Dear Wen: Thunder-Stone…

Dear Wen …

Sol invictus… the Mithraea certainly constitute mystery temples or should that be templa mysteriorum? My Latin is not up to much…

Can you imagine being presented with the Leon Cephalus from last time in the heightened atmosphere of a ritual drama or initiation? The psychological impact of that…

And that is what has to be remembered, like a recent reviewer said it is not about reading… it is about experiencing… experience leads to knowledge… is there anyone who seriously doubts that… why construct a world… why write a ritual drama… why…?

I almost missed the ‘valk-knots’ beneath the horses legs. The horse and the white horse in particular was possibly once venerated because it bore people to the Otherworld… which is also possibly what this set of symbols is depicting… (Even today there is still some mystery attached to a ‘grey’ horse.)

I like your idea of the gods binding and unbinding and the clarity of the thunder bolt which for an instant only is outside time…

I am so glad you finally found the ‘Assyrian’ image.

It has been playing around in the back of my mind for awhile now.

It is difficult to imagine a clearer statement of the concept… or a more dynamic one.

The skull like head of the monster… ‘Never look back…’

The contrary limbs… the hind legs firmly rooted to the ground.

The god on the front foot, with his ‘bolts’ balancing the contraries.

The hieratic and wholly un-natural or supernatural depiction of the gesture of the god’s arms.

I had forgotten that the god as well as the beast is winged.

Does ‘he’ then fly twice as fast or twice as high as time?

If you would kindly explain to our scribal beast that books written by animals are currently banned in this particular household.

I am sure he’ll understand…

Love

Don x

P.S. It has been and still is quite an adventure; the beauty of it being that it has been recorded so that anyone who cares to can come along too… ‘Don’t you miss it…Don’t you miss it…’