The Mystery of the Golden Blossom: Beauty

Beauty

Waldemar says:

“The so-called ‘shock in pregnancy’ in women is so well known to us that we need not enlarge greatly on the matter.  It expresses the particular anxiety of spirit which has an effect on the tender fruit in the womb.  But, strangely enough, the immense importance of a psychic influence over the fetus has never been taken sufficiently under consideration.

“A mere hint of things can cause a physical transformation of the fetus.  In this way, some time ago in a Berlin hospital, a woman gave birth to a monster which had the ears and muzzle of a dog and animal fur.  Among my acquaintances, there was the case of the wife of an industrialist from Chemnitz who frequently visited the zoo during her pregnancy because she liked the lion cubs very much.  Subsequently, she gave birth to twins with lions’ heads and claws; both infants were lacking in human intelligence and died at the ages of eleven and twelve, respectively.

“It has often been said that a newborn baby whose mother has been startled by a mouse has a blemish or mole similar to the mouse’s skin exactly where its mother put her hand in the moment of fear.

“In ancient times,” Waldemar continues to say, “they could extract the corresponding consequence of a woman’s fear, which could entail both negative and positive results.  Thus, Oppian makes it clear that Spartan women gave birth to extraordinarily beautiful and well built babies because they always kept statues of Apollo, Jacinth, Narcissus and the Dioscuri in view in their bedrooms in addition to enjoying the music of harps and flutes during their pregnancy.

“It was also demanded of Spartan husbands to never show a grim face or bad temper to their wives in pregnancy; instead they always appeared content.  Heliodorus tells of a frightfully ugly couple whose offspring was extraordinarily beautiful because the mother always kept a marvelous lifesize statue of Adonis in her bedroom.  The misshapen, ugly tyrant of Cyprus was nevertheless also the father of surprisingly beautiful children due to the fact that he had decorated the bedroom with radiant figures of deities.

“Throughout the course of history, women were repeatedly suspected of infidelity because of their ‘shock in pregnancy.’

“Dark-skinned Persina, the wife of Hydaspus, who was also of a dark complexion, bore a completely white girl after ten years of barren marriage.  The husband would not have believed her innocence and would have accused her of intercourse with a stranger, so in her desperation she abandoned the girl.  She named her Charikleia and years later she found her by chance.  Happily she told her daughter: ‘As you were born white, a color contradictory to that natural to the Ethiopians, I understood the cause.  In the arms of my husband I saw the image of the naked Andromeda when abducted by Perseus from the rocks, and that is why you are this color.’ Then Persina confessed to her husband that she had a daughter; she placed the statue of Andromeda next to Charikleia and indeed the resemblance was disconcerting.  Hydaspus was convinced, and in admiration the people overflowed with jubilation and goodwill to all three.

“A critic of such a penetrating spirit as Lessing also made expressly clear that the plastic arts in particular, aside from the infallible influence they have over the character of the nation, are capable of action which requires closer control by the State: ‘If beautiful beings create beautiful statues, these act anew on them, and the State has to be grateful to the beautiful statues for the beautiful citizens.  Amongst us, the delicate imagination of the mother seems only to be revealed in monsters.”

We must return to the original point of departure and cultivate the beauty of the spirit with a singular longing...

The nuptial chamber must be turned into a temple of art; it is itself the magnetic center of love...

Women of sacred predestination must never lose the capacity for wonder...

Contemplate, oh daughters of Venus, the divine sculptures in your bedroom, so that the fruit of your love will be really beautiful...

Create beauties, I say in the name of love and truth... Be happy, well loved, and joyful with your creations...

The nuptial bedroom is the sanctuary of Venus; you must never desecrate it with unworthy thoughts.