Forrest’s Reviews > Prisms of the Oneiroi > Status Update

Ever contemplated choosing homelessness? I have (when it's warm out). In "What the Vagabond Sees or The Parish Coda," an entire society and cosmology is outlined for English Vagabonds, whose motto is "No Parish But Albion". If you know, you know.

I'll be referencing my Cotswolds trip in this review! Also referencing Grasscut's

I found "A Dialogue of Innocence with the Hidden Parish" deeply moving. First, it created a deep psychogeography of a particular house seeping with sadness, longing for company. I thought of my parent's home, but more of that at a later time. I also thought of my own childhood and the deep impressions of place I felt.

Locker, you clever, clever man. "The Jasmine Tear" is a story worthy of a Twilight Zone episode, which is one of the highest compliments I can give to a short story. The koummya, the djinn, the deal with a demon, and the treasures of the Maghreb - this is worthy of Musiqa al-Ala; a masterstroke of storytelling that will stick in my mind until the Last Day (or fifty years, whichever comes first)!

"In Search of the Wild Staircase" is an epistolary story in the vein of Harper's magazine travelogues from the late-19th- and early-20th-centuries, albeit with a folk horror twist. That twist is set on its head, though, as it is implied, at least that The Church is the source of the frisson. The story ended a bit too hurried for me, but it's still a very solid work. I'll never look at Liechtenstein the same again.

Locker displays his acumen for ethnography and mythic studies in "Sea Salt and Asphodel," a story of dreams, prophecy, and the cycle of life and death. The depth of immersion here just has to be experienced - I can't describe it. Suffice it to say that this tale is told in such a way that one feels at one with the others presented in the story. The reader feels a part of the tale, such is the attention to detail.

"The Secrets of Saxon Stone" was a delight to read, and I am not being facetious. Daimons abound, the the psychogeography of the region portrayed is reflective of the spirits that not only dwell there, but are interwoven into its very fabric. This is like Dunsaney, but without the pedantics that sometimes overween his work. This is mythical and approachable, lending familiarity to the representation of the divine.

While reading Prisms of the Oneiroi, I am using a Winterthur Poison Book Project bookmark. The irony of reading "The Temple Consumes the Rose," which features a green book by Sar Peladan, is not lost on me. I might also be tempted to consume such a book, if I was to be rewarded the visions of Latoure, even if it cost me my life. Such is the price of true art. A moving occult tale.

"Corfdrager" examines one of my favorite enigmatic pieces of art, Bruegel's "The Beekeepers and the Birdnester" as a catalyst for the narrator's encounter with his family's past and his own inheritance via a seemingly academic investigation. One wonders, by the end, if the academics aren't the most horrific aspect of the story. The dive into apiary lore is more sinister and more irresistible than one might imagine.

I've been waiting to read this one for a while. So glad that Martin signed this copy for me!