“
Still round the corner there may wait
A new road or a secret gate
And though I oft have passed them by
A day will come at last when I
Shall take the hidden paths that run
West of the Moon, East of the Sun.
”
”
J.R.R. Tolkien
“
Please, amigo. We need you, Kimosabe, O Mighty Powerful One. We need you more than the earth rises in the west."
The sun rises in the east, dickhead."
Only if you're standing on the earth. If you're on the moon, the earth rises in the west.
”
”
Simone Elkeles (Rules of Attraction (Perfect Chemistry, #2))
“
Funeral Blues
Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.
Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message He is Dead,
Put crêpe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.
He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last for ever: I was wrong.
The stars are not wanted now; put out every one,
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood;
For nothing now can ever come to any good.
”
”
W.H. Auden (Another Time)
“
She would search for him.
In the land that lay east of the sun and west of the moon.
But there was no way there.
”
”
Edith Pattou (East (East, #1))
“
East of the sun and west of the moon.
”
”
Edith Pattou (East (East, #1))
“
Were they ready? Did the sun rise in the east and set in the fucking west?
”
”
L.A. Banks (Cursed to Death (Crimson Moon, #4))
“
It was a palace, made entirely of gold, sitting on an island of silver snow at the very top of the world. East of the sun, and west of the moon.
”
”
Jessica Day George (Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow)
“
East of the sun and west of the moon.' As unfathomable as the words were, I realized I must figure them out, reason it through. For I would go to this impossible land that lay east of the sun and west of the moon. From the moment the sleigh had vanished from sight and I could no longer hear the silver bells I knew that I would go after the stranger that had been the white bear to make right the terrible wrong I had done him.... All that mattered was to make things right. And I would do whatever it took, journey to wherever I must, to reach that goal.
”
”
Edith Pattou (East (East, #1))
“
You have traveled far, but the hardest part of a journey is always the next step.
”
”
Jackie Morris (East of the Sun, West of the Moon)
“
Still round the corner there may wait A new road or a secret gate; And though I oft have passed them by, A day will come at last when I Shall take the hidden paths that run West of the Moon, East of the Sun.
”
”
J.R.R. Tolkien (The Lord of the Rings)
“
All the idylls of youth: beauty manifest in lakes, mountains, people; richness in experience, conversation, friendships. Nights during a full moon, the light flooded the wilderness, so it was possible to hike without a headlamp. We would hit the trail at two A.M., summiting the nearest peak, Mount Tallac, just before sunrise, the clear, starry night reflected in the flat, still lakes spread below us. Snuggled together in sleeping bags at the peak, nearly ten thousand feet up, we weathered frigid blasts of wind with coffee someone had been thoughtful enough to bring. And then we would sit and watch as the first hint of sunlight, a light tinge of day blue, would leak out of the eastern horizon, slowly erasing the stars. The day sky would spread wide and high, until the first ray of the sun made an appearance. The morning commuters began to animate the distant South Lake Tahoe roads. But craning your head back, you could see the day’s blue darken halfway across the sky, and to the west, the night remained yet unconquered—pitch-black, stars in full glimmer, the full moon still pinned in the sky. To the east, the full light of day beamed toward you; to the west, night reigned with no hint of surrender. No philosopher can explain the sublime better than this, standing between day and night. It was as if this were the moment God said, “Let there be light!” You could not help but feel your specklike existence against the immensity of the mountain, the earth, the universe, and yet still feel your own two feet on the talus, reaffirming your presence amid the grandeur.
”
”
Paul Kalanithi (When Breath Becomes Air)
“
There may come a time at last that I
Shall take the hidden paths that run
East of the moon west of the sun.
”
”
J.R.R. Tolkien
“
I crossed the room to him. "I love you," I said in a rush, afraid I would change my mind.
"Charles," he replied.
”
”
Edith Pattou (East (East, #1))
“
Like a blazing comet, I've traversed infinite nights, interstellar spaces of the imagination, voluptuousness and fear. I've been a man, a woman, an old person, a little girl, I've been the crowds on the grand boulevards of the capital cities of the West, I've been the serene Buddha of the East, whose calm and wisdom we envy. I've known honor and dishonor, enthusiasm and exhaustion.
...I've been the sun and the moon, and everything because life is not enough.
”
”
Antonio Tabucchi (Dreams of Dreams and the Last Three Days of Fernando Pessoa)
“
East of the sun, west of the moon," said Morozko. "Beyond the next tree.
”
”
Katherine Arden (The Bear and the Nightingale (The Winternight Trilogy, #1))
“
Where is it?" I asked, willing him to tell me.
He laughed suddenly, and I could hear the full-throated, grating sound of the white bear's laughter in it.
"East of the sun and west of the moon," he said.
”
”
Edith Pattou (East (East, #1))
“
The knowledge of that land's geography…'east o' the sun, west o' the moon'…is priceless lore, not to be bought in any market place. It must be the gift of the good fairies at birth and the years can never deface it or take it away. It is better to possess it, living in a garret, than to be the inhabitant of palaces without it.
”
”
L.M. Montgomery (Anne of Avonlea (Anne of Green Gables, #2))
“
It was the upward-reaching and fathomlessly hungering, heart-breaking love for the beauty of the world at its most beautiful, and, beyond that, for that beauty east of the sun and west of the moon which is past the reach of all but our most desperate desiring and is finally the beauty of Beauty itself, of Being itself and what lies at the heart of Being.
”
”
Frederick Buechner (The Sacred Journey: A Memoir of Early Days)
“
If it's easter than east and wester than west, it must be north.
”
”
Jessica Day George (Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow)
“
A great White Bear waits outside. He has faithfully promised to make us all rich if he can but have our youngest daughter.
”
”
Peter Christen Asbjørnsen (East of the Sun and West of the Moon: Old Tales from the North (Calla Editions))
“
Be brave, be clever, and be true to your heart.
”
”
Jackie Morris (East of the Sun, West of the Moon)
“
...we hunger for other worlds. We long to go beyond the streets we know, beyond our familiar woods and fields, and into the land of Faerie; to Middle-earth, Narnia, or Summerland; to the kingdom east of the sun and west of the moon. This longing isn’t incidental.
”
”
Sarah Arthur (Walking through the Wardrobe: A Devotional Quest into The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe)
“
He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong.
The stars are not wanted now; put out every one,
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun,
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood;
For nothing now can ever come to any good.
”
”
W.H. Auden (Collected Poems)
“
A great White Bear waits outside. He has faithfully promised to make us all rich if he can but have our youngest daughter.
”
”
Jørgen Moe (East of the Sun and West of the Moon: Old Tales from the North (Calla Editions))
“
You don’t realize how small your world is when you are a child. Your parents are your east and west, your sun and moon.
”
”
Susan Meissner (The Girl in the Glass)
“
I grow into these mountains like a moss. I am bewitched. The blinding snow peaks and the clarion air, the sound of earth and heaven in the silence, the requiem birds, the mythic beasts, the flags, great horns, and old carved stones, the silver ice in the black river, the Kang, the Crystal Mountain. Also, I love the common miracles-the murmur of my friends at evening, the clay fires of smudgy juniper, the coarse dull food, the hardship and simplicity, the contentment of doing one thing at a time… gradually my mind has cleared itself, and wind and sun pour through my head, as through a bell. Though we talk little here, I am never lonely; I am returned into myself. In another life-this isn’t what I know, but how I feel- these mountains were my home; there is a rising of forgotten knowledge, like a spring from hidden aquifers under the earth. To glimpse one’s own true nature is a kind of homegoing, to a place East of the Sun, West of the Moon- the homegoing that needs no home, like that waterfall on the supper Suli Gad that turns to mist before touching the earth and rises once again to the sky.
”
”
Peter Matthiessen (The Snow Leopard)
“
He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last for ever: I was wrong.
The stars are not wanted now: put out every one;
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood;
For nothing now can ever come to any good.
”
”
W.H. Auden
“
And then we would sit and watch as the first hint of sunlight, a light tinge of day blue, would leak out of the eastern horizon, slowly erasing the stars. The day sky would spread wide and high, until the first ray of the sun made an appearance. The morning commuters began to animate the distant South Lake Tahoe roads. But craning your head back, you could see the day’s blue darken halfway across the sky, and to the west, the night remained yet unconquered—pitch-black, stars in full glimmer, the full moon still pinned in the sky. To the east, the full light of day beamed toward you; to the west, night reigned with no hint of surrender. No philosopher can explain the sublime better than this, standing between day and night. It was as if this were the moment God said, “Let there be light!” You.
”
”
Paul Kalanithi (When Breath Becomes Air)
“
It is not too far. East of the sun, west of the moon.
”
”
Katherine Arden (The Bear and the Nightingale (The Winternight Trilogy, #1))
“
You had to search west of the moon and east of the sun if you wanted to find your true love.
”
”
Alice Hoffman (The Invisible Hour)
“
East of the sun, west of the moon,
”
”
Katherine Arden (The Bear and the Nightingale (Winternight Trilogy, #1))
“
After you flew across the country we
got in bed, laid our bodies
delicately together, like maps laid
face to face, East to West, my
San Francisco against your New York, your
Fire Island against my Sonoma, my
New Orleans deep in your Texas, your Idaho
bright on my Great Lakes, my Kansas
burning against your Kansas your Kansas
burning against my Kansas, your Eastern
Standard Time pressing into my
Pacific Time, my Mountain Time
beating against your Central Time, your
sun rising swiftly from the right my
sun rising swiftly from the left your
moon rising slowly from the left my
moon rising slowly from the right until
all four bodies of the sky
burn above us, sealing us together,
all our cities twin cities,
all our states united, one
nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
”
”
Sharon Olds
“
Book Excerpt:
"What about your family, Abu Huwa? Are you an orphan?” the little girl very innocently asked the Sphinx.
“My father and your father are one and the same. However, I do have a brother who has stood as my mirror throughout time on the opposite horizon. It is I who faces east, but it is he who faces west. I am the recorder of yesterday and he holds the records of tomorrow. I am the positive, and he is my negative. I carry the right eye of the sun and he carries the left eye of the moon. He keeps his eye on the underworld and I keep an eye on the world over. Together we have joined the sky and earth, and split fire and water.”
Seham stood on all toes to peek over the Sphinx's shoulder for a sign of his brother. “Where is he?” she asked, her eyes still searching the open horizon.
“He has yet to be uncovered, but as I stand above the sands of time, he still sleeps below. Before the descent of Adam, we have both stood as loyal Protectors of the Two Halls of Truth.”
The girl asked in astonishment, “I've never heard of these halls, Abu Huwa. Where are they?”
“At the end of each of our tails is a passage that will reveal to you the secrets of Time. One hall reflects a thousand truths, and the other hall reflects all that is untrue. One will speak to your heart, and the other will speak to your mind. This is why you need to use both your heart and mind to understand which one is real, and which is a distorted illusion created to misguide those that have neglected their conscience. Both passageways connect you to the Great Hall of Records.”
“What is the Hall of Records?”
“The Great Pyramid, my child. It is as multidimensional in its shape as it is in its purpose. Every layer and every brick marks the coming of a prophet, the ascension of evil, or another cycle of man. It contains the entire history and future of mankind. And, as is above, so is below. Above ground, it serves as the most powerful energy source to harmonize and power the world! The shape of the pyramid above ground is also the same image mirrored beneath it. Underground, it serves as a powerful well and drain. This is really why Egypt is called the Land of Two Lands. There exists a huge world of its own underneath the plateau, a world within worlds. Large amounts of gold, copper and mercury were once housed here, including the secrets of Time, the 100th name of He Who Is All, and a gift from Truth that still awaits to be discovered. It sleeps with Time in the Great Pyramid, hidden away in a lower shaft that leads to the stars.”
Dialogue from 'The Little Girl and the Sphinx' by Suzy Kassem, Rise Up and Salute the Sun (Dar-El Shams, 2010)
”
”
Suzy Kassem (Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem)
“
As we walked homeward across the fields, the sun dropped and lay like a great golden globe in the low west. While it hung there, the moon rose in the east, as big as a cart-wheel, pale silver and streaked with rose color, thin as a bubble or a ghost-moon. For five, perhaps ten minutes, the two luminaries confronted each other across the level land, resting on opposite edges of the world. In that singular light every little tree and shock of wheat, every sunflower stalk and clump of snow-on-the-mountain, drew itself up high and pointed; the very clods and furrows in the fields seemed to stand up sharply. I felt the old pull of the earth, the solemn magic that comes out of those fields at nightfall. I wished I could be a little boy again, and that my way could end there.
”
”
Willa Cather (My Ántonia)
“
It will be seen that the form of the mountain’s spurs were very much [the] same as they appear on Thror’s map as published (with the height of Ravenhill at the end of the southern spur and the camp beneath it); but the ruins of Dale are on the east side of the River Running, since they were not enclosed within a great eastward loop of the river. The device at the top of the map apparently represents the points of the compass, with the seven stars of the Great Bear in the North (the black spots to the left of the stars are merely marks on the paper), the Sun in the South, the Misty Mountains in the West and (I think) the entrance to the Elvenking’s halls in the East. The names at the bottom of the page, ‘Mirkwood’, ‘marshes’, and ‘Lake Town’, and the ‘camp’below the mountain, were added in at the same time as the second version of the text of the Moon-runes. At the bottom on the right is the first actual sketch of the Lonely Mountain, added in pencil.
”
”
J.R.R. Tolkien (The Hobbit)
“
Again, ancient Zenists did not claim that there was any mysterious element in their spiritual attainment, as Do-gen says[FN#259] unequivocally respecting his Enlightenment: "I recognized only that my eyes are placed crosswise above the nose that stands lengthwise, and that I was not deceived by others. I came home from China with nothing in my hand. There is nothing mysterious in Buddhism. Time passes as it is natural, the sun rising in the east, and the moon setting into the west." [FN#259]
”
”
Kaiten Nukariya (The Religion of the Samurai A Study of Zen Philosophy and Discipline in China and Japan)
“
A Rabbit as King of the Ghosts"
The difficulty to think at the end of day,
When the shapeless shadow covers the sun
And nothing is left except light on your fur—
There was the cat slopping its milk all day,
Fat cat, red tongue, green mind, white milk
And August the most peaceful month.
To be, in the grass, in the peacefullest time,
Without that monument of cat,
The cat forgotten in the moon;
And to feel that the light is a rabbit-light,
In which everything is meant for you
And nothing need be explained;
Then there is nothing to think of. It comes of itself;
And east rushes west and west rushes down,
No matter. The grass is full
And full of yourself. The trees around are for you,
The whole of the wideness of night is for you,
A self that touches all edges,
You become a self that fills the four corners of night.
The red cat hides away in the fur-light
And there you are humped high, humped up,
You are humped higher and higher, black as stone—
You sit with your head like a carving in space
And the little green cat is a bug in the grass.
”
”
Wallace Stevens (The Collected Poems)
“
Life has come to a silent pause,
The fear of Virus, the slowdown,
Disconnecting me from moments,
Heart has taken over the mind,
Light now shines upon my eyes,
Dreams blocked, the roads traversed,
The break has broken the barrier,
Me pondering, was I living my life?
The days are same and so is night,
The Sun, the Moon, and the stars,
still rise in the east and set in the west,
Trees, plants, flowers there as before,
The sky, clouds rivers and oceans,
Earth's precious treasures, no different,
Change is in my perspective n priorities,
Is it that I am learning to live my life.
Monotonous tedium chores,
Unpleasant hunger for wealth,
Most of us are living dead,
Body just awaits the soul to leave,
To be buried or cremated,
Waste of life and for what price,
All material things cherished,
Useless in our last flight.
Time to fall in love with my life,
Stop living for others, their expectations,
I am again the owner of my choices,
Not bothered to please others,
Nor what they think about me,
My dreams are alive and back,
My treasurers are now my deeds,
I have finally learnt to live!!!
”
”
Mukesh Kwatra
“
The sun was gone, and the moon was coming
Over the blue Connecticut hills;
The west was rosy, the east was flushed,
And over my head the swallows rushed
This way and that, with changeful wills.
I heard them twitter and watched them dart
Now together now apart
Like dark petals blown from a tree;
The maples stamped against the west
Were black and stately and full of rest,
And the hazy orange moon grew up
And slowly changed to yellow gold
While the hills were darkened, fold on fold
To a deeper blue than a flower could hold.
Down the hill I went, and then
I forgot the ways of men,
For night-scents, heady, and damp and cool
Wakened ecstasy in me
On the brink of a shining pool.
O Beauty, out of many a cup
You have made me drunk and wild
Ever since I was a child,
But when have I been sure as now
That no bitterness can bend
And no sorrow wholly bow
One who loves you to the end?
And though I must give my breath
And my laughter all to death,
And my eyes through which joy came,
And my heart, a wavering flame;
If all must leave me and go back
Along a blind and fearful track
So that you can make anew,
Fusing with intenser fire,
Something nearer you desire;
If my soul must go alone
Through a cold infinity,
Or even if it vanish, too,
Beauty, I have worshipped you.
Let this single hour atone
For the theft of all of me
”
”
Sara Teasdale (The Collected Poems)
“
we would sit and watch as the first hint of sunlight, a light tinge of day blue, would leak out of the eastern horizon, slowly erasing the stars. The day sky would spread wide and high, until the first ray of the sun made an appearance. The morning commuters began to animate the distant South Lake Tahoe roads. But craning your head back, you could see the day’s blue darken halfway across the sky, and to the west, the night remained yet unconquered—pitch-black, stars in full glimmer, the full moon still pinned in the sky. To the east, the full light of day beamed toward you; to the west, night reigned with no hint of surrender. No philosopher can explain the sublime better than this, standing between day and night. It was as if this were the moment God said, “Let there be light!” You could not help but feel your specklike existence against the immensity of the mountain, the earth, the universe, and yet still feel your own two feet on the talus, reaffirming your presence amid the grandeur.
”
”
Paul Kalanithi (When Breath Becomes Air)
“
And then we would sit and watch as the first hint of sunlight, a light tinge of day blue, would leak out of the eastern horizon, slowly erasing the stars. The day sky would spread wide and high, until the first ray of the sun made an appearance. The morning commuters began to animate the distant South Lake Tahoe roads. But craning your head back, you could see the day’s blue darken halfway across the sky, and to the west, the night remained yet unconquered – pitch-black, stars in full glimmer, the full moon still pinned in the sky. To the east, the full light of day beamed toward you; to the west, night reigned with no hint of surrender. No philosopher can explain the sublime better than this, standing between day and night. It was as if this were the moment God said, “Let there be light!” You could not help but feel your specklike existence against the immensity of the mountain, the earth, the universe, and yet still feel your own two feet on the talus, reaffirming your presence amid the grandeur.
”
”
Paul Kalanithi
“
I like rainbows.
We came back down to the meadow near the steaming terrace and sat in the river, just where one of the bigger hot streams poured into the cold water of the Ferris Fork. It is illegal – not to say suicidal – to bathe in any of the thermal features of the park. But when those features empty into the river, at what is called a hot pot, swimming and soaking are perfectly acceptable. So we were soaking off our long walk, talking about our favorite waterfalls, and discussing rainbows when it occurred to us that the moon was full. There wasn’t a hint of foul weather. And if you had a clear sky and a waterfall facing in just the right direction…
Over the course of a couple of days we hked back down the canyon to the Boundary Creek Trail and followed it to Dunanda Falls, which is only about eight miles from the ranger station at the entrance to the park. Dunanda is a 150-foot-high plunge facing generally south, so that in the afternoons reliable rainbows dance over the rocks at its base. It is the archetype of all western waterfalls. Dunenda is an Indian name; in Shoshone it means “straight down,” which is a pretty good description of the plunge.
...
…We had to walk three miles back toward the ranger station and our assigned campsite. We planned to set up our tents, eat, hang our food, and walk back to Dunanda Falls in the dark, using headlamps. We could be there by ten or eleven. At that time the full moon would clear the east ridge of the downriver canyon and would be shining directly on the fall.
Walking at night is never a happy proposition, and this particular evening stroll involved five stream crossings, mostly on old logs, and took a lot longer than we’d anticipated. Still, we beat the moon to the fall.
Most of us took up residence in one or another of the hot pots. Presently the moon, like a floodlight, rose over the canyon rim. The falling water took on a silver tinge, and the rock wall, which had looked gold under the sun, was now a slick black so the contrast of water and rock was incomparably stark. The pools below the lip of the fall were glowing, as from within, with a pale blue light. And then it started at the base of the fall: just a diagonal line in the spray that ran from the lower east to the upper west side of the wall.
“It’s going to happen,” I told Kara, who was sitting beside me in one of the hot pots.
Where falling water hit the rock at the base of the fall and exploded upward in vapor, the light was very bright. It concentrated itself in a shining ball. The diagonal line was above and slowly began to bend until, in the fullness of time (ten minutes, maybe), it formed a perfectly symmetrical bow, shining silver blue under the moon. The color was vaguely electrical.
Kara said she could see colors in the moonbow, and when I looked very hard, I thought I could make out a faint line of reddish orange above, and some deep violet at the bottom. Both colors were very pale, flickering, like bad florescent light.
In any case, it was exhilarating, the experience of a lifetime: an entirely perfect moonbow, silver and iridescent, all shining and spectral there at the base of Dunanda Falls. The hot pot itself was a luxury, and I considered myself a pretty swell fellow, doing all this for the sanity of city dwellers, who need such things more than anyone else. I even thought of naming the moonbow: Cahill’s Luminescence. Something like that. Otherwise, someone else might take credit for it.
”
”
Tim Cahill (Lost in My Own Backyard: A Walk in Yellowstone National Park (Crown Journeys))
“
Eventually the term ended and I was on the windy mountain road to camp, still slightly worried that I’d made a wrong turn in life. My doubt, however, was short-lived. The camp delivered on its promise, concentrating all the idylls of youth: beauty manifest in lakes, mountains, people; richness in experience, conversation, friendships. Nights during a full moon, the light flooded the wilderness, so it was possible to hike without a headlamp. We would hit the trail at two A.M., summiting the nearest peak, Mount Tallac, just before sunrise, the clear, starry night reflected in the flat, still lakes spread below us. Snuggled together in sleeping bags at the peak, nearly ten thousand feet up, we weathered frigid blasts of wind with coffee someone had been thoughtful enough to bring. And then we would sit and watch as the first hint of sunlight, a light tinge of day blue, would leak out of the eastern horizon, slowly erasing the stars. The day sky would spread wide and high, until the first ray of the sun made an appearance. The morning commuters began to animate the distant South Lake Tahoe roads. But craning your head back, you could see the day’s blue darken halfway across the sky, and to the west, the night remained yet unconquered—pitch-black, stars in full glimmer, the full moon still pinned in the sky. To the east, the full light of day beamed toward you; to the west, night reigned with no hint of surrender. No philosopher can explain the sublime better than this, standing between day and night. It was as if this were the moment God said, “Let there be light!” You could not help but feel your specklike existence against the immensity of the mountain, the earth, the universe, and yet still feel your own two feet on the talus, reaffirming your presence amid the grandeur.
”
”
Paul Kalanithi (When Breath Becomes Air)
“
I'd be more impressed with a woman's mind if it jiggled pleasantly when she walked.
”
”
John Ringo (East of the Sun, West of the Moon (The Council Wars, #4))
“
Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to me, "Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb." And in the spirit he carried me away to a great, high mountain and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God. It has the glory of God and radiance like a very rare jewel, like jasper, clear as crystal. It has a great, high wall with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and on the gates are inscribed the names of the twelve tribes of the Israelites; on the east three gates, on the north three gates, on the south three gates, and on the west three gates. And the wall of the city has twelve foundations, and on them are the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. Its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. People will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. Revelation 21:9-14, 22-26
”
”
Marek P. Zabriskie (Are We There Yet?: Pilgrimage in the Season of Lent)
“
This mysterious Mind," says Kwei Fung (Kei-ho), "is higher than the highest, deeper than the deepest, limitless in all directions. There is no centre in it. No distinction of east and west, and above and below. Is it empty? Yes, but not empty like space. Has it a form? Yes, but has no form dependent on another for its existence. Is it intelligent? Yes, but not intelligent like your mind. Is it non-intelligent? Yes, but not non-intelligent like trees and stone. Is it conscious? Yes, but not conscious like you when waking. Is it bright? Yes, but not bright like the sun or the moon.
”
”
Kaiten Nukariya (The Religion of the Samurai A Study of Zen Philosophy and Discipline in China and Japan)
“
Legend of the Universe
The Cherokee have many different legends. One of them is the story of the universe. This legend has been handed down from generation to generation. Today’s elders continue to pass this story down to the children. The Cherokee used to believe that the world was made up of three separate worlds. There was the Upper World, the Lower World, and This World.
This World was a round island resting on the surface of the water. Four cords from each of the directions of the compass attached it to the sky. Each direction had its own color that represented something from the Lower World or the Upper World. The Upper World had perfect order and stability. The Lower World was full of disorder.
East was the color red, because it was the color of the sun. Red was also the color of fire and represented life. North was the direction of cold, so its color was blue. It represented trouble and defeat. South was the direction of warmth, and its color was white. It was associated with peace and happiness. The moon was in the west. It gave no warmth and unlike the Sun, it was not a giver of life. Black was the color that represented the west. The west stood for death and the souls of the dead.
The Cherokee believed that it was their role to find a halfway spot between the Upper World and the Lower World. This spot should be found while living in This World.
”
”
Anne M. Todd (The Cherokee: An Independent Nation)
“
The Scripture of Zen is written with facts simple and familiar, so simple and familiar with everyday life that they escape observation on that very account. The sun rises in the east. The moon sets in the west. High is the mountain. Deep is the sea. Spring comes with flowers; summer with the cool breeze; autumn with the bright moon; winter with the fakes of snow. These things, perhaps too simple and too familiar for ordinary observers to pay attention to, have had profound significance for Zen.
”
”
Kaiten Nukariya (The Religion of the Samurai A Study of Zen Philosophy and Discipline in China and Japan)
“
Eventually, he felt an overwhelming urge to meld his voice with the notes, and he began to play his ballad for the wind.
Jack sang his verses, his fingers strumming with confidence. He sang to the southern wind with its promise of strength in battle. He sang to the western wind with its promise of healing. He sang to the northern wind with its promise of vindication.
The notes rose and fell, undulating like the hills far beneath him. But while the wind carried his music and his voice, the folk of the air didn’t answer.
What if they refuse to come? Jack wondered, with a pulse of worry. From the corner of his eye, he watched as Adaira rose to her feet.
The wind seemed to be waiting for her to move. To stand and meet it. She stood planted on the rock as Jack continued to play, shielded by Orenna’s essence. Twice, he had played for the spirits and had nearly forgotten he was a man, that he was not a part of them. But this time he held firmly to himself as he watched the folk answer.
The southern wind manifested first. They arrived with a sigh and formed themselves from the gust, individualizing into men and women with hair like fire—red and amber with a trace of blue. Great feathered wings bloomed from their backs like those of a bird, and each beat of their pinions emitted a wash of warmth and longing. Jack could taste the nostalgia they offered; he drank it like a bittersweet wine, like the memories of a summer long ago.
The east wind was the next to arrive. They manifested in a flurry of leaves, their hair like molten gold. Their wings were fashioned like those of a bat, long and pronged and the shade of dusk. They carried the fragrance of rain in their wings.
The west wind spun themselves out of whispers, with hair the shade of midnight, long and jeweled with stars. Their wings were like those of a moth, patterned with moons, beating softly and evoking both beauty and dread as Jack beheld them. The air shimmered at their edges like a dream, as if they might melt at any moment, and their skin smelled of smoke and cloves as they hovered in place, unable to depart as Jack’s music captivated them.
Half of the spirits watched him, entranced by his ballad. But half of them watched Adaira, their eyes wide and brimming with light.
“It’s her,” some of them whispered.
Jack missed a note. He quickly regained his place, pushing his concern aside. It felt like his nails were creating sparks on the brass strings.
He sang the verse for the northern wind again.
The sky darkened. Thunder rumbled in the distance as the north reluctantly answered Jack’s summoning. The air plunged cold and bitter as the strongest of the winds manifested from wisps of clouds and stinging gales. It answered the music, fragmenting into men and women with flaxen hair, dressed in leather and links of silver webs. Their wings were translucent and veined, reminiscent of a dragonfly’s, boasting every color found beneath the sun.
They came reluctantly, defiantly. Their eyes bore into him like needles.
Jack was alarmed by their reaction to him. Some of them hissed through their sharp teeth, while others cowered as if awaiting a death blow.
His ballad came to its end, and the absence of his voice and music sharpened the terror of the moment. Adaira continued to stand before an audience of manifested spirits, and Jack was stunned by the sight of them. To know that they had rushed alongside him as he walked the east. That he had felt their fingers in his hair, felt them kiss his mouth and steal words from his lips, carrying his voice in their hands.
And his music had just summoned them. His voice and song now held them captive, beholden to him.
He studied the horde. Some of the spirits looked amused, others shocked. Some were afraid, and some were angry.
”
”
Rebecca Ross (A River Enchanted (Elements of Cadence, #1))
“
these states relate to the progressive age of maturation of a human being. Bala here means ‘child’; a planet in Bala Avastha will have a child-like energy to it, and like a child will not be able to exhibit the full potential of its strength. In fact, a planet in Bala Avastha displays only about one-fourth of the strength that would otherwise be predicted for it. Kumara means ‘youth’ and, like a vigorous youth, a planet in Kumara Avastha gives one-half of its results since, though strength is present, the wisdom needed to direct that strength, which is derived from experience, is usually lacking. Yuva, which also means ‘young’, indicates a young adult who has had sufficient experience to gain some of life’s wisdom. A planet in Yuva Avastha gives full results. Vriddha means ‘aged’ and indicates a planet which has entered its senior, retired years; it gives minimal results. Mrita means ‘dead’; relatively speaking, dead planets produce no results, though every planet does in some way or other give some result. Directional Strength TABLE 4.4 Directional Strength and Weakness of the Planets House Planet’s Strength Planet’s Weakness First (East) Mercury-Jupiter Saturn Fourth (North) Moon Venus Sun Mars Seventh (West) Saturn Jupiter Mercury Tenth (South) Sun Mars Moon Venus A horoscope’s tenth house corresponds to the sector of the heavens that is highest in the sky at any particular moment, while the fourth house corresponds to the sector that is underfoot, i.e. opposite the tenth house below the earth.
”
”
Hart Defouw (Light On Life: An Introduction to the Astrology of India (Arkana))
“
I believe it was not only us who struggled to carve out a face in the full moon that night. We were, for sure, not the first nation to invent this phenomenon. Perhaps the Chinese had envisioned their princes and princesses on the moon, naming them full moon of the full moons before us. The name traveled perilous paths in deep hollows and high mountains from east to west, got translated to Arabic and became Badr-al-Budur. Perhaps Arabs couldn’t have invented the stories of One Thousand and One Nights suddenly out of the blue in one night. They must have heard the stories from Samarkand to Shiraz to Baghdad, and finally, an ingenious narrator gathered the stories and retold them in the lilting voice of a lady in dire straits to make them last for eternity in the hearts and minds of eastern people. Perhaps we were not the only nation who, in vain, dipped into the dark ditch of sorcery or soared into the sky to sketch the guise of a hero on the moon. It was mankind’s imagination at work.
”
”
Mojgan Ghazirad (The House On Sun Street)
“
east of the sun and west of the moon.
”
”
K.J. Charles (Spectred Isle (Green Men, #1))
“
Let's go to Sarai, Sashka! Or Tzargrad, or Buyan, where the sea-king lives with his daughter the swan-maiden. It is not too far. East of the sun, west of the moon.
”
”
Katherine Arden (The Bear and the Nightingale (The Winternight Trilogy, #1))
“
To the God-hungry imagination, the fallen world is a crummy place much of the time; we rightly long for the land at the back of the wardrobe, the kingdom east of the sun and west of the moon.
”
”
Sarah Arthur (The God-Hungry Imagination: The Art of Storytelling for Postmodern Youth Ministry)
“
East of the Sun and West of the Moon.
”
”
Kate Birkin (The Consequence of Anna)
“
Sometimes the credit in the bank of petience becomes empty, and it cannot longer sustain all the drama laid at her door, how many forgivness does one need before helping themselves with all the help and understanding laid at their disposal,from relatives and family, how many tears must everyone cry for you to change your ways, but nothing seem to help least of all you towards yourself, you think the whole world is against you but its not true, you are against yourself, this has been the problem, and you want to blame all others, its so easy to avoid responsibility, we have all been there and done that, we have all faced challanges, but the highway to spiritual growth, begins with facing yourself taking up responsibility for you, by doing that you take up responsibility for all others, Every day, the Sun, Moon, planets, and stars rise in the east and set in the west, why do you make life so hard for yourself, by refusing the light that shines onto you from celestial heavens, do not be afraid to change, life changes us all, we are the flowers in the wilderness, where the wind challenges us not to break, we are the still garden, birds flying, the golden yellow sun pouring her energy onto the stillness, appriciate the moment, be still, be love towaards yourself, be love towards others, be love towards nature, be love towards animals, be love to life
”
”
Kenan Hudaverdi
“
How fair the realm
Imagination opens to the view,”
and both knew the way to that happy land. There the rose of joy bloomed immortal by dale and stream; clouds never darkened the sunny sky; sweet bells never jangled out of tune; and kindred spirits abounded. The knowledge of that land’s geography ... “east o’ the sun, west of the moon” … is priceless lore, not to be bought in any market place. It must be the gift of the good fairies at birth and the years can never deface it or take it away. It is better to possess it, living in a garret, than to be an inhabitant of palaces without it.
”
”
L.M. Montgomery (Anne Of Avonlea)
“
How fair the realm
Imagination opens to the view,”
and both knew the way to that happy land. There the rose of joy bloomed immortal by dale and stream; clouds never darkened the sunny sky; sweet bells never jangled out of tune; and kindred spirits abounded. The knowledge of that land’s geography … “east o’ the sun, west of the moon” … is priceless lore, not to be bought in any market place. It must be the gift of the good fairies at birth and the years can never deface it or take it away. It is better to possess it, living in a garret, than to be an inhabitant of palaces without it.
”
”
L.M. Montgomery (Anne of Avonlea (Anne of Green Gables, #2))
“
Yin/Yang is used to describe the various qualities of paired items in relation to one another and that nothing in nature can exist without its counterpart.3 This is expressed in the following examples. Without day there can be no night, without right there can be no left, without hard there can be no soft, without East there can be no West, without expansion there can be no contraction, without rest there can be no activity. This list can go on forever. Just take a minute and think of the numerous like comparisons that you can make on your own. The complementary opposite characteristics of Yin/Yang should quickly become apparent. This comparison is even extended to like items, which means that there is no absolute in the concept. Take daytime for example. It is associated with Yang. The counterpart of daytime is nighttime, which is associated with Yin. As the sun moves through the sky during the course of the day it produces shadows. The shadows are associated with Yin, which is in comparison with areas that are receiving full sunshine. The shadows are the Yin within the Yang of the day. At night the moon will sometimes cast light on to the surface of the Earth. That occurrence is considered as Yang, which is in comparison to dark, shadowy areas. It is the Yang within the Yin of night. As the sun and moon move through the sky the positions of the corresponding light and shadow areas will merge and alternate. This represents the cyclic qualities of Yin/Yang. All events in nature, including the interactions of the human body, are cyclic and contain a complementary opposite according in Eastern thought.4 Yin/Yang, at the most basic level, is a simple comparison. Taoist philosophy does not separate cause from effect. In their view, everything is in a constant state of metamorphosis. Day is not caused by night, but simple precedes it. Winter is not caused by summer, but the two are linked in the cycle of the seasons.
”
”
Rand Cardwell (36 Deadly Bubishi Points: The Science and Technique of Pressure Point Fighting - Defend Yourself Against Pressure Point Attacks!)
“
that I planted that little tender elm which you there see. I myself am not half the age of this shady oak under which we sit. Many of our fathers have sat under its boughs; we have all called it ours in our turn, though it stands and drops its masters as it drops its leaves. Look at this wide and large firmament over our heads, where the sun and moon and all the stars appear in their turns. If you were to be carried up to any of these bodies at this vast distance from us, you would still discover others as much above you as the stars that you see here are above the earth. If you were to go up or down, east or west, north or south, you would find the same height without any top, and the same depth without any bottom.
”
”
William Law (A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life)
“
East of the sun and west of the moon.” As unfathomable as the words were, I realized I must figure them out, reason it through. For I would go to this impossible land that lay east of the sun and west of the moon. From the moment the sleigh had vanished from sight and I could no longer hear the silver bells, I knew that I would go after the stranger that had been the white bear to make right the terrible wrong I had done him.
It didn’t occur to me to do anything else.
I could just as easily have looked around and thought, At last, I am free to return to my home and family! I could have put it all behind me and briskly turned my steps toward home. But I did not. Instead I was busily mapping out a journey to an unreachable place.
In the meager light of the small fire, I gathered my things together. When weaving a cloth, you must always know where you are in the design. So it was with me. Before I could begin to chart my course, I had to first find out where I was.
All that mattered was to make things right. And I would do whatever it took, journey to wherever I must to reach that goal.
”
”
Edith Pattou (East (East, #1))
“
In the late afternoon we sat on a ledge and watched the sun set in the west and a full moon rise in the east, as they always have, no matter what lies beneath the light—whether more of the world’s horrors, the possibilities of peace, or my comfortable, well-fed life
”
”
Judith Works (Coins in the Fountain: A Midlife Escape to Rome)
“
Thanks again to Alan Butler's work, this time I was able to inspect the work of Hesiod in connection with the Phaistos Disc for being calendrical, and now I view it through the lens of ancient Egypt by projecting it directly onto the circular zodiac of Dendera. Hesiod has used three different references to the days in his work: (the first ..); (the middle ..); and (.. of the month). With this system which he had used, I linked the "first" references to the zodiac's portals on the East; the "middle" references to the Fullmoon days of the month which are located on the zodiac's western portals; and the "of the month" references to the zodiac's days which are located right after passing by and finishing the rotation beyond the eastern portals.
Therefore, Hesiod has recognized Egypt's month's count of days (And tell your slaves the thirtieth is the month's best-suited day). He has also explicitly identified the beginning of the Equinox and Solstice portals on the zodiac based on the zodiac's anticlockwise orientation while emphasizing the more prominent role of the Summer Solstice in the calendar system (The first and fourth and seventh days are holy days to men, the eighth and ninth as well). Hesiod has also issued a warning against, Apophis, the snake demon (But shun the fifth day, fifth days are both difficult and dread).
Hesiod has recognized Egypt's royal-cosmic copulation event that takes place at the culmination of the Summer Solstice (The first ninth, though, for human beings, is harmless, quite benign for planting and for being born; indeed, it's very fine For men and women both; this day is never bad all through)
Hesiod has identified the exact position of the newly born infant boy on the zodiac (For planting vines the middle sixth is uncongenial but good for the birth of males) and also established the Minoan bull's head rhyton connection with Egypt (The middle fourth, which is a day to soothe and gently tame the sheep and curved-horned), (Open a jar on the middle fourth),(And on the fourth the long and narrow boats can be begun).
Hesiod gave Osiris' role in the ancient Egyptian agrarian Theology to men (two Days of the waxing month stand out for tasks men have to do, the eleventh and the twelfth) and pointed out the right location of the boar on the zodiac (Geld your boar on the eighth of the month) and counted on top of these days the days of the mule which comes afterward (on the twelfth day of the month [geld] the long-laboring mule) - since the reference to the mule in the historical text comes right after that of the boar's and both are grouped together conceptually with the act of gelding.
He has also identified the role of Isis for resurrecting Osiris after the Summer Solstice event (On the fourth day of the month bring back a wife to your abode) and even referred to the two female figures on the zodiac and identified them as, Demeter and Persephone, the two mythical Greek queens (Upon the middle seventh throw Demeter's holy grain) where we see them along with the reference to Poseidon (i.e. fishes and water) right next to them as the account exists in the Greek mythology.
Even more, Hesiod knows when the sequence of the boats' appearances begins on the zodiac (And on the fourth the long and narrow boats can be begun).
Astonishingly enough, he mentions the solar eclipse when the Moon fully blocks the Sun (the third ninth's best of all, though this is known by few) and also glorifies sunrise and warns from sunset on that same day (Again, few know the after-twentieth day of the month is best ..) and identifies the event's dangerous location on the west (.. at dawn and that it worsens when the sun sinks in the west).
”
”
Ibrahim Ibrahim (The Mill of Egypt: The Complete Series Fused)
“
Under Two Windows"
I. AUBADE
The dawn is here—and the long night through I have never seen thy face,
Though my feet have worn the patient grass at the gate of thy dwelling-place.
While the white moon sailed till, red in the west, it found the far world edge,
No leaflet stirred of the leaves that climb to garland thy window ledge.
Yet the vine had quivered from root to tip, and opened its flowers again,
If only the low moon's light had glanced on a moving casement pane.
Warm was the wind that entered in where the barrier stood ajar,
And the curtain shook with its gentle breath, white as young lilies are;
But there came no hand all the slow night through to draw the folds aside,
(I longed as the moon and the vine-leaves longed!) or to set the casement wide.
Three times in a low-hung nest there dreamed his five sweet notes a bird,
And thrice my heart leaped up at the sound I thought thou hadst surely heard.
But now that thy praise is caroled aloud by a thousand throats awake,
Shall I watch from afar and silently, as under the moon, for thy sake?
Nay—bold in the sun I speak thy name, I too, and I wait no more
Thy hand, thy face, in the window niche, but thy kiss at the open door!
II. NOCTURNE
My darling, come!—The wings of the dark have wafted the sunset away,
And there's room for much in a summer night, but no room for delay.
A still moon looketh down from the sky, and a wavering moon looks up
From every hollow in the green hills that holds a pool in its cup.
The woodland borders are wreathed with bloom—elder, viburnum, rose;
The young trees yearn on the breast of the wind that sighs of love as it goes.
The small stars drown in the moon-washed blue but the greater ones abide,
With Vega high in the midmost place, Altair not far aside.
The glades are dusk, and soft the grass, where the flower of the elder gleams,
Mist-white, moth-like, a spirit awake in the dark of forest dreams.
Arcturus beckons into the east, Antares toward the south,
That sendeth a zephyr sweet with thyme to seek for thy sweeter mouth.
Shall the blossom wake, the star look down, all night and have naught to see?
Shall the reeds that sing by the wind-brushed pool say nothing of thee and me?
—My darling comes! My arms are content, my feet are guiding her way;
There is room for much in a summer night, but no room for delay!
Petry. (November 1912)
”
”
Mrs. Schuyler Van Rensselaer
“
Presently he became aware that Frodo was singing softly to himself, singing the old walking-song, but the words were not quite the same. Still round the corner there may wait A new road or a secret gate; And though I oft have passed them by, A day will come at last when I Shall take the hidden paths that run West of the Moon, East of the Sun.
”
”
J.R.R. Tolkien (The Lord of the Rings)
“
The ordinal directions are represented by the moon (the north-east), the sun (the south-west), fire (the north-west) and wind (the south-east).
”
”
Devdutt Pattanaik (Yoga Mythology: 64 Asanas and Their Stories)
“
Look north, he said, In the middle of that vast plain is a single lonely peak. In the light of the setting sun you can just make out the ruins of A-fang-kung, the palace of the great Ch'in Shih-huang, among the weeds and the high grass.
Look west. The wind is rustling the woods where the gray mountain mist hides Mou-ling, the tomb of Emperor Han Wu-ti.
In the east you can see the white wall reflecting the green hills where a red rooftop pierces the sky and the pale moon comes and goes. No one leans on the on the jade balustrades at Huang-ch'ing-kung where Emperor Hsuan Tsung frolicked with his ill-fated concubine Yang Kue-fei.
Those three emperors were for ten millennia the heroes of our history. Where are they now?
[Fenkl translation]
”
”
Kim Manjung (The Nine Cloud Dream)
“
WHEN it comes to ignorance, no weapon then become any useful because ignorance alone can destroy the entire world easily without firing even a short or long gun.
But before the moon set off from East to West tonight, let me ask you this, '' WHO CREATED THE SUN AND THE MOON ? ''
- Nana Adu-Boafo Jnr
#NABJ #TheHerbalist #Moon #Moonlight #SUN #SUNlight #MYself
”
”
T/Dr. Nana Adu-Boafo Jnr