""""I am a Mistress of Spices. I can work the others too. Mineral, metal, earth and sand and stone. The gems with their cold clear light. The liquids that burn their hues into your eyes till you see nothing else. I learned them all on the island. But the spices are my love. I know their origins, and what their colors signify, and their smells. I can call each by the true-name it was given at the first, when earth split like skin and offered it up to the sky. Their heat runs in my blood. From amchur to zafran, they bow to my command. At a whisper they yield up to me their hidden properties, their magic powers. Yes, they all hold magic, even the everyday American spices you toss unthinking into your cooking pot. You doubt? Ah. You have forgotten the old secrets your mother's mothers knew. Here is one of them again: Vanilla beans soaked soft in goat's milk and rubbed on the wristbone can guard against the evil eye. And here another: A measure of pepper at the foot of the bed, shaped into a crescent, cures you of nightmare. But the spices of true power are from my birthland, land of ardent poetry, aquamarine feathers. Sunset skies brilliant as blood. They are the ones I work with."""
6 comments:
I loved this book when I read it in the mid 90s (I think). I wrote a poem that grew out of it called "Convert" which to this day remains one of my favorites. I remembered the energy from it, but the 2nd time I read it, I didn't like it as much. Guess I was in a different space. Books are like that. I kept it thought. Someday I will read it a 3rd time and see what I think.
see what you mean...I would reread the first part of the book...I think it's the best one...and stop before she leaves her shop...
Mousie
This sounds an interesting book; I am off to put pepper in a crescent at the foot of my bed.....I hope I don't sneeze.
sent a reply about rereading just the first part of the book (I agree) - and it bounced...so just stopping by to say, indeed, I agree that the first part of the book was amazing and then she seemed to lose the myth and it wandered around all over the place.
This sounds a fascvinating book, I must try to find a copy and read it - maybe at the library since there seems to be a soupcon of doubt about it on second reading:)
Have tried twice to respond to your email (Finding Water and Julia Cameron) but for whatever reason it bounces! Just wanted you to know that I'm not ignoring you! Do you have another email?
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