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Beyond love Quote by Clive Barker

“Her gaze went with her, into a room with walls of frozen earth, and a floor the same, the latter split from corner to corner, and a fissure opened in it from which a flame column rose four or five times the size of a man. There was bitter cold off it rather than heat, and no reassuring flicker in…” quote by Clive Barker
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““Her gaze went with her, into a room with walls of frozen earth, and a floor the same, the latter split from corner to corner, and a fissure opened in it from which a flame column rose four or five times the size of a man. There was bitter cold off it rather than heat, and no reassuring flicker in its heart. Instead its innards churned upon themselves, turning over and over some freight of stuff which she failed to recognize at first, but her appalled stare rapidly interpreted. There was a body in the fire, hacked limb from limb, human enough that she recognized it as flesh, but no more than that. Baphomet's doing presumably, some torment visited on a transgressor. Boone said the Baptizer's name even now, and she readied herself for sight of its face. She had it too, but from inside the flame, as the creature there--not dead, but alive, not Midian's subject, but its creator--rolled its head over in the turmoil of flame and looked her way. This was Baphomet. This diced and divided thing. Seeing its face, she screamed. No story or movie screen, no desolation, no bliss, had prepared her for the maker of Midian. Sacred it must be, as anything so extreme must be sacred. A thing beyond things. Beyond love or hatred or their sum, beyond the beautiful or the monstrous or their sum. Beyond, finally, her mind's power to comprehend or catalog.””

Clive Barker

About This Quote

Source Novel: The Great and Secret Show, 1989

Encountering the unimaginable forces confronts one with the limits of comprehension and the sacredness of extreme experiences.

In simple terms: Facing the incomprehensible reveals deeper truths.

Key Takeaway

Embrace the unknown.

Themes

fear the unknown transcendence

Mood

dark awe introspective

Type

literary mythic

When to use this quote

  • artistic inspiration
  • spiritual crisis
  • creative writing

Key Concepts

mythology psychology metaphysics

Questions to Reflect On

  • What does the 'beyond' mean to you?
  • How do you process experiences that defy language?
A Different Perspective

Such visions can overwhelm, causing paralysis rather than insight.

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