I arrived for my session on Monday afternoon to find Leonard in a very
animated state. The second that I stepped through the front door he scampered
off into the house like an excitable puppy and I found him frantically sorting
through a pile of books on the workroom floor.
“I have something for you…a late Easter gift…” he wheezed, quite out of
breath.
He pulled out a weighty black book and handed it to me. It was old,
battered and dusty and it had a strange symbol engraved on the front cover that
looked like a Greek majuscule omega character sitting atop a Latin cross.
“Is this for me?” I asked, rather
bemused as to why Leonard would choose such an ominous-looking book for an
Easter gift.
“Of course,” he answered and
then he leaned towards me and whispered cryptically, “an architect cannot build
his house without first feeling the weight of his hammer.”
I was puzzled by his strange reply
but I smiled politely and opened the book to explore its contents. The title on
the first page, written in Leonard’s distinctive calligraphic handwriting, read
‘The Omega Course’ and to my surprise I discovered that the book was entirely hand-written
and each page was decorated with Leonard’s elaborate drawings of exotic animals
and birds, bizarrely-shaped human figures and strange geometric patterns. I
recognised the script of a number of ancient languages – Greek, Hebrew, a few
Egyptian hieroglyphics – but some of the most incomprehensible sections were those
that were written in English; one entire page was simply a list of vowels written
in large capital letters! I noticed several short paragraphs with intriguing
titles such as ‘Dream Oracle’, ‘Charm for Success’, ‘Vessel Divination’ and
‘Spell for Revelation’ which suggested that the book was, from all appearances,
a book of magical rituals.
Still a little confused by
his choice of gift, I thanked Leonard profusely and as I closed the book a handmade
bookmark slipped out onto the floor. It was decorated with the same fantastical
drawings of strange creatures and he had written a message on the reverse that
read:
‘Call it an egg…Happy Easters…now and in all
your years ahead’
