New Year’s Eve With(out) Arthur Guirdham

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by Floria Thames

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  …a writer and artist… only occasionally, otherwise too busy with merciless day jobs.

 

 

 

 

Note from Ellis: Floria sent me this article before Christmas. Unfortunately being without internet till now, I’ve not been able to publish it. Enjoy…it’s great!

 

It was the end of 2008 and my daughter got on the phone. “Who will you spend your New Year’s Eve with?” she asked. “With Arthur Guirdham” I replied. As it happened, I had just purchased another book by Dr. Guirdham and I was planning to delight in it through the bank holidays. Little did I know that my cagey, ‘unassuming’ joke was to prove downright prophetic in no time. I opened the TV program and what do I see? Not one hour too soon, not one minute too late, a Channel 4 documentary about MY Secret Hero (himself a secret to just about the whole world, until now) was scheduled at 9 pm sharp, on 31st December 2008. Could I be dreaming? The “disclosure” is finally taking place? The wall of silence is coming down? Reason to celebrate?

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Angelic movies, dreams and demons

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by Floria Thames

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  …a writer and artist… only occasionally, otherwise too busy with merciless day jobs.

 

 

Over the last few days I meant to write two replies on this blog – one to Samantha, the other one, as a reaction to Ellis’s powerful piece “What Happened to Daniel Nolan? The Official Theory Doesn’t Wash“. But they both ended up too long, so eventually, I merged them into one.

Ramana Maharishi once said: “If you dream and see several men, and then wake up and recall your dream, do you try to ascertain if the persons of your dream creation are also awake?”

No, we just get out of bed and get on with what we believe to be “real”. But who is to say (until proof to the contrary) that this is not another dream? I often ask myself: to which extent am I responsible for what’s going on in this dream, called “reality”? Do I have any power over it, can I truly influence it? What is my allegiance to the “several” men, women and children I met in this dream, or to the many more I keep hearing and reading about, seeing in the news, as living on the same “planet” as me? are they for real, or will they just vanish one day just like the characters in my night dreams do each morning?
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Who Was Victor Hugo?

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by Floria Thames

 

floriathames_300x383Floria Thames is a writer and artist… only occasionally, otherwise too busy with merciless day jobs.

 

Actually Floria is much more than this, but it’s how she modestly describes herself. Some of us like to call ourselves writers, and some of us are. I’m more of a scribbler myself, but Floria, she’s the real deal. She’s a class act, generous, compassionate, extremely intelligent, very well read, (a) sensitive, insightful and articulate (in several languages). She’s a very good artist as well…in fact, from what I’ve seen, Floria has swags of talents to share and brighten this world, and deserves every opportunity to do so.

I’ve known Floria for many years now. Throughout she has been my muse, my confidante and my inspiration, but we have never met personally. I am privileged to call her a very dear friend.

I am thrilled to bits that Floria Thames has agreed to write an article for this blog and hope with all my heart that this opens a door for her to show the world what she has to offer it. – Ellis

 

Victor Hugo by Étienne Carjat 1876Probably Jean Cocteau defined him best: “Victor Hugo was a madman who thought he was Victor Hugo“. We all know that famous list from the “Dossiers Secrets”, published by Lincoln, Baigent and Leigh, back in 1982. But, to avoid getting biased by the “da Vinci codes” industry, let’s go further back, to the 1959 Classiques Garnier edition of “Notre Dame de Paris” and, there, in the preface, we’re told that Victor Hugo had spent four days with Charles Nodier in Reims, in 1825. And that these four days of tête-à-tête proved to be of great importance in the prehistory of the novel (Raymond Escholier said this, cited by J-B Barrere). Charles Nodier was (allegedly, of course) the Grand Master of the Priory of Sion until 1844, when Victor Marie Hugo will take over the helm, followed in 1885 (after his death) by Claude Debussy, only for the list to (“officially”) close with Jean Cocteau in 1963. Continue reading →