Mystical Realms Newsletter for December, 2011
Jef
A blessed and happy Advent to you all! Welcome to my newsletter for
December, 2011. Please feel free to forward this to anyone you think
would be interested in keeping up with me! To receive these
newsletters regularly, please drop me an email or subscribe online
from my website (http://www.JefMurray.com ) or at:
http://groups.google.com/group/Mystical_Realms . Notices of events and
items of interest are at the bottom of this email.
Pitchers ===============
IMPORTANT! We are getting down to the wire on 2012 Jef Murray/ALEP2
Fantasy Calendars, and don’t expect our stock to last into the New
Year! These have become an international hit, and have now been sold
in the USA, Canada, England, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, and the
Netherlands(!). This 2012 calendar is in full colour, is loaded with
painted images from Middle-earth, “Easter Egg” dates graphically noted
that correspond to significant events in Middle-earth history, moon
phases, plus most major holidays.
If you have not ordered a copy, please do so sooner rather than later,
as we may actually run out(!). You can get your copy at www.JefMurray.com
.
Ponderings ==============
We have advanced into Advent. Beckoning us are dream-swept, dusky
dawns that drive leaves and devour daylight. A hushed holiday; corn-
husked and bare beneath the arcing torch of Arien.
I’m marking all things new this Advent. I blame Brego. For a full
season now I’ve ridden rather than driven the tangled turns to Emory
each morn. It’s scary on a scooter; not because I fear falling, but
because astonishment reins when no barrier comes betwixt me and fleet
reality. Flying through forests at forty, I feel sting of frost and
smell damp of coming rains. Rocks ricochet and twigs tap my helmet as
I hurl through murky mists.
When I stop and silence Brego’s engine, I hear the drip, drip, drip of
dew from dun branches. Stirrings around me startle on the pathless
patch of grass before the library: squirrels, sparrows, satyrs,
selkies…even seraphim. Wafting clouds curl and plume pearl pink;
branches creak and chipmunks sneak.
There is, in fact, much to recommend riding. We live, seems to me, in
lockers with portals peering out and about at creation: in cars,
condos, trains and planes. Even at home, we reckon through rectangles
as we watch TV or ponder portraits. G.K. Chesterton said that “art
consists of limitation. The most beautiful part of every picture is
the frame.” But is the same true of reality itself? Do we protect
ourselves with Plexiglas and plod purblind through Paradise?
In the movie They Might Be Giants, George C. Scott, transfigured into
Sherlock Holmes, speaks to us somnambulists: “I think if God is dead
he laughed himself to death. Because, you see, we live in Eden.
Genesis has got it all wrong. We never left the Garden. Look about
you. This is paradise. It's hard to find, I'll grant you, but it is
here. Under our feet, beneath the surface, all around us is everything
we want. The earth is shining under the soot. We are all fools.
Moriarty has made fools of all of us.”
And so it would seem. We are walking in Wonderland, but we’ve become
accustomed to our customs. Advent should, instead, be a time to
tipple; an invitation to intoxication. We need a lightning bolt to
drive away dullness and propel us into J.R.R. Tolkien’s Perilous
Realm. We need to heed St. Francis de Sales; we must make ourselves
familiar with the angels “and behold them frequently in spirit; for
without being seen, they are present….”
I fear that all of us are fallen; and one of the fruits of that fate
is muddy minds. Where we should see sanctity and glistering glory, we
espy instead empty suits and foundering follies. We search for the
sacred but discern only dross…unless we awaken. But waking is painful.
“Not yet!” we cry, fumbling to disarm the alarm. Yet, like Wally Shawn
contemplating the tobacco shop, if we could properly perceive that
which encompasseth us, we could not help but be lightning-bolted.
Cold air on bare hands betokens yet another morning of motoring.
Christmas lights wink as Brego and I pass by. The foul smell of felled
Gingko fruit sears nostrils; but for this moment at least, I’m awake,
alive, aware.
I wish the same for you and yours as we seek the solstice and descry
the horizon of yet another fresh New Year. And I pray for the coming
of Him who will truly make all things new….
Nai Eru lye mánata
Jef
Prospects ===================
• The Middle-earth Network ( http://middleearthnetwork.com ) is
fast becoming the “Go To” place for news about Tolkien-related events
and for discussions on the social network, http://mymiddle-earth.com/
. There are interviews, contests, postings of artwork and music, plus
Middle-earth Network Radio, which plays Tolkien and fantasy themed
music 24/7. There is also the Mythgard Institute, which is offering
online college level courses on fantasy topics. Tune into the Middle-
earth Network for discussions, audio book broadcasts, and other great
news and features!
• Related to the above, one project I’ve recently been involved
with is the creation of the audio book broadcasts of George
MacDonald’s delightful “The Princess and the Goblin”. Once the audio
book broadcasts have concluded, you can purchase the entire series of
installments online. In addition, we hope to develop an illustrated
printed and eBook version of the book!
• The Return of the Ring 2012 (see http://www.returnofthering.org/)
will be a huge Tolkien-themed conference and gathering at Loughborough
University on 16-20th August, 2012. I am delighted to have been
invited to appear as a guest of honour at the event and am looking
forward not only to sharing my paintings and sketches, but also to
participating in panels and presentations. You can book reservations
now online.
• Tolkien biographer Joseph Pearce and I collaborated on an EWTN
TV special on J.R.R. Tolkien that is now available on DVD. The
production includes dozens of my illustrations of Tolkien’s The Lord
of the Rings, and it focuses on the Catholicity of Tolkien’s magnum
opus. You can order the a DVD of the show at:
http://www.ewtnreligiouscatalogue.com/TOLKIEN+S+LORD+OF+THE+RINGS+A+CATHOLIC+WORLD+VIEW/shop.axd/ProductDetails?x=0&y=0&keywords=Pearce+Tolkien&edp_no=22609