Reviews and Comments

I read this book once through when I first bought the deck that goes with it. The cards are unique and follow the narrative of The Watcher Angels, referring to the Book of Enoch.

I’m reading for others again, and it surprised me to find this deck wanting to be of service for the task. But here we are, and it turns out, they’re ideal for exactly this setting. The deck delivers readings that strike the right note of sensitivity and care where needed, and stern boundaries where that may be needed too. Bonus for live calls and video readings: these cards barely make a whisper when shuffling, and I’m a noisy riffle shuffler. I try to be aware of the volume, but there’s usually only so much one can do to minimize it. It’s not a concern at all with these cards. Perfect consulting tool and companion.

Since this is the deck I’m working with, I’ve got the book out for reference and to reread and reflect on the narrative. A lot of tarot readers will say that if you’re still reading the book you shouldn’t be reading with the cards for others. To that I say: I’ve been reading tarot for 25+ years, and I always still read the book.

If you rely on the book because you don’t know what the cards mean, maybe rethink reading for others just yet. But never stop reading the book.

Practical Planetary Magick: Working the Magick of the Classical Planets in the Western Mystery Tradition (2007) by Sorita d'Este and David Rankine

It’s Friday, and I’ve been thinking about Venus, so this is the place. Another favorite book of mine.

Please enjoy this excerpt:

Hymn to Venus Beautiful heavenly laughter-loving queen Your radiance always the first and last to be seen Source of persuasion secret favouring queen Illustrious born apparent and unseen Desiring, most desired, harsh and kind To thee are men and women all inclined With magick chains you bind through love’s fair grace To chance a single glance of your heavenly face The strongest power in your girdle rests That frees us through the fires of your tests Choirs of nymphs sing praises to your name Not even gods can ever hope your heart to tame Come most beautiful to my prayer inclined To thee I call with holy love and praise in mind

“Venus is shown as a beautiful naked woman, sometimes bearing a flaming heart in her right hand. She is sometimes depicted accompanied by birds or by Eros, as a winged cherub bearing bow and arrow. Birds were particularly associated with her, and she was occasionally depicted riding side-saddle on a goose or swan, or in a chariot drawn by doves. When travelling across seas she would ride in a cockle shell chariot pulled by tritons.” p. 46.

Post by Grace Greggory Hughes

The Romance of the Rose (1962 English Translation by Harry W. Robbins) original Old French by Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun.

I feel the pull to read this as I work on the drafts of what I’m calling (until a working title arises) “my bird poems” this month; a subset of thematically connected poems that I’m pulling from the drafts, the prewriting, and the general mess of thought for a longer work that they’ll eventually integrate back into.

I first became aware of this book almost 10 years ago. It’s famed as one of the most widely read and the most influential of the French medieval romances enjoying the height of its popularity during the Renaissance. Le Roman de la Rose. It was written in two parts by two different authors. Part I in 1230 by Guillaume de Lorris and Part II in 1275 by Jean de Meun.

It is said to have influenced Chaucer's Wife of Bath in The Canterbury Tales (1400) as well as Dante’s Divine Comedy (begun 1308, completed 1321), widely considered one of the most significant poems of the Middle Ages depicting the cosmos as it was conventionally understood at that time, materially and spiritually, but with added revelation. Materially, Earth as the center of everything, surrounded by revolving spheres, the Moon, the Sun, and known planets—Aristotle’s model. Spiritually, God as the center of everything, surrounded by nine choirs of angels in the surrounding revolving spheres. Except, in Dante’s cosmology, the character of Beatrice reveals that the material world and the spiritual world are not separate, but overlap, forming a single unit.

Echoes of The Romance of the Rose’s long-lasting literary influence can be found in more commonplaces for today’s audiences than Chaucer and Dante, however, as important as they both are. Beauty & The Beast, for example. Le Petit Prince, for another.

I’ve read excerpts from it, and I’ve read about it a fair bit, but I’ve never sat down to read the whole volume before now. It’s been called an allegorical dream poem and it tells the tale of a courtly love affair. Allegorical characters include the God of Love and Lady Reason as well as personifications of Shame, Idleness, Pleasure, and many other such moral-qualities-as-persons used as narrative device as was typical in the age it was written.

Speaking of commonplaces, ideals, cosmological maps, and symbols, I’m now thinking I might call the small collection of bird poems “Literary topos.”

Topos is the Ancient Greek for “place” also translated as “commonplace” or, in lit, a frequently occurring “theme” during a given era such as the walled garden as a symbol for the Garden of Eden, or the rose, from antiquity associated with Venus and Aphrodite, as a symbol of youth, love, mystery, and pleasure in chivalric poems evolving into symbols of purity and then virginity, and then The Virgin Mary, the red rose becoming, then, representative of the passion of Christ. Jesus, Mary, Aphrodite, and Venus. Where is Cupid and his blessed arrow?

Or, maybe “Literary topoi” to make it plural. But maybe not. I mean, what if a little further study reveals terrible connotations associated with the term Topoi in perhaps obscure quarters but nonetheless important ones, that I do not currently know of? Best to be thorough in the background work of research before assigning things like names.

So, The Romance of the Rose. Thoughts?

Post by Grace Greggory Hughes