Claves Regni Caelorum
On actor Gregory Peck, who died Thursday, June 12, 2003:
"He had early success in 'The Keys of the Kingdom,' in which he played a priest."
As Peck noted in a videotape played at his memorial service June 16,
"As a professional," he added, "I think I'd like to be thought of as a good storyteller; that's what's always interested me."
June 16, besides being the day of Peck's memorial, was also Bloomsday. My entry for 1 PM on Bloomsday, a day celebrating the Ulysses of James Joyce, consists of the three words "Hickory, Dickory, Dock." A comment on that entry:
"I prefer the Wake."
The following, from the Discordian Scriptures, provides a connection between the Bloomsday mouse and the Wake of patriarch Gregory Peck.
Hickory Dickory Dock
Hickory, dickory, dock!
Here we are on higher ground at once. The clock symbolizes the spinal column, or if you prefer it, Time, chosen as one of the conditions of normal consciousness. The mouse is the Ego; "Mus", a mouse, being only "Sum", "I am", spelt Qabalistically backwards. This Ego or Prana or Kundalini force being driven up the spine, the clock strikes one, that is, the duality of consciousness is abolished. And the force again subsides to its original level. "Hickory, dickory, dock!" is perhaps the mantra which was used by the adept who constructed this rime, thereby hoping to fix it in the minds of men; so that they might attain to Samadhi by the same method. Others attribute to it a more profound significance — which is impossible to go into at this moment, for we must turn to:
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall….
The Bloom of Ulysses has a certain philosophical kinship with Yale literary critic Harold Bloom. For material related to the latter Bloom's study of Gnosticism, see Chaos Matrix. For the conflict between Gnostic and Petrine approaches to religion, see Poul Anderson's Operation Chaos.
From an account of Peck's memorial service:
"Mourners included… Piper Laurie…."
OK, he's in.
