Bath

Before leaving Somerset, we spent a day in Bath, or Aquae Sulis, as the Romans called it. Before the Romans, the ancient Britons worshipped Sulis here — a life-giving mother goddess, guardian of the hot springs. The Romans merged Sulis with Minerva (who was also equated with the Greek goddess Athena, and is one of my favourite goddesses): deity of wisdom, music, poetry, weaving, crafts, magic, medicine, trade and commerce — kind of covering all options. Minerva-Athena is one of the daughters of Jupiter-Zeus, and is often depicted with an owl. The photo shows the Roman Baths at Bath, which have been impressively excavated, and are one of Britain's biggest cultural tourist attractions. In a bid to avoid the crowds, we arrived as soon as the doors had opened.

Overlooking the Baths is Bath Abbey, the Abbey Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul — which used to be a Benedictine monastery in medieval times. It has been heavily restored.

Detail from the Baths' upper southern wall, which are post-Roman. The older bits are the lower bits.

The world dies over and over again, but the skeleton always gets up and walks. HENRY MILLER. But this one ain't going nowhere. I'm sure he or she would rather stay in the glass case than being pushed and shoved by a million camera-wielding, smartphone-touting tourists. 

There's lots to see in the Roman Baths Museum. I think this carving was captioned 'Three Women', but I can't remember for sure. Perhaps it depicts the mythological Wyrd (Weird) Sisters, developed by Shakespeare as the Three Witches in Macbeth — though they don't particularly look like witches. On the other hand, they may be the Three Fates of Roman religion, the Parcae: Nona, Decima and Morta. Or perhaps they are simply three women with very round heads and very thin necks.

The partially reconstructed pediment from Bath's Roman temple of Sulis Minerva. Scholars think that the head in the centre is a Gorgon's head. Just to the right of the head, tucked into the corner, is an owl, symbol of Minerva.

The gilt bronze head of Sulis Minerva — probably from a statue of the goddess which stood in the temple. Only two other fragments of gilt bronze sculptures from Roman Britain have ever been found.

Pulteney Bridge over the river Avon in Bath, designed by Robert Adam and completed in 1774. It has shops along both sides of its span. I don't know about you, but what came immediately to my mind was the Ponte Vecchio in Florence. 

From the sublime to . . . well, the sublime. It's Ronnie Wood's guitar on display in the window of a Bath commercial art gallery! There were also his mate Bob Dylan's paintings for sale inside. 

A World Within This One

Hindus believe in a great soul or spirit, called Brahman, or God. Brahman has no shape or form and cannot be seen but is present in everything. Each of the thousands of Hindu deities represents an aspect of Brahman. From The Atlas of World Religions (2002) by Anita Ganeri

For days I've been haunted by the quote from Paul Éluard, the French Surrealist poet, posted recently on Old Girl Of The North Country's blog: There is another world, but it is in this one.

What better example of this truth than the life and work of the great visionary mystic William Blake (1757-1827).

Blake wrote: If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, infinite. He believed that mankind allowed itself to be bounded by perceptions, and that it is the unseen mind (or understanding or soul or spirit) that truly perceives - not the 5 senses. One could say that this mind or soul "looks through" the window of the 5 senses.

There is an "Internal" and "External" world, a "Within" and "Without", in every bird, beast, flower and insect, every living thing - and also in stones and rocks and all inanimate objects. The physical form of these bodies, which we perceive with our senses, is the "correspondence" or "signature" of the soul.

Blake turned these concepts into the myths which permeate his work - his poetry, his paintings and his drawings. Nature is seen as a "veiled" goddess. She is mythologized by Blake as the moon goddess, Vala. You can also find her in the figure of Persephone, who, according to the Greek myth, wore a veil for Demeter when she fell into Hades. The Roman Minerva and the Egyptian Isis, wife of Osiris, are other personifications of this veiled goddess of Nature.

Man falls in love with Vala, is deluded by the world of phenomenal appearances, and from this follows every evil of the Fall - a story resonating in the Biblical legend of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. The veil is the cause of war, materialism, all human vice and wrongdoing. The veiled face of the goddess is forever hidden from all but those few who have attained Enlightenment.

Blake also wrote: To me this World is all one continued Vision of Fancy or Imagination. Once more he's referring to another world intertwined with this world...

All such ideas and many more are discussed in the poet Kathleen Raine's erudite and exciting 2 volume work Blake and Tradition.