Dear Wen: Old Moore’s…

Dear Wen,

Well, it may be a palace but it is still only a ‘semi, which sort of also lends new meaning to the term, ‘Gated Institution’.  ‘Gates’ being how the Caryatids are now described, and it is not your usual film noir location either, although the front rooms were once let as apartments. It is so spacious that in the film Holly has to run everywhere so as not to call attention to the fact. ‘Melete – practice born of the movement of water’ will keep me busy for awhile but it may be referring to emotion, and hence ‘motives’… Sure enough, the character of Anna is given most of the pivotal lines of the film. When asked if she loved Harry she says, ‘How can you know something like that afterwards? All I know is that I want to be dead too.’ As improvements to the facade ‘Our Ladies’ were introduced to better fit the other three sides of the square. They may have tried to outdo what was already there as a statement of defiance. The missing Golden Globe would have been removed to preserve the view out of one of the windows. ‘Mneme – memory making sound by striking the air’ is even more obscure but calls to mind the sound of one hand clapping. It may be referring to the ‘echo’, which gives us memory as an echo chamber. When Holly stops by at a bad time, Anna says, ‘I’ve been frightened, I’ve been alone, I’ve been without friends and money but I’ve never know anything like this.’ Presumably, the trace of Harry’s memory. The Fries family who owned the Palace for a time were bankers. The double-headed eagle is an emblem of the Austrio-Hungarian Empire but it is also Masonic and for them signifies, The Master Heirophant of the thirty-third degree, whatever that means! Nine squares eh… I could not get up close enough to see that… and the Golden Fleece. Hardly what one could call hidden in plain sight, more proclaimed from the roof-tops. Masonic symbols are also liberally scattered around the base of all the other globes. So yes, I think we can safely say that it is most definitely all exceedingly Count Dashwood! When Holly discovers the extent of Harry’s racketeering Anna says, ‘Stop making him in your image. Harry was real. He wasn’t just your friend and my lover. He was Harry.’ Which to my mind effectively raises the queston of just what it means to be real. If this question is a primary concern of the film then we may well be justified in employing a psychological approach to garner an interpretation. Old moors never die, they just grow greener… Aiode – the song of the human voice alone? Hence, presumably ‘Ode’… as in Odeon, which would be song as film. I bet old Sherbet Snout had something to say about that while he was singing at the spiders and flies, and the bird’s, although not usually the big ones. What he would make of a double-headed eagle is anyone’s guess. Love, Don x

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Finding Don & Wen

 

Stuart France & Sue Vincent

Available via Amazon UK,  Amazon.com

and worldwide in paperback and for Kindle.

Two friends living hundreds of miles apart inadvertently begin to explore the magical and ancient landscape of Albion, delving into the symbolism hidden within mediaeval churches and piecing together the clues that appear to be left before them like a breadcrumb trail.

The correspondence within this book was written as their adventures began to unfold, recording and highlighting strange concepts and magical ideas.

Finding Don and Wen opens an inner door onto the workings of the journey of The Initiate, the first of nine books that tell the full story of what became a true quest, becoming a practical guide on how to listen to and interpret the voice of the living land and its history from a spiritual perspective.

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Original front cover photograph by kind permission of our friend, Helen Glynn Jones,

author of The Ambeth Chronicles  at helenglynnjones.co.uk