The image of the cosmos according to the Hermetic Magus was nearly the same as the general world-picture of the medieval: the earth is bottom but center surrounded by the spheres of water, air and fire. Above the elements were the Ptolemaic spheres of the Planets, with the sun in the middle, then there were the spheres of the fixed stars, and above them the angels, and above them, god. As Yates points out: what is different in the two images is the position of man. In the cosmos of the Magus man is no longer "the pious spectator of God's wonders" but the operator of the universe itself. In Robert Fludds image "Nature and Art" - from his "Utriusque cosmi - historia" - man the monkey rises from the elemental to yank the chain of the celestial woman/world, who, in turn, yanks the chain which reaches beyond the angelic spheres directly to god. The monkey is "man's art by which he imitates Nature" and thus gains nature's powers for himself thru his mimicry. Fuckin' Monkeys. So the chains connect the base elements to the name of god thru which god may be controlled.

While Pooler & Skippy were in Italy the rest of Kenny La Roche installed the first Temple Bell - Sol - at Kejara's Bridge Cafe between Sutton's Bay and Leeland on the 45th Parallel. The piece is on consignment to the Celtic Girls who own & run the cafe. Our asking price for Sol is 3000 dollars. Iwojima made the finials for the verticals from copper while the Captain turned the wooden plugs which peg the verticals to the lintel and the finial which bisects the lintel and covers the bolt which holds the rock. Weeks after the installation, Kenny returned and replaced the original laminated plaques with the 4 carved plaques which you can see below.

Bruno saw the Copernican Revolution and its heliocentricity as the triumph of the original Egyptian Gnosis: the Priscia Theologica. Whether or not Copernicus himself understood the depth of his discovery, Bruno did. What Galileo and Copernicus had wrought thru their observations would return the sun to the center of divinity, Bruno surmised. It was the sun, Sol, who gave witness to what he hoped would be a kind of Egyptian Counter Reformation. Christ would have to budge and let the light of Sol rekindle the fire in the poor monkey's darkened soul.

Bruno was a Dominican monk. Skippy chortles at the irony. The Dominican Order was created for two reasons: as teachers, and as Sonderkomando to serve in the ranks of the Inquisition. Skippy says the two are actually one and that their similarity lies in the field of Propaganda and its enforcement. On a bright sunny Roman day, Bruno's statue stands in the shadows where the image of the cowled monk holding a big book is pregnant with what it has to say.

Doing Sol - the prototype for our 7 Temple Bells - has given us ideas for the modifications of the model; we plan to customize each of the Bells and its corresponding Planet and Metal. Sol, being number one, is basic, nearly crude. It's clean, and we like it for that. We have a suspicion that the last of the 7 Temple Bells will be much more complicated and tricked out. They will also be sold at a higher price because of that. Bruno fled the Dominicans in 1576 and his life of wandering began. Heresy was his problem and the fact that he stuck to his beliefs until they cost him his life shows the depth of his revelations. Giordano Bruno helped invent infinities and they cost him as much.