{"id":3293,"date":"2010-12-08T01:35:44","date_gmt":"2010-12-08T08:35:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/astrowin.org\/rffriends\/wpx\/?p=3293"},"modified":"2010-12-08T01:38:47","modified_gmt":"2010-12-08T08:38:47","slug":"the-three-candles-of-little-veronica","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/astrowin.org\/rffriends\/wpx\/?p=3293","title":{"rendered":"The Three Candles of Little Veronica"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Three Candles of Little Veronica<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

[This book review\u00a0appeared in <\/em><\/strong>Rays From The Rose Cross, May\/June 1997, illustration by Iris Guarducci, Celestial Arts]<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

OCCASIONALLY A BOOK <\/strong>is written that at once speaks to the adult in a child and to the child in an adult.\u00a0 Such a book is The Three Candles of Little Veronica <\/em>(Celestial Arts, Berkeley, CA, 1972). In fact, the book has a split personality, or at least is seen through the eyes of both \u201cgrownups\u201d and young people.\u00a0 The young people include our younger brothers, specific members of the animal kingdom, as well as makers and shapers of the natural world, including angels. The grownups include people who have \u201cgrown out of\u201d the childish belief in invisible beings and persons who have regained a measure of the inner light. These many perspectives on the one life are coordinated by the \u201comniscient\u201d author, Manfred Kyber.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a short introduction, the translator of the German original, Rosamond Reinhardt, sets the story\u2019s time (\u201ca short time before the age of motor traffic\u201d) and place (\u201cthe lonely northern countryside along the Baltic coast of Germany\u201d).\u00a0<\/p>\n

The book is equally concerned with the unseen in the world and the unremembered in time.<\/p>\n

Veronica both sees her invisible present companions and remembers earlier times in other places.<\/p>\n

As the translator remarks, \u201cA fortunate few carry with them through life the vision of the innocent years. The rest of us must work hard to retrieve the light that is so freely given to us at birth. But if, in reverence for all life, in patient observation, in sorrow and in compassion, the veil of darkness falls from our eyes, then it is we who are the lucky ones. For in full consciousness we have reached back into Paradise before the Fall. We have earned that which every child inherits unearned.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

For many this is the stuff of fairy tales, fantasy. But the unclouded eyes of a child and the earned sight of a clairvoyant do not give us a fairy-tale picture of life: \u201cRather will they reveal the living truth that lies hidden in all fairy tales.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

To common sight Veronica\u2019s garden is a common garden.\u00a0 But seeing with \u201cthe eyes she had brought with her from heaven,\u201d Veronica\u2019s was a Garden of Spirits. There she has friendly chats with beetles, caterpillars, blackbirds, hedgehogs and the spirits of Lilies. In fact, the whole garden was full of figures which \u201cdanced in the air, and if you peered into the trees you could see elves standing in them, waving.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0Kyber\u2019s evocation of Veronica\u2019s sunwashed seeing reminds us of the \u201cvisionary gleam\u201d that anoints first sight as described by Wordsworth in his ode \u201cIntimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood.\u201d But too soon do \u201cshades of the prison-house begin to close upon the growing boy\u201d and \u201ccelestial light\u201d fades into \u201cthe light of common day.\u201d So too will the twilight come to Veronica. \u201cIt grows dark around everyone so that each may painfully become aware and thus find himself in the darkness\u2014himself and God.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0Veronica has two special and constant companions, Mutzeputz, her visible feline confidant, wise in the ways of the world, and the invisible gnome Master Mutzchen, a rubber-faced comic and antic gymnast who is but two-hands-high. She is told that small people with lots of legs, like beetles, tend to be fussy. She discovers that dwarves quarrel a lot. Veronica is informed that she can visit a tree-bound Elf simply by stepping out of her earthly body, which is, \u201cafter all, nothing more than a dress, and inside it is a finer dress, and you yourself are in this finer dress.\u201d She need only give herself a push, just as she does before going to sleep and then it goes by itself.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Once inside the tree in her \u201ctransparent body,\u201d Veronica thought her earthly body made her \u201ca bit stupid.\u201d The Elf elaborates: \u201cThe worst of it is that the larger the earthly body gets and the more you grow into it, the stupider you become.\u201d But once you again find the light in this darkness you become \u201ca great deal wiser.\u201d The Elf waxes philosophic: \u201cTo seek the light is truly the task of human beings, imposed on them by God. They must seek it out and find it, not only for themselves, but for the animals, the plants, and the stones…That is rather a difficult story though, and I cannot explain it to you exactly.\u201d\u00a0 She does add, though, that \u201cWe are all asleep in the glass coffin,\u201d like Snow White, and are awaiting deliverance, \u201cthe redemption of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0The owner of the Garden, Johannes Wanderer, is Veronica\u2019s adoptive Father. He has gained a certain measure of that light that reveals \u201cthe great ones,\u201d but which is gained only by the opening of the eyes of the depths, which grow through tears. He has been given his son Peter to care for. Peter has difficulty understanding many earthly things and does not speak much. Though in this life he is an \u201cimprisoned soul,\u201d his father explains that \u201cit is perhaps out of pity for the retarded that in this existence he has become retarded himself, so that by experiencing in his inmost being the sorrows of the backward\u2014their seeking and their finding in all their helplessness\u2014he may be their leader in a future life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0Veronica is met at the top of the Elf\u2019s tree by a sylph who conducts her to the Silver Bridge. \u00a0While flying (she found it wonderfully easy and exhilarating) she is told that the deeper she goes into the garden of the Earth, the more everything is misunderstood, because of the twilight. The Bridge rose on silver columns from the Garden of Spirits and \u201cascended in a wide arc into the clear air and lost itself in the shimmering sunlight in a splendor unendurable to the eye.\u201d Veronica felt as if she had often walked over the Silver Bridge. \u201cBut when could that have been\u2014When?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0Where the Bridge lost itself in splendor stood angels with silver wings, robed in white. One of them tells her, \u201cYou came from it and you willreturn to it. But first comes the twilight. But don\u2019t be afraid. When the darkness comes I will be waiting and I will go with you, and I will light your three candles for you, little Veronica, and will watch over you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0Then said the Rose-souls, \u201cLook how red our cups are. So pure and so red is the chalice of the Grail to which you will once more stretch out your arms.\u201d Then a veil falls before the bridge and \u201cthe eyes of heaven had closed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0Veronica\u2019s Angel appears that night and shows her a three-branched candlestick to light her twilight, since \u201cnow your [earthly] journey is beginning.\u201d At the end of each branch burned a small flame\u2014a blue one and a red one at the sides, and a golden one a little higher in the middle.\u201d<\/p>\n

Readers will understand the color symbolism employed here, and over the course of the narrative the author adumbrates the candlestick\u2019s esoteric significance.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0As the Garden of Spirit disappears behind the veil, the House of Shadows enters Veronica\u2019s consciousness. \u201cEach must remember his three candles on the altar of life, or he will trip over the many steps and thresholds in the House of Shadows.\u201d\u00a0 Veronica is later informed by Uncle Johannes that \u201ceach candle-flame has its own time and its own meaning. We must watch over them, so that one day the blue and red flame will merge with the golden flame burning in the middle.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0After the Morningland of Mankind, men climbed down into the dark and out of their deeds wove destinies and built Houses of Shadows, where we live today. We are to cast the light of our three candles through these Houses so that we will once more be able to live \u201cin temples and in light-filled mansions.\u201d But they shall have been built by our own thoughts, and in them we will experience the consciousness of a child, for \u201cconscious childhood is blessedness.\u201d We recall the Gospel passage, \u201cExcept ye become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven\u201d (Matt. 18:3).<\/p>\n

\u00a0Veronica has much to learn in the House of Shadows. Mutzeputz and Master Mutzchen continue to be her companions. But increasingly she turns to Uncle Johannes for guidance and understanding.\u00a0 She feels she has known him before. For his part, Johannes knows that Veronica has \u201cthe inner eyes which see beyond tangible things.\u201d Of himself he says, \u201cI have learned on my journey how to awaken those eyes again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0The dimension of past lives is opened up and explored, for many of the characters have crossed paths before. A more advanced exchange ensues between Johannes and several women. \u00a0Surnamed Wanderer<\/em>, in both the sense of a pilgrim and one who is embarked on voyages of discovery, Johannes explains to one woman, called the Gray Lady, who is living in the limbo of a prior time, \u201cWe all really have this name, because we all wander from one life to another, adding to ourselves and to the building of the world.\u00a0 The dead and the living are only different forms of one great existence.\u00a0 But you have stopped on the journey.\u00a0 No one should do that, Helga.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0The reader meets Aaron Mendel, who seems a character out of the Old Testament. He has voluntarily assumed the role of an outcast. He too is a wanderer, but more literally so, and his wandering on the mendicant byways of life is a form of self-imposed penitence. Aaron will travel until God takes the burdenfrom Him\u2014\u201cWhen the burden has grown so light that it is no longer a sacrifice.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0There is the captivating Ulla Uhlberg, who rides horses and gazes into the distance with longing eyes. It is life she is pursuing, life towards which she rides. \u201cBut often the distance is empty and you pass life by\u2014life is sitting, quiet and resigned, by the side of the road, bearing its heavy burdens,\u201d Ulla is tending within herself \u201ca fire that is red and smoldering.\u201d It will cause a conflagration.<\/p>\n

\u00a0We meet pastor Hallor, who must learn that \u201cthe altar is not a professor\u2019s chair for theological research.\u201d He has to learn humility and that \u201cthere is only one road\u2014the Road to Damascus.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0There is the town doctor, who \u201cpractices without healing…That is usual today because people don\u2019t know about the incalculable forces anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0This sensitive and poetically crafted book is jeweled with brightly faceted metaphysical insights:<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0 \u201cEverything that exists is a thought…and all thoughts speak and form themselves into substance, good and bad…through every thought of goodness, a wicked person becomes better, a wild animal less savage, and a poisonous plant less dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0 \u201cHere we are erring human beings, and we wear armor only when we hold our shield over the weak and defenseless. This has to do with the Quest of the Grail.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 \u00a0\u201cThere are so many dead who want to help you\u2014do not pass them by. And too, there are so many dead who need your help\u2014do not deny it to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 \u00a0\u201cLight your candles! So many are waiting for it to become light again. The living and the dead are calling for it; men, animals, and all things that exist long for light and deliverance.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 \u00a0\u201cAll knowledge proceeds through pain to the light, and the one great answer that we hope to find demands to be sought with a thousand fearful questions.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 \u00a0\u201cAnimals are awakening more and more from the womb of their group and struggling more and more into consciousness.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 \u00a0\u201cWhat love has created is imperishable and from it everything is formed\u2014from the womb to the Ego.\u201d<\/p>\n

Through Veronica the reader sees the world with the eyes of a wise child, for she is \u201ca very old soul.\u201d Through Johannes we see the world with eyes that have been darkened and then washed clear by light-birthing tears. For ultimately, Three Candles <\/em>is about seeing<\/em>. And the author is a visionary. After having read this book, we too may know a little more, see with our soul a little more clearly, a little more deeply, and realize that though we may be set upon by adversaries and every kind of hardship, we are always in the company of a host of Beings of resplendent brightness who wait for us to call on them, that we may be blessed instruments of their power to redeem the world.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The author writes that though we \u201ccome from distant heights, and to a far-off land we make our homeward journey, yet is all distance near when it is fully comprehended.\u201d The light emitting from The Three Candles of Little Veronica <\/em>gracefully assists in that comprehension. \u2014C. W.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Three Candles of Little Veronica [This book review\u00a0appeared in Rays From The Rose Cross, May\/June 1997, illustration by Iris Guarducci, Celestial Arts] OCCASIONALLY A BOOK is written that at once speaks to the adult in a child and to the child in an adult.\u00a0 Such a book is The Three Candles of Little Veronica […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,1],"tags":[228,266,268,267,269],"class_list":["post-3293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-reviews","category-uncategorized","tag-chalice","tag-childrens-books","tag-childrens-fantasy","tag-fairytale","tag-transparent-body"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/astrowin.org\/rffriends\/wpx\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/astrowin.org\/rffriends\/wpx\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/astrowin.org\/rffriends\/wpx\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/astrowin.org\/rffriends\/wpx\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/astrowin.org\/rffriends\/wpx\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3293"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/astrowin.org\/rffriends\/wpx\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3293\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3302,"href":"https:\/\/astrowin.org\/rffriends\/wpx\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3293\/revisions\/3302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/astrowin.org\/rffriends\/wpx\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/astrowin.org\/rffriends\/wpx\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/astrowin.org\/rffriends\/wpx\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}