The Chemical Wedding

7. This is the seventh point in his self-examination regarding his worthiness to attend the wedding.

more than I could bear. Especially, however, the
obscure words concerning the three Temples The "Three Temples" likely refer to symbolic or alchemical stages of spiritual perfection or the architecture of the soul, though they remain a mystery to the narrator at this point. troubled me,
which I could not work out through any
amount of reflection; perhaps I still could not, had
they not been miraculously revealed to me. While
I was thus caught between such fear and hope,
weighing my own thoughts back and forth—finding
at all times only my own weakness and
incapacity, and thus being unable to help
myself in any way—I was also vehemently
terrified by the previously mentioned threat. Finally,
I took my usual and safest path: after
Prayers original: "Preces.".

completing an earnest and zealous prayer, I
laid myself in my bed, hoping that my good Angel,
by Divine permission, might appear to me in
this doubtful business, as had happened several
times before. This did indeed occur, to the praise
of God, for my own good, and for the faithful
and heartfelt warning and improvement of my
neighbor. For as soon as I had fallen asleep,
it seemed to me that I lay in a dark Tower, along with
Vision through sleep original: "Visio per somnum.".

Tower of blindness original: "Turris cacitatis.".

countless other men, imprisoned by great chains.
In that place, we swarmed over one another
like bees original: "Immen." This is an archaic German term for bees; the imagery suggests a chaotic, suffocating mass of humanity. without any light or glimmer,
and thus each one made the other’s misery even
more difficult. Even though neither I nor
any of the others could see a thing, I
continually heard one man try to raise himself
above the others whenever his chains or
shackles were even the slightest bit lighter,
regardless of the fact that none of us had much
to gain by lifting ourselves up, as we were all...

A iiij