Baseball Mandala

[Bonnie Surfus (ENG)]

On Wed, 30 Aug 1995, R. Jeffrey Grace wrote:

> ** Reply to note from Bonnie Surfus <surfus at chuma.cas.usf.edu> 08/30/95  
> 11:07pm -0400
> 
> > What interests me is the missing talk of the Goddess.  Call me a sucker 
> > for a title, but Pynchon's obvious awareness of Graves' book, coupled 
> > with the endless "white faces" and other white things in GR, lead me to 
> > see this baseball issue differently.  I haven't got it all worked out 
> > like Steely has, but his mention of the "mound" at the center does call 
> > to mind the Goddess.  Something to do with sites of worship in Old 
> 
> Oh well hell. :<  If the "mound" is in the center, then what the hell is  
> homeplate???
> 
> <sigh>
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________________________
> _|R. Jeffrey Grace                          "An intellectual |_
> _|rjgrace at qnet.com        Team OS/2              carrot!     |_
> _|Lancaster, Ca.                           The mind boggles!"|_
>   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> 
> 
> 
Jeffrey, I think I quote you when I say "pullleaze!"  The fact of the 
mound at the center has NOTHING to do with physiology.  "Center," as in a 
cultural "center," both spatially and mythologically, spiritually, was 
more like my meaning.

One of the best known mounds, believed to be associated with the Goddess, 
is Silbury Hill, building beginning around 2750 B.C.E.  Many believed it 
was a charnel house, where the dead were brought for cleansing, decay 
accelerated so that bones could be dried and used in ritualistic 
fashion.  The mound is an interesting blend of life and death--the 
wholeness of the Goddess.  The first layer is flint, clay. the topsoil is 
also clay, with boulders throughout (stones were of Her.)  On top, there 
wer bone fragments from many sources.  Fecundity, the theme.  Some 
suggest (Michale Dames) that the sight evokes the pregnant Goddess. other 
famous mounds include Windmill Hill, and the WEst Kennet mound, as well 
as the Sanctuary.

This, all from Peg Streep's _Sancutaries of the Goddess_.

Bonnie