"'...Ys is free of ghosts.'"
-Dahut, Chapter XI, section 2, p. 244,
- although he is not so sure. Ys is certainly not free of Gods. What do we now think of ghosts or Gods?
We do not have to believe in Gods to appreciate Homer or in ghosts to appreciate Hamlet. We know the meaning of the awesome, the dreadful, the eerie, the uncanny, the haunted and the fear of ghosts. We inhabit the same universe as our ancestors even though we do not populate it with Beings as they did.
The Mithraic sanctuary is in a basement of the Raven Tower. Ascending from it with their smoking torches, Gratillonius and his congregation hear the sea through the stonework. Reaching the top of the Tower is a liberation although it is chillingly cold and:
"...sundown was a sullen red streak above Ocean." (p. 312)
Waves crash on the wall as the Mithraists recite their evening prayers before throwing their ceremonial torches into the sea. They are bound to feel close to Gods and ghosts.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
But I do believe God and thus the "supernatural" exists and that rational, but non corporeal beings like the angels, good and evil, also exists.
And ghosts too are real! They are the spiritual, DISEMBODIED spirits of men who have died. We are all of us "ghosts" animating our bodies.
Sean
Post a Comment