This review is by Jonathan Wood. Jonathan Wood is Editor and Publisher/Proprietor of Arbor Vitae Press/Parhelion Poetry Series, author of such works as ‘The New Fate,’ ‘The Delicate Shoreline Beckons Us’ ‘Ancient Cities,’ Curator of the eternal journal ‘Through the Woods’, and core member of David Parry’s Gruntler ensemble. London 23/02/2020
I’ve known David William Parry for many years now –nearly 24 years in fact and I’ve always been struck by the integrity and fluidity of his spiritual outlook, his sacred and profane Leif Motif if you will, and by the steely morality of his passion for the big questions and his challenging of all aspects of life. We have, with David Parry, a spiritual itinerant wedded to the notions of beauty and truth on the White Road. David is always there, mantle in place, recognisable and unrecognisable – a true ‘sacred monster’ in the best sense of the phrase, at home at the pulpit, at Speaker’s Corner in Hyde Park, illuminating the museums and galleries of our fair maid London, deep in hermetic composition, mastering the ceremonies as an magickal dramaturge MC or drawing from out the ether the spirits of writers and poets, both long alive and long dead, and some who are both. David is a seminal breaker of conventions and cultural moulds, and as a bishop, priest, dramaturge, poet, and performer, his legacy is confirmed in letters and in life. David is a man who breathes spiritual testament and personal testament and his latest book, ‘Mount Athos Inside Me – Essays on Religion, Swedenborg and Arts’ is a very weighty exposition, long overdue for a number of reasons, but then perhaps not long overdue, for things sometime manifest at the right time to stir the spiritual fug and the nests of conceit.
This is the time, this is the life, and this is the testament of David William Parry, published in an exceptional volume by Manticore Press, complete with its stunning cover painting ‘Prorok’ by Haralampi G. Oroschakoff, which draws the neophyte student of religion and the deep practitioner of thought into the robes of this wandering bishop of ancient and modern lore, with such resonant power that its depth is testament to the content. There is no face in this painting, no face is needed, and beyond the face, there is the understanding and the demands of spiritual challenge, in the concept and the reality of Godhead and God’s head.
The book is a series of wondrous essays, edited with great skill and aplomb by Daniele-Hadi Irandoost, complete with detailed academic research notes and a fine and insightful preface by Bernard Hoose, Emeritus Professor of Moral Theology at Heythrop College. To call it a ‘Table Talk’ is fair, but that would simply suggest that it has a very basic currency, where in actual fact, this distillation of spiritual, cultural and social thought seeks to transform belief, spirituality and the notions of its practice to a new and previously ‘unseen’ level; the level that is above pure recognition. The concept of Athos as both a geographic spiritual magnet, resonating for the past, present, and the future, is taken further until it becomes a holy construct of the individual in spirit and in place and in the Godhead. Precise and recognisable notions of spiritual movements become liquid and are melded together in the wholly justified arguments, points and counterpoints of David Parry. Each essay is like a beloved holy relic exposed to the air, that draws the reader into ‘Pilgrim Thinking,’ into eternal questions about what we gain from the mystics and the established social or spiritual paths and what we can gain if we lift the veil to see how they touch each other and how they merge. I was reminded of Robert Graves and his masterwork, ‘The White Goddess’ and of Joseph Campbell’s ‘The Man of a Thousand Faces.’
David brings forth the congruence of the old ways, the new ways and the great folk history of ours and other nations, the orthodox and the unorthodox and we are privileged to be introduced to new concepts such as ‘Quaganism’ which is borne of his own rich experience in philosophy, prayer, practice and thinking that it all makes ‘some kind of perfect sense’ because it wishes to push open the spiritual and social frontiers, so that new and positive notions of ‘self’ and ‘God’ and being-belief can shine through, like something from a Blake painting in its searching and judging permanence.
And in this superb volume, they do shine through and chatter and capture the imagination and the conscious and the subconscious mind until one cannot put the book down; until it becomes a holy thing for the individual. I have my copy on a shelf next to ‘The Secret Glory’ by Arthur Machen, and the mysteries and the truths complement each other between the covers. Emmanuel Swedenborg is a significant companion throughout this work and yet, his life and his writings and the extent of his experience and deeply analysed and matched by those of David Parry. I cannot articulate further, but only through writing, but I know the truths and recognise the light in extension that this book affords the reader. There is a pure congruence of Golden Dawn to be unveiled in these pages.
This work can justly be called ‘A Life Work’ or ‘A Life’s Work’ because it is such a personal testament, both accessible and inaccessible, the latter in the best way possible, because there are passages and thoughts that DEMAND the reader, the pilgrim, to search further into themselves and into the established notions of their spiritual stock so that they can understand. This volume is also an intellectual powerhouse of experience, opinion and thought and it is also this extra intellectual dimension that drives the book forward, until you begin to know the ‘Free Spirit’ that is beneath the robes so you can see the landscapes that the author has charted, both physical, spiritual and eternal.
Each chapter is ornamented by a wonderful quotation from Yeats, Shakespeare, the Sound of Music’, Arnold, etc. and as such demonstrates the author’s depth and range of his cultural appreciation. This is a man who can be as at home studying the magickal traditions of the British Music Hall or Russian drama, as much as he is at home at the pulpit or in front of a crowd. ‘Bare all, and you will gain the most’ – I’ve just invented that quote [?!?], and you should read this book and seek to bare all and to have it as your essential companion on the White Road as you journey to understand that which is tangible and that which is deeply intangible, until they become ‘ONE’ in the rich pageant that is life and learning.
I composed the introduction to David Parry’s ‘The Grammar of Witchcraft,’ and in a sense this ‘Athos’ holy book is a deep extension of this former work because the spiritual and intellectual struggles were laid bare in ‘The Grammar’ and have now become utterly mature and they adumbrate for us across what the author describes as ‘the spiritual geography of Britain.’ This is living spirit and not the meander and vagueness of Psychogeography.
I cannot add anymore, but merely emphasise that this testament is a distinct pleasure to read on so many personal, intellectual, spiritual, social and ‘blokeish’ levels that its conversational style, strength and its fortitude and its depth of meaning demand to be enjoyed and accepted into our spirits, so that we can all have the seeds and the grains and the stones and the elements to recognise and to build our own ‘Athos’ through the traditions, thoughts, philosophies, spiritual challenges, modernity, and hoary ancientisms, until there is a permanence that has the music of flowing streams and the chatter of the angels. From Caliban to the Grammar and to deeply-loved Athos, this is David Parry’s divine Labour of Love.
Mount Athos Inside Me by David William Parry is available here
