Sussex Coils and Loops, Paul Holman (Scarlet Imprint)
A magical, exploratory work of folklore, psychogeography, legend and the mystical landscape, Sussex Coils and Loops finds Paul Holman wandering South East England in search of the serpents who live in the ground, the water and the memories of the community.
Saints, sacred and occult objects, forests, earthworks and the bottomless pools where serpents known as Knuckers locally live, are all subjected to poetic and literary investigation and are the site of ritual actions undertaken by Holman pre- and post-covid. Holman is no naif though, sometimes he debunks and explains source material, invented rituals and events, even as he invents his own small interventions and private happenings at sites of personal importance, or undertakes revisitations and re-enactments:
Now it I who tread
the outline of Saint Leonard’s
star upon the paths of the forest
(‘It’s Gloomy Mazes Often the Theme’)
This is a world where serpents can become dragons can become the devil, where christianity and paganism blur, and charms, amulets, magic and mass serve the same protective purpose. In a similar manner Holman does not differentiate between flights of fancy, emotional responses and bibliographic and linguistic study: he is as interested in human reactions as how stories, words and language come into being, mutate and are interpreted.
But he is not precious The cover glyph turns out to be a map of a motocross track, and he considers computer games alongside church guides, clearly derivative and invented modern events alongside faded inscriptions on forgotten walls and gravestones. His creativity and interpretation is genuinely catholic, engaged and highly readable. This is a 21st century explorer divining his own histories, creating his own shrines from a tesserae of obscure facts and unlikely material, and placing them in appropriate points of power, even as he questions himself and established texts and interpretations.
Holman allows the coils and loops of religion, folklore, history, nature and the landscape to coil and loop around him, knowing these serpents cannot harm him. He is not afraid, his eyes are wide open, he embraces the magic and illusions he discovers and creates, shares it with us and moves on.
The hermit casts his malediction upon them, and departs
through the silent wood.
(‘Strange, Yet Now a Neighbour to Us’)
This book is a reliquary, the sacred remains of a contemporary pilgrimage along overgrown paths illuminated by the coloured light of stained glass windows and the creep of solstice suns.
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Rupert Loydell
More Information about the book can be found here.
(This review was first published in Litter magazine)
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