TYB!
o7
“God being a luminous principle, residing in the midst of the most subtile
fire, he remains for ever invisible to the eyes of those who do not elevate them-
selves above material life: on this account, the sight of transparent bodies, such
as crystal, Parian marble, and even ivory, recalls the idea of divine light; as the
sight of gold excites an idea of its purity, for gold cannot he sullied. Some have
thought by a black stone was signified the invisibility of the divine essence. To
express supreme reason, the Divinity was represented under the human form –
and beautiful, for God is the source of beauty; of different ages, and in various
attitudes, sitting or upright; of one or the other sex, as a virgin or a young man,
a husband or a bride, that all the shades and gradations might be marked. Every
thing luminous was subsequently attributed to the gods; the sphere, and all that is
spherical, to the universe, to the sun and the moon – sometimes to Fortune and to
Hope. The circle, and all circular figures, to eternity – to the celestial movements;
to the circles and zones of the heavens. The section of circles, to the phases of
the moon; and pyramids and obelisks, to the igneous principle, and through that
to the gods of Heaven. A cone expresses the sun, a cylinder the earth; the phallus
and triangle (a symbol of the matrix) designate generation.” (From Essay on the
Mysteries of Eleusis by M. Ouvaroff.)