Marmiadon tries to summon an angel and thinks that he has succeeded:
"'The angel, the angel!'" (XXVII, p. 205)
"'The crowned head, the shining wings,' he crooned." (ibid.)
- whereas Steve Matuchek's experience has been, frankly, the opposite.
We all see different things. Alan Watts told a story of a woman who had a vision of Christ every time she received Communion but didn't tell anyone because she thought that everyone else had it. When a guru, Sri Chinmoy, spoke at University, most of us just saw this Indian guy but a few saw bright colors and a canopy above his head. In Susan Howatch's Mystical Paths, Nick Darrow sees a demon but his companion thinks that he has gone mad and Darrow reminded me of Marmiadon. Mainstream meets fantasy yet again.
Kaor, Paul!
ReplyDeleteBut the fictional Darrow thought he had seen a FALLEN angel. And Marmiadon, a well meaning Johannine priest, was deceived by the Adversary into thinking he saw a good angel.
As a Catholic I believe in the reality of the angels, good and bad, and hence the possibility of some of us actually seeing such spirits.
I find most mainstream fiction boring, seeming to be obsessed with kinky sex and middle class angst. Howatch seems to be an exception to that!
Ad astra! Sean