Gardens of pomegranates

On June 25, I posted "Another book called the Tree of Life," the titular book being one by Israel Regardie. I quoted a Wikipedia reference to two of his books, though: "he wrote two books on the Qabalah, A Garden of Pomegranates and The Tree of Life."

Despite having read rather broadly in the "magical" literature of the 19th and early 20th centuries, I've never read anything by or about Israel Regardie. I know him only as the guy who, in violation of his oaths of secrecy, published the Golden Dawn rituals. Commenter Wade, though, turns out to know his work much better, particularly the second title mentioned in my post:

To mention Israel Regardie brings back memories for me. . . . A juvenile infatuation with Crowley as a supposed transgressive figure led me to own a small library of books written or edited by Mr. Regardie. In my teens, his "A Garden of Pomegranates" was a veritable bible to me; I read it over and over. It's remarkable how little I can remember of it nowadays, several decades later; I remember next to nothing.

Today I was rereading Laura Bruno's post "Door Number 21: The Hermit Portal" (May 2020), which came up in "Owl-collecting (grand)mothers, octopuses, and Hermit Portals" (June 27). She compares the Tarot image to "the God Odin, who often appeared on Earth in the guise of a traveling hermit," adding parenthetically, "Sometimes I think Tania Marie and I met him in Mendocino back in 2009, where I first learned Runes."

This story of Laura's meeting a "wizard" in Mendocino and learning Runes from him is briefly recounted in Stories from the Messengers, so I knew in a general way what she was referring to, but I clicked the link and read the longer account in her post "Mendocino/Fort Bragg Vacation" (September 2009). The post ends thus:

I have not done justice to the otherworldy feeling of this encounter. I suppose I could have begun, "Two fair maidens met a werewolf on Full Moon's Eve" or "the shaman and the faeries walked together and down the road" or "a person's word is bond."

But I think I'll just say, "we tiptoed into the Pomegranate Garden, tasted the fruit and smiled."

One more usually speaks of a pomegranate orchard, and that is the usual translation of the Ramak's book (to which Regardie's title refers) and of the Bible verse to which it alludes. So the fact that both Regardie and Laura Bruno opted for garden is an additional sync.