short trip into the Bible - warning: extreme geekiness
Some years ago, I attended two days of courses with RJ Stewart in NYC. The first day was on the spirit cord, which was interesting, but did not stick with me. The second day, on Fiona Macleod, was another matter. Little lights of possible connections kept going off as we read and meditated on the material. One in particular was the short heretical How Deep Knowledge Came to the Child Jesus. I've written on this and a parallel story from PL Travers, but to summarize a wise old desert king tries to teach the child Jesus something new. He only succeeds when he blows a (green) blade of grass that imparts the green mysteries to Jesus and in the process of invoking those mysteries turns the old man young again. When he returns, his shining eyes are so disturbing that his people bury him in pit. The parallel Hasidic story from Travers has a child (named Green) who by angelic carelessness knows everything and so disturbs the village that he is cast out into the desert.
At the time, my immediate thoughts were that this was related to the Thomas the Rhymer ballad wherein after 7 years in the land of the fae, Thomas returns clothed in green and able to only tell the truth. Unlike the previous two stories, this is an extremely profitable undertaking and Thomas dies a rich man. What I had not considered, was that the stronger parallel was to Joseph, son of Jacob.
Joseph, described by Muhammad as being given half of all the beauty of mankind, tells his brothers his prophetic dreams which come down to Joseph being their ruler. They dump him in a pit and sell him as a slave to some traveling merchants. After a series of misadventures, Joseph's prophetic abilities are recognized by the Pharoah and he becomes overlord of all of Egypt, eventually ruling over his brothers and father when they come to Egypt for grain.
I started down this path from, of all sources, the Huffington Post.religion blog. One article was Recognizing God's Messengers: Why we Baha'is Commemorate the Martyrdom of the Bab. Knowing nothing about Baha'i (whose star symbol is today's userpic), I clicked on the link and began to read the history of the Bab, one of their first prophets. Apparently, one of the innovations that the Bab (meaning "gate" or "door") brought forward was a deeper understanding of Joseph who shows up in both the Koran and Genesis. One of the primary tenets was that there were a succession of messengers/guides who would come and they would not be recognized and would be persecuted. At some time in the future, they would be recognized and their religious teachings would advance humanities understanding.
Why then would William Sharp/Fiona Macleod make an obvious reference to the story of Joseph? Perhaps he/she was describing inner guides at the personal level. It is a leap, but Sharp's own inner guide Fiona was the green source of his writing. Whether she was fae or his soul is another matter.
At the time, my immediate thoughts were that this was related to the Thomas the Rhymer ballad wherein after 7 years in the land of the fae, Thomas returns clothed in green and able to only tell the truth. Unlike the previous two stories, this is an extremely profitable undertaking and Thomas dies a rich man. What I had not considered, was that the stronger parallel was to Joseph, son of Jacob.
Joseph, described by Muhammad as being given half of all the beauty of mankind, tells his brothers his prophetic dreams which come down to Joseph being their ruler. They dump him in a pit and sell him as a slave to some traveling merchants. After a series of misadventures, Joseph's prophetic abilities are recognized by the Pharoah and he becomes overlord of all of Egypt, eventually ruling over his brothers and father when they come to Egypt for grain.
I started down this path from, of all sources, the Huffington Post.religion blog. One article was Recognizing God's Messengers: Why we Baha'is Commemorate the Martyrdom of the Bab. Knowing nothing about Baha'i (whose star symbol is today's userpic), I clicked on the link and began to read the history of the Bab, one of their first prophets. Apparently, one of the innovations that the Bab (meaning "gate" or "door") brought forward was a deeper understanding of Joseph who shows up in both the Koran and Genesis. One of the primary tenets was that there were a succession of messengers/guides who would come and they would not be recognized and would be persecuted. At some time in the future, they would be recognized and their religious teachings would advance humanities understanding.
Why then would William Sharp/Fiona Macleod make an obvious reference to the story of Joseph? Perhaps he/she was describing inner guides at the personal level. It is a leap, but Sharp's own inner guide Fiona was the green source of his writing. Whether she was fae or his soul is another matter.