Tuesday, January 17, 2017

Daemons Discuss - Podcast: Take 9! | The All Souls Trilogy and the Aurora Consurgens

Take 9 - The One With the Sun King and Moon Queen

Description: The Aurora Consurgens is subject matter that we have covered in a post on Daemons Domain, so let's discuss it!  Not unlike the pictures of the Alchemical Wedding, the verses of the Aurora Consurgens project the image of the Sun King and Moon Queen or Sol and Luna.  In this take, we tackle the verses -- specifically in Godfrey de Clermont's copy.  One of our shorter episodes; requires very little time commitment! 

SPOILER ALERT! We (The Daemons) approach this podcast with an assumption that the listener has read The All Souls Trilogy, including A Discovery of Witches, Shadow of Night, and The Book of Life.  If you haven't, and you don't mind, we certainly don't mind!  😊  Let's do this.

Listen:


1. Show notes: 

 

A. For newcomers to the series:
- We'll start with the basics: The books in discussion are A Discovery of Witches, Shadow of Night and The Book of Life.  Together they make The All Souls Trilogy by Deborah Harkness. 
- Our Daemon Guides to the All Souls Trilogy are available for download: ADOW, SON, TBOL
- If you'd like a ready-reference from the author herself, be sure to download the All Souls Real-Time Reading companion (free e-book at online booksellers via Penguin and Headline books).
- Deborah Harkness usually conducts a real-time reading on her Facebook Page (starting in September), and shares her posts across social media.  Check out her website for all of her social media links, and of course all that she has to offer her readers!
- To see what's available on the web as far as the All Souls universe fandom, check our links page.

B. In this episode:
* We're still dealing with some audio glitches (feedback from headphones and some growing pains!), as we change our methods of recording.  Hang in there, we've almost got this thing conquered!  We are amateur audio alchemists still blowing things up at this stage!  😚 Your patience is much appreciated!

* (00:50) – YouTube users warning: we will only post 10 full episodes, so . . . as this is episode 9, you will have one more guaranteed full episode, then if you want to continue to follow us outside of YouTube, you can listen right here on our website, or there is iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play and many others!

* (0237) – Our piece on The Sun King and The Moon Queen (originally published 10 September 2015, based on stuff we'd previously researched in 2012)

* (04:42) – The two illuminations:
1.  “Turn to me with all your heart. Do not refuse me because I am dark and shadowed. The fire of the sun has altered me. The seas have encompassed me. The earth has been corrupted because of my work. Night fell over the earth when I sank into the miry deep, and my substance was hidden.”The Moon Queen held a star in one outstretched palm. “From the depths of the water I cried out to you, and from the depths of the earth I will call to those who pass by me,” I continued. “Watch for me. See me. And if you find another who is like me, I will give him the morning star.” My lips formed the words, and Bourgot’s illumination bought the text to life in the Moon Queen’s expression that showed both her fear of rejection and her shy pride. 

2.  “I will rise now and go about the city. In its streets I will seek out a pure woman to marry,” I read, “her face beautiful, her body more beautiful, her raiment most beautiful. She will roll away the stone from the entrance of my tomb and give me the wings of a dove so that I might fly with her to the heavens to live forever and be at rest.”

* (06:18) – How the moon queen relates to Diana: excerpt from the piece:
Dark and shadowed” refers to the phases of the moon (when the “crescent moon” is visible, the rest is dark and shadowed) The fire of the sun alters her because she is reflective of the sun's light based on their relative positions. The seas have encompassed her; that refers to the tides and the moon's influence on it. The earth has been corrupted 'because of her work': the tides rise and fall and rock erosion results.  Night falls over the earth in the miry deep and her substance is hidden when she is in the  “dark" phase or "new moon".

* (08:01) – An astrological explanation on how the moon affects fertility: Moon influences fertility - & the moon's relationship to the tides: Tides, and the pull of the moon and sun

* (08:52) – Triple moon goddess symbol:



* (09:30) – The morning star: Microcosm, planet Venus, (goddess Venus)

* (10:55) – The Pentacle - The symbol of Man the Microcosm of the Hermetic magicians was based on the pentacle. The pentacle represents the macrocosm with the male figure representing the cosmos within it. His feet, hands and head touch each of the points with his genitals located exactly in the center. "This image is related to Fimicus Maternus's remark that man is a microcosm ruled by `the five stars.'"  (See below: 'Whoops! Corrections')



* (13:37) – The Sun King - how the Sun King relates to Matthew:
The Scene in St. Lucien at the church, where Matthew confesses his sins to Diana; namely his suicide and the mercy killing of Philippe.  His guilt for his 'sins' was his 'tomb'.  If you remember in early ADOW he used his coffin-shaped ampulla from Lazarus as a modern reminder to himself of his past misdeeds, essentially keeping him prisoner in his 'tomb'.  The feather Matthew picks up from the dove that flew overhead symbolizes “The wings of a dove”.  The dove represents him starting to free himself from grief/guilt, and being able to turn to Diana and love her with his whole heart and whole life.  Going back to the Moon Queen’s passage, the first line reads, “Turn to me with all of your heart.”  In Christianity, a dove symbolizes hope and peace (since we went with paganism for Diana, we thought we should turn to the bible for Matthew).  The dove is a also a symbol of the Holy Spirit and the soul
 * (15:29) – Mourning dove (we imagine the one in Shadow of Night probably had some sort of albinism 😉):


* (16:20) – La Robe: “I will rise now and go about the city. In its streets I will seek out a pure woman to marry,” I read, “her face beautiful, her body more beautiful, her raiment most beautiful. She will roll away the stone from the entrance of my tomb and give me the wings of a dove so that I might fly with her to the heavens to live forever and be at rest.” Raiment defined:
rai·ment
ˈrāmənt/
nounarchaicliterary
noun: raiment; plural noun: raiments
    clothing.
    "ladies clothed in raiment bedecked with jewels"

* The News You Can Use – Deb's Tweet:

* Deb's Newsletter aka"The Blast" has outlined a new publishing policy: "In the past, our website automatically sent updates to your email Every. Single. Time. we posted something new to the site. Because we like to update her website often, we worried that the volume of emails from us could become excessive.  So we're suspending the automatic update emails and rolling out this new bi-monthly newsletter, THE BLAST, instead.  This newsletter will continue to be the fastest way to receive news from Deb in your email inbox." You can subscribe to her newsletter by visiting her home page, and filling out the short email form: deborahharkness.com

C. Whoops! (Corrections)
* (12:34): As a supplement to a 25 year old memory, we present the actual facts of the the positioning of the elements of the pentacle:  Ok, Val went back to look at her book(s) and the positioning is as follows: (don’t think clockwise, think of actually following the lines of the pentacle) starting with spirit; the highest element, the line descends into fire, then follow the line to air, across to water and the lowest and most material of the elements earth.  The journey of the spirit to earth is the shape of the pentacle.  Val was kind of correct, but went off the rails when she didn’t remember the path.  Good news!  Memory has been refreshed, and hopefully you’ll gain something from reading the show notes to this point! 

D. Previous Episode
Take 8 - The One With Personality
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Thanks for listening!
Until next time...

xo, ~ The Daemons

Credits/Copyright Information 
* Intro music: "Ghost Dance" (edited down to second chorus) by Kevin Macleod, licensed for use by Creative Commons.
* News intro: by AwesomeMusicVideos21; provided for fair-use/royalty-free.
*  Outro music: Rimsky-Korsakov - "Scheherazade Symphonic Suite for Orchestra Op.35 - IV. Allegro molto," Public       

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* Our episode titles are a loving tribute to the show "Friends" just 'cause we love Friends and - let's face it - it's easier! Here's how one of the show creators explains their reasoning:
Jeff Greenstein: "When Marta & David & Jeff & I did 'Dream On', we used to spend a lot of time thinking about titles, because they were on-screen at the top of each episode. On "Friends", we decided that was a waste of time. We figured, why not name each episode after the thing that people will ostensibly be talking about around the water-cooler the next day?"
This was a Daemon Production

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