| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Bucolics by Virgil: "These reeds the Muses give thee, take them thou,
Erst to the aged bard of Ascra given,
Wherewith in singing he was wont to draw
Time-rooted ash-trees from the mountain heights.
With these the birth of the Grynean grove
Be voiced by thee, that of no grove beside
Apollo more may boast him." Wherefore speak
Of Scylla, child of Nisus, who, 'tis said,
Her fair white loins with barking monsters girt
Vexed the Dulichian ships, and, in the deep
Swift-eddying whirlpool, with her sea-dogs tore
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Travels of Sir John Mandeville by Sir John Mandeville: cornelian, and the seventh, that he setteth on his feet, is of
chrysolite. And all these degrees be bordered with fine gold, with
the tother precious stones, set with great pearls orient. And the
sides of the siege of his throne be of emeralds, and bordered with
gold full nobly, and dubbed with other precious stones and great
pearls. And all the pillars in his chamber be of fine gold with
precious stones, and with many carbuncles, that give great light
upon the night to all people. And albeit that the carbuncles give
light right enough, natheles, at all times burneth a vessel of
crystal full of balm, for to give good smell and odour to the
emperor, and to void away all wicked airs and corruptions. And the
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Seraphita by Honore de Balzac: tainting themselves with earthly affections, thus compelling their
divorce from Heaven. Clouds signify the veil of the Most High.
Torches, shew-bread, horses and horsemen, harlots, precious stones, in
short, everything named in Scripture, has to them a clear-cut meaning,
and reveals the future of terrestrial facts in their relation to
Heaven. They penetrate the truths contained in the Revelation of Saint
John the divine, which human science has subsequently demonstrated and
proved materially; such, for instance, as the following ('big,' said
Swedenborg, 'with many human sciences'): 'I saw a new heaven and a new
earth, for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away'
(Revelation xxi. 1). These Spirits know the supper at which the flesh
Seraphita |
