Anyway, to finish up day 2: There is a feast and several of the attendees are quite loquacious and are mocking everything in sight, including Christian, which makes him feel bad. This piece is written very much from Christian’s perspective and includes all of his thoughts and feelings, not just his experiences. It’s more of a diary in that sense. The Virgin comes in and warns them that there would be a test of merit the next day, a sort of spiritual weigh-in, which makes Christian very nervous. When it is time to retire, several of the party are ushered out by invisible servants, except for Christian and 8 others. Because they lingered, they were tied to the wall of the dining hall and left for the night. Then, they realize that they just proved themselves unworthy and are worried about the consequences the next day.
Christian has an interesting dream:
I dreamed I was standing on a high mountain, and saw before me a great wide valley containing an innumerable crowd of people. Each one had a thread attached to his head, by which he was suspended from the sky. Some hung high, others low, while a number were practically standing on the ground. An aged man flew around in the air, holding in his hand a pair of shears with which he here and there snipped off a thread. Whoever hung near the earth landed the sooner, and fell without much noise. But when the turn came for a high one, he would fall so as to shake the ground. It happened to some that their threads were so stretched that they came to earth before they were cut. I much enjoyed the spectacle of this tumbling, and was heartily amused when one who had soared above his station, high in the air, crashed ignominiously and even pulled down some of his neighbors. I was just as glad when one who had kept close to earth all the time was able to land so silently that not even his neighbors noticed.
This should sound familiar if you are either a fan of Stephen King or Greek mythology. In Greek mythology, there are three characters, the Moirae, or Three Fates. These are three sisters who control human destiny: Clotho is the spinner of the thread of life, Lachesis determines how long our individual threads will be, and Atropos is the cutter of the thread, determining when and how one will die. The Stephen King work in question is Insomnia, which is a really good book. I haven’t read it since I was 12, but I really enjoyed it. In Christian’s case his dream is foreshadowing the events of the third day.
Before I move on the day three, I want to remark on the imagery in this castle. The description of the Virgin and invisible servants reminds me of Cocteau’s Beauty and the Beast, where everything seems to me motivated by magic and the sense of wonder it induces. It can also be compared to the imagery of Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland stories.
Day Three: This begins with the judgment. Christian’s group are excluded but not punished because they recognized their unworthyness. The scales are set up and there are seven sets of guards each with a kind of weight, which I interpret as reflecting one of the seven deadly sins. A guest stands on one side of the scale, while the weights are placed in some combination on the other side. If the weights prove heavier than the guest, he is launched into the air, mocked, and grouped accordingly. Eventually this will determine the mode of punishment and how they will be expelled from the castle (the events of which are predicted in last night’s dream, but I’m not going to blog the details because they are kind of … detailed.). Those who are unaffected by the weights are robed and crowned and join the Virgin. There aren’t too many who are worthy.
Christian’s group gets a reprieve, and is allowed to weigh-in. He proves to be the most worthy of them all. Which suggests that something big is about to happen for him. This adventure is definitely ordained by the Powers that Be for him. The extent to which he is a Chosen One will be determined in the next couple days. There are seven total.