March 2014 – Page 3 – { feuilleton }

The Horror Fields

Cover art: In the Palm of the Absinthe Woods by Aria/ShePaintsWithBlood.

Last year I was asked to contribute a piece of fiction to a rural horror special of Morpheus Tales. In time for the Spring Equinox, The Horror Fields, edited by Matt Leyshon, is now unleashed. Inside there’s my short story, Figures in a Landscape, plus contributions from Rosalie Parker, Don Webb, Edward Pearce, Murphy Edwards & Brian Rosenberger, James Everington, Richard Farren Barber, Ian Hunter, Justin Aryiku, and Rhys Hughes.

Two editions are available at Lulu: digest-sized, and A4 size; both editions are discounted until the end of the month. There should also be a Kindle edition soon so when I have details I’ll mention them here. I’d recommend reading this in a field at night but here in the northern hemisphere it’s still a little too cold for that.

Previously on { feuilleton }
• Robin Redbreast by John Bowen
• Red Shift by Alan Garner
• Children of the Stones
• Penda’s Fen by David Rudkin

A triangular book about alchemy

Triangular buildings aren’t so very unusual, triangular books, on the other hand, are less common. This example is from the Manly Palmer Hall collection of alchemical manuscripts at the Internet Archive, not only a triangular book but one where most of the pages are written in a symbolic alphabet. A reviewer supplies the following details (which may not be accurate so the usual caveats apply):

“No. Soixante & Seize” de la collection maconnique du F… Ex Dono Sapientissimi Comitis St. Germain Qui Orben Terrarum Per Cucurrit ca. 1775. Hogart MS 209.

This manuscript bought from Frank Hollings, a London antiquary, after 1933 (he apparently was unaware of the Hauser St. Germain manuscript) came from the occult library of Mme. Barbe, who had it from the bibliographer Stanislaus de Guaita, who in turn bought it at the auction of the library of Jules Favre. It is a copy made from one of the magical texts in the possession of St. Germain by the owner’s permission. A number of such copies were executed for the members of his Masonic lodge in Paris, and the following manuscript, as different in style as it is, may be one of the copies too. It is unclear in both cases whether the Comte St. Germain wrote the magical formulae or owned a copy of an ancient text. This manuscript was made for Antoine Louis Moret, a French emigre to America active in Masonry and in politics.

Does the 76 on the cover refer to the year the book was made, or does it have some other significance? One of the meanings assigned to the number 76 in the Sepher Sephiroth is “Secret, put away; a hiding place”, so the latter is a possibility. See the entire volume here.

Continue reading “A triangular book about alchemy”

Tresham’s Trinities

Memorials of Old Northamptonshire (1903), a book edited by Alice Dryden, includes an entire chapter by M. Jourdain about Thomas Tresham’s Triangular Lodge. Descriptions of the building usually skate over the Catholic symbolism encoded in its structure but Jourdain goes into some detail describing the many inscriptions and numerological details. The engraved illustration is rather good as well, although it makes the lodge appear a more squat than it should be. The chapter also contains a description of further symbolism at Tresham’s Lyveden manor. Read it here.

Previously on { feuilleton }
• The Triangular Lodge again
• The Triangular Lodge

The Triangular Lodge again

Artwork & photography by Abbie Stephens, Zoë Maxwell. Design by Thomas Caslin.

Passing through a record shop the day after looking at photos of the Winchester Mystery House I couldn’t help but notice this sleeve for the debut album by British band Temples. Yesterday I described Sarah Winchester’s house as a folly, which it is, but it was also her home. The ideal folly is an ostensibly purposeless structure, although many of the ones scattered around the UK do serve some kind of decorative function, often as fake ruins intended to be seen from a distance.

Thomas Tresham’s mysterious Triangular Lodge near Rushton, Northants, has always been a favourite, a small triangular building constructed in the 16th century, and encoded all over with references to the number 3. Tresham was a Catholic at a time when the faith was persecuted in England so the lodge is an expression of his devotion to the Holy Trinity. Given the unusual appearance of the building you’d think it might have appeared on an album cover before now. Temples are from Kettering in Northants so they can claim some local attachment to the place. The cover picture has something of a Hipgnosis look to it, which is no bad thing, and there’s also some Hipgnosis-style collaging at work; those trees in the background have been copied then flipped over. One benefit of the current vinyl resurgence is that sleeve designs like this aren’t spoiled by being only seen at CD size. Some of Temples’ songs can be heard on their SoundCloud page, while Pinterest has more views of the Triangular Lodge.

Elsewhere on { feuilleton }
• The album covers archive

Previously on { feuilleton }
• The Triangular Lodge

The Winchester Mystery House

Winchester House, 525 South Winchester Boulevard, San Jose, Santa Clara County, CA.

“One of the peculiar traits of Hill House is its design—”

“Crazy house at the carnival.”

“Precisely. Have you not wondered at our extreme difficulty in finding our way around? An ordinary house would not have had the four of us in such confusion for so long, and yet time after time we choose the wrong doors, the room we want eludes us. Even I have had my troubles.” He sighed and nodded. “I daresay,” he went on, “that old Hugh Crain expected that someday Hill House might become a showplace, like the Winchester House in California or the many octagon houses; he designed Hill House himself, remember, and, I have told you before, he was a strange man. Every angle”—and the doctor gestured toward the doorway—”every angle is slightly wrong. Hugh Crain must have detested other people and their sensible squared-away houses, because he made his house to suit his mind. Angles which you assume are the right angles you are accustomed to, and have every right to expect are true, are actually a fraction of a degree off in one direction or another. I am sure, for instance, that you believe that the stairs you are sitting on are level, because you are not prepared for stairs which are not level—”

They moved uneasily, and Theodora put out a quick hand to take hold of the balustrade, as though she felt she might be falling.

“—are actually on a very slight slant toward the central shaft; the doorways are all a very little bit off centre—that may be, by the way, the reason the doors swing shut unless they are held…”

The Haunting of Hill House (1959) by Shirley Jackson.

I re-read Shirley Jackson’s novel a few months ago but neglected at the time to follow-up the reference to the Winchester House. News this week that Sarah Winchester’s sprawling folly in San Jose is to finally allow overnight stays prompted some investigation. The most remarkable thing about the Winchester Mystery House is that it’s much more of an oddity than its fictional relation, if you overlook (so to speak) the fact that Shirley Jackson’s house is a home to malevolent spectres. Sarah Winchester was heir to the Winchester rifle fortune, and instituted a process of continual and completely uncoordinated house-building for thirty-seven years, believing that this would confound the ghosts of those killed by the weapons bearing her name. Among the house’s 160 rooms are extraneous chambers and closets, doors to nowhere, and stairways serving no purpose. The spirit-trapping decorations include repeated spider-web motifs, and a recurrence of the number 13; one room at least was originally a Séance Room. This blog post concerns a tour round the house as it is today, while the Library of Congress has a number of views of the place.

View looking west from top floor.

It’s unfortunate that the house was built in California’s earthquake zone, the structure had reached seven stories until the 1906 earthquake forced the removal of the three topmost floors. I had to go looking for views of the pre-quake building, and happily there are a few preserved on old postcards. When Blue Öyster Cult chose Adolph Sutro’s Cliff House for the cover of their Imaginos album they certainly picked the more immediately photogenic building, but the Winchester Mystery House a few miles to the south has it beat when it comes to metaphysical cachet.

• The Winchester Mystery House at Pinterest.

Previously on { feuilleton }
• The Cliff House revisited
• Adolph Sutro’s Gingerbread Palace