[Note: some of my speculations have been proved wrong by later developments, as in Dæmonomania. Nonetheless, I am going to leave the earlier reviews as they are].
(All page numbers refer to the original hardbound edition).
The sequel to Ægypt, this should be the second of four books if the pattern holds. The diffuse plot of the first volume begins to thicken and take on direction. I would like to reread Ægypt and expand my earlier reviews of it. I expect we will be doing this for each of the future books. Several small weird elements of the first book grow in importance in the second; for example, Beau's "astral projection" and Kraft's "seeing stone", originally owned by John Dee. The author makes many forward references, within and between books.
The author leaves us with an unusual number of cliff-hangers. This certainly adds excitement, but seems a bit cheap. Perhaps it means that future volumes will arrive more quickly, which would be good news.
Our hero, Pierce Moffett, proposes that the world once worked differently than it does now. He is searching, without much hope, for a tangible artifact surviving from the previous age. He claims not to believe in real magic but he sometimes acts as if he does.
Our hero grows less heroic. He has become something of a leech, taking an advance on a book he probably won't be able to write and performing ill-defined tasks for the Rasmussen Foundation. He uses his knowledge of personal magic for very exploitative sexual domination of Rose Ryder. He begins cracking up. By the end of the book he is a hysterical mess, visiting his mother in Florida.
We learn much more of Pierce's childhood in the poor Cumberland coal-mining region of Kentucky. We have more of Fellowes Kraft's fiction, including much more on John Dee and Giordano Bruno. Without a doubt the narrative of their magical exploits is connected to the "contemporary" account of Pierce and the others.
Crowley also invents a 1950s comic strip that sounds so good that I wish it were real: "Little Enosh: Lost Among the Worlds." It is a metaphor of Gnosticism: Enosh must be "Enoch", lost from the Realm of Light, always forgetting to go home. Rutha is like the Demiurge or false God.
The alchemical gold-making passage around pg 429 is very well done. "Matter is a shut palace..." but Kelley transcends "inside and outside" (a favorite theme of the author) and passes into the House of Lucrum, inside Matter. In this brief scene more was communicated to me about alchemical purposes and thinking than I ever knew before. The importance of those tables of correspondences: planets, metals, hours, letters, images, etc.
A "rose" motif occurs throughout the book. Traditionally, the symbolism of the rose is so varied that I don't know what to make of it. Love, I suppose. Eros. The "rising wind" of the later chapters represents the "passage time" when the world changes, when a new cosmology replaces the old. The Dee and Bruno story culminates in the passage year of 1588. In Pierce's time, the passage year is 1977. (An earlier passage occurred when the old Hermetic wisdom was originally lost, thousands of years ago. This is myth to us, but history to Bruno).
During the passage time, both future and past are unfixed. Perhaps the desires of a few people actually create the new world. The changes blow backward through time, altering history. I wonder if the events of our story so far will become untrue and perhaps even impossible? Will the story become as convoluted as Crowley's "Great Work of Time"?
There is a gap in the narrative towards the end of the book. We know that Rose Ryder has joined a Christian faith-healing cult and that Pierce is possessed by her, but we do not know the details of how this happened. In the manuscript, Dee and Kelley are offered a "Stone greater than any spoken of" and then we see Dee triumphant, surrounded by gold and raising the wind that will destroy the Armada, but we don't know how he attained his powers.
More prominent in this book is the aged Boney Rassmussen, who seeks the Elixir of Life, a tonic against death. In the 1960s he sent Fellowes Kraft to Europe to search for it, "it" being the same thing Pierce wants: any piece of "real magic" surviving from an earlier age (of Dee and Bruno, in fact). Kraft eventually wired back a message saying "found it!" but then said nothing about it upon his return.
What he does do is to leave a final, unpublished, very mysterious manuscript containing Dee, Bruno, and all sorts of Hermetic occult happenings, which Pierce has been reading in both of the books we now have. And I think this is the key to the puzzle: Kraft found the "secret" and communicates it through his last fiction. When reading about Dee and Bruno and the angels, instead of asking "why did they do that?" or "are those angels real?" we should ask "what clues is Kraft giving us here?"
Broad hints are revealed in a letter from Kraft to Boney (pg 248-252 of the novel). Dee, in Prague in 1588, completed "the Work" for Emperor Rudolph II. Bruno was there that year and also performed some service for the Emperor. Rudolph's physician owned a "famous chest" which was much sought for after his death. Whereabouts unknown, but we suspect it is in the possession of Sister Mary Philomel, Pierce's childhood tutor. A key is magically delivered to her at the end of the book and now we have to wait several years to find out what's in the damned thing.
Let's speculate. The Infantine Sisters said the Old Chest contained "anything lost." We presume it holds the artifact Pierce and Boney were searching for, and which Kraft found, or knew of. What might it be?
The Chest was said to be "heavy as lead." Or gold? In our final view of Dee his children are playing with golden toys. Perhaps the chest is filled with transmuted items, or with gold-making equipment.
And what of the clear crystal seeing-stone? The original stone is described as "moleskin-colored" and Kraft obtained it. Rosie Rasmussen holds it in her hand in this book. In the manuscript, the angel Madimi gives Dee and Kelley a new, clear crystal stone, a bit of real magic that Dee ought to make more of. Could this second stone be in the chest, or is it pure fiction?
But the mystery has something to do with Bruno's arrival in Prague and he had no interest in Alchemy. I believe the secret will be some sort of knowledge, perhaps something to "set the mind ablaze" (pg 319). Perhaps a decryption of the Enochian language, the language of original "meaning" which dissolves the difference between inside and outside.
I believe Crowley is preaching the Gnostic religion. The "Work" is the realization that the human soul is immortal and will return to the Realm of Light upon death. The "secret" is some means of attaining this knowledge, invented by Bruno or early Rosicrucians or always known to the illuminati.
What would be the consequences of this knowledge? What would you do if you knew that you were an immortal "sleeping" deity, knew your future life beyond death as certainly as you knew the rooms of your own house? Physical immortality would be unimportant, death would hold no terror. Worldly riches and political power would be of no interest. In other words, the real illuminati (like Kraft? or Beau?) would lead anonymous, unmagical lives, perhaps just like that geezer next door to you...
Is there a secret society of enlightened beings? Kraft hints at it with Bruno's mysterious "helpers" who reveal themselves with the Monas glyph. To our amazement, Julie is well acquainted with Beau, and they gossip about Pierce as one still groping in the dark. Julie still seems like an air-head, but a connected one. Perhaps the "secret" is kept openly and only human blindness makes it occult.
Is there any real magic in the story? By "real" I mean supernatural events physically manifested, or communication with really existing angelic beings, etc. We can discount what happens to Dee and Bruno; their exploits are a fiction within the fiction. Pierce is brushed by the "ker" (a dangerous winged Eros) and summons up an imaginary son; no proof there. We are told that the "powers of that age" look down on Pierce and urge him forward; is that merely a literary device? Floyd Shaftoe and Beau leave their bodies, but they could be dreaming. We are told of Kraft's and Boney's ghosts; what are we to make of that?
We are left with Sister Mary Philomel and the wooden saint who brings her the key to the Old Chest. And that could be a trick, although it seems like real magic.
Several times the narrative shifts to the future, after the passage time. Retrospectively, "in that age of the world...", but I am unable to determine how the world changed. Does the future have more magic or less? Remember that after 1588, the world went in a direction entirely contrary to what Dee and Bruno wanted. Descartes, Galileo and Newton created the future, and they don't figure in our story so far.
Let me speculate about the forthcoming books, and also present some issues which trouble me:
Rosie's daughter Sam is having seizures. Is she "possessed", and will she be taken to the Christian faith-healers? Is this how Pierce will see actual miracles, and Rose become ensnared?How many Rose/Rosie's are there? How many will there be (have been) after the passage time? Pierce originally thought there was one woman, then two (in Ægypt). They seem complements of one another and have a mysterious sexual history with Mike (a three-way, supposedly). Could Pierce's appearance have caused one person to become two? The narrative of the second book gives Rose no inner life at all, which is troubling.
I predict the Kentucky State Librarian (an illuminati) will make an appearance.
What is Kraft trying to tell us in his manuscript? Pierce reads it and thinks "This is the only story I could have found myself in", so perhaps it was meant for him rather than Boney.
Why are the angels in the manuscript so...confused, fallible? "All the angels are fallen angels" one of them tells Kelley. What does that mean? Pierce thinks "Madimi" is a fiction invented by Kraft, but the author (and we who trace his references) know better: Crowley is quoting the historical record of the crystal-gazing. Will Pierce correct his mistake, and why would it be important?
Might there be a real son Robbie who Pierce has not met yet?
On pg 165: "During the passage time, huge celestial beings are formed out of smaller ones." What can that possibly mean?
We are told that in the old Hermetic novel, Hypnerotomachia, the hero sleeps, and dreams he falls asleep, then awakens only once, apparently continuing in his dream. On pg 482 we are told Pierce "would not sleep again until he awoke." On the last page, we learn of a messenger from the Realms of Light coming for Pierce. We can guess the message is "wake up!" This is the same character from Ægypt ("Set out! Set out!").
roses throughout, later the rising wind
Unknown page: Someone mentions a song re: "Why did Bobbie Shaftoe go
to sea?"
Vita(1): Life
Lucrum(2): Money, possessions, jobs
Fratres(3): family, communications
Genitor(4):
Nati(5): children, procreation, wills, legacies, inheritance
Valetudo(6): Service, sickness, diseases (health?)
Uxor(7): Wife
Mors(8): death, the larger perspective
Pietas(9): travel
Carcer(12): Prison
4 - stones and roses
- mirror shaken in a storm
- memory creates being
5 - Pierce, age 36, winter mountain road
- Bobbie as she-wolf, coal to diamond, mine-entrance
to underground country, Kentucky State Librarian sent him
on a quest
- Bobbie loved fire?
- how did he kill his son for her? By failing at his
mission?
- looking for the monument, mismatched shoes, sun
rises in a new sign
7 - Pierce arrives in FL as if blown by a sudden wind
11 - GENITOR
- fire, Pierce age 9, 1952.
18 - Pierce's father's crime (homosexual acts)
20 - Pierce's childhood lies and crimes
30 - library books
31 - Adocentyn
32 - Child of the Philosopher
- Invisible College, Rose Cross Bros
33 - wind blowing backward in time, changing history
34 - Ægypt
35 - Underground city
36 - Monas glyph
38 - Febrile seizures
44 - the Old Chest, contains "anything lost"
45 - wooden saint turns
- Pacific Order of the Most Holy Infant (Infantines)
48 - Hildy a nun
56 - werewolves
59 - Gene Autry
64 - A World Elsewhere
67 - Bobbie, wild child, fake fur, treated like a dog
78 - Gospel underneath the Gospel
84 - Does the priest kiss Pierce?
88 - conical mountain
90 - salamander
100 - fire and salamander
103 - Floyd Shaftoe, age 12, walks with the dead, cleft
in the mountain
104 - Floyd compared to a fox
108 - flood, landslide
- battling the witch, she knows his "kind"
109 - the dead are hungry
- Floyd four-footed
113 - time's body
- 30 years to the end of the world (from 1952?)
121 - the Devil rolled a rock on the house
126 - Sun 9 million miles from Earth (young Pierce)
127 - Pierce as failed hero
131 - Pierce splits in two, the "lost boy" (Robbie?)
132 - Sister Mary Philomel healed
133 - forward reference to faith healers
134 - Bobbie did not go to Detroit that year
135 - forgetting Ægypt
136 - Little Enosh
138 - large face in the Realms of Light
- Rutha = Jehovah?
140 - werewolf book, Pierce feels energy from the future
142 - adult Pierce alienated from his home, "that woman"
(Rose Ryder)
- knowledge had hurt him, "Hypnerotomachia"
- Pierce, conical mountain, his crimes
143 - Pierce has failed to rescue someone (Rose Ryder)
just like Bobbie
- sun rises in a new sign, mismatched shoes, he fails
and runs
144 - Winnie: Did you feel that?
- Pierce realizes Bobbie = Robbie
147 - narration on the former age of the world, after the
passage. Has the geography changed?
148 - Why is Rosie's heart missing?
- dates of Kraft's books
149 - "Sorrow Sit Down" (1960)
150 - Pierce, age 35, reads Kraft's last ms
152 - Why does Boney not want the ms taken from the
house?
- Kraft's account of the changing world, magi
153 - the guardians
- a later age (Dee, Bruno?) will receive the treasures
of an earlier (Ægypt?)
155 - Pierce is to find something for Boney, something
Kraft found or lost
156 - Kraft's unlaid spirit still inhabits the house
158 - Pierce: "Something entirely different is coming."
161 - is Julie using Pierce in her own work, summoning
the new age? She says it is coming.
164 - individuals can affect the passage time.
165 - during the passage time, huge celestial beings are
formed out of smaller ones.
166 - Pierce practices the magic of manipulation
167 - need to find tangible evidence
174 - Pierce vows celibacy when first leaving the city,
after the Gypsy
177 - had Pierce missed the passage time 10 years
earlier, and nothing had changed?
178 - Midsummer's Day, rereading the ms
179 - stones and roses again
- the ms is the only story Pierce could find himself in
- the powers of that age look down on Pierce
183 - NATI
191 - dog, star, stone, rose
192 - Seal of the Fountain and the Mirror
198 - Kelley's demon is Belmagel
201 - Kelley loves the touch of gold
- must be potent and have a wife to make gold
- the girl-child in the stone (Madimi)
202 - "You will be beaten if you tell." "My mother will
come and dwell with you."
203 - Madimi the child in the stone when Kelley first
looked into it (beginning of Ægypt)
204 - Madimi earlier gave Dee a new stone, egg-sized,
which they use thereafter
- since Madimi seems to grow, could she be a demon?
205 - "All the angels are fallen angels."
215 - Bruno's lecture at Oxford is like Pierce's to his
class in Ægypt.
218 - Dee sees Bruno transformed into a "bright
fulmination." Bruno sees Dee as a fountain. Seal of
Fountain and Mirror?
220 - Bruno sees the Monas glyph of the people who have
helped him.
221 - Bruno summoned by the sign
222 - Kelley has a stone jar of red powder, given in
exchange for his soul by a dog-faced demon, along with an
undecipherable book.
225 - Dicson's embarrassment is sexual
226 - Bruno feels spirits drawn to the stone
227 - Madimi calls Bruno "traitor". Says he will steal
the picture, letter (glyph?)
228 - Madimi prophesizes two winds. "I will not be there
at the second." (1977?)
232 - Dicson is like Julie in his desire for magic.
234 - is the mob coming to burn Dee's house?
236 - Bruno's vision of the severed hand fulfilled
239 - Pierce does not remember the Monas glyph. Memory in
that age...
241 - Hypnerotomachia novel
243 - "Ker": terrible winged being
- Pierce is aware of a spirit, something he desires
244 - the spirit again
245 - Why did the Foundation support Kraft? Because of
Boney's interest? Where does the money come from?
- Kraft's last European trip: 1967.
248 - Kraft writes that the Work was completed in Prague
in 1588, with the appearance of something immensely
valuable. Says it might survive under "countless coverings
of time and change, not to mention the principal players'"
desire to keep it secret.
249 - Kraft stays in the former convent of the
Infantines. Knows where Dee lived on Alchemists Street.
- Kraft says Bruno was in Prague in 1588 and performed
some service for Rudolph II.
251 - Boney's motivation: he feels no obligation to die.
- Rudolph II's physician, Oswald Croll, had a famous
chest, fiercely desired (after his death) by the Emperor
and Peter von Rosenberk. Whereabouts unknown. (Sister Mary
Philomel must have it!)
- Boney thinks the above information unimportant!
252 - Kraft's telegram: he's found it "packed with
troubles in an old kit bag." He knows what and where (?)
- Elixir against death.
- but Kraft says nothing about it upon return.
254 - dogs, stars, stones, roses
- the first language, dissolve differences between
inside and outside, fountain and mirrors make wishes come
true
255 - Dee's crystal in Boney's house. The
moleskin-colored one?
256 - Nati(5): children, procreation, wills, legacies,
inheritance
- Uxor(7): wife, marriage, partnerships
258 - Lucrum: money, property
- Valetudo: sickness, diseases (health?)
- Mors: death
- Sam has always had an "old house", with sports
259 - Sam, sleepwalking, brought her mother an egg
260 - Val has the reference book Pierce read as a boy
- Eros presages the appearance of the beloved and gives
the lover his divine madness. Is Robbie Pierce's Eros,
presaging Rose Ryder? But he is not hard and
weather-beaten, etc.
- Eros as Ker, dangerous winged spirit
261 - Boney leaving everything to an old girlfriend, Una
Knox. (Latin, "one slave"?)
263 - Rosie's inability to love. Is it wisdom, as Beau
says, or has she been cursed? By whom?
264 - or she senses the world gone wrong
267 - how does Rosie know the dark wing shadowing the
hospital (Death?)
269 - wing of white, nurses as angels of mercy
275 - Hypnerotomachia = "sleep love struggle"
276 - Rosie knows that Rose is sexually submissive.
(3-way with Mike?)
278 - what was the holy dread Pierce felt regarding his
first attempted sexual liaison with Rose (in
Ægypt)? "Awful altar."
- Pierce's horoscopes. Can he pick the time of his birth
retroactively?
280 - imaginary phone conversation with the Gypsy, very
real
281 - masturbatory plot
282 - falls asleep, ejaculating (?), thinking "I wish"
(3x!) Powerful magic, what is he summoning?
- ugh what a mess
- he is a mirror to her, trying to feel what she felt
283 - Beau has been to the Theosophical Publishing House
in Benares
284 - Beau's Hermetic visions to Mahler. Which symphony?
285 - "Man" is like Little Enosh
- Man bound up in Love & Sleep
286 - Man is immortal. The cause of death is love. Does
that mean love is good and death an illusion, or the
opposite?
287 - Beau will remember the Earth when he returns home.
But does he remember home while on Earth?
- "All his work done."
290 - does the Gypsy work as a prostitute?
292 - more Little Enosh. The letter must say "come home."
Or "wake up"? Who will carry it? Hermes? Eros? (Robbie?)
- Hermes as trickster and seducer
297 - Beau sketching God
298 - strange year. People talking about God. Healer at
the clinic.
299 - problem of pain, evil
302 - God incommensurable. (simple metaphysics)
305 - Madimi resembles Pierce's idea of God as a
nine-year-old girl
306 - Kelley's book written in the language of Enoch
308 - Dee hears the sound of Madimi's hand
309 - still using the moleskin crystal
- has Kelley been under a spell? Since he went fishing?
- Kelley redeemed, his demons driven away (blown).
311 - learn the Enochian language
314 - the angels repeat Sister Mary Philomel's story of
the rich man who shares his body. Is Kraft guiding us to
the Infantines?
315 - Kelley's revelation of War in Heaven
- the wind that bloweth where it listeth
316 - in Cracow, using the clear sphere
- Dee sees the war as a changing cosmology
317 - winds, seas not hold up ships
- Dee believes his difficult studies will be the plain
and simple science of the new world
319 - the Stone of the Philosophers will lie in plain
sight
- "It" might be a thought which sets the mind ablaze
320 - Pierce's insoluble problem: What could possibly
survive intact from the earlier age?
- another reference to that "age of the world", when
people felt the world alterable by their desires
321 - Pierce uses a Wish for Robbie
322 - Robbie conceived in 1965
323 - Pierce knows that Robbie is imaginary and that
making him real would mean going mad. He seems to be
cracking up, although it may be Eros-inspired divine
madness. He knows it is temporary.
- Pierce must have someone to love, a reason for living
324 - Pierce believes Kraft's Madimi to be fictionalized,
but French's John Dee has Madimiel, which
Crowley knows.
325 - what were Boney's questions 1 and 2?
- Dee's success in transmutation, questions on the
elixir
- Boney's interest in spirits enclosed in crystal
327 - Pierce dreams of his father, just before sex with
Robbie
328 - why does Pierce have a mirror over his bed?
331 - $300 from the Gypsy. Didn't he just send her money?
332 - Pierce meets Rose Ryder on the steps of the library
and the Moon moves into a new sign
338 - Pierce, hitting on Rose: the great magician is
sensitive to the projection of others
339 - Pierce manipulates Rose
341 - Rose doesn't remember the cabin. Did it really
happen?
342 - Rosie's dream of sex and succor
347 - Rosie sees that Pierce is hungry for someone to
care for. He is eaten by envy and doesn't realize it.
- love like a steady wind
349 - Kraft's early (1960) comment about the jewel of
immortality to be spurned. Boney bitter.
350 - Rosie says Kraft didn't find it because he would
not have died if he had. But in the passage just read, he
says the wise spurn immortality. Or perhaps have it by
other means.
351 - Boney seems to have been granted Pierce's wishes of
longevity and wealth
355 - Spofford's body-work with Rosie
360 - Rosie: does _wanting_ lift the dark spell of the
world?
362 - Val: Boney's daughter.
367 - Kraft's last ms a message for Boney
369 - why does Rose say "I know" when Pierce describes
his childhood forest fire?
375 - VALETUDO
385 - why does the Rassmussen Foundation fund the Woods
Clinic?
386 - Honeybeare the Christian healer. The name suggests
Rosie's erotic dream
- Mike knows that Rosie is a honcho for the Foundation
before she does
393 - Rosie holds the crystal
396 - Pierce studies his own climacteric cycles. Heading
down
398 - Robbie smiles at his father's thought. Does he?
401 - elderly woman with silver chain to her glasses.
Like the librarian?
402 - librarian, pythoness
- Pierce misses seeing the book Val has
- when did the Monas glyph call to him before?
403 - Christian healing
- Pierce manipulates Rose, lures her as a guru
405 - Bruno: Love is magic, magic is love
407 - Pierce's retrospective insight into Rose. The movie
about St. Hildegard. Cutting her hair, sudden loud noises,
certain whispered words, long kid gloves, the nearness of
fire
- Second manipulative seduction of Rose
408 - Pierce will be safe, having risked nothing of
himself. (Not so!)
410 - Bruno relives ActÆon
411 - the Philosopher, seeking Truth, discovers Beauty,
dies to himself and becomes what he sought
413 - Eros is he Great DÆmon, the little lord of this
world
- love moves the Earth, very Aristotelian
415 - Bruno sees the threat of the Puritans
425 - Dee says the Angels gave him a Stone
426 - description of transmutation, very Aristotelian
427 - Kelley has the seed of projection: the red powder
exchanged by a demon for his soul
429 - "Matter is a shut palace." Very nice metaphysical
imagery.
430 - the Monas glyph unenclosed because Kelley is inside
the house of Lucrum
432 - passes through all houses
434 - could the gold have been concealed in the red
powder? Is it Philosophical Gold?
435 - the wind is rising, both in the crystal and in the
room
- Madimi, adult, naked: "Would you have a Stone greater
than any spoken of?"
436 - Sam ill
439 - Sam asks "What's that?" and has a seizure.
449 - reference to Rose-Rosie-Mike 3-way. Or was it just
the two women?
- Faith healing at the Woods
457 - reference to "in that age" when consequences would
dictate the circumstances producing themselves, instead of
lying implicit in actions
458 - does Rose still not remember the night at the
house?
- Pierce commands her
460 - Pierce will come to doubt that Time is an unwitting
pander
- "In that age the real connections between
things--pattern, repetition, inversion, echo--" were known
only obscurely
- rising wind
461 - the wind that destroyed the Armada was known (or
created?) only retrospectively
462 - wind blowing backward in time
- 1588 a passage year, by consensus
466 - Dee and Kelley start the wind-storm
467 - werewolf in Prague
470 - wolves fighting the witches. Like Floyd Shaftoe
473 - Bruno: did the Earth just start turning today,
causing the great wind?
474 - what causes the miraculous transformation of the
Host at the church? Bruno is there
475 - the wind reveals altars of Ægypt, lamps burning.
The idol's eyes are open: still inhabited by a star-demon?
- Dee's child plays with quoits of gold. Transmuted?
- Dee given a seal to summon the wind
476 - for the first time, Dee sees Madimi in the crystal
and speaks for her
- where is Kelley?
- Madimi terrified, blown by the wind in the crystal
477 - who summoned the wind in 1977? Is the Earth
stopping?
479 - Honeybeare casts out a demon
- Julie knows Beau!
480 - what is the word Julie wants from Beau?
Hypnerotomachia?
- they have been following Pierce's progress and worry
about him
481 - "fellow-feelings for those on the way"
- Robbie seems independent here. Is he entirely Pierce's
dream?
- Robbie will be succeeded by others (phantasms?),
chastening, not so kind, hard to detach
482 - Pierce "would not sleep again until he awoke."
483 - the statue of St. Wencelaus brings Sister Mary
Philomel the key. Is this Real Magic? Or a trick?
484 - the trunk is "heavy as lead." Or gold?
485 - why does Bobbie Shaftoe want to kill her
grandfather. Does she know?
- there will be no record of the passage unless you
remember it
486 - why has Boney (dead) been standing in front of the
locked door (of the stable attic?) since his death?
- Sam, waking from sleepwalking, says "What's that?" and
has a seizure, as before.
487 - Rosie's response: "Jesus Christ" (many times)
488 - comic bit: we think Pierce and Frank Barr are in
Ægypt, but they are just on the beach in FL
- reference to "a former age of the world, before the
passage time."
489 - Barr's lecture on _pneuma_
491 - Pierce recognizes his own love-sickness. Possessed
by his own phantasm of the loved one (Rose Ryder)
494 - cults everywhere during the passage time
- the Christian healers believe they have other powers
495 - Pierce has seen miracles, small changes in time and
space. Or "as though"?
- unable to save Bobbie or Rose
496 - Pierce believes "the heart" to be the surviving
relic between the ages. Love? Eros?
497 - sobbing, shrieking, cracking up
498 - Pierce believes Bruno's plan was to become
love-sick with the world and become a god
500 - in the post-Christian world, Jehovah becomes the
devil
- Pierce prays to Hermes and Bruno to come back and
rescue him
- if he can last into the next age perhaps his condition
will be less loathsome
501 - his longing for the new age might cause it to come
- will go to Europe
502 - Who is the messenger from the Realms of Light? What
is the message? ("Wake up"? "Come home"?)