the calculus of umbrals

The Basilica di San Clemente in Rome has a wonderful mosaic in the apse. There are 13 sheep and above them an incredible spiral of branches. It is clear to me that this is the world tree, that these images are pre-christian and that the church has appropriated these symbols as they have many others. I was enjoying this artwork and then I read a meditation that Cardinal Ratzinger - later Pope Benedict (now former Pope Benedict) - wrote about this work of art. The result is this poem.

The bold italics words in the poem are taken from Benedict XVI. (ND) The Apse Mosaic, Basilica di San Clemente. San Francisco: Ignatius Press.

the calculus of umbrals

in the calculus of umbrals

the shadowy variable

allows pretence to become proof

the apse mosaic in the basilica of San Clemente

has thirteen sheep

above this coven of sheep

the tree of life multiplies

calculates infinity

becomes the world tree

its branches spiralling endlessly

the sheep are breeding

producing new flocks

same same each year

and the shepherds endlessly at work

the sheep bleat

in the calculus of umbrals

the shadowy variable

allows pretence to become proof

but says the man of God

this eternal circling is futile

it is endless repetition

what we need is progress

the sheep bleat

in the calculus of umbrals

the shadowy variable

allows pretence to become proof

that vain circular motion

is broken open by the cross

the new dynamic of a world

no longer circling but ascending

the sheep bleat

in the calculus of umbrals

the shadowy variable

allows pretence to become proof

the fishhook of God

has put human history

on the up and up

we men are your branches

death is love

we have taken over

we are ascending

to the fathers’ true progress

the sheep bleat

in the calculus of umbrals

the shadowy variable

allows pretence to become proof

 

earth shatters

branches break

the cycle is broken

broken open

the forest is shattered

broken open

clear felled

the cross hewn

the man crucified

broken open

the cross has changed the dynamic

now human history is on the up and up

the sheep bleat

in the calculus of umbrals

the shadowy variable

allows pretence to become proof

In the last image on the right, the wolf is depicted supporting the cross. I found this in a book this morning and it is held in the Vatican Museum. It tells a kind of truth, that christianity is simultaneously built on pagan traditions and denies them. Sounds familiar.

The wild, as I wrote in Wild Politics, is the source of capitalism's destructive profit mongering. Without the wild, without biodiversity, there would be nothing to capitalise on. And yet that biodiversity, the wild wolf, the world tree is reviled. And Cardinal Ratzinger above says that the endless repetition is futile. This poem is therefore a critique of that world view.

descent

The Etruscan museum is full of treasures like this Medusa.  Michael Grant in his book Roman Myths notes that the Etruscans failed to understand heroes or sympathise with the concept and therefore in their art tended to represent them as deities - gods and goddesses - sometimes winged (1971: p. 193).

Medusa is not winged but she bears the mark of her ancient past in her snake hair. She's a healer and extraordinarily powerful.

I've also been reading about the beginnings of Rome and a number of sibyls are implicated in its origin, specifically the Cumaean Sibyl whom Aeneas visited after leaving Carthage - Dido dead by suicide - and before going on to the place that will become Rome.

descent

the call

that hollow sound of Cumaea

I was here before

thousands of years ago

your hundred mouths

shouting

words frothed at the edge

of my mouth

the journey looming

flight into the unknown

descent into

the dark thighs of your cave

my hair snake-wreathed

Etruscan Medusa

speaking with a hundred voices

the sibilant hiss of prophecy

seizure grasped

she flails at vanishing memory

bruised she rises from darkness

almost misses the plane

astrology church

Rome is filled with memories of times that preceded the series of pasts that have come to make the present.

A few days after my arrival in Rome I visited Santa Maria degli Angeli not far from Rome's main station.

It's a huge spacious building and I wandered in and was looking at walls and windows, looking for sheep and wolves (my current project). I came to a cordoned off area and looked down and there at my feet was this rather attractive sheep. I walked along a bit further: a cow at my feet (a previous poetic project); walked yet further and I saw twins. That was the moment the penny dropped. Across the floor of this enormous church is an astrological calculator.

I have a Literature Residency at the BR Whiting Library in Rome (funded by the Australia Council) and I'm exploring the stories, the symbols, the politics and histories around wolves and lambs.

Here's my response to the church I went into that day.

Santa Maria degli Angeli

the angels are all here

they are stars

they constellate

across the centre of this church

earth’s ecliptic

laid out like an Italian feast

here is the ewe Aries

here is Queenie the cow

here the devilish twins

the old ones are here too

come to see the layout

the spread

across the transept

la linea meridian

just as our ancestors did

here light falls

indicating the equinox

the ewe

the lamb tells us

with precision

when spring has come