I will be 71 in a couple of weeks. Growing old focuses the mind on how little time remains. There are many nails I could hit with my hammer, but I can choose only one or two and then it is Game Over. For this reason I have set aside work on this website in favour of writing another book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I wrote The Hermetic Kabbalah<\/em> I was conscious that not everyone would want to read a book with dates and footnotes. My first point of reference was my personal experience, based on what I had been taught. Many books go no further than this. I had grown impatient with books that go no further than this. Traditions are like trees; I think most readers would want to know whether they are close to the trunk or way out in the foliage. For this reason I went to considerable trouble to substantiate the tradition (as I received it) with references to interwoven strands of tradition from the past. There are many dates and many footnotes. It was hard work. It took me many years to write.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When I decided to write about Tarot (Playing the Fool<\/em>) I chose not to go down that road again. Been there, done that. I was strongly influenced by the voice of Folly in In Praise of Folly<\/em> by the late-Renaissance scholar Erasmus. Written as a cultured joke, it became one of his most popular works. Yes, I thought, this is the authentic voice of The Fool – witty, irreverent, anarchic, perceptive, and daft. One cannot write an authentic Fool\\’s Journey without letting the Fool choose the path, so I did just that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I was also influenced by Italo Calvino\\’s The Castle of Crossed Destinies<\/em>. This short novel is a sophisticated exercise in using the Tarot to tell stories. It gave me the confidence to tell my own story. It is important to give ourselves the freedom to tell stories. A very large part of the Hermetic Tradition is storytelling. The Zohar<\/em> consists of various framing stories in which sages wander about Palestine and talk about esoteric interpretations of the Bible<\/em> … which is itself a collection of stories. The famous Rosicrucian manuscripts of the early 17th C are elaborate stories that caused a furore. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Many esoteric topics throughout the centuries (beginning with Plato) have been framed as dialogues … which is a form of storytelling. It is a surprisingly sophisticated format that combines personality with discussion and argument. Done well, it can appeal to the reader on many levels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For this reason I chose to present my next book as a dialogue. It is set in Renaissance Italy in the early 16th century. Four characters, two men, two women, discuss the Ptolemaic cosmos according to their individual understanding. I wanted it to be enjoyable and accessible while exposing the reader to the rich culture of Renaissance humanism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I have the text and I am currently working on illustrations. All being well it should be available in late spring of 2022.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I will be 71 in a couple of weeks. Growing old focuses the mind on how little time remains. There are many nails I could hit with my hammer, but I can choose only one or two and then it is Game Over. For this reason I have set aside work on this website in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":706,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[10],"class_list":["post-397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-publications","tag-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digital-brilliance.org\/wordpress_V\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digital-brilliance.org\/wordpress_V\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digital-brilliance.org\/wordpress_V\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digital-brilliance.org\/wordpress_V\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digital-brilliance.org\/wordpress_V\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=397"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/digital-brilliance.org\/wordpress_V\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":707,"href":"https:\/\/digital-brilliance.org\/wordpress_V\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397\/revisions\/707"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digital-brilliance.org\/wordpress_V\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digital-brilliance.org\/wordpress_V\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digital-brilliance.org\/wordpress_V\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digital-brilliance.org\/wordpress_V\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}