Book of Whispers

From Prof. Oddfellow's sketchbook:

From our Magic Words outpost:

"Sometimes it is better for certain secrets to remain veiled by arcane words.  The secrets of nature are not transmitted on skins of goat or sheep.  Aristotle says in the book of secrets that communicating too many arcana of nature and art breaks a celestial seal and many evils can ensue.  Which does not mean that secrets must not be revealed, but that the learned must decide when and how." —Umberto Eco, The Name of the Rose

"He places the tube to his ear and the answer comes."
—The Carpet Trade Review, Vol 5, No 11, Nov. 1878

"Is the real secret of power that when it seems greatest, it is dying?"
—D. Lamar Jacks, "Newgrange"

From Prof. Oddfellow's sketchbook:

"Most secret of all is what's forgotten."
—John Crowley, Daemonomania

From Prof. Oddfellow's sketchbook:

"Mysteries make one dream of unendurable bewitchments, they have the fragrance of something quite, quite unspeakably beautiful.  Who knows, who knows.  Ah—"
—Robert Walser, Jakob von Gunten

The great secret the hedonists keep to themselves: "that time allows pleasure, not money."  (Anthony Marais, Delusionism.)

"Like the sound of water readying to boil were the whispers of his voice." —Norman Mailer, Ancient Evenings  (And what a masterpiece!)

"To speak is to offend the power of silence."  —Norman Mailer, Ancient Evenings  (Highly recommended, if you'll pardon our repetition!)

"A bit of mica glimmering in a crevice of the pavement suggests its story of the many feet that have passed over it; the tiny wildflowers peeping through the lush grass along a forest pathway whisper intimate secrets of the woods; a cobweb spun within the belfry of an old church reveals its mysterious hieroglyphs."
—Jessie Lemont, "The Fairy Folk of Dugald Stewart Walker," The International Studio, 1914

"I am not so rash, I trust, as to essay to pluck out the heart of the mystery.  But the game of coming to close quarters with the riddle is more than worth the candle."
—John Livingston Lowes, The Road to Xanadu: A Study in the Ways of the Imagination, 1927

From Prof. Oddfellow's sketchbook:

"Gods liked to conceal themselves in curious places.  That was the first law of great secrets."
—Norman Mailer, Ancient Evenings  (It's no secret how much as love and respect this novel.)

Piecing together the secret of wonder-working . . .


 

Piecing together the secret of the white buffalo . . .


 

Piecing together the secret of the whispering spring . . .