Theodore

“Through the study of books one seeks God; by meditation one finds him.”
― Padre Pio

“Silence is the indispensable climate for all revelation; noise renders it absolutely impossible.”
― Valentin Tomberg, Meditations on the Tarot: A Journey into Christian Hermeticism

“It is necessary to restrain the bull in us in order to elevate it to the Bull. This means to say that the instinctive desire which shows itself as rage concentrated upon a single thing, and which blinds one to everything else, is to be restrained and thus elevated to the propensity for profound meditation. This entire operation is summarized in Hermeticism by the words "to be silent". The precept "to be silent" is not, as many authors interpret it, solely a rule of prudence, but it is moreover a practical method of transforming this narrowing and blinkering instinct into a propensity towards depth and, correspondingly, an aversion towards all that is superficial in nature.
The winged Bull is therefore the result obtained by the procedure of "being silent". This means to say that the Bull is elevated to the level of the Eagle and united with it. A marriage of the impetus towards the heights and the propensity towards depth is effected by this union. The marriage of opposites - this traditional theme of alchemy - is the essence of the practice of the law of the Cross.”
― Valentin Tomberg, Meditations on the Tarot: A Journey into Christian Hermeticism

“So I saw more than a thousand souls of the ruined
Flee before one who strode across the Styx
Dry-shod as though on land. With his left hand

He cleared the polluted air before his face
And only in that annoyance did he seem tired
I knew assuredly he was sent to us

From Heaven, and I turned my head to regard
The Master - who signaled that I should be mute
And bow before him. Ah, to me he appeared

So full of high disdain! he went to the gate
And opened it by means of a little wand
And there was no resistance. "O race cast out

From Heaven, exiles despised there," he intoned
From that grim threshold, "Why this insolence?
Why do you kick against that Will whose end

Cannot be thwarted, and whose punishments
Many times over have increased your pain?
What use to butt at what the fates dispence?

Remember, Cerberus's throat and chin,
For just this reason, still are stripped of fur."
Then he turned back on the filthy path again

Not speaking a word to us, but with the air
Of one whom other matters must concern
Than those who stand before him. And so, secure

Afer those holy words, we in our turn
Stepped forward toward the city & through the gate,
Entering without dispute. Anxious to learn”
― Dante Alighieri, The Inferno: A New Verse Translation