Crux

Here, the elemental state that is the crossroads: black balanced by white, lie by truth. The basic condition in which first we wander, and only later overcome. Our nature is seeking, if only seeking the possibility of the possible.

Doorways yawn, gateways lure, and pathways emerge from Mind. This figure—with its mystery breeched by the prisms of revelation—is a representation of the inner landscape. Only in the center, the Garden, can be found the solidity of the four-sided, the earth-force. Beyond, perched in the jaws of Dilemma, there to be pierced by doubt and hesitation, we choose because—chastened by the clarity borne by the exigency of the universe—we must. Such a ticklish paradox! Choice driven by choicelessness. All seekers face the darkness, redeemed by oases of illumination. Therein lies the challenge of wayfinding—to find the destination that can only exist after our arrival.

To choose is to die and, dying, to transcend.

Piety

Notice the aims of Man’s every urge: a cathedral, an Alhambra distilled to its essence. And here, a cruel geometry that men might worship, and, worshipping it, draw Rule into their veins. But while Rule can bind Flesh, it cannot guide Spirit. The pious harken to Example.

But what exists beyond the strictures of the tabernacle? Outside the shrine’s walls—and its niches, naves, and ranks of cardinals—the Eternal lies in wait. The Eternal, defined by absence as much as presence (represented here by the nothingness floating, ghostly, within a field of nothing) bears the unanswerable force of impending judgment, and more order than all the orders of Man.

The heart’s command speaks louder than any Church.