20 Tir 1405
Quatrain 31 of 75
“Up from Earth's Centre through the seventh Gate
I rose, and on the Throne of Saturn sate,
And many Knots unravel'd by the Road;
But not the Knot of Human Death and Fate.”
Reflection · Summer 1405
Saturn in summer is highest in the sky — the astronomer can track it, chart it, predict its course with precision. Many Knots unravel'd — the summer is the season of unravelling, of productivity, of the long days yielding to work. The knots of the practical world come loose in summer: the projects advance, the arguments reach conclusions. But the astronomer knows — sitting on the throne of the outermost planet — that the central Knot is still tied.
The summer work, however real and productive, circles around this one undone thing. Not with despair but with the clear-eyed acceptance of someone who has been to Saturn and come back to tell you: I looked. It wasn't there to see.