It’s a tad late to wish you a happy New Year – but I do anyway. Mine was a bit rough, as it happens. Feeling smug, complacent, and invulnerable to Covid all these years set me up royally to be smitten with some of the other various viruses flying around in December. All our Christmas and New Year excesses had to be cancelled at the last minute and we now have a massive free range turkey trapped in the freezer: it just about went in ok, but now it’s frozen it ain’t gonna come out without a fight!
My main reason for doing this work is to engage in spiritually and intellectually stimulating conversations with kindred spirits.
If you fancy one, do please get in touch…click here
Do let me have your news and New Year revolutions – and ideas about how to extract that darn pesky turkey.
For me, this year (apart from losing the Christmas pudding I am now wearing) is about launching my creative writing program SHAKESPEARE’S CAULDRON. It’s for writers of literary fiction who feel a bit stuck and want to add depth, meaning and gravitas to their work.
If you, or someone you know is feeling stuck with their writing, I’m looking for a few Beta-testers for a free pilot of the coaching prog.
A CURATED SELECTION
As well as a couple of new, pretty outspoken blogs, here are a few new videos from around 3 mins – 30 mins long. In case you missed them, I’ve included a few awesome* webinars on Macbeth, and Hamlet I did last year.
*N.B. when I say ‘awesome’ it’s not my trumpet I’m blowing, but the Bard’s. All I do is read the invisible ink.
12th Night 2023
For 4 years I’ve been attempting to deliver a talk on Shakespeare’s play 12th Night, on 12th Night. This year, despite the ‘flu, I did it! Yes, it’s another iteration of how Shakespeare’s subtext is brimming over with cryptic allusions to the Holy Grail. This time we become delirious in Illyria. We ask not ‘what on earth has it to do with the Epiphany?’ but ‘how does he populate his play with characters and themes of the Epiphany?’
Here’s a video-illustrated blog focusing on one 3-minute gem between Feste and Viola that sums it all up.
Here’s the recording of the talk I gave on 12th Night. Best viewed with a Toby Jug of Wassail and a massive belch!
Cheers!
12th NIGHT on 12th Night (click on the link) (38 min)
Voilà (no pun intended) three short ‘tasters’ cut out of the 12th Night talk
The hidden visitors to the Epiphany (click on the link) (2.39 min)
The ‘wind and the rain’: why Jesus came (click on the link) (1.52 min)
The ‘crucifixion of Malvolio’ (5.39 min)
HU: the god, the Sphinx, and the penis
This October, I’m planning to go on a Nile trip to revisit the temples. While researching the Egyptian sound current masters of old (e.g. Thoth Hermes Trismegistus) I found this little gem of an article – CLICK HERE.
‘Coincidentally’ the mythology surrounding the god HU ties in perfectly with this new blog:
HOW THE MYSTICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF CIRCUMCISION CAN FUEL BEST-SELLING SUBTEXT!
CLICK HERE TO READ THE BLOG POST
Now, here is a selection of videos from last year that you might have missed
1 Book launch party – Macbeth, the Holy Grail, and the Cauldron
It was while watching Orson Welles’ 1947 Macbeth that I first began to realise how Shakespeare has encrypted the (shocking) secret of the Holy Grail. In the subtext, Macbeth is the story of Satan’s rise to power and how his ambition-fear-pride-and-arrogance fulfilled the scripture and caused his own downfall.
2 Hamlet – golden thread
In contrast to Macbeth, in the subtext of Hamlet is the (even more shocking) story of how Jesus the Christ (Hamlet and Ophelia ) bring down Satan and reveal what the Holy Grail really is – and what it means for mankind. In this mind-blowing presentation, the focus is on the golden thread of mystical truth running through the scripture from Genesis to Revelation encrypted in the play! Did I just say that? Yes, it’s mind-blowing. Oh, I just said that.
3 Hamlet – there’s something about Ophelia
In this short conversation with an actress friend it reveals there’s a lot more to the role of Ophelia than meets the eye.
TMI? Yes, I know ‘too much information’!
So, if you want, you can keep this sheet on file and pick out bits at your leisure. Or I shall be resending various bite-sized chunks of it over the coming months.
Much love, light and sound.
Paul
PS, my main reason for doing this work is to engage in spiritually and intellectually stimulating conversations with kindred spirits.
If you fancy one, do please get in touch…
