Sun enters Aquarius

Celebrating the Sun entering the zodiac sign of Aquarius for the fifth billionth time. 

It was the Swiss psychologist C. G. Jung  who stated -  'As we all know, science began with the stars, and mankind discovered in them the dominants of the unconscious, the "gods," as well as the curious psychological qualities of the zodiac: a complete projected theory of human character'.  [1]

The archetype of  the zodiac sign of Aquarius the Water-Bearer is said to symbolize humanitarian idealism, self-sacrifice and service to others. However, C. G. Jung  chose to devote several years study on its adjacent sign Pisces and its relationship to Christianity,.

Aquarius is one of the four signs of the Fixed Cross of astrology; the other three being Leo the Lion, Taurus the Bull, and the Scorpion (substituted with an Eagle, perhaps because the insect was unknown outside of Europe). These zodiac signs were adopted by Christianity, perhaps as early as 400 CE by Saint Jerome as emblems of the four evangelists with Christ's sacrificial role represented by Taurus, Royalty by Leo, an all-encompassing view of humanity from a great height by Eagle/Scorpio and the combined human and angelic form of Aquarius. The Christian tetramorph is a superb example of how symbols can drastically change over long stretches of time.

In his essay on the Paracelsus, C.G. Jung sketched the psychological element of the Zodiac thus-

'He beholds the darksome psyche as a star-strewn night sky, whose planets and fixed constellations represent the archetypes in all their luminosity and numinosity. The starry vault of heaven is in truth the open book of cosmic projection, in which are reflected the mythologems i.e. the archetypes. In this vision alchemy and astrology the two classical functionaries of the psychology of the collective unconscious, join hands'. [3]

Jung was a learned and erudite scholar of comparative religion who, far from debunking astrology observed- 

The sought-for Mercurius is the spiritus vegetavius , a living planet, whose nature it is to run through all the houses of the planets i.e., the Zodiac. We could just as well say through the entire horoscope, or, since the horoscope is the chronometric equivalent of individual character, through all the characterological components of the personality. [4]

 Jung interpreted the human psyche's relationship to nature thus-

'All the mythologized processes of nature, such as summer and winter, the phases of the moon, the rainy season, and so forth, are in no sense allegories of these objective occurrences; rather they are symbolic expressions of the inner, unconscious drama of the psyche which becomes accessible to man's consciousness by way of projection - that is, mirrored in the events of nature'. [5]

In Nature, the water-bearing cloud and the magical transformation of water into frost, snow and ice can be considered as representing Aquarius. 

In the arts, numerous writers, often with a humanitarian and social reforming agenda, such as Charles Dickens for example, are represented by the sign, as well as the downright eccentric, such as Lewis Carroll, also exhibit Aquarian traits. The music of the composers Mozart, Schubert and Delius, along with Philip Glass and Frank Zappa all have strong Aquarian traits, as do the curious triumvirate, all of whom were born on January 27th, each possessing strong positive and negative Aquarian psychological traits, namely, Lewis Carroll, Mozart and Leopold von Sacher-Masoch. 

Due to its ethereal nature, Aquarius is said to be as much prone to mental illness as experiencing flashes of inspirational genius. Aquarian interests may be said to include anything unusual or odd, such as electronic music, for example. Humanitarian and secret societies are also said to be under the domain of Aquarius, as is the central nervous system, along with the realm of psychic phenomena and the esoteric in general.

One dictionary of symbols defines Aquarius as follows-

All Eastern and Western traditions relate this archetype to the symbolic flood which stands not only for the end of a formal universe but also for the completion of any cycle by the destruction of the power which held the components together.....Consequently, Aquarius symbolizes the dissolution and decomposition of the forms existing within any process, cycle or period; the loosening of bonds; the imminence of liberation through the destruction of the world of phenomena. [6]

Another source defines Aquarius thus-

The inner substance of this zodiac type is fluid, light. ethereal, volatile, limpid, transparently spiritual and, so to say, angelic. It comprises the gift of indifference to self together with serenity and self-sacrifice, friendship and concern for others. [7]

In world political affairs it is also often when the sun is in the zodiac-sign of Aquarius that the Presidential Inauguration of the American President, as well as the delivery of the President's State of the Union Address occurs, along with World Holocaust Memorial Day on January 27th.

The archetype of Aquarius is that of the herald who proclaims a new world order based upon the principle of a united humanity. The best and worst aspects of Soviet communism can be seen in introducing and implementing such an idealized society. In modern times the archetype of Aquarius continues to exert a living influence upon the human psyche in new forms of communication in mass society. Television and the computer-age are good examples of Aquarian developments of science and technology. Nuclear and Atomic energy may also be interpreted as resultant of the Aquarian archetype.

A fine example of religious symbolism and the study of comparative religion, in conjunction with a description of the glyph for Aquarius, occurs in Sir Thomas Browne's highly-compressed essay of hermetic phantasmagoria, The Garden of Cyrus.

he that considereth the plain cross upon the head of the Owl in the Lateran Obelisk, or the cross erected upon a pitcher diffusing streams of water into two basins, with sprinkling branches in them, and all described upon a two-footed Altar, as in the Hieroglyphics of the brazen Table of Bembus; will hardly decline all thought of Christian signality in them. [8]

It is of course impossible to definitively list all the psychological traits and characteristics associated with each of 12 quite distinct zodiac archetypes of the human personality. Perhaps in the future, the zodiac sign of Aquarius will revert to a mundane, rather than an esoteric meaning. If, or more likely when, the world's resources are even less secure than at present, maybe the simple act of freely sharing the life-giving element of water, without discrimination towards unknown others, viewing all life-forms as complete equals, may  hopefully be realized in this archetype.  

Notes

[1] C. G. Jung Collected Works vol 12. 246

[2] Aion : Researches into the phenomenology of the self - C.G.Jung  Vol. 9 i pub. 1959 RKP  

includes-

VI.    The Sign of the fishes p. 72 -95

VIII.  The Historical Significance of the Fish p.103

XI.    The Ambivalence of the Fish Symbol p.118

X.     The Fish in Alchemy p. 126

XI.    The Alchemical  Interpretation of the Fish  p.154

[3]    Essay on Paracelsus CW 15

[4]   CW 14: 298

[5]   CW 9  i  7 

[6]  A Dictionary of symbols   J.E. Cirlot

[7]  Dictionary of symbols Penguin  ed. Chevalier

[8] Athanasius Kircher's Oedipus Egypticus 3 vols. 1652-56 includes an engraving of the Bembine Tablet of Isis is alluded to twice in The Garden of Cyrus  pub. 1658 .

Hewitt plays Beethoven

I recently attended a concert at the Theatre Royal in Norwich of Angela Hewitt (above) accompanied by the Britten Sinfonia, performing not one, but two Beethoven piano concertos.

Established over 20 years ago and based in Cambridge, the Britten Sinfonia are now the foremost chamber orchestra of the East Anglian region. The evening's performance was a first for several reasons. Departing from her usual repertoire of Bach, for which she is justly famed, it was not only the first occasion in which Angela Hewitt performed and conducted a Beethoven concerto, but the programme itself was a first, for myself at least, of hearing two piano concerto's on the same evening. By performing Beethoven's early C major concerto on the same evening as the maturer G major concerto, one could hear the vast development made by Beethoven in his composing of piano concerto's.

Although it opens with a typical short heavyweight balletic flourish, the influence of Mozart's piano concerto's is detectable throughout Beethoven's second concerto. Indeed, Beethoven admired Mozart's D minor concerto (K.466) enough to write a cadenza for it which is still performed today.While Beethoven's second piano concerto (in fact his first due to the timing of its publication) was distinctly imitative of Mozart's piano concerto's in both scope and emotional expressiveness, the fourth, in contrast is a fully-fledged mature work by Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827).

Composed in 1805-6 at the same time as Beethoven was also working on the Fifth symphony, the Violin Concerto and the first version of the opera Fidelio, critics have described the Concerto number four in G major opus 58 as one of the most beautiful piano concerto's in the repertoire and as a tone-poem of rare delicacy and feeling. There's an extremely enigmatic theme in   the first movement which is haunting and unforgettable upon hearing. The second movement of the fourth, which Ms. Hewitt in a generous pre-concert talk earlier in the evening described as Beethoven's 'Orpheus' moment, alternates between a harsh, strident opening phrase in the strings and a gentle phrase by the piano. The strings and piano's dialogue, which is likened to Orpheus pleading with the forces of the Underworld for the return of his Eurydice, resolves in a calmed, pacified mood. However, on this particular night of performance it was somewhat marred for those sitting at the rear of the Circle by an elderly women who erroneously imagined Beethoven had scored her voice to utter the words, 'Wonderful thing'  long before the eventual tranquillity of the music had died away.

Speaking of audiences, 99% of which did behave in a manner acceptable to the concert-hall, I could not but notice that although the theatre was almost full, there was hardly  anyone to be seen under the age of forty on the evening. In an age of instant gratification and short attention span, few young people these days seem able to either embark upon training the ear to listen to classical music or have the discipline to sit still and listen for more than a few minutes. This is tragic for several reasons. The music of masters such as Bach, Mozart and Beethoven is the spiritual inheritance of Western civilization which contains a wealth  of profundity, grief and deep joy. The ability to sit and listen  in order to understand emotions expressed by the great masters bodes ill for present-day society for several reasons, not least in nurturing empathy for other's feelings, as well as appreciating the emotional sensibility of past era's.

There's a certain precision, lightness of touch and expressiveness in Ms. Hewitt's piano-playing which makes hearing her perform a constant delight. Her playing in the lively final movements of both the second and fourth piano concerto in the evening's programme exemplified these qualities. Like her Canadian predecessor the maverick Glenn Gould, Angela Hewitt is famed for her interpretative insight of Bach's music on the piano. I remember the revelation of hearing her perform a Bach concerto on her favoured Italian Faziola manufactured piano at the Norwich Festival many years ago. Angela Hewitt has now successfully added further strings to her bow, both in repertoire and interpretative insight, in her conducting the Britten Sinfonia. 

There were two shorter pieces of music in the programme, both of which I was unfamiliar with. Both worked as effective back-drops in mood to the Beethoven piano concerto's. Although the music of Wagner seems to have influenced almost all composers following him including Debussy, Rimsky-Korsakov and Sibelius, try as I might I have never really enjoyed listening to this composer. Wagner's instrumental work Siegfried Idyll however came some way towards redeeming the composer to my ears and there was some fine French horn playing in the short work. Although well-acquainted with large chunks of the repertoire for orchestra, I had not heard the Sibelius Scene with Cranes before either. Scored for strings and two clarinets the interlude was typical Sibelian fare. Elegiac and slightly gloomy in Nordic mood, the two pieces accompanying the Beethoven piano concerto's were well-suited in framing an overall atmosphere to the evening and showcased the Britten Sinfonia's abilities.

One last grievance. Although Norwich prides itself on its cultural treasures, it does not have a designated concert-hall, hence the evening's performance was held at the Theatre Royal. Norwich has an important place in the history of music-making in England, its now annually-held Festival is the oldest surviving music-festival in the country. However, given both the current economic climate and the lack of interest in Classical music by most aged under forty, I cannot see how this lamentable lack of concert-hall facilities can change in the foreseeable future. The Theatre Royal certainly does work as a host for a chamber orchestra the size of the Britten Sinfonia, some thirty-odd players, but not for many more musicians on stage. However on the evening the  music-making of the Britten sinfonia and  the wonderful piano-playing Ms. Hewitt fitted each other like hand in glove.  All in all  a most enjoyable evening of music, an imaginative programme and an opportunity to hear a performer of World-class calibre.

There are numerous video clips of Angela Hewitt playing Bach. This is just one of many to be found on Youtube.

Cyrus Cylinder

The Cyrus cylinder has been housed at the British Museum in London since its discovery in Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq) in 1879. Adopted as a symbol by the Shah of Iran's pre-1979 government, it was on loaned display in Tehran in 1971 to commemorate 2,500 years of the Iranian monarchy. 

The baked clay tablet which measures 22 centimetres in length has an Akkadian cuneiform inscription upon it is disputably the first ever declaration of human rights which includes the lines-

I am Cyrus, king of the world, the great king, the powerful king, king of Babylon, king of Sumer and Akkad, king of the four quarters of the world.

Cyrus the Great, the ruler of ancient Persia who lived circa 580-529 B.C was the first Zoroastrian Persian Emperor and the founder of an empire without precedent— a world-empire of major historical importance.

The Persian King who defeated the Greeks is praised in the Bible and by the Greek historian Xenophon in his Cyropaedia, an idealized account of his education. To the Greek historian Xenophon (circa 431-355 BCE) writing over a hundred years after the death of Cyrus, King Cyrus was a model ruler and an ideal 'philosopher King' who possessed the triple merits of Warrior-Ruler, Priest and Philosopher.

The religious tolerance of Cyrus is demonstrated by the fact that under his rule he freed the Jews and allowed the temple at Jerusalem to be re-built. He is mentioned in the Biblical books of Ezra, Ezekiel and Daniel, but it was the prophet Isaiah who developed the role of Cyrus as a messiah-figure. In Isaiah 45: 1-4 one reads-

The Lord has chosen Cyrus to be king! He has appointed him to conquer nations;.... to Cyrus the Lord says "I myself will prepare your way...I will give you treasures from dark, secret places, then you will know that I am the Lord, and that the God of Israel has called you by name. I appoint you to help my servant Israel...I have given you great honour, although you do not know me...I will give you the strength you need, although you do not know me. (Good News Translation).

Cyrus is the only non-Semite in the Old Testament to be called the Lord's Anointed and the Lord's Shepherd. A more prosaic reason why Cyrus liberated the Jews may simply be because as a follower of the monotheistic religion of Zoroastrian he was naturally sympathetic to the monotheism of the Hebrews.                                                              
                                                 *

Few literary critics have ever asked this question - why was Cyrus of such significance to Sir Thomas Browne as to entitle his 1658 Discourse The Garden of Cyrus after the Persian shah? Remembering historically that in 1649 Oliver Cromwell had ordered the execution of King Charles and abolished the rights of Kings, Royalists such as Browne believed England to be devoid of true, enlightened government; Browne's nomination of Cyrus to entitle his Discourse represents his own ideal of the perfect Ruler and is a thinly-disguised critique of Cromwell and his proto-Republic. To Browne's deeply-held Christian faith King Cyrus was a Redeemer figure who restored tolerant, God-given rule and freed those oppressed from the rule of tyrant or unjust government. This is the primary reason why Cyrus, alongside Solomon, the patriarchs Moses and Abraham, Alexander the Great and the Roman Emperor Augustus are named in The Garden of Cyrus  - as examples of the archetype of 'the wise ruler'. For Browne, living in the uncertain times of the Lord Protectorate of Cromwell, (1649-1658) King Cyrus embodied the ideals of the enlightened ruler. Thus the garden of delights rapturously discoursed upon by Browne is one which anticipates the return of an enlightened, humanitarian government; an aspiration which many in British society hold at present.

The Garden of Cyrus (1658) is in many ways a highly experimental and unique literary work. Among its varied motivations is an attempt to demonstrate the existence of the archetypes. Indeed one of the first examples of the word 'archetype' along with 'prototype' in English language can be found in the Discourse.

Alchemical authors such as Browne often found inspiration and amplification of their proto-psychology through Greek and Roman myths. In fact the very opening page of The Garden of Cyrus cites an alternative Creation myth to the Bible, the Greek myth of the Creation as recorded in the Fabulae by Hyginus.[1]

That Vulcan gave arrows unto Apollo and Diana the fourth day after their Nativities, according to Gentile Theology, may passe for no blinde apprehension of the Creation of the Sunne and Moon, in the work of the fourth day; When the diffused light contracted into Orbes, and shooting rayes, of those Luminaries.

Astute scholars of comparative religion such as Browne constantly stressed the shared common heritage and harmony which originally existed between world-religions. Though little acknowledged Browne was in fact the first western author to make note of the religion of Zoroastrianism. There can be little doubt that the Cyrus cylinder would have fascinated the worthy Norwich physician-philosopher, both as an archaeological discovery and as a significant artefact of world religion. In addition to strictly adhering to its tenets, Browne, as his highly original proper-name Biblical symbolism suggests, recognised the Bible as a rich source of psychological and archetypal material. As C.G. Jung reminds us-

We must read the Bible or we shall not understand psychology. Our psychology, whole lives, our language and imagery are built upon the Bible......The statements made in Holy Scripture are also utterances of the soul....they point to realities that transcend consciousness. These entia are the archetypes of the collective unconscious.

Books consulted

The Bible and the Psyche - Individuation Symbolism in the Old Testament by Edward F. Edinger 1986 Inner City books

Xenophon - Cyropaedia Forgotten Books 2008

Jung quote cited by Edinger from 'The Visions Seminar'  vol. 1 p.156

[1] 1711 Auction Sales Catalogue page 13 no. 35  Hyginus Fabulae Paris 1578

Wiki-Link  Cyrus Cylinder

Translated text of the Cyrus Cylinder

Winter scene with skaters

Two contrasting faces of Winter to end the year with.

In the Dutch painter Frederick Marinus Kruseman's Winter scene with skaters many characteristics associated with later nineteenth century Romanticism and its idealized view of Nature as a benevolent and beautiful phenomena are present. The fun of the winter sport of ice-skating performed in a setting of scenic snow and ice against a backdrop of a spectacular castle and a dramatic cloudscape, all warmly coloured, are featured in Kruseman's romantic painting.

Paintings of winter scenery and landscapes are a peculiarly Dutch genre. Begun in the Renaissance by Jan Bruegel and developed by Hendrick Avercamp (1585-1634) the crowded scenes of Dutch winter paintings give strong clues as to the high density of the Netherlands population during the century which saw the zenith of Dutch ambitions, establishing an overseas Empire and in European cultural influence.

I've a sinking feeling however that a certain painting  from the seventeenth century, the Golden Age of Dutch art by Jacob van Ruisdael (1628–1682) may in the light of this year's economic and environmental woes, today exert a greater resonance to a large percentage of society than the sweetness and light of Kruseman's romantic painting.

In Jacob Ruisdael's painting's nature has a far less benevolent relationship towards humanity. In Winter Landscape I (1670) the sky is uncompromisingly gloomy and threatening, while in its foreground something has occurred which is rarely depicted in winter scenes, yet which invariably must happen to those skating, a person has fallen down onto the ice. To the credit of Ruisdael he has also depicted an onlooker expressing  an awareness of common humanity, dashing to assist the unfortunate faller. 

Although now more than ever we all appear to be skating upon the thin-ice of the world economy and climate, may I take this opportunity to wish all visitors to this blog a Happy Xmas and a New Year full of the rosy-cheeked, cheerful optimism of the above painting, with little of the black gloom of Winter as depicted below.

Crome Yellow

Aldous Huxley's first novel Crome Yellow (1921) is a dazzling display of wit which satirizes the follies and foibles of post world-war society. It established Huxley's literary name and anticipates in its themes, setting and didactic dialogue, subsequent literary works written in the 1920's decade by the English novelist and essayist.

The template of Huxley's early novels resembles those of the Victorian novelist Thomas Love Peacock (1785-1866) whose Nightmare Abbey (1818) and Crotchet Castle (1837) involve a gathering of a variety of characters in the setting of an ancestral manor. Once arrived, the various guests are used as voice-pieces to represent differing view-points and outlooks on life. By setting the main action within the walls of a castle or ancestral Hall, the 'English country house' approach to novel-writing, the novelist gives rein for characters to inter-act with each other and their view-point is satirized, often mercilessly, sometimes with hilarious effect, as in Peacock's dialogue novels. 

In Crome Yellow, Dennis, a would-be-poet searching for the meaning of life, visits the ancestral manor of Crome as a guest of Henry Wimbush and his wife. Once there he encounters several other guests, each representing a specific point of view, these include his hostess Priscilla who is fascinated with 'spiritual vibrations' and casts horoscopes of racing horses and football teams, the hedonistic painter and bon-viveur Gombrich who has aesthetically developed beyond abstract painting, and the journalistic-cum-mystic Mr. Barbecue-Smith who is capable of writing hundreds of meaningful aphorisms on life before breakfasting.

Throughout the novel topics such as the place of women in the modern world, sex and morality, art and the role of the individual in society are humorously touched upon, while event's witness the protagonist's increasing indecisiveness in love. In some ways early novels such as Crome Yellow and Antic Hay read not unlike an highly intellectualized version of a P.G.Wodehouse novel; over time however, the formula of P.G. Wodehouse's country house novels portray a fossilized English world, far removed from the realities and changes in the world.

The serious and deteriorating situation of the world in politics and economics during the 1930's obliged Huxley to take a less light-hearted approach to novel-writing to debate on humanity and its future, in particular humanity's relationship to science. Anticipating the theme of Huxley's later novel Brave New World (1931) its the cynical and slightly sinister Mr. Scogan in Crome Yellow who speaks of -

an "impersonal generation" of the future that will "take the place of Nature's hideous system. In vast state incubators, rows upon rows of gravid bottles will supply the world with the population it requires. The family system will disappear; society, sapped at its very base, will have to find new foundations.

Huxley's Brave New World retains its power to shock and challenge the reader and its mood of prophetic doom remains thought-provoking.

In his 1994 introduction to Crome Yellow, the English novelist Malcolm Bradbury (1932-2000) and co-founder with fellow novelist Angus Wilson (1913-1991) of the prestigious MA Creative writing course at UEA, Norwich,  stated -

For the fact is that, though there is personal satire involved, Crome Yellow, like any good book, easily transcends all its first stimuli. The characters become unmistakeably Huxleyan, just as their world of obsessive ideas becomes the means for the author to analyse a time when chatter does not disguise despair, people all live alone in their own individual worlds of story, and all lives, as Denis comes to see, are parallel straight lines...................................The comic novel of ideas is one of the treasures of British fiction, not always sufficiently appreciated. Crome Yellow is one of the modern classics, which is why, well after its time, it can go on being read with complete delight and pleasure. [1]

Although I've now read and re-read a fair percentage of Huxley's novels over the decades (see book-shelf bottom of page) Crome Yellow was the first novel I've ever read on a Kindle. It's a gadget which would have appealed to Huxley who suffered with poor eye-sight throughout his life, giving it as the main reason for migrating to California in 1937. I don't doubt that Huxley would have viewed a the Kindle reader as an example of how science and technology has transformed the lives of millions in the twentieth century. Huxley himself suffered from poor eyesight, but had he lived to witness its invention, he would with little doubt enthused over the Kindle reader's ability to enlarge its reading font.  

A few tenuous connections may be indulged and noted between Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) and Sir Thomas Browne. Both literary figures share a reputation of being leading intellectuals of their day who were capable of discoursing upon metaphysical questions in a bold and original manner. Both authors also had a penchant towards mysticism and are sometimes termed as mystics themselves. It's quite likely that Huxley read Browne, as he was in vogue during the 1920's due to attention received from Virginia Woolf and members of the Bloomsbury group. It's even possible that in terms of literary style, Browne may have influenced Huxley in his use of parallelisms, that is, stating the same thing twice within a single sentence in a variant manner, it's a literary technique found in the writings of both authors.

Aldous Huxley, like Browne before him, also took an interest in drugs. His essay on his empirical psycho-nautical experiments with mescaline, The Doors of Perception (1954) has now acquired a near legendary cult-status. All that Huxley attempted to articulate upon the transcendent may however be succinctly summarized in the lyrics of the song Tomorrow never knows from the Beatles album Revolver (1966)  in the line - It is not dying. 

It's interesting to note in passing that it was due to Browne's early interest in what is now known  as the medical fields of psychology and psychiatry, that the word 'Hallucination' was introduced into the English language. More recently, the eminent neurologist Oliver Sacks (b. 1933) discusses the psychological implications of medical case-histories such as phantom limbs, the bereaved sensing the presence of a deceased partner, synaesthesia and his own psycho-nautical experiments in his new book Hallucinations (2012).[2]

Of far greater interest, there seems to be some kind of play on words in  the title of Huxley's first novel. The colour chrome yellow, as it is correctly spelt, was first discovered by Louis Nicolas Vauquelin in the mineral crocoite (lead chromate) in 1797. Chrome Yellow became available as a pigment for oil-painters around 1816 after the cessation of the Napoleonic wars. Aldous Huxley has in all probability, rather slyly one suspects, conflated the fictitious setting of his first novel and the surname of an English painter with the technical name of a colour pigment.

The founding father of the Norwich School of Painters, John Crome  (1768 - 1821) was inspired by the natural beauty of the Norfolk landscape and painted several master-works, some of which are set in urban riverscapes. In his late work Late Afternoon on Norwich river circa 1819, John Crome draws the viewer's eye to the centre of his painting through colour. At the  painting's centre  a young woman seated at a boat's stern can be seen wearing a fashionable early Georgian dress. The colour of her dress, a bright chrome yellow, as painted by Crome, is reflected in water.

Finally, just as the composer Sergei Prokofiev's death was overshadowed by the dying on the  same day as Joseph Stalin, so too Aldous Huxley's death was overshadowed for on the 22nd of November, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated.

Notes
[1] 1994 Introduction by Malcolm Bradbury to Crome Yellow pub. Vintage Classics 2004
[2]  Hallucinations - Oliver Sacks - pub. Picador Nov. 8th 2012