Cardinal Cox, sometime laureate of Peterborough and all-round expert on weirdness, has produced another one of his celebrated poetry pamphlets. This one considers the snake-cults of the past, and perhaps the present, plus of course the biblical significance of the serpent, and Yig of the Cthulhu Mythos. The first poem naturally considers the Christian view of the snake as both wise and evil. Apparently a certain Gnostic Sect had a Book of the Serpent.
The wriggliness continues with poems on the Midgard Serpent of Viking lore, Quatzalcoatl (of course), and the beautiful Nagas of southern Asia. The tribute to the Nagas has a somewhat Swinburnian feel, with its imagery of a race living without poverty or violence, in harmony with nature's 'elder law of peace'. But he reminds us of their great power, which could 'cause to cease all life' if pesky humans get out of line.
The idea of sentient reptiles, very popular in some bonkers regions of the net, is examined in 'Doom of the Dragon Kings of Lemuria', which is a title and a half. King Cecrops of Greek myth and the Titanoboa that may lurk in the South American jungle offer sinuous pleasures, and then we find Ayida-Weddo of the voudu faith.
We find you in a Haitian back streetWe find you crowned in gold where four roads meet
We return to Europe for the snake-cult of Glykon, which I admit was a new one on me. Once you start looking for snakes, you find them everywhere. As always these poems are accompanied by superb footnotes that fascinate and inspire.
Fascinating and not at all slimy, this pamphlet is available to anyone who sends the Cardinal a C5 sae at his Gothic atelier:
58 Pennington
Orton Goldhay
Peterborough
PE2 5RB
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