a white-hot sphere

“At one time the earth was probably a white-hot sphere like the sun.”

—Tarr and McMurry, cited by Thomas Wolfe on the title page of Look Homeward, Angel, 1929.

light within light

“Light traveled over the field;
Stayed.
The weeds stopped swinging.
The mind moved, not alone,
Through the clear air, in the silence.

Was it light?
Was it light within?
Was it light within light?”

—Theodore Roethke, The Lost Son. Found in Poets & Poems, Goldstone & Cummings, 1967.

In a Dark Time

“In a dark time, the eye begins to see,
I meet my shadow in the deepening shade;”

—Theodore Roethke, In a Dark Time. Found in Poets & Poems, Goldstone & Cummings, 1967.

the Black Widow

“How long would it seem burning! Let there pass
A minute, ten, ten trillion; but the blaze
Is infinite, eternal: this is death,
To die and know it. This is the Black Widow, death.”

—Robert Lowell, Mr. Edwards and the Spider. Found in Poets & Poems, Goldstone & Cummings, 1967.

Synesthesia.

“Representation of one sense impression in terms which apply to another sense, as a “blue note” in music. . . . Edith Sitwell writes that The morning light creaks down . . . and the French poet Baudelaire speaks of perfumes . . . green as grasslands.”

—Poets & Poems, Goldstone & Cummings, 1967.

Dawn disrobes like a woman leaving her bath

“Dawn disrobes like a woman leaving her bath:—Dawn who has woven the loveliest of cloths.”

—a Vedic invocation to Usha, the Dawn, as quoted by Edouard Schur’ in The Great Initiates: A Study of the Secret History of Religions, translated from the French by Gloria Rasberry, 1961.

O Agni

“O Agni, Holy Fire! Purifying fire! You who sleep in the wood, and ascend in shining flames on the altar, you are the heart of sacrifice, the fearless wings of prayer, the divine spark hidden in everything, and the glorious soul of the sun!”

—Vedic Hymn, quoted by Edouard Schur’ in The Great Initiates: A Study of the Secret History of Religions, translated from the French by Gloria Rasberry, 1961.

Soma

“What clearly proves that Soma represented the absolute feminine principle is the fact that the Brahmins later identified it with the Moon. As the Moon symbolizes the feminine principle in all ancient religions, so the Sun symbolizes the masculine principle.”

—Edouard Schur’, The Great Initiates: A Study of the Secret History of Religions, translated from the French by Gloria Rasberry, 1961.

an inseparable couple

“With the conception of Agni, the divine fire, we are very close to the core of the doctrine [of the Vedas] and its esoteric, transcendent foundation. In fact, Agni is the cosmic agent, the principle of the universe, par excellence. ‘It is not only the terrestrial fire of lightning and the sun. Its true domain is the unseen, mystical heaven, temporary dwelling-place of the eternal light and of the first principles of all things. . . . Agni is the eldest of the gods, ruler in heaven as well as on earth, and he officiated in the abode of Vivasvat (they sky or sun) long before Matharicva (the lightning) brought him to mortals. . . . Master and generator of the sacrifice, Agni becomes the bearer of all mystical speculations of which sacrifice is the purpose. He engenders the gods, he organizes the world, he produces and preserves universal life; in short, he is cosmogonic power.

Soma is the teardrop of Agni. In reality it is the drink of a fermented plant poured as a libation to the gods during the sacrifice. But, like Agni, it has a mystical existence. Its supreme abode is in the depths of the third heaven where Surya, daughter of the sun, filtered it, and where Pushan, food-giving god, bound it. It is from there that the Falcon, a symbol of lightning, or Agni himself went and snatched it . . . and brought it to men. The gods drank it and became immortal; men also will become immortal when they drink it in the home of Yama, dwelling-place of the happy. In the meantime, here below it gives them vigor and fullness of life. . . . It nourishes, permeates plants, invigorates the semen of animals, inspires the poet and provides wings for prayer. Soul of heaven and earth, . . . with Agni, it forms an inseparable couple; this couple that lighted the sun and stars.’”

—Edouard Schur’, quoting heavily from the Vedas, I think, in The Great Initiates: A Study of the Secret History of Religions, translated from the French by Gloria Rasberry, 1961.

The Light was in the world

“The Light was in the world, and the World was made by it, and the world knew it not.”

—The Holy Bible, John 1:10, as quoted by Edouard Schur’ in The Great Initiates: A Study of the Secret History of Religions, translated from the French by Gloria Rasberry, 1961.