Everything was
sparkling and clear when the dawn broke over the snow this morning.
It was as if it were a presentation of the Grail or heaven or
something.
So I searched the
Internet for various attempts at expressing the vision of the Grail,
particularly through the visual arts, but nothing seemed simple
enough, nothing seemed humble enough, despite such prodigious efforts
and talents.
In fact, the heroic
attempts to express it had the opposite result. How is one to express
the face of an old friend, an old loved one, for example, by any
human art? You get a sort of trespass instead. So I immediately
stopped the search and was reminded of an old Alchemist from the fifteenth
or sixteenth century AD, who had this to say in the Gloria Mundi:
“I will that all those who possess this book be admonished and
besought for the love of Jesus Christ, that they conceal this art
from all such as are puffed up, vainglorious, unjust oppressors of
the poor, proud, worldly, scoffers, contemners, false accusers, and
such unworthy folk, nor permit this writing to come into the hands of
such, if they would escape the wrath of God and the punishments which
he is wont to bring down upon those that are presumptuous and
profane.”
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