In the beginning was the rule of sacred kings
Who hallowed field, grain, plow, who handed down
The law of sacrifices, set the bounds
To mortal men forever hungering
For the Invisible Ones' just ordinance
That holds the sun and moon in perfect balance
And whose forms in their eternal radiance
Feel no suffering, nor know death's ambiance.
Long ago the sons of the gods, the sacred line,
Passed, and mankind remained alone,
Embroiled in pleasure and pain, cut off from being,
Condemned to change unhallowed, unconfined.
But intimations of the true life never died,
And it is for us, in this time of harm
To keep, in metaphor and symbol and in psalm,
Reminders of that former sacred reverence.
Perhaps some day the darkness will be banned,
Perhaps some day the times will turn about,
The sun will once more rule us as our god
And take the sacrifices from our hands.
--Hermann Hesse
1 comment:
The idea of praying for the government has its source in the Bible: “Seek the welfare of the country where I have sent you into exile; pray to the L-rd for it, for your welfare depends on its welfare.” In the fifth century BCE, after the first expulsion from Jerusalem, the Jewish people found themselves unable to govern themselves, so they implored G-d to guide their foreign rulers. The prayer itself is actually a composite of selections from Psalms 145:13 and 144:10, Isaiah 43:16, Jeremiah 29:7, and Isaiah 59:20.
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