Friday 30 March 2012

Sortes Virgilianae.

Currently I am a third of the way through reading P.G. Maxwell-Stuart's Astrology: From Ancient Babylon to the Present; after having just read Caitlin Moran's amusing How To Be a Woman, being by preceeded by (parts of) a re-reading of James Hannam's God's Philosophers (much though I like his admiration of the Mediaeval World, I found myself getting increasingly annoyed at his total dismissal of the impact of classical teachings and thought - evidently far too pagan for Hannam's staunch Catholic beliefs). Also I have dipped into The Etymologicon (great for light relief every now and then), various works of Jung, and browsed through some of my art books.  I also trying to circumnavigate the keyboard on my new laptop.  My mother kindly gave me a great new laptop to replace the one that was stolen last year;  In addition to that theft, numerous other events occured which have caused a continual stream of grief - all of which are the after effects of a certain moron - whom I am trying to exorcise from even my subconscious (angry violent dreams last night meant that he is still there somewhere).  In short, he stole it together with other personal items and perpetrated other evils that have upset me no end.  Anyway, the new laptop has a French keyboard which, although I can adjust to it when writing French and not have to press 100 keys at the same time to get é, è, ç, and à, still leaves me slightly bewildered and befuddled.  My conscious state and thinking language is clearly affected by the arrangement of keys in front of me....

C'est pour ça que je ne dis rien...

This morning I was reading the delightful Mary Beard's blog A Don's Life which I find to be fresh, informative, studious and wryly amusing -  in between the various other blogs (not that there are many) I endevour to keep up with.  For those who know me and my ways, from among the various other blogs I follow are included The Inky Fool (Mark Forsyth's wonderful blog which would lead to his creation of a paper version of the "Etmologicon"); Ninja Dixon (penned by a greatly valued and trusted friend of mine, the Swedish writer/actor/producer Fred Andersson aka Fredzilla, film nerd and un ami par excellence who has such an overwhelming passion for movies it's untrue - quite how his boyfriend and cat survive the assault of so many ("bad") movies I don't know);  The Cantos of Mutabilitie by Oxford don Mark W, a dear fellow I have known for a good number of years, and who covers all sorts of aspects of his enticing, fascinating and extraordinary world ranging from astrology, Welsh and Celtic mythology to his designs for icons, suffering from food poisoning, diverse taste in music, and identifying with being a mediaevalist.  Amongst the handful of other blogs I peruse; some are by friends, some tease my imagination, and others inspire my thoughts.

Anyway, I digress, so back to the subject matter.  Mary Beard writes in her latest blog entry of the "Sortes Virgilianae";  in short, a DIY form of fortune-telling, where one opens a copy of Virgil's Aeniad at random, you plunge your digit in between the pages, and whatever phrase it lands on, therein lies the divination.

And up came.....

"One with a brand yet burning from the flame,
Arm'd with a knotty club another came."

Admittedly, this was Virgil in translation (I only have the Dryden version here) that I drew from; the Latin original is still in a box at my parents home, packed in with various classics (Greek and Roman) no doubt, waiting to resurface and be placed on a shelf again.  Anyway, back to my Virgilian prophecy, I am endevouring to conjure up some sort of meaning out of the words.  Beard admits that she tried again after her first attempt failed to find some meaning or logic in the quote she found, but I am reluctant to do so, and thereby re-consult the oracle.  I shall work on trying to interpret this one.  Maybe this is like trying to read the future using Twinings teabags rather than from leaves...

Otherwise I am trying to think up something else in terms of article for my other blog.  I have some ideas but putting fingers to a AZERTY rather than a QWERTY keyboard, and getting brain into mindset to write something at length... hmmm.  Inspiration, inspiration, inspiration I have need of thee !!

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