Time Before Time…

*

ALL-HAIL EVE

Anu’s Folk
studied in
the North-Isles.

Four seats there
And four sages
who taught them;

A plentiful sowing…
A dutiful flowing…
A beautiful glowing…
An artful knowing…

*

Wen catches a brief sight of the poem I have been showing Ben before he has time to hastily secrete it about his person.
“You’re obsessed with that dog!”
Which as anyone who has read any of our books well knows is utter nonsense…

*

…The girls are back outside on another ‘fag’ break and Ben is considering the somewhat crude geometry which accompanies my poem. He grins and twinkles mischievously, “Why are the North Isles depicted as black?”
“The quaternary, or four directions, are governed by the sun. Do I need to go on?”
Ben nods, “But of course you need to go on.”
“…In the Occident the sun appears to rise in the east and set in the west. Its zenith symbolically conceived as the point of maximum light is in the south so the north is the point of maximum darkness and hence depicted as black.”
“So far so good,” says Ben, “but why are we starting in the north rather than the east and the rising sun?”
“There are a number of magical traditions which regard the darkness of the unknown as the basis for generation. Metaphorically it corresponds to the seed of light nestled in the depths of the earth. The tradition of eve’s in our country reflects this, especially All Hallows… Esoterically speaking then the day stretches from Noon to Noon rather than from sunrise to sunset.”
Ben nods again but more slowly this time, “Interesting.”
“Even Genesis has a chasm and chaos before the breath of the word.”
“…Eve’n Genesis.”

*

*

…Ben is again contemplating my crude geometries, “I can see that you have moved the ‘North Isles’ towards a centre point to get this pattern,” he says “but I’m not quite sure why.”
“Because Anu’s folk studied there and to study is to focus on and concentrate. A stud after all is single pointed.”
“And seats?”
“The isles are now shaped like seats. A lot of the Bishop’s chairs we have come across in our numerous ecclesiastical wanderings retain this shape as well as the choir stalls but there is a lot going on with this seat thing. The word itself is multi-valent and as I am sure you know it can be rendered siege as well as ‘caer’ which is also a Celtic stronghold or citadel and which also gives chair…positions of prominence in our universities are referred to as chairs…I could go on.”
“Please don’t,” says Ben looking bewildered. He appears relieved to see the ladies as they breeze back into our corner…
“What have you been doing to him?” asks Wen in a somewhat accusatory fashion.
“He’s missing your dog,” I reply and smile as sweetly as I am able…

– The Aetheling Thing.

*