Friendship, Fudge Shop and Foliate Man: The Perfect Day

Sue (Vincent) and I have always got on. We hit it off from Day One – meeting, as I recall, at Savio House for one of the SOL Gatherings (either GOL or RWP) four or five years ago.

Very quickly we discovered that we had much in common – not least, a love of writing and an earthy, nay coarse in my case, sense of humour. Many’s the rib-aching guffaw we have had since.

A while back, Sue suggested that we meet up to have a day out and to discuss the forthcoming Silent Eye weekend of Ritual Drama, entitled ‘Leaf and Flame:The Foliate Man’ and based, by all that is wonderful, around the story told in ‘Sir Gawain and the Green Knight’. Had I been in a position to fund myself back in 1979, this Middle English poem was going to be the subject of my M.A…

Friday January 25th was the day we chose – and Sue and Stuart, bless them, travelled all the way up to Bath so that I could, once again, indulge my motor-way-driving phobia and take a train!

The day was not promising: Spiteful rain hissing and spitting; cold as an entire coven of witches’ tits; wind revving up for a bit of minor collateral damage – you get the picture, I am sure.

Ah! But the sheer delight of seeing Sue and Stuart standing by the Pump Room waving! I immediately felt all chirped and cheered up, and a grin as large as that worn by a Hallowe’en Pumpkin slathered itself over my empurpled chops.

Now Sue – whose blog you should read, if you don’t already (http://scvincent.com/) – has already written a beautiful account of the day, with lovely photos to boot, and her post has been reblogged on here for you to enjoy.

What stood out for me on that windy, grey day in a local and most elegant city? Companionship, love, laughter, support, inspiration – and, yes, for the inner man and woman, food!

In many ways, we were all rather like naughty – or at least mischievous – schoolchildren let out for an unexpected adventure. There was something slightly illicit, and hilarious, about our trip to the Pump Room Privies, about the gusts of laughter which accompanied our Cornish-Pasty-Eating frenzy, about the visit to Bath’s famous Fudge Shop (which Sue has already mentioned in dispatches: quite right too!), about the occasional forays into outright vulgarity we shared during the day…

But, as we sat in two different pubs, and then stuffed ourselves full of cream teas in yet another wonderful Bath back street café, discussions turned to The Silent Eye School (of which Sue and Stuart, along with Steve Tanham, are co-directors and vast sources of inspiration) and to April’s ‘Leaf and Flame: The Foliate Man’ weekend – which I shall be attending, as I have all the others thus far.

I am not going to discuss the ritual content of our conversation, as that is confidential. However, our wide-ranging discussion upon the legend of Sir Gawain and his meeting/trial with both the Green Man, and Sir Bertilak (aspects of the same being) was in turn fascinating, healing and enlightening. I am sharing two important realisations I wrote about in my journal when I got home that evening:

‘The M.A I was not able to do on Symbolism and Chivalry in “GGK” is, in a sense, being transmuted into ritual gold through the Silent Eye’s alchemical process…’

‘The Beheading Game, so potent, so strange, was designed to bring the Knights of the Round Table up short: As Stuart said, it made them realise that, for all their strength and skill at arms, the one enemy they could not defeat was Death…’

Absolutely – and this realisation is, of course, one we all have to face eventually when the metaphorical Green Knight comes to test us.

We will not be able to defeat death – but, in the days, months, years and decades before we meet The Grim Reaper, we can, and I believe should, feast upon life as voraciously as we can: Laugh immoderately, eat wolfishly, love passionately, revel in our loved ones, give open-heartedly and without condition and appreciate fully the friendship, companionship and support of those who genuinely matter to us.

Thank you, Sue and Stuart, for a most delightful day!