welcome to my study, make yourself at home!
We are of course in the midst of the series I am posting to you of my sonnets from ‘After Prayer’ but I thought I’d use this extra little post to bring you some news. Like of all of you I am more than a little frustrated at being, ‘cabined, cribbed, confined’ by the entirely necessary restrictions of our present lockdown. And one of those frustrations is that I can no longer entertain my friends to drinks, conversation, and the happy random browsing and perusal of the books on the shelves, and scattered across every surface in my study. So, by way of compensation and defiance, I have mastered the mysteries of Youtube and created a little channel there for a series called ‘ A Spell in the Library’, in which I invite you all to join me in my study, and do just what we would do, on any visit, take down the books, read favourite passages, and muse together on what Larkin called ‘The million-petales flower of being here’. I shall put up these little episodes two or three times a week, inviting you all to join me. Of course these usual blog posts will continue for my subscribers here. But if you’d also like to join me in this other mode of being together, that would be wonderful. I am pasting below the links to each of the three little films I have already posted, which should allow you to see the films on this page. But you might also like to pop over to my new Youtube Channel. If you would like to watch more of these, then do go over to Youtube and subscribe (entirely for free) to the channel and that way you can’ visit with me ‘ regularly for ‘ A Spell in the Library’. I hope you enjoy these and would like to come back for more.
So first off here’s the introduction:
Now here’s a little reading in which George Macdonald appreciates George Herbert:
And here’s a sonnet called ‘Spell:
Malcolm Guite 
This has already become required viewing for me. What a wonderful thing to offer in such times!
Thanks, and thanks for sharing. It suddenly occurred to me one evening that this was something I could do and it’s been a pleasure to do it. It’s still a bit technically inept but I’m getting there!
Don’t worry about the ‘technically inept’ presentation. I’m here for the content (which is awesome).
In your Temenos Academy presentation on Owen Barfield, Knowledge, Poetry & Consciousness you state (or are paraphrasing Barfield as stating) that words like ‘spirit’ and ‘wind’ were regarded by the Hellenic Greeks as being the same thing, hence, they used only one, pneuma, for BOTH. Over time, the ‘inner meaning’ and ‘outer meaning’ of the word pneuma split and now we have the words ‘spirit’ and ‘wind’. When poets come along and recapture the unity of the split words, ‘wind’ and ‘spirit’, via metaphor we can ‘time travel’ back to understand how the ancients perceived reality. Is that what you are talking about when you used the word ‘spell’ as a reckoning of time?
I hadn’t been specifically thinking of that but it’s certainly true. You give a very good summary there of Barfield’s thought!
Thank you.
The ONLY reason my summary is adequate is because your presentation was so compelling and clear I have watched it about 10 times.. I also enjoyed your presentation on Owen Barfield (that actually had Owen Barfield in attendance, he looked so young for his age!).
I noticed in the tour of your library that you had Michael Ward’s book Planet Narnia. I have read that book several times and he seems to be saying that within the Narnia books there is an underlying theme (that I was COMPLETELY CLUELESS about) that unifies each book and the entire 7 books. The theme for each book is one of the planets of the medieval solar system. I think Michael Ward is saying that there is an underlying ‘meaning’ that holds each book together, individually, and the series together as a collection of books.
I think Michael Ward also says that Lewis’ favorite Biblical passage was Colossians (1:17) – ‘He is before all things and in him all things hold together’. Do you think that the Narniad is Lewis’ elaborating on the idea that ALL things are ‘real’ because God MEANS them to be what they are?
Delightful little visits! Thank you!
So enjoying visiting you in your study Malcolm! Thank you for letting us share your space. 🙂
Such a great invitation… and to give me my favorite line from one of my favorite Herbert poems! I’ll be back!
Thanks. I won’t always be posting the links on this blog so do subscribe to the YouTube channel
These videos are absolutely delightful and just what we all need during this time of quarantine.
Thank you-it truly is a gift to stumble across these videos yesterday!