“I saw all the mirrors on earth and none of them reflected me…”
Source: The Aleph and Other Stories
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Jorge Luis Borges213
Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator… 1899–1986Related quotes
P. D. Ouspensky (1878–1947) Russian esotericist
Card I : The Magician http://www.sacred-texts.com/tarot/sot/sot02.htm <br class="br">The Symbolism of the Tarot (1913) <br class="br">Context: I Saw the Man.<br>His figure reached from earth to heaven and was clad in a purple mantle. He stood deep in foliage and flowers and his head, on which was the head-band of an initiate, seemed to disappear mysteriously in infinity.<br>Before him on a cube-shaped altar were four symbols of magic — the sceptre, the cup, the sword and the pentacle.<br>His right hand pointed to heaven, his left to earth. Under his mantle he wore a white tunic girded with a serpent swallowing its tail.<br>His face was luminous and serene, and, when his eyes met mine, I felt that he saw most intimate recesses of my soul. I saw myself reflected in him as in a mirror and in his eyes I seemed to look upon myself.<br>And I heard a voice saying:<br>—"Look, this is the Great Magician!
Kalpana Chawla (1962–2003) American astronaut
Asian Week Feb. 7 - Feb 13, 2003 http://asianweek.com/2003_02_07/opinion_emil.html
Stéphane Mallarmé (1842–1898) French Symbolist poet
Hérodiade.
Hérodiade (1898)
Context: I am alone in my monotonous country,
While all those around me live in the idolatry
Of a mirror reflecting in its depths serene
Herodiade, whose gaze is diamond keen...
O final enchantment! yes, I sense it, I am alone.
“He never had a doubt that such gods were;
He looked within, and saw them mirrored there.”
George Eliot (1819–1880) English novelist, journalist and translator
The Legend of Jubal (1869)
Context: When Cain was driven from Jehovah's land
He wandered eastward, seeking some far strand
Ruled by kind gods who asked no offerings
Save pure field-fruits, as aromatic things,
To feed the subtler sense of frames divine
That lived on fragrance for their food and [wine]]:
Wild joyous gods, who winked at faults and folly,
And could be pitiful and melancholy.
He never had a doubt that such gods were;
He looked within, and saw them mirrored there.