RU Sirius recently interviewed Neil Gaiman (on tour promoting his new short story collection “Fragile Things”) on his radio show (download). During the talk, Gaiman opines about why trickster gods are so great, and Alan Moore’s bizarre conversion from strict rationalist to occult guru who worships a (possibly fake) Roman snake god.

“Alan worships an imaginary Roman snake god. I remember the day. I was sitting at home and the phone rang and it was Alan, who had always been a devout rationalist – a man who would have made Penn and Teller feel that they were superstitious. So Alan called me up and said [Cockney accent], “Neil. It’s my 40th birthday next week and I’ve decided to get me midlife crisis over with, so I’m becoming a warlock and I’m going to be worshiping an imaginary Roman snake god. Just thought you’d like to know mate. Alright?” Unfortunately, him having done that, growing a really long beard, I think, wouldn’t it be great to grow a really long beard. But Alan’s already done it. So I can’t imagine myself – if I became a sort-of psychedelic warlock, people would say, ‘Oh, he’s just doing Alan Moore.’”

The imaginary Roman snake god Gaiman references (and Moore worships) is Glycon. Glycon was part of an oracular cult established in Rome by Alexander of Abonutichus. The satirist Lucian thought the entire cult was stupid and accused Glycon of being nothing more than a hand puppet. So for those wondering why Gaiman never became an eccentric mystic (with a long beard), you can blame Alan Moore.

Tags: Paganism