“It astringeth and retaineth the bloud.”

As if anyone reading this needed another reason to think I’m weird, I based my first-ever London run this morning on the shape of the astrologo-alchemical symbol Cornelius Agrippa assigned to Arcturus, which he called Alcameth, one of his fifteen fixed Behenian stars. Apart from its dubious etymological connection to King Arthur, Alcameth is supposed to be good for fevers (I’m triple-vaccinated, but one can’t get enough prophylaxis these days) and is gemologically associated with jasper, an opaque siliceous aggregate which I’ve lately considered using – the bloodstone avatar of it, that is – in the construction of an Oxygen Holocaust memorial.