‘A simple symposium?’

    

Freemasonry in the United States likes symposia. Actually, in France too. Often day-long affairs, these events attract audiences of Masons either generally curious or drawn to a specific theme to hear the thoughts and scholarship of the empaneled speakers.

The Masonic Restoration Foundation terms its annual event a symposium. The Pennsylvania Academy does likewise for its biannual meetings. The California Symposium is next month. The George Washington Memorial has one planned for November. The Masonic Cons are symposia by another name. You get the gist.

How’s that for an etymology?

Aaanywaaay, there was a call for papers yesterday in preparation for “Now We Have Faces: The First Annual C.S. Lewis Symposium at Ulster University,” free willed (see what I did there?) for November 3.

Ignoring the nails-on-chalkboard solecism of “first annual,” this announcement illumined the novelty lightbulb I wear over my head. Brilliant! A symposium delving into one author!

Why don’t we do that in Freemasonry? Do we do that? I’m not aware of it being done.

Supposing such a symposium, I reckon it would have to focus on a prolific writer from a previous century. (The author must be deceased.) I’ll throw out a name: H.L. Haywood. A sharp thinker whose clear prose distilled Masonic teachings for readers of all levels. Plus, he was a member of my lodge ninety or so years ago.

I feel too tired to organize a day like this—and I don’t have the clout anymore—but it’s a good idea.

     

‘Inklings celebration, Mythcon 49, coming to Atlanta’

     
Mythopoeic Society’s 49th Mythcon will be hosted in Atlanta in three months. Titled “On the Shoulders of Giants,” there is a call for papers underway and registration is open now.

The society is devoted to mythopoeic literature, particularly that of the Inklings, the Oxford University circle of friends that included J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. From the publicity:

Mythcon 49

On the Shoulders of Giants

Atlanta, Georgia

July 20-23

The Mythopoeic Society’s annual conference, popularly called Mythcon, has historically been held at a college or university campus in late July or early August. Each conference is constructed around a theme related to Inklings studies and/or fantastic and mythic literature. Each conference also features an author and a scholar guest of honor. Papers, panel discussions, readings, entertainment, an art show, a dealers’ room, and other activities fill the four-day event. Another Mythcon highlight is our annual banquet, after which the Mythopoeic Awards are presented. A small (usually 100-200 people) and intimate setting makes Mythcon an excellent venue for meeting people with common interests. You may see the full history and individual conference pages by visiting our Mythcon History page.

Registration here.

Call for Papers

Our theme is suggested by the ways in which Inklings scholarship has built on such good foundations. Papers exploring this theme might include, but are not limited to any of the following:

• The past, present, and future of mythopoeic scholarship and independent journals
• Academic, audience, and critical reception of mythopoeic literature
• The history of fandom, fan communities, and fan-fiction
• Adaptations of mythopoeic literature — film, music, gaming, and more
• The mythopoeic giants who inspired the Inklings — including Homer, Dante, Milton, George MacDonald, William Morris, G.K. Chesterton, and the most prolific of them all, Anon.
• Giants as literary figures in myth, fairy tale, and mythopoeic literature — Atlas, Goliath, the Norse Giants, Grendel, Gogmagog, Tolkien’s Trolls, the Giants and Ettins of Narnia.
     

‘Can Light Be Golden?’

     
I’ve been awake all night (long story) and had the chance to read. I selected Owen Barfield’s novella Night Operation, a science fiction story published in 1975 that, among other things, comments presciently on cultural collapses we are experiencing today. It is a kind of allegory of the cave—clearly it acknowledges Plato’s lesson—as subterranean humans venture toward the light of day to experience what life might be like above ground. It’s a good story, and short enough to read in one sitting, if you’re so inclined. And reclined. Actually, reading Night Operation as dawn approaches enhances the tale’s ambience. Furthermore, to read it during the opening hours of August causes the mind to wander and ponder.

August of the zodiac sign Leo: Leo’s ruling planet is the sun; its element is fire; its color gold. (A slain lion named Cecil so prevalent in the world’s news this week.)

Can light be golden?

Owen Barfield, Anthroposophist extraordinaire, has three characters in Night Operation: Jon, based on himself; Jak, based on his dear friend C.S. Lewis; and Peet, inspired by another close friend and fellow Anthroposophy leader Cecil Harwood. The three young men protagonists endure a hellish existence, but their spiritual longings prompt them to undertake their Night Operation—a determined search for a place of enlightenment in a totally unknown atmosphere above ground. They behold dawn for the first time.

Anyway, the story triggered a memory of this Barfield poem, which I share with you:

CAN LIGHT BE GOLDEN?

Can light be golden? That can never be,

The well-informed assure us, because light

Is what we see by, never what we see.

But are the well-informed, I wonder, right?

Those painters of the old Italian school

Seem almost to condense it into sight.

I doubt if Cimabue was a fool,

Or faked the background, or the aureole.

Perhaps they worked to some more secret rule

That light observes—not light through Newton’s hole

(The force we see by when we are not blind),

But light inbreathed by man’s adoring soul.

Can light be golden? Now recall to mind

That seeding whereof Perseus was the flower:

How sad Acrisius’ daughter was confined

In Argos long ago—the brazen tower—

Then Zeus, the Light of Day, with godlike stride

Descending on it in a Golden Shower,

Breaching its walls to glorify the bride.

Can light be golden? Now the truth comes clear:

It is, when wonder meets it open-eyed—

As I am to the light that streams from her,

When she at last is near, and these old walls

Invading, overwhelms their prisoner:

The light that, condescending, disenthralls!

For now the pagan myth’s inverted: she

(Look up, and see how smilingly it falls!)

The Shower of Gold; I, wondering Danäe.

If you registered for the MRF symposium in Philly, I’ll see you in three weeks. Otherwise, I hope you’re enjoying this incredibly kind summer weather. I will be the guest speaker at Inspiratus Masonic Lodge No. 357 in New Jersey on September 28—presenting again “Come to Your Senses!”—so maybe I’ll see you there.