The Diana/ Camilla/Ceres writer must be reading the Golden Bough, too!

http://www.gnosis.org/pkd.biography.html

In some of his dreams, Phil saw Soviet scientists rushing around behind the scenes to keep the alien satellite functioning. Phil originally thought VALIS was from Fomalhaut, which he called “Albemuth” (from the Arab Al Behemoth, “the whale”). Fomalhaut is the fish’s mouth; Phil apparently mistook “behemoth” for “leviathan”, two Hebrew words from the Old Testament. It is the latter which actually refers to the whale, according to most sources. What matters most is Phil’s beliefs on the matter; if his subconscious mind processed “behemoth” as “whale”, then “whale” it is - for him. At any rate, the fish symbolism is obvious, as is the reference to Jonah. Phil must have read Robert K.G. Temple’s The Sirius Mystery (16) before writing VALIS, because he relocated the satellite to there. This brings in a host of occult references too involved to go into here. Suffice it to say that the dark companion of Sirius represents “occult” or hidden knowledge, as does Sirius’ position as “the sun behind the Sun” (as Kenneth Grant calls it). Neither Phil nor Temple seem to have known this when they wrote their books. Phil cleverly tied in the dualist Dogon philosophy described by Temple with his own Gnostic beliefs, though as narrator of VALIS he ascribes this revelation to Fat and tells us this is the point at which Fat’s madness became complete. Madness or not, VALIS stands as a classic on many levels. The three-eyed aliens had pincers like a crab where hands should be, just like Palmer Eldritch and his artificial hands. These “improved” hands seem to denote an elevated status as cosmic artificer or demiurge, while also indicating an inherent flaw of some sort. The beings were also deaf and mute; they communicated amongst themselves by means of telepathy. One could say their inability to hear or speak reinforces the notion of an imperfect demiurge, as well as it helps conceal his true nature. Then again, their physical handicap may be the results of a personal sacrifice undertaken to enhance their mental faculties.

Phil was consistent in documenting his major influences within the works they influenced. VALIS was no exception. Curiously, there are two which went uncredited, and to my knowledge no researcher has yet uncovered them both. The first is Robert K.G. Temple’s aforementioned The Sirius Mystery. Temple documents the Dogon people of Africa and their precise astronomical data which predate telescopes. Their legends say that this knowledge was given to them by three-eyed crab-clawed beings from Sirius. Temple goes on to trace the Dogon’s ancestors back to migrating Egyptians who continue a tradition well-documented in the Mysteries of Isis and Osiris. Certainly Phil read Temple’s book after writing Radio Free Albemuth; why else would he have moved VALIS from Fomalhaut to Sirius?