They say that when a scholar dies it is like a library burning down. The late Roger Sworder was perhaps the best read person I have ever met, and so there is some truth in it. But, alas, he also took with him the details of several intellectual projects that he worked on over the years but which have not emerged in his extant papers. I remember two in particular. Living just around the corner, I would often drop in and find Roger ensconced in some new intellectual adventure. He did have recreations: detective novels and, surprisingly, TV court room dramas. But otherwise he devoted his hours to nutting out esoteric problems arising from his research. The two I remember were important sidelines to his studies of Greek stellar mythology and the symbolism of Homer’s Odyssey.
The first was his own unique approach to astrology. A remnant of this survives in his essays as an account of the zodiac signs applied to the human body. Except, readers should note, his scheme runs exactly counter to that of the mainstream astrological tradition. Usually, the symbolism begins with Aries corresponding to the human head. Roger has it reversed. He was adamant about this. I would say, “But it’s back to front!” and he would argue it out showing that his symbolism worked perfectly well. And it does. Usually, for instance, Scorpio corresponds to the genitalia. But in Roger’s scheme we see the Scorpion in the arch of the lower back, the sacrum, on the opposite side of the body. His astrological musings were always contrary. His way was to start with the symbols and think them through and never mind if someone says he’s got it upside down. He makes a very convincing case for his arrangement. So I said, “Alright, the symbolism works both ways. That’s interesting.” But no. He insisted that it worked better his way and that what is interesting is that a counter symbolism (not nearly as revealing) has prevailed in the Hermetic and broader Western tradition. He was convinced that he was uncovering a lost order of symbolism, not inventing something new. But he’d work it out from first principles and look for the historical evidence later.
His astrological scheme concerned planetary latitudes. He was completely uninterested in zodiacal longitudes. This came from his years of watching the stars – and especially the cycles of Venus. He would say, “Yes, Jupiter is in Libra, 185 deg. longitude. But where is it in relation to the equator? North or south?” That’s what makes a visible difference. If it is south of the equator it will be big and bright in the sky. If north, dimmer and lower.
Roger had no knowledge of modern astrology. He would ask me about it. “What do modern astrologers do with the north and south movement of the planets?” The answer was: not much. I explained that sometimes they might note an obscure “aspect” called the Parallel (when two planets are at the same latitude, north or south) but otherwise it is entirely based on planetary longitude. “Fiddlesticks!” he would say. It was obvious to him that latitude was much more important. The planets move in seasons, just like the sun, he said. He described the north/south axis as “vertical” and developed a disdain for mainstream (longitudinal astrology) which he dismissed as “flat”. I suggested that perhaps both axes were important. That was the sort of comment he completely ignored.
Accordingly, one wintertime he plotted out the movements of the planets on the latitudinal axis over some set period. He used the data from his American Ephemeris and had some unfortunate student prepare it on computer spread sheets that he pasted together into a scroll about fifteen foot long. The equator was ruled down the middle and the cycles of the planets were mapped against it, up to each tropic, north and south. He would roll it out on his desk and explain various patterns that he saw emerging. I can’t recall what period of time he took as his sample. Probably not important. But he collated all of the information and developed a quite comprehensive astrology of planetary latitudes. Like a good Platonist he explained to me that he didn’t really need the diagram. Once he had worked out the first principles he could dispense with the diagram. And he did. As far as I know, the fifteen foot scroll of planetary movements was not among his papers. And unfortunately he does not seem to have written down other details of his system. It was elaborate. I don’t remember enough of it to reconstruct it. This was probably around the years 2004-5.
The second lost scheme was from about ten years later. I had a hand in it. Roger was forever constructing symbolic scaffolding to support his reading of Homer’s Odyssey. His academic work, found in several of his books, concerned the symbolic meanings of the various locations Odysseus visits on his archetypal journey. Others have done it before, but no one like Roger. He took Thomas Taylor as his mentor. At this late stage of his research, he wanted to pull it all together into a comprehensive 19 year scheme. He was intensely interested in the chronology and time signals in the Odyssey. It’s chironic, not a straight narrative with clear time signals like the Iliad. He had noted some strange parallels and was grappling with a way to organise them. It was all about 19s. I told him about the Islamic symbolism of the number – but that didn’t help. 19 x 19 = 361. He was puzzling over that maths in relation to the Odyssey.
Then I suggested Go.
“Go where?” he said.
I meant the Japanese game. It’s played on a board of 19 x 19 squares.
The next day he bought a Go board, and it was just what he wanted. A matrix for his symbolism. He mused that the whole of Homer’s epic was constructed on a magic square of the order 19. Then he started plotting the text onto the Go board in detail. I told him he was on a winner. The Odyssey of Homer through the lens of a Japanese board game. A bestseller. More money in it than his mining book, anyway.
I believe that he was still working on this up to his death. Certainly, the Go board was still sitting on his desk, along with his various texts and translations of Homer. But as far as I know, he didn’t write it down. This is one of the infuriating things about Platonists. They valorize the spoken word and are tardy about writing things down. He had a lot of it worked out. He would point to a square on the Go board and say, “Land of the Lotus Eaters” and the point in time in the 19 year Metonic cycle. Excitedly, he would show how the geometry of the board, the matrix, would match parallel episodes up beautifully. Then he’d point at another square and say, “The summer solstice.” It was a system, and after a while I decided it had legs. Everybody suspects there’s some inner structure to the Odyssey, and that the nineteen year journey is a key, and that Penelope weaves and unweaves like the Moon, and so on. Roger devoted probably 30 years of deep engagement with that text. Unfortunately, his grand synthesis on the Go board hasn’t survived.
Harper McAlpine Black
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