Post by sukimoto on Oct 13, 2005 19:16:12 GMT -5
Greetings,
I posted this book recommendation on the gipsykings.net web forum and thought there might be some people interested here too. The book is entitled
"IN SARA'S TENTS" by Walter Starkie. It's long been out of print, but still readily available from places like abebooks.com. Here's the first paragraph
from the prelude.
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This book originated many years ago in 1929 in a conversation I had with the Irish poet and mystic, ' of the long grey pantheistic eyes', George Russel, universally known by the signature A.E. I had just come
back from Italy, Spain and Provence and I had described to A.E. my pilgrimage with Gypsies to the shrine of Sara, the patron saint of the Romanichals. I described these Brahmins of the roads gathering from all over Europe in the crypt of the church by the sea carrying out their ritual of fire and water. Among these Gypsies one may find traces of the ancient avatars, whose souls were gods long ago in India. I told
him of my troubadour friends, whose lives were spent in the salty deserts of the Camargue with its Fata Morgana : a land still haunted by Mithra, with its bulls and its wild horses sprung, according to myth, fr
om the sea lashed into foam by Neptune's chariot. A.E. in his slow, lifting voice like the chanting of a shanachie began to examine one by one the salient points of my description and weave them imaginitavely
into a pattern. Like a wizard he evoked the spirits of these Egyptian,Indian, Greek avatars and transmuted them into his vision-
Far up the dim twilight fluttered
Moth wings of vapour and flame,
The lights danced over the mountains,
Star after star they came.
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I'm about 75 pages deep today, and I have really enjoyed the book so
far. I think some of you will too.
Best Regards,
Todd
I posted this book recommendation on the gipsykings.net web forum and thought there might be some people interested here too. The book is entitled
"IN SARA'S TENTS" by Walter Starkie. It's long been out of print, but still readily available from places like abebooks.com. Here's the first paragraph
from the prelude.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
This book originated many years ago in 1929 in a conversation I had with the Irish poet and mystic, ' of the long grey pantheistic eyes', George Russel, universally known by the signature A.E. I had just come
back from Italy, Spain and Provence and I had described to A.E. my pilgrimage with Gypsies to the shrine of Sara, the patron saint of the Romanichals. I described these Brahmins of the roads gathering from all over Europe in the crypt of the church by the sea carrying out their ritual of fire and water. Among these Gypsies one may find traces of the ancient avatars, whose souls were gods long ago in India. I told
him of my troubadour friends, whose lives were spent in the salty deserts of the Camargue with its Fata Morgana : a land still haunted by Mithra, with its bulls and its wild horses sprung, according to myth, fr
om the sea lashed into foam by Neptune's chariot. A.E. in his slow, lifting voice like the chanting of a shanachie began to examine one by one the salient points of my description and weave them imaginitavely
into a pattern. Like a wizard he evoked the spirits of these Egyptian,Indian, Greek avatars and transmuted them into his vision-
Far up the dim twilight fluttered
Moth wings of vapour and flame,
The lights danced over the mountains,
Star after star they came.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
I'm about 75 pages deep today, and I have really enjoyed the book so
far. I think some of you will too.
Best Regards,
Todd