Episode Five O-vertures I believe in magic, which, in the last analysis, is quite simply the power of materializing the imagination in reality. Salvador Dali, August 1942 Olivia's first communiqué to the Fournarinas was an overture based on her own childhood that set the stage for the present inquiry concerning a man of mystery named Salvador and his even more enigmatic Russian wife, Gala: Born of a Tree in Catalonia.... That's the song I used to sing as a kid...and when I think that Dali was still alive then, that I might have met him if I had only known he existed, I want to weep. But I was ten years old, just a little girl...dreaming of flamenco and suits of light, meeting an angel in my backyard, teaching my dog Scruffy how to prance like a show terrier at Westminster. Living in a delightful fantasy world on a farm the world knew as Peyton Place ~ a mystical house that had known much sorrow; I like to think my family brought it Life. And in the dining room my mother Posh placed a copy of Dali's Basket of Bread ~ my initiation into the Societe Secrete du Pain! So how did a child born into a sheltered, white bread world come to dream of André Segovia, the alchemical white stallions of Lippazan, ancient mythology, Coco Chanel, the Gothic cathedrals - why did she yearn to bake baguettes when the other kids made brownies from mixes? Why did Gustave Moreau's paintings at the time seem to her the most magical in the world...why 35 years later did she stumble across a print of Salome Dancing Before Herod by that same artist that Dali termed : the invisible quantum of Gustave Moreau - and - at the same time - a dear friend was writing a novel about the life of Mary Magdalene, an unorthodox story featuring a very interesting spin on John the Baptist's nemesis? And why had that same friend just returned from Paris where the Gustave Moreau Museum made a Persistent mark upon her own Memory? Perhaps she'll tell us, when she's ready...perhaps we'll both talk about that, the Dali Tarot and more. Perhaps Dali painted Mary Magdalene's swollen belly being impregnated by nails for a reason - perhaps Salvador knew more about Saviours than even he was telling.... Soon enough, the three new members of the Order responded, each revealing an aspect of their individual esoteric expertise. Madame 22 had indeed chosen wisely, and Olivia was able to turn her attention once more to the Dali opera, Etre Dieu, while she waited for the dough to rise....    Text Copyright © 1999 - ad infinitum cybersybils.com. All rights reserved.