And All for Love, and Nothing for Reward. —Fortune Cookie, Chow’s, Santa Fe, New Mexico
Tonight is the Full Strawberry Moon. Of course, I have come to know the Spiritual power of Synchronicity. Last evening, I was dining at Chow’s in Santa Fe, and the fortune cookie contained the Chinese pronunciation of strawberry, cão méi. I thought of the full moon of June 3, 2023.
But, the quote on the fortune is what mostly caught my attention, so I brought it home with me. This morning, I looked at it again and decided to Duck Duck Go the verse.
The poet who penned this verse was Edmund Spenser, an English poet, 1552-1599, and is most famous for the multi-layered allegorical romance, The Faerie Queene, first published in 1590. I smiled at the further synchronicity that this was extracted from an allegory, as I am writing a book that is a Spiritual allegory about a failed romance and love.
Spenser said that the entire epic poem, The Faerie Queene, which references the adventures of the Redcrosse Knights (I wondered to myself upon reading this if this is Rosicrucian?), is “cloudily enwrapped in Allegorical devices,” and that the aim of publishing it was to “fashion a gentleman or noble person in virtuous and gentle discipline.” I quite love this ‘cloudily enwrapped’ wording, as it certainly describes my allegorical book, though my story line never resulted in a virtuous knight!
Further, I laughed to myself in learning that The Faerie Queene is typed as a “naive allegory.” The perspective of the characters in a “naive” allegory are not fully three-dimensional, for each aspect of their individual personalities and of the events that befall them embodies some moral quality or other abstraction; the author has selected the allegory first, and the details merely flesh it out.
That’s what I did with my memoir, Interior Design Mourning Design, a Spiritual allegory where I selected the Elements and Principles, the Design Judgment and Preservation of Interior Design to flesh out the details of Narcissistic Abuse.
Edmund Spenser’s verse comes from Book II of The Faerie Queene and is centered on the virtue of Temperance embodied in the character, Sir Guyon. Guyon swears a vow to avenge and protect, and on his quest starts and stops fighting evil and those knights who were tricked and subsequently meets Arthur, as in King Arthur. Finally, Sir Guyon resists temptation to violence, idleness, and lust, and provides rescue to the imprisoned. This is the short version of his valiance.
Interior Design Mourning Design does not contain such heroic because the male lead is the antagonist.
You’ll have to read it when published.
This is my story of my love of design. This is a memoir of believing in someone, his deception and betrayal, coming to know the Truth, and a return to Beauty and Order, a return to Love. Without the great duality of life, I never would have learned The Secret to the Universe.
They for us fight, they watch and newly ward,
And their bright Squadrons round us plant;
And all for love, and nothing for reward:
O! why should he[a]venly God to men have such regard?
Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, 1590 AD
—Kimberly B. Gray, Santa Fe, New Mexico. All Rights Reserved.
Kimberly B. Gray 