| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Pagan and Christian Creeds by Edward Carpenter: as in the Christian phraseology. Finally, with a growing
sense of decency and aesthetic perception among the
various peoples, washing with pure water came in the
initiation-ceremonies to take the place of blood; and our
baptismal service has reduced the ceremony to a mere
sprinkling with water.[2]
[1] See ch. iii.
[2] For the virtue supposed to reside in blood see Westermarck's
Moral Ideas, Ch. 46.
To continue the quotation from Miss Harrison: "More
often the new birth is stimulated, or imagined, as a death
Pagan and Christian Creeds |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Tanach: Genesis 29: 2 And he looked, and behold a well in the field, and, lo, three flocks of sheep lying there by it. --For out of that well they watered the flocks. And the stone upon the well's mouth was great.
Genesis 29: 3 And thither were all the flocks gathered; and they rolled the stone from the well's mouth, and watered the sheep, and put the stone back upon the well's mouth in its place.--
Genesis 29: 4 And Jacob said unto them: 'My brethren, whence are ye?' And they said: 'Of Haran are we.'
Genesis 29: 5 And he said unto them: 'Know ye Laban the son of Nahor?' And they said: 'We know him.'
Genesis 29: 6 And he said unto them: 'Is it well with him?' And they said: 'It is well; and, behold, Rachel his daughter cometh with the sheep.'
Genesis 29: 7 And he said: 'Lo, it is yet high day, neither is it time that the cattle should be gathered together; water ye the sheep, and go and feed them.'
Genesis 29: 8 And they said: 'We cannot, until all the flocks be gathered together, and they roll the stone from the well's mouth; then we water the sheep.'
Genesis 29: 9 While he was yet speaking with them, Rachel came with her father's sheep; for she tended them.
Genesis 29: 10 And it came to pass, when Jacob saw Rachel the daughter of Laban his mother's brother, and the sheep of Laban his mother's brother, that Jacob went near, and rolled the stone from the well's mouth, and watered the flock of Laban his mother's brother.
The Tanach |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar by Edgar Rice Burroughs: whole broad jungle for my range. No, I cannot love you
but I cannot see you die beneath the goring tusks of
mad Tantor. Cut my bonds before it is too late.
Already he is almost upon us. Cut them and I may yet
save you."
A little spiral of curling smoke rose from one corner
of the pyre--the flames licked upward, crackling.
La stood there like a beautiful statue of despair gazing
at Tarzan and at the spreading flames. In a moment
they would reach out and grasp him. From the tangled
forest came the sound of cracking limbs and crashing
Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar |
