T HE C ENACLE / A PRIL - The ElectroLounge

T HE C ENACLE / JUNE 2001 /13
Ray Soulard, Jr.
Secret Joy Amongst These Times:
The History of Scriptor Press,
1995–2001
"Think for yourself
& question authority"
Dr. Timothy Leary
Chapter Two continued from Cenacle 45, April 2001
At the April 1, 1995 meeting, I outlined to the members of the
6 1/2-year-old Jellicle Literary Guild my plan to start up a new
magazine called The Cenacle. I spoke of wanting our members to
be part of a literary renaissance the likes of which had not been
witnessed since the 1950s. Four weeks later, on April 29, 1995,
The Cenacle debuted before this same group at Roma’s. This
magazine, I believed, would constitute our contribution to the
renaissance we so desired.
The Cenacle 1 is 65 numbered pages in length plus 6 unnumbered pages. The cover
artwork is by Virginia Bergeron, a black & white etching of a forest stream, printed on tan
paper, the only Cenacle cover not printed on card stock. Many conventions of the magazine
are established in this premiere issue. First of these is the epigraph page right up front.
Cenacle 1’s two epigraphs establish its theme immediately. JG member Mark Shorette writes:
I believe we dwell in mystery—not as a matter of deception on the part of a
trickster deity, but as a matter of the course of our own nature and that of the
universe—we are infinitely deep and it is infinitely vast. We are capable of
catching glimpses of it all, and the whole of existence is caught up in stringing
some of these seconds together in a necklace that becomes the talisman of our
existence. My God—it is laid so plain and pure before us! We yearn for days