Wynter Room Swedenborg House Photograph courtesy of the Swedenborg Society Archive
Terror is only justice: prompt, severe and inflexible. It is then an emanation of virtue. Robespierre
Cra-que-lure … the allure of the crack … the crack of dawn, the crack of doom.
Remembering good days: Post- French revolution, TRÈS Baudelaire. we, the Swedenborg society, with The Magic Lantern Society, present...
The Lost Lecture.
I see you.
Education, entertainment, More Education! Enjoy erudite slides, recovered from the bowels of Swedenborg house. Learn Of Metallurgist, inventor, conduit of the second coming, And Mystic, Swedenborg.
Do you see me? You will.
Swedenborg’s acolytes may have misplaced the lecture by which the world knew of Daedalus Hyperboreus. Of Swedenborg’s northern tremulations; his flying machine; his anticipation of the existence of the neuron; his prescience of the cerebral cortex; his nebular hypothesis. Rendering him cannier than Kant; ahead of his time; De infinito; A soul connected to a body.
I see you blonde-lady, with shimmering lips, counting out your heart beats at the end of the road.
Discover Swedenborg’s Arcana Cœlestia; his dialogue with Spirits; communication with unseen worlds.
I am here, brown-eyed gentleman in the fine jacket. You who walk at night alone weak from terror.
We invite you as our guest. Take rest, enjoy extravagant, darkly absorbing Aridjis Strange Seer of the Book of Clouds, Torn Asunder By Sea Monsters. She resurrects
the lost lecture !
I made a promise, no matter what, to remain a mystery. They captured my likeness, those years ago, for their magic lantern show. Unlike their master, they did not know the labyrinth between those living and those dead, however skilfully wrought, remains open. Life is a beach, they say. As is death. So Prince Augustus William whispered, into Swedenborg’s ear, post-mortem.
Aridjis has stepped up; post-pandemic Guide for our new world, built better. Thanks to the shining light Of perspicacity, veracity will pass through the camera obscura, dark chamber, through painted photographic images. Fantastical, phantasmagorical , Oracle. Horrible, Historical, visions will emerge before you at our Show.
I intended to be hidden forever. At first I didn’t mind being cast aside, but after a while time began to feel like an albatross. Was the lecture deliberately destroyed lest I find my voice? Weaving new narratives, re-writing the long forgotten lecture, enables me to be. Know that the slow march towards disorder begins again. Chaos creeps craftily into the most ordered society. And I will walk with you. Because I can.