My Double Life 2: A Rainbow Over the Hills

First published by O-Books, 2015

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Text copyright: Nicholas Hagger 2015

ISBN: 978 1 78099 714 8

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Books published by Nicholas Hagger

The Fire and the Stones

Selected Poems

The Universe and the Light

A White Radiance

A Mystic Way

Awakening to the Light

A Spade Fresh with Mud

The Warlords

Overlord

A Smell of Leaves and Summer

The Tragedy of Prince Tudor

The One and the Many

Wheeling Bats and a Harvest Moon

The Warm Glow of the Monastery Courtyard

The Syndicate

The Secret History of the West

The Light of Civilization

Classical Odes

Overlord, one–volume edition

Collected Poems 1958 – 2005

Collected Verse Plays

Collected Stories

The Secret Founding of America

The Last Tourist in Iran

The Rise and Fall of Civilizations

The New Philosophy of Universalism

The Libyan Revolution

Armageddon

The World Government

The Secret American Dream

A New Philosophy of Literature

A View of Epping Forest

My Double Life 1: This Dark Wood

My Double Life

Our structure is very beautiful. DNA can be thought of roughly as a very long chain with flat bits sticking out…. The beauty of our model is that the shape of it is such that only these pairs can go together.¹

Francis Crick, Letter to his 12-year-old son on the

double-helix structure of DNA, 19 March 1953    

‘Double’ (adj): consisting of two, usually equal parts; having twice the usual size, quantity or strength; having two different roles or interpretations (Concise Oxford Dictionary). And: consisting of two combined; forming a pair, coupled; acting in two ways at different times (Shorter Oxford English Dictionary).

*

The vision of unity

Graeco-Roman bronze of the Titan Atlas holding the unified world, showing Africa misshapen (in accordance with the geographical knowledge of the Graeco-Roman time), by a sculptor who grasped that the earth is round. (See pp.539, 759, 864.)

A Rainbow over the Hills

I can’t think of any other person on this earth who could take nearly 5,000 years of writing and unite it with a single overarching vision, like a perfect rainbow.

Charles Beauclerk, letter to Nicholas Hagger about

A New Philosophy of Literature, 26 May 2012

"We sit in a small boat which dips in a high

Sea against the tide and, the sun behind, flips wet.

All huddle under oilskins to keep dry

But I, salt on my cheeks, ignore each jet

And think of how I breast a tide each day

And sometimes glimpse a vision as I go.

I look and see a rainbow in the spray,

An arch in the flicking foam of a glimpsed rainbow!"

Nicholas Hagger, ‘Staffa: Wind’, 1984

"The hills are shadows, and they flow

From form to form, and nothing stands;

They melt like mist, the solid lands,

Like clouds they shape themselves and go."

Tennyson, In Memoriam, CXXIII

***

To the memory of Ted Hughes, who wrote I read your books with a sort of automatic assent and I’m sure you’ve seen a genuine historical pattern and law; to Christopher Ricks, who witnessed the long-drawn-out birth of my literary Universalism; to John Hunt, who immediately grasped the unity behind seven disciplines and the seven bands of my rainbow; to the literary authors, philosophers and historians to whom I described the unity of the universe as I toiled within the seven hills; and again to my family, and in particular to Ann, who travelled with me.

CONTENTS

Table of Contents

Author’s Note

PART ONE

Towards the Shimmering Rainbow

1.   Through a Mist of Unknowing: Dark Night of the Spirit and Infused Powers

Episode 1:      Remarriage and Comprehensive Education

Episode 2:      Lyric Poetry and Administration

Episode 3:      New Powers and Dogmatic Authority

2.   Ordeals of Independence: Trials of the Dark Night, Battles against Communism

Episode 4:      Baroque and Egalitarian Socialism

Episode 5:      Vision and Subversion

Episode 6:      Universalism and Expansionism

PART TWO

The Unitive Way: the Seven Hills of Achievement

3.   Arrival in the Hills: the Unitive Way

Episode 7:      Metaphysical Poetry and World History

Episode 8:      Philosophy and Practical Mysticism

Episode 9:      Autobiography and International Politics

4.   Hard Slog: Contemplative Works

Episode 10:    Epic and European Culture

Episode 11:    Verse Plays and Tudor Knots

Episode 12:    Classical Odes and Utopianism

5.   Final Ascent: Unitive Vision

Episode 13:    Collected Literature and Secret History

Episode 14:    Order and Terror

Episode 15:    Internationalism and Localism

Rainbow

Epilogue: Rainbow over Hills

Episodes, Structure, Pattern and Unity in Double Lives

Hagger family tree

Timeline

Appendix

1.  Light: 77 experiences of the metaphysical Light or Fire, Mystic Lives, a Dark Night, Unitive Life; and whole life extracts

2.  Collected Works

3.  Innovations

4.  Visits: visits by Nicholas Hagger to countries/places

5.  Europe: paper, The European Resurgence

6.  The New Baroque Vision

7.  FREE: paper on FREE (Freedom for the Republics of Eastern Europe

8.  Warning: Times leader based on Scargill the Stalinist?

9.  World Anti-Terror Summit

10. International Politics: Nicholas Hagger’s championing and initiatives

Notes and References

Bibliography/Reading List

Index

Table of Contents

Summary of the story through section headings

Part One: Towards the Shimmering Rainbow

1. Through a Mist of Unknowing: Dark Night of the Spirit and Infused Powers

Episode 1: Remarriage and Comprehensive Education

I start as Second-in-command in English Department at Henry Thornton School. Jim Doolan, Head of English. Lyric poems, influence of Roman poetry. ‘In Marvell’s Garden, at Nun Appleton’. The Gates of Hell: Catullus and Ovid. Idea of ‘The Night-Sea Crossing’. The Pilgrim in the Garden: Elegies 1–10. Sale of Flat 6, 33 Stanhope Gardens and purchase of Flat 5, 10 Brechin Place. Wedding: I marry Ann. Interview for new job. New flat: move to 10 Brechin Place. Poetic technique. Satire, The Fountain. Stress metre. ‘The Night-Sea Crossing’, final version. New stress metre. Leaving Henry Thornton.

Episode 2: Lyric Poetry and Administration

I continue writing lyric poems: Elegies 11–20. Satire, The Garden. I start as Head of English and Senior Teacher at Garratt Green School. Birth of Matthew. Elegies 21–23. Two Dark Nights. The Gates of Hell. ‘The Flight’. I share a room with a nun: illumination and nuns. Outpouring of lyric poems: volcanic eruption. ‘The Four Seasons’. Second Dark Night leads to the Unitive Way. Poetic forms. ‘Lighthouse’. Idea of ‘The Weed-Garden’. Idea of ‘The Labyrinth’: odes. ‘The Weed-Garden’: culture and civilization. Sonnets. World history: Toynbee. Overworked at Garratt Green. Christening of Matthew in High Beach church, Epping Forest. Finishing ‘The Weed-Garden’. Idea for epic poem: Overlord. ‘The Labyrinth’. Whispers from the West. At the D-Day beaches for Overlord. ‘The Fall of the West’. The West must toughen its attitude to survive. Kingsley Shorter on the Light. Visit to Wandsworth prison: Hell, Balcombe-Street terrorists Harry Duggan and Joseph O’Connell. Interested in Harbour-master’s House at Charlestown. Locusts upon the Earth and work on Overlord. Classical style: "Baroque Gates of Hell". I write a paper, ‘The European Resurgence’. I talk with Margaret Thatcher on liberating East-European nations. Opposing post-Renaissance European philosophy: bringing the metaphysical Light back into philosophy. Parenting: medical issues. Research on the Light: The Secret Light. Search for a larger home: move to 100A Stapleton Road. Dinner with Donald Maclean’s son. Birth of Anthony. School in Epping Forest. Retreat from becoming an MEP. Light-seers.

Episode 3: New Powers and Dogmatic Authority

New unitive vision brings with it new powers. Egyptian temple-dancers and healing. Rev. John Jewsbury. Research into the Light. Miss Lord offers Oaklands School at christening of Anthony. Receiving new powers in sleep. Thinking about neo-Baroque poetry. Reading by David Gascoyne, and Kathleen Raine. Keith Critchlow on Chartres. Kathleen Raine’s neo-Romantic view of poetry versus my neo-Baroque view. Seeing the One revealed in the new physics: Fritjof Capra. Finding a larger home: sale of flat 5, 10 Brechin Place and purchase of 46 Ritherdon Road, SW17. Perception of energy, and healing. I am regressed to two ‘past lives’. ‘Life’ as John Barfield in Lake District. ‘Life’ as consort of Ramesses II in Egypt. At King’s College, Cambridge: with Colin MacCabe and Bernard Williams. I meet Colin Wilson again. Asa Briggs urges me to write on Libya and my double life. ILEA inspection. Peace and sanctions. Healing at Bruce MacManaway’s Centre. New understanding: Christopher Ricks and me as a Metaphysical poet, content versus technique. Metaphysical Kabbalah: Warren Kenton. Matthew Manning healing cripples. Experience of Hermeticism and beginning of Third Mystic Life (13 May 1979–31 October 1981). Universal gardener. Still overworked at Garratt Green, illness: Matthew and Anthony have measles and then whooping cough. Dinner with Colin MacCabe, Frank Tuohy. New observation: Invisible behind the visible. Inspiration in sleep and view of world history: I receive idea for The Fire and the Stones – civilizations as Light-bearers. Struggling with authority: overwork and bronchitis. I revise Elegies for The Fire-Flower – gardener’s pruning. Dogmatic authority and disharmony. More revising for The Fire-Flower. ‘The Fire-Flower’: yugen and Reality. I revise all my poetic works and embrace discipline of rules. New power of hypnosis. Independence: I explore small school in Cranleigh. Finishing The Fire-Flower. Perception of the metaphysical universe. The ILEA’s Trotskyite exam policies. The Brain of Britain, opening to the Universal Mind. Jill Purce: I belong to no ‘school’ and reject the New Age’s unevidential dogmas. Research into ancient cultures: The Sun-Hawk and chaos.

2. Ordeals of Independence: Trials of the Dark Night

Episode 4: Baroque and Egalitarian Socialism

Miss Lord agrees to sell Oaklands School. Mysticism: I attend four conference retreats. High Leigh. Hawkwood. Kent House. St Peter’s Convent. Negotiating Oaklands, family. Four quartets, Beauty and Angelhood. Metaphysical generation, poetic spring. I am announced as Principal at Oaklands School while still working at Garratt Green. Death of my mother. Sonnets: The Wind and the Earth. Acquiring Oaklands. End of my Third Mystic Life. Christopher Ricks and me as a Romantic poet. ‘Cambridge Ode: Against Materialism’. Preparing for Oaklands. Romanticism and Classicism. Artistic styles and the Baroque principle. Baroque principle: Christopher Ricks and me as a Baroque poet. Running Oaklands. At Cramond with Nadia. David Bohm at Winchester. Norman Rodway buys 46 Ritherdon Road. The ILEA’s egalitarian ‘no marking’ policy: English inspectors ban marking in ILEA English Departments. Principal: escaping to Oaklands. Death of Aunt Flo. Literary Baroque. The hydra slain.

Episode 5: Vision and Subversion

Offer to make me an MP: National Council for Educational Standards. Pneumonia: sinuses washed out. I oppose Communism in Europe through FREE (Freedom for the Republics of Eastern Europe). In the presence of Lord Whitelaw John Biggs-Davison asks me to write a paper on FREE. I revise ‘The European Resurgence’. Biggs-Davison puts me in touch with Josef Josten. Battle to secure planning permission for Oaklands’ extension. Biggs-Davison puts me in touch with Brian Crozier. Crozier asks for a new paper on FREE. FREE in competition with European Liaison Group. Idea of setting up Oak-Tree Books and of taking voluntary redundancy from ILEA. Subversion of FREE by Josten: Baroness Cox, Roger Scruton; Oaklands’ planning permission secured. Material on the miners’ strike. Diagnosis of bronchiectasis. Death of Phil Tribe. Vernon Davies. Josten hands me a file of cuttings on Scargill. Article for The Times, Charlie Douglas-Home. Baroness Cox keen for me to set up FREE. In the Lake District. In Scotland: draft poems for A Rainbow in the Spray – ‘Greenfield’, ‘Iona: Silence’, ‘Staffa: Wind’, ‘Ben Nevis: Cloud of Unknowing’. Josten blocks Times article. Mystic poems. I am urged to write a political pamphlet. I write a booklet on Scargill in the tradition of Dryden, Swift and Pope: help from John Cameron. Brighton bomb. Josten demands money. Crozier claims ownership of the Scargill file. Wounding the gorgon: Scargill at the Soviet Embassy. Josten blocks serialisation. Peter Walker, Secretary of State for Energy, asks me to visit him. Josten leaks guest list for launch. Launch of Scargill the Stalinist? Silence. My books in Foyles’ window, NUM invade Foyles. An ex-Communist’s material in Hull. Thrombophlebitis and creativity: decision to leave Garratt Green. In France: guillotine. End of miners’ strike. Death of John Cameron. Death of Josten. Death of Douglas-Home.

Episode 6: Universalism and Expansionism

Universalist poems announcing a Universal Age. Cornwall: ‘Lock-gate’, Baroque Age. Operation on varicose veins. In hospital I work on five Universalist poems: ‘Night Visions in Charlestown’; ‘Iona: Silence’; ‘Staffa: Wind’; ‘Crab-Fishing on a Boundless Deep’; ‘Cambridge Ode: Against Materialism’ – and Orpheus. Garratt Green, running Oaklands: Geoff Hurst opens Oaklands fête. In the Dordogne: Cro-Magnon man, ‘In Périgord’. Idea of The Fire and the Stones received in sleep: the Light shaping civilizations of history. Flurry of poems. In York, ‘At Dark Age Jorvik: the Light of Civilisation’. Cosmology: star-gazing. Des McForan’s book on terrorism. Paul Gorka’s book on Hungarian uprising. The future growth of the West. At Frankfurt book fair with Trevor Maher. Caroline’s dark news. The Executive Intelligence Review on Philby and the US-Soviet ‘Trust’; the Duke of Grantmesnil and Victor, Lord Rothschild as the fifth man. Tomlin’s book on philosophy. Asked to run The Salisbury Review by Jillian Becker. Tomlin and A.L. Rowse. Voluntary severance from Garratt Green. Oaklands: Len Murray. Jack Wood’s book on unions. A new group, ‘Heroes of the West’, and McForan. The Fire and the Stones. In the Cotswolds: ‘Winter Four-Sidedness’; ‘Oxford Revisited’. ‘Heroes of the West’: The Executive Intelligence Review again on Philby, the US-Soviet ‘Trust’ and its Head Victor, Lord Rothschild. Lord Whitelaw at dinner. ‘Question Mark over the West’. Poems written in Stratford-upon-Avon and Warwick. ‘Heroes of the West’: eliminating Gaddafi’s missiles near Sebha. In the Lake District: news of the raid on Libya, Universalist poems. Confirmation that evidence in McForan’s book caused the US raid on Libya. Kathleen Raine and Tomlin. ‘Heroes of the West’: discussion with Lord Whitelaw on Victor, Lord Rothschild as fifth man, Thatcher uses my Recommendations on terrorism to end Soviet-inspired terrorism. I had wounded the chimera. Raine and imagination. Book on Epping Forest. News of Argie’s birth found under church foundation stone. Garratt Green. Duke of Grantmesnil again on ‘The Trust’ (Force X) and its Head Victor, Lord Rothschild. Launch of McForan’s The World Held Hostage. Norris McWhirter investigates and reports. I buy a computer. Valerie Eliot’s nephew. Return to Stratford-upon-Avon: Shakespeare. Tour of Western Europe: ‘A Pilgrim in Europe’. Fishing in Cornwall. Launch of Tomlin’s Philosophers of East and West. Nature walk along the Roding. Preparing for launch of Gorka’s Budapest Betrayed: Jessica Douglas-Home and Roger Scruton, Krassó’s petition for democracy, Bukovsky. Launch of Budapest Betrayed: my live broadcast into the USSR on FREE, Prime Minister of Polish Government-in-Exile, Sabbat, on my challenge to the 1943 Tehran Agreement on Soviet sphere of influence and to British foreign policy since the war. Thatcher outs Victor, Lord Rothschild as fifth man, his denial. I visit 10 Downing Street to discuss publishing Thatcher’s speeches: Whitelaw. Implementation of FREE in committee of exile representatives of Captive Nations. I leave publishing to become an author, the monstrous chimera mortally wounded. A vision like a rainbow: seven bands, seven hills.