THE PRIESTESS OF DIANA
Saronia was now a priestess of Diana Triformis, and initiated into the
mysteries of Hecate. She had grown rapidly in favour with her
companions, and was looked on as one of the most devoted women of
Ephesus.
Her great strength of character eminently fitted her for the position in
which she had been placed, and those around looked on the beautiful girl
as one destined in due time to fill the mightiest position of honour in
the great Temple, and prophesied that she would soon reach the proud
eminence of High Priestess.
Saronia was not an ordinary being; one look at the rounded forehead
which shone over dark eyebrows and the unfathomable eyes would convince
the most sceptical. The mysteries had a charm for her, and now that she
had been taught the hidden secrets of Nature, she craved to understand
the powers which worked the will, to dive deeply into the sympathies
governing the soul, and to become skilled in the magical rites observed
in the worship of the goddess of the underworld.
Hers was an exceptional case, and her companions, knowing a great spirit
was in their midst, hastened her career until, moving rapidly forwards,
she stood inferior in knowledge and power to none save the
Arch-Priestess of Diana. Thus the slave became a spiritual princess, and
won the confidence of the people; they loved her for her goodness. Ever
ready with words of kindness, she won the deepest regard from the
suffering and the outcast.
Those duties were but one part of her priestly call--that part which
reflected the purest nature of her goddess.
She worshipped one goddess, yet three: Luna in heaven, Diana on earth,
Hecate in hell--a terrible gathering together of good and evil, a
trinity in unity, but not a trinity in purity, a broken circle
representing Morn, Noon, Night, Birth, Life, Death.
It was when Saronia moved into the great darkness of Hecate that the
gloom and passion of the priestess were aroused, and the constant
warring of evil against goodness within awakened new aspirations for
another experience when she might revolve in a circle of truth and
unsullied purity.
And thus it is that when we would do good, evil will present itself; so
men set up the symbol of fire as the symbol of deity. Its active
elements represent the bad; the light from the flame, the flower of the
fire, designates the good.
The mystery of evil worked mightily on the sensitive mind of the girl,
and she stretched forth through the darkness for a solution of this
great problem which has harassed the minds of men through the
ever-changing past. But no answer came, not a voice was heard, and she
settled herself as well as she could to penetrate deeper into the hidden
things, that perchance she might emerge into the glories of a nobler
life.
She, by virtue of her occupation, believed in the great underworld of
Hades--in Tartarus, in the Elysian--and knew that Hecate, her mistress,
her goddess, presided over the depths where the unclothed spirits wailed
and wandered, and over the starving ones who waited at the sacrifice to
drink in the rich aroma arising from the altar fire. She knew of the
pleadings of the lost for mercy from those they wronged on earth, and
the pitiless refusals they met with from the unforgiving shades. In the
dark, mysterious nature of Saronia were deep yearnings to set the
unforgiven entombed ones free, that they might move upward on the arc of
their ascending life, and go forward until they glistened with a glory
of purity.
Frequently there arose within her mind the question, 'Is there a God of
perfect goodness? Do I know all? Is there in the great and mighty
universe a Central Throne, on which the All Perfect rules? Is there far
away in the depths of yon gray-blue a King above all other gods and
goddesses? And will He ever reveal Himself to man and teach a rule of
life by which we may ascend to hold communion with Him?'
And as she meditated a joy unspeakable overwhelmed her soul, and tears,
joyful tears, trickled down her beautiful face. But no voice or light
came to say if other than Diana heard, and the great Temple shone before
her in the sunlight. She said:
'This joy is from my goddess, Queen of Heaven; there is no goddess or
god greater than she who speaks to me, and Hecate will control the evil
which exists. I must bow before her and worship at her shrine, be
co-worker with her, and afterwards she may explain to me those deep
mysteries, things which sadden my soul. I shall know later that which to
me is now impenetrable, dark, and lonely. O sweet goddess, hear me! O
saviour, Queen, Protectress, hear me! O mighty Luminant, I adore thee!
Queen of the Lower World, Queen of the Earth, Queen of the Skies, I
adore, I worship thee! My being comes from thee, my life is held and led
by thee, my future spreads out before thee. The great unfathomable
eternity of the hereafter is known to thee. O mighty Lover, guard me!
Generous Dispenser, protect me! Great, far-reaching goddess, lead me
through the aeons, purify my mind from those thoughts which would reach
out after some other love! Wrest from my spirit those dark forebodings,
those wild clamourings for light, when thou art the light of the ages,
the glory of the visible, the multitudinous glory of the invisible, the
great centre on which the universe revolves.'