We recently sat down with Enrique Enriquez to learn more about his new book Augur. In our chat, he talked about the meaning behind the title, his interest in birds, and the language of the birds.
You can read the full interview with Enrique below:
Hello Enrique! Can you tell us what is Augur about?
Augur is about reading the trail that birds trace in the air when flying. First, we will understand how to make sense of that line. Then we will see how to place it in the context of a sky that also speaks when it clears or clouds, darkens, or dawns. A symbolic relationship with the world allows us to confirm or disallow the capstones of the internal dialogue that lives in us. The sky is nothing more than an extension of our mind, which constantly flows, and changes shape.
Why did you name your book Augur?
The augurs were in charge of inspecting the sky looking for signs in the flight of birds. Even if we no longer live in a reality in which a bird flying the wrong way is going to kill the merger of two companies, or prevent a war, it seemed important to keep some connection with the past through that word. Augury is one of the oldest forms of divination. The ideas in the text do not have a deterministic tone but rather allow us to engage in a contemplative dialogue with the world.
How long have to been studying birds?
It hasn't been the birds so much as the language of the birds, which is a poetic myth. In the symbolic world, birds are indistinguishable from angels. Thus, I have dedicated myself to imitating angels, by speaking like a bird and flying through people's dreams. All of this began years ago as the desire to live a beautiful life, now manifesting itself as the materialization of poetic intentions and images.
Can you share why you are drawn to birds?
Birds are the shortest path to the symbolic world. In the rise of the bird, we intuit the transcendent potential of the human spirit. In its descent, the materialization of a message that comes from above. These ideas are found in all cultures of the world. I am not after the bird that ornithologists and bird watchers track down. I am interested in the symbolic bird, the one who expands the present. That is what symbols do.
What is the language of the birds?
More than knowledge, the language of the birds is a desire to know. What is sought is that first language that is behind all things and that perhaps is nothing more than the rhythm of the world. Articulating that language implies returning to the origin of being, like when we synchronize our heartbeat with the voice of a sparrow. None of this is prescriptive but expansive. It is experienced through direct comprehension and expressed in silence or laughter.
On a practical level, it is about understanding that everything that exists speaks to us from its presence, or in other words, every presence is a voice.
What would like people to understand after reading Augur?
I want to put in people's pockets the means to look at the sky and see it speak.
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We hope you enjoyed our interview with Enrique. We think that Augur is an incredibly special book that will allow you to view the world in a new way. Augur is in stock and is shipping worldwide.
Happy reading!
William Rader
Krisztin Kondor
About Enrique Enriquez
Enrique Enriquez is a rumor based in New York City whose work explores the magical value of language, birdsong, dreams, and the Tarot de Marseilles. He is the author of Tarology, (2011), considered the strangest book ever written about tarot, two interview books: EN TEREX IT & EX ITENT ER (2012), and Linguistick ( 2013), a volume of pataphysical poetry. His ideas are the central theme of TAROLOGY, the Poetics of tarot (2011), an independent feature film directed by Chris Deleo.
