Imprimatur

"When I first saw the Library, my tongue was stricken in my mouth. Those thousands of manuscripts pressed down upon me with such weight that the ability to form words fled from my head. I was like a child, a clean slate waiting to be blessed with the script of God. How could this be? How could so many texts -- such a profusion of scrolls and pamphlets and folios -- how could so many misfit books have been written? There was no imprimatur from His Holiness for these words. The Heretical Library was meant to contain the few existent copies of those texts which threatened the Word and the Light and yet here was an entire church filled to the high clerestory windows with bookshelves, each shelf groaning and weeping under the weight of the tomes piled across its back. As I was faced with the enormity of my task, my faith wavered for an instant. Was my task of cataloguing the bizarre, the heretic, the foreign and alien too profound to be accomplished by one man in his lifetime or even the lifetime of a hundred men? Had Babel scattered us all so far that we could never find our way back?"


(from the private journal of Cardinal Pietro Della Ambruzia, entry dated January 13th, 1513)

« « little fictions || 10.13.2004 @ 10:43 PM

100: Books

One of the professions given to John Dee, when one is busy listing all the ways in which the Renaissance Man left a mark on history and culture, is that of bibliographer. He made an extensive effort to build a vast and impressive collection of texts -- both scientific and occult -- during his lifetime, trying to collate the sum of human knowledge in a way that England would have access to the secrets held therein. It's all, you know, about synthesizing the totality of human expression, after all. Shortly before his flight from England, he cataloged his collection at Mortlake, a bibliography than ran 170 pages.

I've been poking around in Dee's life these last few days, making notes here and there, and finding books that I might want to investigate:

Ramon Lull's Liber experimentorum. Lull was a 13th century Franciscan who laid a great deal of the groundwork for the combination of rational thought, philosophy, and spiritual consideration of the nature of the universe and man's place in it. It's probably overstretching to call him an occultist, but he was considered a "Doctor Illuminatus" and the Lullists ran hot and heavy in Spain for a while after his death. However, due to the revolutionary nature of his writings, even though he was martyred, he has never been canonized. Lost saint, in the end. Still, influential to Dee and the Cabalists and the Renaissance as a while.

Johannes Trithemius' Steganographia. Three books, two of which were finished (it can be found here) and which detail a method of long-distance communication using spirits and other summoned creatures to carry messages. The third part was all in code which wasn't broken until 1998 by Jim Reeds. His paper can be found here. The fact that the Internet coughs that up for me is amazing.

Jacopo Silvestri's Opus Novum... principibus maxime vtilissimum pro cipharis. An early work on the use of ciphers, including the Caesar cipher. Dee referenced this book on more than one occasion as a tool for learning about codes. (An early history of Cryptology is here, part of an extensive discussion about who wrote the Shakespearean plays.)

The Book of Soyga. The book is first referenced during one of the first encounters between Dee and the Angels where he asked of the original and meaning of the text. The book was thought lost until 1994 when it was discovered bearing an alternate title. Transcript and discussion of the text can be found here.

Doctoris Dee Mysteriorum Libri Quinti (Dee's Five Books of Mystery). These are the transcripts of his "actions," his investigations into the angelic mysteries by means of the "shewing stone" and the medium of Edward Kelly. This is generally known as Sloane MS 3188. Scans of the pages can be found here.

48 Claves Angelicae. The 48 keys are the Calls by which the Enochian Angels are summoned. Crowley got his hands on them during the early 20th century and added his own spin. One version is here.

Voynich Manuscript. While named after the collector who "discovered" it in 1912, there is some evidence that Dee had this at one time and sold it to Rudolf II, the Holy Roman Emperor who Dee visited in Prague after his flight from England. It is still untranslated and, look at this, there is a whole domain detailing its mysteries.

I need to get my Latin back up to speed.

[This, by the way, is the last archived SYMBOLIC column at this site. You can (and should) continue to read them here.]

« « little fictions || 10.12.2004 @ 10:36 PM

Ziggurat

The Ziggurat was named in honor of Duke Champlain on the eve of the expedition to the Vilcabamba mountains in Peru. Thermal imaging from low-flying planes had discovered ancient shapes beneath the dense forest. The archaeologists at the University wound themselves into endless discussions as to the origin of the pyramids: did they pre-date the Mayan settlements, were they the final link between the monuments of Central America and Egypt, were they the remnants of some other lost civilization? Duke -- born Duchess Urbania Champlain, much to the dismay of her mother -- wasn't interested in talk; she wanted to be the first one on the ground. She wanted to send back artifacts and images that would settle all the perpetual arguments.

"Ziggurats are Sumerian," Duke pointed out as Clio set the drink down on the bar. It was served in a narrow glass and the alcohol floated in thick bands: red, blue, amber and yellow.

"Sumerian?" Clio asked.

"The Sumerians were one of first civilizations in Mesopotamia. Right in the Fertile Crescent between the Tigris and the Euphrates. It's all part of Iraq now. There isn't much left anymore but, yeah, once upon a time, they built immense monuments that were crude step pyramids."

"So there might be a connection." Like everyone else, Clio had her own theories about the buildings hidden beneath the endless jungle in Peru.

Duke raised her shoulders. "Sure, honey, there could be." She lifted the glass. "Thanks."

Clio smiled and watched the other woman sip from the red layer in the glass. "You'll be careful, right?"

"Always," Duke said. She made eye contact with Clio as she replied -- affirmation of message received and answer returned. "It's a reconaissance expedition," she said in an attempt to alleviate the other woman's concerns. "We've packed enough gear for four weeks. That's all. We'll have to come back to resupply at least, and that will take a week. I'll be back."

"I know," Clio said. "It's just..."

Duke sipped from The Ziggurat again, feeling the grenadine and blue curaçao mix as they passed her lips. Two distinct colors and tastes rushed together in her mouth. Like Clio and I, she thought. Unexpected mixtures, unexpected results. Life was full of little surprises, wasn't it?

« « little fictions || 10.07.2004 @ 11:14 PM

writing

BIBLIOGRAPHY
This is a reasonably comprehensive list of my published work, both virtual and physical.

THE MISFIT LIBRARY
I am Nine of Thirteen, one of the members of the Misfit Library, a writing collective which puts out a quarterly journal of our respective work. We are scattered across the globe and determined to change the face of the planet one story at a time. The link above will take you to Misfit Central where you can acquire copies of the journal as well as read exclusive online material.

SYMBOLIC
I wrote a column for OPi8.com's Transmit blogs: journals of the new dark underground. SYMBOLIC tracked the novel I was working on, referencing the process and the research materials which mad up the backbone of the work. In addition, SYMBOLIC busied itself with ruminations and considerations on the nature of language and communication. And a wee bit of mythology. The first 100 entries of SYMBOLIC can be found here on this site as well as at OPi8.com.

LITERARY REPRESENTATION
I am represented by Scribe Agency as my literary agents. Please contact these gentleman if you have any queries about my work.

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