Potestate quam Daemones habent intelligendi.

The title page is as good a place as any to start.

Foucault's Pendulum falls into ten parts named for the sephirot, commencing at Keter, finishing at Malkut. Though it is not quite that straightforward, because nobody could be so immersed in Borges as Eco and not engage in some 'serpent-swallowing-tail'.

I have always loved the version of the Tree of Life in the book, but have never tried to trace it until this afternoon (being the Equinox), and the weekend of Yom Kippur. An image search led me to a copy of 'De Divinis Attributis quae Sephirot ab Hebrais nuncupantur eisudem; De Causis Antipathias et Sympathiae Rerum Naturalium, eisudem de modo et potestate quam Daemones habent intelligendi, ac commouendi conceptus animae, passionisque appetitus' (Venice, Dominicum de Farris 1589) of Caesar Aevolus, or Evoli, in an online catalogue for an auction held in 2003.

On the path between Netzach and Hod is a menorah and the Ark; from Chokmah appear rays, or a cast shadow; in the reproduction in the novel, it is perhaps not clear whether this is a blemish, but in the original it is clearly deliberate.

Julius Evola haunts the novel in a variety of ways; I doubt Eco chose Ceasre Evoli's illustration by chance. I'm not aware of the link ever being made before.

I take this as a blessing on our enterprise.

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A Journey to the Moon

Viaje a la Luna 1 White bed on a grey wall. Across the bedclothes a dance unfolds 13 & 22. First two, then more till they cover the bed like ants. 2 The bedclothes are torn off the bed by an invisible hand. 3 Big feet run fast in black and white lozenged socks. 4 A frightened head gaze fixed on a point dissolves into a wire head against a backdrop of water. 5 Letters help help help double exposure a vulva moving up and down. 6 A long corridor traversed by the machine a window down the end. 7 A view of Broadway by night. 8 Dissolve to previous scene. 9 A pair of legs swing quickly. 10 Legs dissolve into a mass of trembling hands. 11 Trembling hands double-exposure a weeping child. 12 The weeping child double-exposure the woman who beats him. 13 Fade to the long corridor camera moving backwards fast. 14 At the end wide shot of an eye double-exposure a fish dissolving into what follows. 15 Falling fast through a window letters double-exposed in blue help help . 16 Dissolve...

From 'Fable and Round of the Three Friends'.

When things in their clarity shattered among the daisies I realised they'd murdered me. They searched the cafes, the graveyards and the churches, Stove in the casks and cupboards, Smashed three skeletons for their gold teeth. Still they couldn't find me. Couldn't they find me? No. No, they couldn't find me. But they say when the Sixth Moon rose with the tide suddenly! the sea remembered the names of all the drowned.

I could tell Mr. Printer - if I dare be so bold - that he had more Tongue than Wit.

Dipenidion - Nich. Take of Penidies, two ounces; Pinenuts, Sweet Almonds blanched, White Poppy seeds, of each three drams and one scruple; Cinnamon, Cloves, Ginger, juice of Liquoris, Gum Tragacanth and Arabic, White Starch, the Four Greater Cold Seeds husked, of each one dram and a half; Camphire, seven grains; White Sugar, so much as is sufficient. Make it into a powder, and with Syrup of Violets you may make it up in form of an electuary. I could tell Mr. Printer - if I dare be so bold - that he had more tongue than wit, when he made that Apology at the latter end of the College's masterpiece; for at the last sentence of this receipt, here are certain words left out, and amongst them the principal verb, which how gross an error it is, I leave to the consideration of every scholar who is able to translate a piece of Latin into English. It helps the vices of the breast, coughs, colds, hoarseness, and consumptions of the lungs, as also such as spit matter. You may mix it with any...

Paul Summers Young

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