Temenos Academy Review 23

As reported in the last issue, this year saw the passing of Professor Keith Critchlow, who worked closely with Kathleen Raine in finding and maintaining the Academy. It contains the usual feast of scholarly articles, poetry and book reviews. An unpublished essay by Kathleen Raine asks if there is a normal society, partly with reference to our understanding of time. Andrew Frisardi contributes an excellent piece on Kathleen's prophetic vocation, tellingly quoting from her poetry, which articulates the emptying of the self in old age and maturity where the 'I' becomes an 'eye':

Who am I, who

Speaks from the dust,

Who looks from the clay?

Who hears

For the mute stone,

For fragile water feels

With finger and bone?…

Who out of nothingness has gazed

On the beloved face?

Other essays I enjoyed were Andrew Louth on Bulgakov and Russian Sophiology, Joseph Milne on Cosmic Harmony and the Sacred City, and Samuel Bendeck Sotillos with his very extensive treatment of Religion and Spirituality according to the Perennial Philosophy. The obituary of James Snowdon Barnett also contains some of his powerful poetry, and among the most interesting reviews is one of a new translation of the Enneads by Plotinus.