Samhain 2015

The London Chapter of Pagan Church celebrated Samhain on the 31st of October. We ingested around mid-day and then ensconced ourselves into the upper level front of the #11 bus. This alone is one of the best tours of the city. We headed past the Duke of York’s Headquarters with unbelievable lines of people waiting to see Mademoiselle Privé at the Saatchi Gallery, around Sloane Square, through Pimlico, past Victoria, along Victoria Street to Westminster Abbey and the Houses of Parliament, but then along Whitehall and next to the Horse Guards Parade, the traffic stalled. For us, nothing mattered. We were comfortably seated, the visuals were completely entertaining, and the cakes were doing their thing. It appeared that Trafalgar was closed for some reason – perhaps a demonstration, and the bus diverted to the Embankment along the Thames. And suddenly we were being offered a panoramic treat of the City and the South Bank expanse of new skyscrapers embracing the sun sparkling waters of the river – a route that the bus never takes and from an elevated view that we had never previously had. In short it was spectacular.

We finally cut back in near the Temple Underground station, passing the Student Union building of King’s College London as well as the surprising half-block gaping hole where a modern hotel had stood next to the Union building. We circled the Aldwych and continued down Fleet Street and up Ludgate Hill to where the bus ended on this occasion next to St. Paul’s. Behind the Cathedral, we looked in the church yard gardens for the oak tree that Prince Charles had planted a decade or so ago, but no remnant of the tree is now to be found. A mystery. For years I had wondered why, while there is just about everything else, there was no oak tree at this ancient and holy – one of the holiest in London – site. Finally, there was one. Now there is not, and the closest are the three oaks on Canon Street past the fountain and pool of the Festival Gardens beyond St. Paul’s Churchyard. Is this a deliberate absence?

We walked on along Threadneedle Street, past the Royal Exchange, had cappuccini,  visited the Leadenhall Market built over the original site of the Roman forum and the old Lloyds Building, designed by Richard Rogers, and eventually reached Tower Hill. In all, this was our psycho-metaphorical communion with our departed loved ones. I realized as well that to understand Christianity is to understand its deep and deliberately engineered antipathy to paganism. This antipathy operates as a much more active and conscious force than it otherwise today may seem. The obscene ghoulishness of Daesh descends from the same antipathy but stands as an infinitely greater pathetic contrast to the technological beauty and miraculousness of the Western city. Whether we agree with or even like this technical achievement, it is nevertheless a profound confirmation and instance of human ingenuity. I find it purely amazing and virtually incomprehensible.

While there is our overwhelming chaos with its unhappy world torn by division and incompatible difference, we manage nevertheless to continue our Epicurean pursuit of pleasure. This last included the Celtic Art exhibition at the British Museum, a performance by the Werther Ensemble of Messaien's End of Time Quartet at the Conway Hall, Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk at the ENO, The English Choral Classics concert at the St. James’ Church in Paddington, the retrospective of Coco Chanel at the Saatchi, the Jean-Etienne Liotard portrait painting pre-opening at the Royal Academy, the Parallax Art Fair at the Chelsea Town Hall, the “Sound House” concert featuring 'Strange and Ancient Instruments' as well as Francis Bacon at Eamonn and James’ in Brockley, and times with Meg, Eamonn & James, Pennell and Roger, Conway, Chloë, Peter, Penny and Hamish. It has been delightfully full, but yesterday for me at least was the realization that what we are looking for are emerging patterns of meaning within the all-embracing chaos that surrounds us. If one needs to ask why, I think it is because the time has come in which paganism is needed more than ever.