Signs and wonders.
Hitting a paragraph like this in the introduction is either something very good or very, very bad:
To forestall uneasiness on the part of the reader when confronted with statements which are too shocking, primarily that we continue to live in a world in which magic still has a part to play and a place of honor, we have let the texts speak for themselves. We have, in the reader’s behalf, assumed the burden of understanding them in letter and in spirit. After all, the conclusions we have drawn seem to us adequate recompense for the painstaking study pursued for twelve years without interruption, study involving philology only as a means, not as an end in itself. The fact that unremitting concentration on the meaning of documents has here supplanted mere reporting of their contents suffices to explain the individuality of this work, an individuality for which we do not believe we must apologize.
Ioan Couliano wrote that in Chicago in May of 1986. In May of 1991, somebody climbed onto a toilet in the stall next to his and, reaching over the wall and down with a .25 caliber Beretta, put a bullet in the back of his head. —So he must have been onto something, right? Right?
Eros and Magic is a real head-spinner of a book, and I love the theatrical flourishes in Couliano's introduction.
The glyph on the wall was a hue-woo-man-woman; touching was psyche one moment--real and flying the other...." Applying Prof. Ioan Couliano's interest in "Geomancy" to literary expereince.
Two over soul expereinces with Prof. Ioan Couliano.
Music soothes
the Beast.
Beasts
are music
even
in their sleep.
Would be keen to an open-circle of exegiesis.
Spiritus-Mundi
Scattered leafs
as dry breadcrumbs
are stirring
and Whispering.
Ghosts move in
freedom, being
trespassed by
the Augured!