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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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