On Reason and Passion

And the priestess spoke again

and said: Speak to us of Reason and

Passion.

And he answered, saying:

Your soul is oftentimes a battlefield,

upon which your reason and your judgment

wage war against your passion and your

appetite.

Would that I could be the peacemaker in

your soul, that I might turn the discord

and the rivalry of your elements into

oneness and melody.

But how shall I, unless you yourselves

be also the peacemakers, nay, the lovers

of all your elements?

Your reason and your passion are the

rudder and the sails of your seafaring

soul.

If either your sails or your rudder be

broken, you can but toss and drift,

or else be held at a standstill in

mid-seas.

For reason, ruling alone, is a force confining; and passion,

unattended, is a flame that burns to its

own destruction.

Therefore let your soul exalt your

reason to the height of passion, that it

may sing;

And let it direct your passion with

reason, that your passion may live

through its own daily resurrection,

and like the phoenix rise above its own

ashes.

I would have you consider your judgment

and your appetite even as you would two

loved guests in your house.

Surely you would not honour one guest

above the other; for he who is more

mindful of one loses the love and the

faith of both

Among the hills, when you sit in the

cool shade of the white poplars, sharing

the peace and serenity of distant fields

and meadows--then let your heart say in

silence, “God rests in reason.”

And when the storm comes, and the

mighty wind shakes the forest,

and thunder and lightning proclaim the

majesty of the sky,--then let your heart

say in awe, “God moves in passion.”

And since you are a breath in God’s

sphere, and a leaf in God’s forest, you

too should rest in reason and move in

passion.