Into the Crowned Knot of Fire

Of all people, it is Zebedee Thurlough who finally manages to arrange an interim cease-fire in the sudden war between the Karlosoroff brothers. Felix promises that if Indrek is prepared to visit and apologise, then he will forgive him. Looking into her crystal onion, Prigentia is alarmed. The feared but necessary shvirah is threatened. Fratricidal warfare is essential for the fulfillment of the Ptolomaic prediction. By weaving a few infinitesimal calculations she throws into confusion Indrek’s normally accurate navigational sense. The ether quivers. All that remains now is to sacrifice an innocent child. For this Prigentia’s thoughts turn to the infant genius, Kolya. Meanwhile the residents of Seven Dials are only dimly aware of the portentous dangers that face them.

The Intricate knots of Holy Hemp

Lucien Jung has proposed a grand day of demonstrations against Irrational Superstitions. At first there is grand indifference to the plan, until the rumour spreads that he includes amongst his targets the Lurian Gilgul.  The coordinator of the Seven Dials Ladies’ Kabbala Tsimtsum Circle  arranges an emergency convention, and it is agreed that Sevelanz Grimple and Emelda Bush will spearhead a protest. As the clock strikes seven, their colleagues securely tie the two veteran activists to the gnarled trunk of the Great Elm, with thick ropes spun from Holy Hemp. Confronted by intricate knots that were devised by the ancient magi, the local community policewoman Sergeant Alicia Drublick is unable to release them. A crowd assembles to watch the action.

Resolving the Perturbations

Something is disturbing the equilibrium in the mystical world of Rabbi Oud Ramonides. He is browsing through two books, the one that his daughter Kugarita has given to his son (the Idiot’s Guide to Macrame Theory), and Frab’s Illustrated Reikarian Meditation. The latter looks more relevant. He resolves to practice the essential meditation exercises for twenty minutes each day until the perturbations are resolved and the direction of the tikun corrected. Meanwhile at Little Porrit, the nuns’ at the Cruxicogentian Retreat are arranging a Giggle (Sister Berberabilia who is slightly hard of hearing) misheard one of Oud’s weekly lectures about Kabbala. Over time the Giggle will acquire a life of its own, and become a national tradition, like a Ceilidh. 

Strife and Sacrifice

Prigentia finalises her plans and predictions. The Ptolomaic charts of Eusebius have made explicit the cognitive and field force links between the Mamre Oak and the Great Elm (the ladies of the Seven Dials Ladies’ Kabbala Tsimtsum Circle would appreciate this). From this, four events are necessary. The forces of belief will be opposed by the forces of reason. Two women will be bound forever to the tree of energy. Strife will strengthen between brothers. The last requisite is the sacrifice of an infant genius.  Prigentia casts her final spells, and utters the fateful incantations, then she goes to the local Coffee Republic for a latte and porridge. As she has a fully stamped loyalty card, her coffee is free.

The moving finger writes...

Time moves on relentlessly. Frab pleads with Felix to go easy on Indrek. He offers him extra reikarian therapy time but Felix is adamant. He does not show Frab the crumpled letter he received from Prigentia stirring up the issue with her interpretation of Indrek's comment. She warns that Indrek is trying to undermine his brother's relationship. To Felix, who is undoubtedly over sensitive, this is only too plausible. This was the case since they were children. So Prigentia's plan  unwinds as planned. Again we recall Tom Stearns' observation that what we call the beginning is often the end. And to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from. Prigentia certainly hopes so.

Inventing the Paperback

At Yifitsin Print Bookshop, Samuel Quinine is preparing an exhibition celebrating the life of Aldus Manutius (1449-1515) printer, publisher and inventor of the semicolon and the prototype of the paperback. He promoted italic type (and was also into Garamond and Zapf's Palatino). In his desire to preserve ancient Greek literature, Manutius introduced personal or pocket editions of the classics in Greek and Latin that anyone could own. He founded the Aldine Press in Venice, which continued to produce finely illustrated books until 1597. Today, antique books printed by the Aldine Press are referred to as Aldines, and Samuel Quinine owns a seventeeth share in a rare edition of the previously mentioned Hypnerotomachia Poliphili. To Quinine, Manutius is a personal god.

The origins of militancy

Milton Ridley is not happy. He feels let down by Sevalanz Grimble who he had thought of as a friend. However, far from enthusing at his winning the part of Dr Faustus (in the new Global Brickworks Production) she is actively campaigning against the show. 

‘Well, I too can be militant!’ exclaims the old war-horse, and he starts a major campaign against Irrational Superstitions directed at both the Militant Moralists, and the Seven Dials Ladies’ Kabbala Tsimtsum Circle (no association, merely a commonality of membership).

Magritude Feather, who is now babysitting the infant genius Kolya, finds one of Ridley’s pamphlets, headlined, ‘What is to be done?’  Obscurely it turns out to be a diatribe against ‘West Side Story’. 

A tangled web

Life is a confused mix between order and disorder (or as Mandible Winkworth refers to it whenever he talks to Samuel Quinine, between maat and isfet. Only Magritude Feather would understand his conceptual referents, but she is ignorant of Egyptian mythology). Quinine believes that the arbitration of the Ibis-headed Thoth forms the synthesis, to the thesis of Seth and the antithesis of Horus. As he struggles to make this wooden trichotomy explicit, he loses track of time, and loses track of Kolya, who has in recent days become obsessed with the movement of articulated lorries. Mrs. Feather shakes her head when she finds the infant genius toddling along behind a Waitrose lorry which is inching forward through a traffic jam.

Thoth has big problems

No-one is expecting it. Without warning, a quarrel erupts between Felix and Indrek over a critical comment the visitor has made about Felix's husband, Frab Lotus. The loud altercation echoes through the streets, and eventually becomes a violent brawl in the comfortable Snug of the Never a True Word pub. Someone calls the discreet Community Policewoman, Alicia Drublick, while Malvolio Claxendell tries to bring peace between the two brothers. When he sees the flashing blue light, Malvolio suddenly remembers the bedtime tale his old nurse used to read him (she was keen on Ancient Egyptian pornography) about the Contendings of Horus (him of the Eye) and Seth (of the painful testicles). Today's conflict between the Karlozoroff brothers is no less sinister.

The skilled scribe whose hands are pure

Out of the blue, Sonia Quinine (née Labrador) appears on the threshold of Yifitsin Print Bookshop. There are serious problems in her fashion business (trendy ‘supportwear’ for the fashion-conscious over eighties is not doing too well). However she merely tells her father-in-law that she has a window in her schedule, and has decided to take her little ‘Wobbly’ (her name for Kolya) out to town for an ice-cream. Unlike most of his generation, the infant genius is not delighted by the prospect and bawls his eyes out for twenty minutes. However Grandpa Samuel calms him down with a beautifully illustrated volume of the Egyptian Book of the Dead (he loves the picture of the ibis headed Thoth in Spell 183).

The Idiot’s Guide to Macrame Theory

Rabbi Oud Ramonides is worried. His son, Yachin, has suddenly developed an interest in left-wing trendy things, and is trying to reconcile Higgs boson with String Theory. Kugarita Zinfandel (daughter and sister respectively) assumes it is a talmudic thing - and indeed there was much advanced mathematical thinking amongst the brethren (even before Maimonides) that still remains to be rediscovered. Unfortunately, when the revered scholar Oud appears before his son and daughter, he forgets he is still wearing his shorts (an unheard of precedent). Luckily, far to the north, the Thane of Baile na Drochaid has (with the help of Demon Baal) written the definitive Idiot’s Guide to Macrame Theory, which he sends Kugarita, who passes it on to her brother.

Poor Sister Bebarabilia

The poster announcing today’s pubic prayer meeting has been corrected, and the nuns’ chorus from the Cruxicogentian Retreat at Little Porrit arrive on their quad bikes (Sister Bebarabilia, from Huddersfield, is in mourning for Hull’s defeat in the Cup Final, but the others as Arsenal supporters are all hung over). Frab, a devout atheist counter-tenor, has agreed to accompany them. The traffic at the new roundabout grinds to a halt as the nuns start singing. The Seven Dials Ladies’ Kabbala Tsimtsum Circle are perplexed. They had not predicted such a happening (the reader will recall that the roundabout has very special properties). However all is resolved when everyone (including Oud Ramonides who is unbelievably wearing shorts) joins in the singing.

The Metaphysics of Magritude Feather

At the Global Brickworks Arts Project, Lucien Jung is rehearsing a modern day version of Doctor Faustus, with Milton Ridley in the eponymous role. Ridley is trying to include extra improvised lines to emphasise his own ideas on queer politics, but Lucien wants him to stick to the script. As yet they are unaware that Mrs Magritude Feather has learned of the project from Grapella Colswain, and has recruited the Militant Moralists (including Sevelanz Grimple and Emelda Bush) to set up a petition to the local council opposing the production on grounds of ‘Common Decency’. (They fear that the play will be a bad influence on the younger generation who might also try and sell their souls to the devil).

The Onomasticon of Euebius

Talmudic sources talk of idolatrous practices at the Oak of Mamre. In the Onomasticon, Eusebius, the church historian, describes the cultish site. However his writings, especially those about the Book of Revelations (which he says reflects the religious persecutions under Domitian) are thought to be exaggerated. Nevertheless from the depths of her incarceration, Prigentia, also waiting for things to happen, consults the Ptolomaic charts of Eusebius, and reads the same predictions as Loretta. This will indeed be the day of her revenge. Understanding the association between the Mamre Oak and the Great Elm, she realises that she only needs to persuade two people to link their fate to that of the Great Elm and all will unfold as she wishes.

Smile!

Today is the day that Colin from Ireland forgot. His proctologist was not so fortunate.

Stay Close

For Ahmed Savi it is an in-between day: waiting for things to happen. And of course, when you wait, things don’t happen. As he keeps telling himself, the proverbial waiting drum doesn’t beat (not even a kettle-drum). But there is disquiet amongst the customers at Moudi’s Emporium. Loretta Garsten-Manir, is explaining Predictive Ptolomaic Astrology to the sceptical Colin. What begins to convince him is the detail with which she describes the fate of each individual that enters the Emporium. He orders another glass of Ahmed’s Tantric Iftic tisane, and gazes at Loretta, in veiled anticipation. When Mandible Winkworth enters, the spirited astrologer turns pale. ‘What does this foretell?’ asks Colin. ‘It is perhaps the beginning of the end,’ she replies. 

Colin from Ireland

The miserable newcomer, Colin, is sitting in the snug at the Never a True Word, in front of him a double vodka. His companion, Mandible Winkworth, is enjoying a large Red Leicester ploughman's. He glances at Colin's glass. 'Is that permitted?' The grim reply, 'Oh yes. I'm allowed alcohol.' For a few moments there is silence until Winkworth asks, 'And you're from Ireland?' Colin considers before answering. 'So, my grandfather was from County Sligo. And he met my grandma at the local market.' He stops and thinks. Suddenly his face cracks into a wide smile. 'That's the first time I've ever used the word 'so'  at the beginning of a sentence. I guess I've finally joined the twenty-first century.'

Prelude to the End

It is evening. The infant genius (Kolya) has wandered off (as he is prone to) and as he meanders along the street he is counting. In fifty-two of the houses people are watching television, in twenty they are sat at computers (his rough estimate is that sixteen of these are laptops or large tablets). One couple, who have neglected to close their curtains, are engaged in an activity without clothes which Kolya is too young to understand. Thirty curtains have been drawn shut. At number 104 there is an argument, and next door a bearded man called Santos is playing the drums. And now a gusty shower wraps the grimy scraps of withered leaves about his feet. It is time.

Momčilo Gavrić

Stella Sopling has fond memories of her grandfather, who used to tell her stories of his childhood in Faversham. He had not been a model student at the old grammar school, and he had many anecdotes that he should not have passed on to her. Stella’s favorites concerned his classmate,  Momčilo Gavrić,  who had been the youngest soldier to fight in the First World War. Orphaned when Austro-Hungarian soldiers had massacred his family, he joined the Serbian army, aged eight, and effected his revenge by revealing the location of the imperial unit.  Eventually, at the age of ten, he was promoted to the rank of Corporal. Stella still owns an exquisite silver filigree brooch that Gavrić designed thirty years later. 

The Cycle of Reincarnation

Despite her interesting history, Loretta now devotes her free time to matters more moral - in particular her interest in Predictive Ptolomaic Astrology. At first this is a light amusement, but as she delves and establishes links with kabbalah (which she has discussed intensively over many glasses of vodka with Oud Ramonides) she begins to understand the eventual fate of the people of the Seven Dials Community and the vicissitudes of their hopes. Today however is the Revelation. As part of the Lurian gilgul, the godly constriction (tsimtsum) has begun again, and before the tikun (rectification of existence) can occur, there will have to be a ferocious shattering of the universe (shevirah). Then she gets an email from her mother.

Beware the Ides of March

Malvolio Claxendell has generously invited Indrek Karlosoroff to use the study facilities at the library of the Institute of Lyrian Archeology, so that he can press on with his translation of the middle section of the Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra.  He finds the company amenable. There are two other readers today. Opposite him at the window table  is Sister Metamoreful who walks  to the Institute from the Cruxicogentian Retreat at Little Porrit  every Wednesday to compile the French version of Sister Porigami’s weekly prayer tweets (on twitter) for blessed retweeting on Friday. At the far end of the table is Loretta Garsten-Manir, taking annual leave from her job at Featheral Upholstering to start work on her Handbook of Predictive Ptolomaic Astrology. 

Document of Authentication

For a long time Cortally Bakewell has been concerned about the brass ornament that Stella Sopling bought at the church jumble sale. He knows it is valuable, and suspects that within its crevices is hidden a document of authentication. He mentions this to Indrek Karlosoroff who is visiting his brother Felix, and eventually word gets through to Yamima, who has been having qualms of conscience having found that very parchment under the table whilst sweeping up at Moudi’s. She confesses to Indrek (a buddhist Bodhisattva with whom she is translating the Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra) who suggests that she returns it to Stella. Since it indicates that the ornament is worth £45000, Stella is delighted, and offers Yamima a significant reward.

Kolya's Version

Ruham Alif and Leporello Swanson are at the Old Chapel Arts Centre studying Winkworth’s boustrophedonic text.  Beyond its essential symmetry, it is difficult to decipher, so they await the arrival of Samuel Quinine with his semitic multibabel dictionary. When he appears, he is accompanied by his young grandson, Kolya, who is clutching his brightly coloured digital neurometer (to which he has added a music player).  This distracts Leporello (who still wants to persuade the child genius to lend it to him for his research). As Leporello gently prises the equipment from the chubby fingers, Kolya glances at the ancient text and in his clear high voices translates the ancient Safaitic into a modern English equivalent of  Ruba'i  rhymed quatrains.

The Oleograph

Behind the row of gardens that backs onto the railway, very visible from passing trains, stretches a long white wall. Its inaccessible location means that it is seldom sullied by extensive offensive graffiti. On Sunday however, whilst all the local residents are nosing around other people's houses (in the name of Art) the Young Kimrock breaks into Number 27, and climbs over the undergrowth to scale the wall. Once over, he decorates it with remarkably exaggerated claims and biological drawings of Guthrie Cotton and Yevgeny Huxtable.  As he returns through the house, he spots a beautiful painting (actually an oleograph) portraying a bluebell wood. The scene is so calming that it dissipates his anger, and he regrets his recent vandalism.

Ruham Alif's Boustrophedon

To some extent Ahmed’s pacification strategy works. It is May, the sun shines, and the crowds are out and about in Seven Dials. Festival-goers mingle with hen parties from London, writers and artists prepare for coming glory,  and part-time gardeners venture out to survey their dandelioned lawns. At the Old Chapel Arts Centre Writing Exhibition, an ancient boustrophedonic text is on display. On loan from Mandible Winkworth, it is his prize possession.  Many ancient scripts, such as Safaitic and Sabaean, were  written boustrophedonically, that is in both directions, alternating lines, left to right and right to left. Ruham Alif (the handsome electrician, locally known as 'the ox') stands and gazes at the wooden incised artefact for it represents his heritage.

Sister Perfectry's Medicine

A delivery van from the Cruxicogentian Retreat at Little Porrit draws up outside Moudi’s. Sister Perfectry gets out and fetches a carton of her medicinal herbs (yes, she still consults the 1721 edition of the London Pharmacopoeia). Ahmed greets her enthusiastically. He has a plan. There is conflict  around Prigentia’s exile. Those who engineered it are feeling guilty, but meet criticism with hostility.  Those sympathetic to the teenage miscreant (is she really a miscreant anyway, asks Tabitha) led by the Young Kimrock, are intensifying their campaign. Ahmed has set up a street food stall in the middle of the Seven Dials roundabout and is offering free cups of one of his exotic tisanes. It contains a powerful concentrated pacifying tincture.

Even Renoir got wet in Montmartre

It was Leporello Swanson who spotted the young Kimrock spraying orange and green graffiti on the wall of the old Chapel Arts Centre.  The scrawled comments about ZebedeeThurlough (landlord of the Never a True Word pub) were both unfair and untrue, and deliberately misspelt. Later on people would say that he was trying to incriminate Augustus Albi (since the young Kimrock excelled in writing words according to the rules). When Zebedee hears the breaking news he is dumbstruck.  His friend Nicely-Nicely shrugs his shoulders. ‘But why?’ Zebedee asks his buddy.  ‘I just don’t understand.’ N-N leans over and whispers, ‘Call it sad, call it funny, but it's better than even money that the guy's only doing it for some doll.’