It’s all been pretty much said and done but this month there was the small event of The Coronation. In case you were vacationing on Venus and missed all the hullaballoo it was quite the spectacle involving carriages, horses, their royal highnesses in harness to the ancient office assigned to them by the accident of their birth and well, the whole bling and bunting thing. Just as with the funeral of the late Queen last September what interested me was the national investment in the belief that a magickal ceremony was taking place before our very eyes. In one the ceremonial passing of a sacred being, and, in the other, the actual creation of one. Both ceremonies, as grand as they were, appear to me to be not so much about the enactment of magick but it’s ancient appropriation by an establishment whose primary urge was, and in some ways still is, the acquisition of land and power. A kind of mutual act of self delusion conducted between a wannabe monarch and those that choose to consider him somehow magically gifted to us: his grateful subjects. I watched the ceremony with close friends in Brighton. A city alive in their own alternative coronations and curious ceremonies. Sad to report you’ve missed it but it looked like a lot of fun.
On the other hand…
..however, I discovered these lads on a street corner the very next day
and I got to be thinking about the true magick these strange and wonderful trsaditions evoke. As easy as it is to dismiss the Morris I can’t help but feel we’re very mistaken to overlook these occasionally heavy footed dances communal and profoundly ceremonial roots. Beards and beer may have assisted in their cunning disguise but they’re as much a part of the real magick of these islands as it’s possible to be. The authentic and ancient expression of the land and the people who live upon it. Anyway, there’s my contrasting impressions after witnessing two apparently magickal ceremonies all within the arc of one, not so sun filled, coronation day. Cant’ help but wonder what the genius of Hookland makes of it all?
New Projects
Very excited to announce that I have been story lining a large scale Science fiction series for Audiama. I’ll talk about it more as I progress but I’m totally stoked to be in the midst of creating and developing it. What I can say is that it’s an enormously ambitious project which has to be realised in a pretty short time span so there’s my focus for the Summer.
What else to tell you?
Speaking of which as we move toward the solstice I’ll be recording In Patagonia and We Apologise for any Convenience for the BBC. Hugely exciting to see both projects realised and I’ll post a few production photos on your next helping of Strudel Time.
I think that’s all for now. I’m sure there’s plenty more to bumble on about but I can’t think of it. If you’ve stumbled upon, and taken the time to read, these ramblings thank you very much and see you very soon.
