Status Updates From Lilith

„What a hell of horror, I thought, to wander alone, a bare existence never going out of itself, never widening its life in another life, but, bound with the cords of its poor peculiarities, lying an eternal prisoner in the dungeon of its own being! I began to learn that it was impossible to live for oneself even, save in the presence of others-then, alas, fearfully possible!”

They arrive at his wife's house, but she does not mind it being called the sexton's cottage. Time works differently because seasons can pass in a day. Even the man sees images of death. The sun sets, and he feels the icy grip of death as they reach the door (The Last Battle). He sees a candle set on a deal table, which is a cheap table made of pine or fir. Could Mr. Raven be the black stage?

Ch. 6 Another thought is that he is in the wilderness (pine forest) so, of course, he is on an identity quest. The air chills as they approach the sexton’s cottage at sunset. The raven talks about seeing his cousin (the raven that did not to return to Noah) in Paradise AND that winter is coming. DEATH!!! There seems to be both space and time anomalies! When asked about his church, the raven turns his head 360 deg.

One must become a fool before one can see because it requires humility. The man is in awe because, while he can’t explain it, he knows it’s a prayer flower.

Worlds and languages have this in common: learning one other than your own helps you understand your own better. Some prayers about heavy topics fly and fall to the ground like blocks of concrete. Others take the form of their meaning and fly away. Even the man sees a prayer flower (pale pink anemone with a golden heart). Recognizing one is not a skill to be taught because it requires open eyes.

The people are elderly and will not pray there much longer. The heart gives birth to prayer, and they see it fly as a white dove, wings quivering in the sunlight, climbing an ethereal staircase (like the one in his old house?). The man keeps thinking analytically and can only see prayer as a strict spiritual thing with no basis in reality. He says either or but the raven says both and.

The raven knows a lot about his world: the man was going to meet the bailiff about leaving this spot alone so he could turn it into a rose garden. The raven asks him to stand and listen and the man hears a faint musical wind! Yeah!!! He hears the prayers of people who still gather there to sing and talk as big thoughts flow from their hearts. They pray in silence and some do all that all day with nobody knowing.

Ch. 5 They walk through an ancient, thick pine forest. They reach an open heath where an gnarled, old hawthorn stands. The man thinks it is an old man with a white head because it isn’t the season for hawthorns to blossom (more analytical thinking). The raven flips it: it’s the season for a hawthorn to bloom when it blooms. It stands in the ground where a ruined church lies on his property.

The man accepts his fate and is ready for his adventure. He realizes he must learn the laws of a world he doesn’t understand. He regrets that he has not left any mark in his old world. He realizes he has lived a wasted life and the only thing he has left behind is the property he inherited. The raven invites him home to dinner with his wife.

Wait! He smells roses in Grieg’s Wedding March after he wakes up with other butterflies. Is this an image of Christ and his bride, the Church? The man makes a leap of faith and listened to the rosebush. He smells something like a rose, but not a rose. He kindly asks the raven the way home because he has an appointment with his bailiff. The raven says it’s already broken. The raven cannot help him.

This is like atheists feeling the need to argue God does not exist. Why bother if you don’t believe? The raven says only a man of the world could say that. The man is incredulous because the raven is a librarian and there is no way he could have read all those books because he talks such nonsense. The raven admits he read all the books and was not wise until he realized he was a fool he woke up with butterflies.

The raven says only the man can make a fool of himself. He will remain being a fool until he admits he is one. He will stop being a fool if he starts to admit what is true (way, truth, life). The raven talks about there being rose bushes and when the lady plays the piano it will move hyacinths and create an odor. He states two objects cannot be in the same place (enlightenment thinker).

He’s in the region of seven dimensions. Seven is completeness. Then the raven says, “Follow me.” Could he be an image of Christ? The man says he wants to hurt the raven who asks questions that annoy him. He tells him that the pine tree is in the hearth (Hell?) in his kitchen and goes up the chimney. The man thinks the raven is pranking him. Time also runs differently here (Narnia). He’s angry about looking foolish.

He asks about his individuality and again he can be an individual when he finally is one. Suddenly he is in pine forest (eternity). He realizes that his house is not his home if he can find himself somewhere else so easily. Then the raven blows his mind. He hasn’t left home. It seems there’s a duality: it’s like the castle in Five Children and It. The mans doesn’t see that we are both spirit and material.

I like the raven even more. He says more clergy should help worms fly which sounds like he’s in the soul-saving business. The man freaks out because he realizes he’s a stranger in a strange land (Exodus 2:22) even though he said he was going nowhere. He’s angry at the raven for violating his free will (do worms have free will). I wonder if “atom freer” is a pun on Adam. He says he can do as he will once he has one.

Raven tosses the worm and it turns into a red and black butterfly that flies off (more alchemy). The man chews him out because worms are not the larvae of butterflies (so enlightenment). The raven says he’s not a reading man now that he’s a sexton at a cemetery. The man says more materialistic things and the raven says that earth is not the original home of worms. The man obsesses over worms being in the air.

Raven talks about seeing and not seeing and that the man is not home yet; it sounds like nonsense to the man. The raven must mean eternal home because the man says he does not want to go, and the raven says it does not matter. We all have to go (die). The raven invites him to the garden. The raven pulls up a red worm (lots of black, white, red images): worms compost the dead. This is an identity quest of the soul.