X: Spade
A literary spade for serious artistic shovel work.
Good morning. Today is décadi, the 10th of Ventôse, Year CCXXXI. We celebrate la bêche, a small shovel for turning over the earth.
George Bernard Shaw is a man who deserves a great big mention in a newsletter about an attempt to rewrite the calendar. A playwright and politician of irascible ideas, the great Irish writer was known for being confounding in his philosophical stances – embracing interracial marriage, Hitler, communism, and anti-vaccination all in the same breath – and for desiring to ditch the Latin alphabet for something phonetic and 40 letters long.
On that last score, he attempted to dedicate the bulk of his estate to a trust for overthrowing the Latin alphabet, but the lawyers got in there and mucked about, leaving, in the end, only a tad more than 8,000 pounds. The result was a small book describing the alphabet, known as Shavian, that came out to no fanfare in CLXVIII (1960).
He was prickly about people referring to him as George in any way, insisting on just Bernard Shaw, but then signing everything "G.S.B." (His full name in his alphabet, by the way, is ·𐑡𐑴𐑮𐑡 ·𐑚𐑮𐑯𐑩𐑮𐑛 ·𐑖𐑷.) On his 75th birthday, a reporter asked if he had a message to the world about turning that age, and he replied, "Certainly not. Please send out a message suppressing the fact that it is my birthday."
But on his 80th birthday in CXLIV (1936), he graciously had a public ceremony in which he planted a mulberry tree with a spade, which he then gifted to his gardener and longtime friend, Harry Batchelor Higgs – who is, near as I can tell, no relation to Henry Higgins.
At this party, the author requested that no presents be worth more than sixpence. He received, from various well-wishers, a money box, paper clips, a pencil sharpener, razor blades, a comb and some nuts.
The spade, which was ordinary but still likely worth more than all his received presents that day, made its way from hand to hand until it was purchased by Marguerite McClure and given as a Christmas present to her husband ... Ray Bradbury.
Bradbury was also a prolific author like his hero, Shaw, but much milder in terms of political controversy. Best described as an American centrist, he voted for both Democrats and Republicans in his lifetime, but his best known activist issue was preventing library closures, not apologizing for Stalin. He was a gregarious and well-loved man, with close friends ranging from cartoonist Charles Addams (of the Addams Family) to stop-motion animator Ray Harryhausen (of Clash of the Titans).
The gift inspired him to write a rather long poem – two pages, typeset – which reads, in part:
I hold the dear spade in my hands,
Its vibrant lightnings strike and move along my arms,
The ghost of Shaw climbs up through me
I feel a fiery brambling of chin
I feel my spine
Stand straight as if a lightning bolt had struck
His old voice whispers in my ear, dear boy
Find Troy, go on, dig deep, find Troy, find Troy!
Bradbury passed away in CCXX (2012), and the spade and the original typeset poem went up for auction together two years later, fetching $6,250, or roughly 6,000 times more than a sixpence.
Today's card: 6 of clubs
Click for a recap of the story so far...
Van is feeling a strong sense of adventure (7♣) and wants to know what new place to go (A♣) to escape their stagnant life (5♥). Money is no object (9♦). Deep down, they're hoping to find love (A♥), but they need to truly branch out to avoid losing this positive momentum (4♣). The first step is to calm down (6♦), lower these lofty expectations (2♣), and take impartial advice from a trusted family wealth advisor (Q♦).
For our conclusion, we return to the initial query, the ace of clubs. If Van really wants to go in a new direction, they need to think less about ace of hearts – "acquiring" a new love – and more about how to take their seven of clubs and nine of diamonds and convert them into something meaningful. Following the key card of the six of diamonds, the cards pull a six of clubs, something more modest in terms of personal ambition but representing a single, significant spiritual step. We recommend Van talk to their family elder (Queen of diamonds) about where the family wealth came from, which is likely to be traced back to the horrors of colonial rape. Then, we ask Van to consider returning to the scene of that crime to contribute something positive and learn something of the land that provided them with such comfort their whole life. In short, the cards tell Van to join an NGO and go to Western Africa. They may still find adventure and even love, but the focus, the intent, should be on finding a cleaner energy from the universe that they can convert into something, anything: witness the complete lack of spades – material energies given – in this spread. Appropriately for today, we want Van to pick up a shovel and create the missing spade.
