AtDTDA: Some more thoughts on Iceland Spar

[robinlandseadel at comcast.net]

http://www.bestcrystals.com/html/calcite/images/CAL-118b.jpg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7RLjMmY5Q8

"I-Tunes" [on the computer, functioning as a music server] has randomly
selected Bob Dylan's "Not Dark Yet" with the classic line "I can't even 
remember what it is I came here to get away from", as good a place to 
start as any. My thoughts have circled around the themes of magic in 
Pynchon's writing as long as I've been reading his work. My first reading 
of CoL49 morphed "Tristero" into "Tri-Staro", three stars and my thoughts 
drifted over to Mozart's "Magic Flute" and the three ladies in attendance 
to the Queen of the Night. This chimes along with trinities in relation to 
Goddess, as in the Triple Goddess of Robert Graves [maiden, mother 
crone] and Bridgit in triplicate [notably devoid of correlation to Robert 
Graves concept of the triple Goddess]. I've gone through over thirty 
different audio versions of Mozart's Die Zauberflote and the results are
in: The John Eliot Gardnier version on Archiv has the best liner notes.
These notes, from an Opera Colorado production of Mozart's Classic
are referencing "Nicholas McNair, "'Enter, Pursued by a Lion': Hermetic
Influences in The Magic Flute,", the liner notes to Archiv's 1996 offering:

          A Living Depiction of the 22 Major Aracana Cards of the 
          Tarot Deck

          One author claims to have found another key to understanding 
          The Magic Flute. Mozart and Schikaneder both played cards. 
          The deck they used was a version of the mediaeval tarot deck. 
          (The deck of 52 cards we use today descends from the same source.)

          The overture and 21 following musical numbers make a total of 22 
          different musical depictions. The mediaeval tarot deck contained 
          22 Major Arcana cards, reflecting the physical and spiritual forces 
          at work on humans and culminating in the card called "The World," 
          which is a balance of all necessary elements, light and dark.

          In this view, The Magic Flute puts on the stage living versions of 
          each of these physical and spiritual forces, ending with the last 
          musical number in which order and balance are restored to the 
          realms of Sarastro and the Queen of the Night.

          The number of scenes actually exceeds the number of musical 
          sections. In addition, the last numbered musical section prodigiously 
          includes Pamina's attempted suicide, the passage of the final tests 
          by Tamino and Pamina, Papageno's attempted suicide, his discovery 
          of Papagena, the final assault on the kingdom of the sun by the 
          forces of the Queen of the Night, and the final chorus hailing 
          beauty and wisdom.

          In other words, it might be argued that for this Tarot theory to have 
          any currency one must wink at a few items. But keep in mind that 
          the composer and librettist created the numbering of the musical 
          sections and that the last lengthy musical section does begin with 
          the Three Boys announcing what will be the result of all the ensuing 
          action, thus tying all of it to the culminating Tarot card "The 
          World":

          Soon, heralding the morning, the sun will shine forth on its golden 
          path. Soon superstition will vanish, soon the wise man will triumph. 
          Oh, sweet repose, descend, return to the hearts of men; then 
          earth will be a realm of heaven, and mortals will be like gods.

Working at the Brass Unicorn, the nature of my understanding of 
"Against the Day" is shifting in a permanent and very meaningful 
fashion. One of the Unicorn's "Specialties of the House" is crystal magic, 
one of the central themes of Against the Day. I suppose the Hermetic 
view of crystals would be looking at numbers, number magic and the 
way music and architecture sync, the "natural order" and the magic 
numbers of music and architecture, particularly the natural 
architecture of crystals, what Taoists would call "The Way", what could 
otherwise be described as Gaia. In any case, magic systems involving 
color, number, earth magic and healing all line up with crystals. Calcite 
has a considerable role to play in the realm of crystal magic. This is from 
Judy Hall's invaluable "The Encyclopedia of Crystals":

          Iceland Spar (see also page 245) amplifies images and assists 
          in seeing reality in a new way. It elucidates the hidden meaning 
          behind words, increases perception, and reminds you that you 
          are a spiritual being on a human journey."

That listing (on page 246) would link to clear calcite on page 245 and many 
of the general comments on Calcite. Clear Calcite

           ". . . opens the inner and outer eyes. A Clear Calcite with rainbows 
          brings about major chance, as it is a stone of new beginnings." 

Calcite in general

           ". . .is a powerful amplifier and cleanser of energy that 
          facilitates higher awareness and metaphysical abilities."

http://www.judyhall.co.uk/crystals.htm#encyclop

With Iceland Spar, one really has to monkey with a hunk of the physically 
manifest crystal itself to get where the author is viz the subject of 
crystals, time domains and the refraction of light. The front display at our 
store has a few examples of Calcite. While none are "Optical Grade" [those
are, naturally, the most expensive examples of Calcite] there's some nice
clear hunks of Yellow Calcite with disconcerting optical effects. I've been 
scrying the price tag on one fine example of Yellow Calcite. Viewed through 
the crystal's multiple refractions, one sees two stickers with attendant ghost 
images. Turning the crystal shifts all those images and after-images. Think of 
Quaterninions and the current uses of that nominally "extinct" form of math 
in computer animation and CAD rotations of three-dimensional "objects". Now 
pick up that hunk of Calcite again. Viewing one of these crystals can be 
disorienting, mildly vertiginous. Hopefully Kathryn can find me a nice example 
of optical grade Calcite the next time she's at a crystal exhibition. 

          "He's afraid of the way the glass will fall---soon---it will be a 
          spectacle: the fall of a crystal palace. But coming down in 
          total blackout, without one glint of light, only great invisible           
          crashing."

This website has good visual representations of the varieties of
"Iceland Spar" and Calcite in the sorts of contexts one would find 
these objects in a "Magick" store/Wiccan Totchkeria. I suppose it will take
yet another reading to track down all the literal Earth Magic points of
reference within Against the Day, but overall it looks like very good news
for the sentient rockster crowd.

http://www.bestcrystals.com/calcite.html