It is not our task to preach ideals
but rather to provide human souls with the fuel
that can generate spiritual wisdom, genuine brotherliness, and true humanity.
To realize this is our goal.
The Principle of Spiritual Economy, Rudolf Steiner
‘To wake delight once more
That’s been too long asleep,
And worth that’s exiled deep
To gather and restore:
These thoughts I’ve laboured for’
Guiraut de Bornelh
Soon after her husband came, and when he had kissed and embraced her, he fell asleep. Then Psyche (somewhat feeble in body and mind, yet moved by cruelty of fate) received boldness, and brought forth the lamp, and took the razor, so by her audacity she changed her kind.
But when she took the lamp, and came to the bedside, she saw ‘the most meek and sweetest beast of all beasts, even fair Cupid couched fairly, at whose sight the very lamp increased his light for joy, and the razor turned his edge.
But when Psyche saw so glorious a body, she greatly feared, and, amazed in mind, with a pale countenance, all trembling, fell on her knees, and thought to hide the razor, yea verily in her own heart; which she had undoubtedly done, had it not through fear of so great an enterprise fallen out of her hand. And when she saw and beheld the beauty of his divine visage she was well recreated in her mind.
She saw his hairs of gold, that yielded out a sweet savour: his neck more white than milk: his purple cheeks, his hair hanging comely behind and before, the brightness whereof did darken the light of the lamp: his tender plume-feathers dispersed upon his shoulders like shining flowers, and trembling hither and thither; and his other parts of his body so smooth and soft that it did not repent Venus to bear such a child.
At the bed’s feet lay his bow, quiver, and arrows, that be ‘the weapons of so great a God; which when Psyche did curiously behold, and marvelling at the weapons of her husband, took one of the arrows out of the quiver, and pricked herself withal, wherewith she was so grievously wounded that the blood followed, and thereby of her own accord she added love upon love; then more and more broiling in the love of Cupid, she embraced him and kissed him a thousand times fearing the measure of his sleep.
But alas while she was in this great joy, whether it were for envy, or for desire to touch this amiable body likewise, there fell out a drop of burning oil from the lamp upon the right shoulder of the God. O rash and bold lamp, the vile ministry of love, how darest thou be so bold as to burn the God of all fire when he invented thee, to the intent that all lovers might with more joy pass the nights in pleasure?
Cupid and Psyche, Apuleius
How I have dreamed of you, my secret love, in days of never-ending summer and nights of infinite stars.
You were unfolded in perfection before my eyes, lovely and unbending by the golden lotus,
Like the flower that reveals in its splendour a vision of the coming magus, who walks alone in the garden of my desire.
Long is the road that would lead me to my secret love, marked only by the scent of the ever-opening bloom.
A charm the magus weaves is cast before my longing face; a veil of beauty that intoxicates my sense beyond the realm of understanding.
In solitude I comprehend this mystery, which leads me ar along this, the only path I know.
I see the destination of my soul. In the rising sun it shall be be found with you.
Speech in time was just dilated,
As in speed was sound delayed.
Worlds and planets thus created
Made of tone, on tone relayed.
Complex phrase; intensified
According to subjective distance;
At the turn of some was tried
Conveyance through a near existence.
Thus, that moon was made receptive
Through the dark, to distant stars,
Whilst illumined, Mars and Venus
Showed up gates as bells made stars.
When the Aeon spoke it said:
“And you that we have loved shall live our dream. Lest the dream should die with the passing of our age it shall be written that destiny has flooded through the gates again of earthly paradise.
In words, thou art free, and satisfied are we that our will to be done is now in place for you to make with us the final journey.
The fortune was our dream and your most dearly beloved did taste the wine of your success, while you helped shape the future with each beating of your heart.
Always shall we remain in your mind as fulfillment for the giving of the dream.
Your gardens has been watered with the tears of earthly love. The muse of ancient melodies, forgotten when the Earth revealed her age, shall resound throughout your place, forever scented with the rose of youth.
With beauty you prayed and we could feel the love which sent homage to our fathomless place.
Whence came your yearning but from memories of the fated realms? Seven styles created in the clouds of starry skies shall be the wonder of elections made through each presiding scion of our race.
Our message is released and comes in time, the light relays the promise and yes, we are certain, the coming shall be quick.
What is seen now on Earth shall be seen again in eternity, the realm of pure being.
From the eyes of every being shines a brilliant and penetrating, silvery white light”.
As I sat beside thee
In the world of other dreams,
I set out to find the truth.
From the beach my other seemed
So distant. He,
Of whom the dolphin sings.
Swam we two –
The pool of midnight
Stretched before us,
Shimmering strangely –
Slowly through the vale
Atlantic,
Shining waters,
Care of Neptune.
Swam we to
The graceful daughters,
Each would rake the moon’s reflection,
So we felt
In peeling sections
Waves, and sought our destination.
All before,
The dreaming Aeon,
All behind,
The reams of age.
All beneath,
Was darkness beckoning.
All above, with wings,
We praised.
Adam then breathed in the essence of life,
Born with the earth of his Lord the Creator.
There in his eye was a land in the sun light,
Man was resolved by the rhythm of nature.
Genesis named and inspired the new creatures;
Two at a time did the first stand in line,
Once recognized by the style of their features.
All were made equal for each was divine.
Butterflies formed and then found in the meadow,
Adam in person, the dawning of history.
Then with their wings did the doves of his heir,
Crown him in silence with leaves from a prayer.
In twilight he saw the first stars as he prayed,
Kneeling as one who was yearning for symmetry.
Angels came down to take plots from his dreams:
Beauty and truth inside out; drawn was Eve.
Passion will find and recover lost distance,
Become with your mind.
Become, Solar-System.
The posts of Emperor and Pope are realities beyond as well as on this side of the threshold which separates ‘day’ and ‘night’. And the Pope of the fifth card is the guardian of this threshold. He is seated between the two pillars – the pillar of day or prayer and the pillar of night or benediction.
The Emperor of the fourth card is the master of the day and the guardian of the blood or quintessence of the nocturnal reality of the day. The Pope is the guardian of respiration or of the reality of the relationship between day and night. That which he guards is the equilibrium between day and night, between human effort and divine grace. His post is founded on primordial cosmic deeds. Thus the first book of Moses says:
….and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. (Genesis i, 4 – 5).
And the act of separation of the intelligible from the mysterious signifies at the same time the establishing of cosmic respiration, which is the analogy of ‘the Spirit of God moving above the face of the waters.’ For the divine breath (ruach ‘elohim) above the profoundness of peace (‘the waters’ – it is this which is the psychological as well as th e cosmic reality of nirvana) is the divine prototype of respiration.
Unknown Author, Meditations on the Tarot, Letter V, The Pope