Liber Saturni - Chapter 46

Verses

Verse 49

The hermit left the city because every bell there told him what hour he ought to be.

Verse 50

In the hills he discovered hunger kept better time.

Verse 51

He sat beneath a bare tree and waited for revelation.

Verse 52

Snow came first.

Verse 53

He called the snow an obstacle.

Verse 54

Then he called it a teaching.

Verse 55

Then, embarrassed by both names, he fetched wood.

Verse 56

Years passed, and people climbed the hill to ask what he had learned.

Verse 57

He said, I learned to stop converting weather into messages about myself.

Verse 58

They were disappointed.

Verse 59

So he added, The Absolute is beyond cold and heat.

Verse 60

They wrote that down and ignored the first sentence.

Verse 61

A cat moved into his hut and refused metaphysics.

Verse 62

It slept through meditation, hunger, thunder, and one minor miracle.

Verse 63

The hermit envied it until he noticed envy was another performance.

Verse 64

Awareness needs no posture.

Verse 65

Silence needs no mountain.

Verse 66

Solitude needs no witness to certify it.

Verse 67

One evening Saturn appeared between clouds.

Verse 68

The hermit looked once, then returned to washing the bowl.

Verse 69

Nothing was rejected.

Verse 70

Nothing was required.

Verse 71

That was the closest he came to a sermon.

Verse 72

After his death the visitors built a large gate around the path.

Verse 73

The cat walked around it.