Raisins and almonds - Poisoned Pen Press (UK)

Kerry Greenwood
plate of biscuits, and Simon laid out the Hebrew notes and the
strange pictures on vellum. They looked at them for some time
in silence. Phryne saw a white bird rising out of a black cage, a
red-robed woman crowning herself with gold, and a face perhaps
of the moon with the subscription ‘Luna’. In the middle of the
flames, brilliantly red and gold, a small pale couple lay, crowned,
limbs entwined, clearly making love. Phryne looked at the tiny
female face blank with ecstasy and fought down a pang of lust.
‘This is alchemy,’ said Yossi. He touched the picture of the
copulating couple with one hardened forefinger. ‘This is the
mating of the Golden King and the Silver Queen, which is sun
and moon. You see, there are their names.’ He pointed out ‘Sol
et Luna’ in the margin of the brightly coloured painting. ‘I don’t
know what this is about.’ He laid aside a list, in Latin, and a block
of dark Elizabethan printing. ‘But this relates to the Kabala.’
‘How do you know?’ asked Phryne.
The stooped young man replied, ‘These are verses which
point to it. “Immitens formas et influxus in Jacob sive subjectum
Hominen”, which means “Letting forth shapes and influxes into
Jacob or else the subjected man”. Jacob means Israel, and there
is the tree. But this is Christianized, not the original Hebrew
Tree of Knowledge. That is fortunate, because I would not have
been able to talk to you about our own sacred mystery, but this
is possibly medieval, no later than renaissance, and I think it is
part of the angel magic practised by such as John Dee.’
He smoothed the delicate painting with his work-ruined
fingers. There was a supine naked man at the bottom of the
page. From his genitals grew a tree, and each branch carried a
globed fruit in which Hebrew letters and a Latin or Greek word
or phrase was written. Perched on each branch was a creature: a
dove or a raven or a snake. Crowning the whole was a king on
a throne wearing the most magnificent purple robes.
‘What does it mean?’ Phryne asked.
Yossi sighed. ‘Lady, that is the study of a lifetime, of many
lifetimes, and I have only one and also a living to earn. But since
I am begged by my friend Simon, I will tell you this much. The