Elizabeth Goudge’s Linnets and Valerians: Part III

Some of the material in Elizabeth Goudge’s book Linnets and Valerian is related to topics featured in other articles. These articles were written long before I read this book, so it provides yet more independent confirmation of some of my ideas.

This article includes more connections to existing articles, with references to attack dogs, getting what we want, lions’ mouths and rowan trees.

The attack-dog syndrome

I noticed one very subtle and one very obvious example of the attack-dog syndrome, which has been covered elsewhere.

This is the subtle and mild example:

We are told that the vicar who preceded Uncle Ambrose was fond of the witch Emma Cobley and would never believe the stories told about her in the village.

We are not told anything more, but I would bet that he became annoyed and said something like, “How can you say these things about such a fine person?” Maybe he even sternly told them not to bear false witness!

Someone in his position should have taken the accusations very seriously; not doing so is a dead giveaway that something is very wrong. His reaction is a sign that the stories are probably true.

This is the obvious and potentially very serious example:

When the children first go into the village, they see an inn called The Bulldog. They learn from an old postcard that the inn formerly had a wonderful bird on its sign. They also learn that the inn is owned by some of Emma Cobley’s unpleasant associates.

The inn has a fierce bulldog on its swinging sign. A huge and ugly bulldog sits in the doorway and growls at the children.

Just like Emma Cobley’s cat, the bulldog grows to an enormous size and attacks the children. Emma and her associates are also involved in this attack, which the children brought on themselves by not obeying Emma’s orders to stay away from a particular area.

One of the gang later greets the children in a friendly way. Inflicting or attempting to inflict serious blows and injuries and expecting the victims to carry on as if nothing had happened is another game that people who are under evil influences play.

Everything changes for the better once Emma’s figurines have been burned. There are no more attacks, and Emma replaces the inn sign with a picture of a beautiful peregrine falcon.  

Kathleen Raine, the Destroyer and the Destroyed

The poet Kathleen Raine was born on this day, June 14^th, in 1908. To mark the occasion, here is another article inspired by her autobiographical books.

One thing I noticed immediately is that, unlike many other victims of the creative spirit, Kathleen Raine made attempts to understand the occult forces and unseen influences at work in her life.

She learned from experience and took some responsibility for what happened to her:

“Because I suffered I supposed that he had hurt me… an instinctive reaction, stupid and unjust for most often we hurt ourselves whether by imagining non-existent wrongs or in persistence in some mistake we cannot or will not see…”

She thought about the effect that she had on the people around her and realised that, while she had suffered immensely, she had also caused much suffering to others.  She knew that she had treated her parents cruelly –  in return for what they had done to her – and she also realised that obsessively concentrating on someone can have a damaging effect:

“Perhaps he felt the longing dragging at him…the sense of another’s unwanted thoughts flowing towards one constantly…”

She came to understand that what happens to people in the outer world is often a reflection of what is happening in their inner world:

“… the world continually reflects back to us our inner states…”

“Everything that befalls us has its cause within ourselves… another of those seeming miracles by which a change of inner disposition is followed by a corresponding change in the outward course of events…”

“Our being responds only to that to which it is attuned…”

Much of what she says is independent confirmation of the validity of conclusions that I had already come to and the truth of insights that had come to me.