| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Pagan and Christian Creeds by Edward Carpenter: Dionysus, then a prominent figure in the 'Mysteries,'
was called Eleutherios, The Deliverer. But it may be of
interest to trace the same doctrine among the PRE-CHRISTIAN
sects of Gnostics. The Gnostics, says Professor Murray,[1]
"are still commonly thought of as a body of CHRISTIAN
heretics. In reality there were Gnostic sects scattered over
the Hellenistic world BEFORE Christianity as well as after.
They must have been established in Antioch and probably
in Tarsus well before the days of Paul or Apollos. Their
Savior, like the Jewish Messiah, was established in men's
minds before the Savior of the Christians. 'If we look
Pagan and Christian Creeds |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Deserted Woman by Honore de Balzac: always a little discomfort over the transition. Then, gradually, if
nothing removes him from his surroundings, he grows accustomed to
them, and adapts himself to the vacuity which grows upon him and
renders him powerless. Even now, Gaston's lungs were accustomed to the
air; and he was willing to discern a kind of vegetable happiness in
days that brought no mental exertion and no responsibilities. The
constant stirring of the sap of life, the fertilizing influences of
mind on mind, after which he had sought so eagerly in Paris, were
beginning to fade from his memory, and he was in a fair way of
becoming a fossil with these fossils, and ending his days among them,
content, like the companions of Ulysses, in his gross envelope.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Riverman by Stewart Edward White: this checking, the foreman, Tom North, entered.
"The river's rising a little"? he remarked conversationally as he
reached for the second set of tally boards.
"You're crazy," muttered Orde, without looking up. "It's clear as a
bell; and there have been no rains reported from anywhere."
"It's rising a little, just the same," insisted North, going out.
An hour later Orde, having finished his clerical work, walked out
over the booms. The water certainly had risen; and considerably at
that. A decided current sucked through the interstices in the
piling. The penned logs moved uneasily.
"I should think it was rising!" said Orde to himself, as he watched
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