcolm Lowry
IAFOR Journal of Literature & Librarianship September 16, 2018 Nigel H. Foxcroft
Malcolm Lowry's cosmic consciousness evolved through a multi-disciplinary, cross-cultural framework that integrated Aztec, Zapotec, and Taoist world-views. His experiences of the Mexican Day of the Dead festival in Cuernavaca in 1936 and his quest for atonement with the spirits of the dead shaped works from Under the Volcano to The Forest Path to the Spring. The paper establishes synergies among animist, shamanic concepts of the universe, the Pleiades star cluster, the symbol of Eridanus, and Taoist philosophical concepts of yin-yang universal harmony, tracing Lowry's psychic journey from Russia through Mexico to Canada.