in the Fourth Gospel, the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it;
the Buddha is the Enlightened One;
adapting an Upanishad, I ask -
"From delusion, lead us to truth;
"From darkness, lead us to light."
In Dahut, Chapter V, section 4, pp. 117-119, Poul and Karen Anderson counterpose light from Sol and light in the soul. First:
"One evening before midsummer, a sunset of rare beauty kindled above Ocean. For a timeless time clouds shone with rose and gold and every hue between, against a clear blue that slowly deepened towards purple. The waters breathed calm, giving back to heaven those changeable colours. Whenever it seemed the splendour was about to fade into that night which had already let forth the first eastern stars, fieriness broke free again. Entranced, folk throughout Ys swarmed on to the wall; their murmurs of wonder were as low as the sea's.
"Rufinus was one of them." (p. 117)
Rufinus could have watched from his apartment on the thirteenth floor of the Polaris Tower but gets a better view from the Raven Tower on the seawall. When the Mithraists emerge from their sanctuary in the Raven, Rufinus tells them that, by worshiping the sun indoors, they have missed his spectacle outdoors but Gratillonius retorts that Mithras' "'...light shone upon our souls.'" (p. 118)
Gratillonius has been exulted.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
I saw at once how Gratillonius' comment about the light shining on his and Mithraists souls was an allusion to John's Gospel.
And I had finally stopped to wonder about Rufinus' apartment on the THIRTEENTH floor of the Polaris Tower. Was 13 already considered an unlucky number in the fourth century?
Sean
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