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1887 visits 1987
Heliocentric XIX
They almost bumped heads, both lost in concentration looking at the painting, under powerful spells of Awe.
The flowers cut, drying out — mere hints of green, yet the blooms ablaze with golden petal flames.
Wow — look at the date; the coincidence continues, she said — one hundred years ago, Van Gogh signed it,1887! They both held up the books they were holding and smiling, simultaneously saying: Golden Dawn!
Just a week ago they had been at a used bookstore and after she made her selection — All Hallows’ Eve by Charles Williams, based on an October sensibility, he decided, somewhat vaguely theme-related, on something he’d always meant to read: Dracula by Bram Stoker.
The year 1887 came up last evening, when she was looking up Charles Williams online and they discovered that he and Bram Stoker, along with Aleister Crowley, had belonged to the occult organization The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn — which was formed that year.
At the museum cafe later she continued her research on her cell phone.
No more mystical connections, she winked, but an interesting perspective in that Van Gogh was painting his dazzling sunflowers the same time that Boris Karloff, Georgia O’Keeffe, and Chico Marx were entering the world. Reminds me of a story…
