I am in Oxford this Good Friday, perched near the High Street with the bells tolling each hour and its half, for a small research trip to the Ashmolean to see the exhibit about Knossos and its excavation by the infamous Arthur Evans. Old friends will be there in the glass cases, and I’m sure I’ll cry— ceramic friends I mean, on loan from the Heraklion Museum in Crete, where I’ve traced the path in and out of two thousand years of pottery and stone work and jewelry over and over again, different stops in front of artifacts along the way like icons that shine with a radiance I recognize absolutely, but cannot name. It will be strange to see them so far from home, and also lovely.
I recently came upon this original essay in your glorious The Venus Year book, and it was wonderful to read this expanded version afterwards. To follow you through time and land, from when you wrote it then, to now, weaving in your “new angles of memory, or new seams of understanding”. This was a fascinating and verdant journey through the spirals of time, religion, grief, Love, death, rebirth, the ancient wisdoms, all that we carry together, and on. You beautifully cast the reader out into the vast web of the past and seamlessly bring one back into the center of the present moment. The cadence and return of your words felt like a dance, a prayer, a ritual from long ago. xo
Thank you so much Sophia, your words here are gorgeous themselves. I am glad the experience of reading it both here and in The Venus Year was nourishing in this way, and verdant-feeling. :) I love knowing when words evoke verdure... xx
<3 Orthodox Easter is probably one of my favorite ritual times. There's something incredibly soothing in the distribution of the collective and individual grief. Thank you for sharing
I recently came upon this original essay in your glorious The Venus Year book, and it was wonderful to read this expanded version afterwards. To follow you through time and land, from when you wrote it then, to now, weaving in your “new angles of memory, or new seams of understanding”. This was a fascinating and verdant journey through the spirals of time, religion, grief, Love, death, rebirth, the ancient wisdoms, all that we carry together, and on. You beautifully cast the reader out into the vast web of the past and seamlessly bring one back into the center of the present moment. The cadence and return of your words felt like a dance, a prayer, a ritual from long ago. xo
Thank you so much Sophia, your words here are gorgeous themselves. I am glad the experience of reading it both here and in The Venus Year was nourishing in this way, and verdant-feeling. :) I love knowing when words evoke verdure... xx
<3 Orthodox Easter is probably one of my favorite ritual times. There's something incredibly soothing in the distribution of the collective and individual grief. Thank you for sharing
Ah I'm glad you enjoyed it Antigone, knowing the experience so personally and intimately. Thank you xx
Dynamic, thoughtful, touching, educational, peace-inspiring. Thank you!
Thank you so much xx