The Tower on the Rock

After I had written down the commands and the parables of the Shepherd, the angel of repentance, he came to me and said: “I want to show you everything the Holy Spirit showed you, the Spirit that spoke with you in the form of the Church; for that Spirit is the Son of God. You were rather weak in the flesh, so it was not made clear to you through an angel. But when you were made strong by the Spirit and had grown strong in your own strength, so that you could see an angel too, then the building of the tower was shown to you through the Church. You saw it all in a fine and dignified way, as though a virgin were showing it to you. Now you see it through an angel, though by the same Spirit. But you must learn it all from me, and more exactly. That is the very reason I was given by the glorious angel, to live in your house: so that you would see everything with strength, with no fear in you, as you were before.” [a]

And he took me away into Arcadia, to a rounded hill, and sat me down on the top of the hill, and showed me a great plain; and around the plain, twelve mountains, each one with a different look to it.

The first was black as soot. The second was bare, with nothing growing on it. The third was full of thorns and thistles. The fourth had grass that was half dried out, green at the top and dry down near the roots; and some of the grass withered whenever the sun scorched it. The fifth mountain had green grass and was rugged. The sixth mountain was full of cracks, some of them small and some large; there was grass in the cracks, but it was not very healthy, more like grass that had wasted away. The seventh mountain had cheerful pasture, and the whole mountain was thriving, and every kind of animal and bird fed on that mountain; and the more the animals and the birds grazed, the more the grass of that mountain flourished. The eighth mountain was full of springs, and every kind of creature the Lord made drank from the springs of that mountain. The ninth mountain had no water at all and was all desert, and in it were wild animals and deadly crawling things that destroy people. The tenth mountain had enormous trees and was shaded all over, and under the shelter of the trees sheep lay resting and chewing the cud. The eleventh mountain was thickly wooded, and those trees were loaded with fruit, decked out with one kind of fruit and another, so that anyone who saw them would want to eat some. The twelfth mountain was white all over, and the look of it was cheerful, and the mountain was beautiful in itself.

In the middle of the plain he showed me a great white rock that had risen up out of the plain. The rock was higher than the mountains, and square, big enough to hold the whole world. That rock was ancient, and it had a gate cut into it, though the cutting of the gate looked to me as if it had been done recently. And the gate shone brighter than the sun, so that I was amazed at the blaze of it. [e]

Twelve virgins were standing around the gate. The four standing at the corners seemed to me the most splendid, though the others were splendid too, and they were standing at the four sides of the gate, with two virgins between each pair of corners. They wore linen tunics and were belted gracefully, with their right shoulders bare, as if they were about to lift a load. That is how ready they were; they were very cheerful and eager.

After I had seen this I marveled to myself that I was looking at great and glorious things. And again I was at a loss over the virgins: they were so delicate, and yet they stood there bravely, as though they were about to carry the whole sky. And the Shepherd said to me: “Why are you reasoning it out inside yourself, and getting lost in it, and dragging grief down on yourself? Whatever you cannot understand, do not go at it as though you were clever. Ask the Lord instead, so that you may be given understanding and understand it. You cannot see what is behind you, but you do see what is in front of you. So leave alone what you cannot see, and stop torturing yourself; but whatever you do see, master that, and do not go prying into the rest. I will explain to you everything I show you. So look at what is left.”

I saw six men come, tall and splendid and alike in appearance, and they called out a crowd of men. The men who came were tall too, and handsome, and strong; and the six men ordered them to build a tower above the rock. There was a great commotion from those men who had come to build the tower, as they ran here and there around the gate. [f]

The virgins standing around the gate kept telling the men to hurry the building of the tower, and they had stretched out their hands as if they were about to take something from the men. The six men ordered stones to come up out of the deep and go into the building of the tower. Ten square shining stones came up, and no chisel had touched them. The six men called the virgins and ordered them to carry every stone that was to go into the building of the tower, and to pass through the gate, and to hand the stones to the men who were to build the tower. So the virgins loaded the first ten stones, the ones that had come up out of the deep, onto one another, and carried them together, one stone at a time. As they stood together around the gate, the ones who seemed strong carried them, ducking down under the corners of the stone, while the others ducked down under its sides; and that is how they carried all the stones. They carried them through the gate, as they had been ordered, and handed them to the men for the tower, and the men took the stones and built. [g]

The tower was built on the great rock and above the gate. Those ten stones were fitted together and filled the whole rock, and they became the foundation of the tower; and the rock and the gate were what carried the whole tower. After the ten stones, twenty more came up out of the deep, and these were fitted into the building of the tower, carried by the virgins as the first ones had been. After these, thirty-five came up, and these too were fitted into the tower. After these, another forty stones came up, and all of them were thrown into the building of the tower. So there were four courses in the foundation of the tower. Then they stopped coming up out of the deep, and the builders stopped for a little while too.

Then the six men ordered the great crowd to bring stones from the mountains for the building of the tower. They were brought in from all the mountains, in every sort of color, cut by the men and handed to the virgins; and the virgins carried them through the gate and handed them over for the building of the tower. And when the colored stones were set into the building, they all turned white alike and lost their different colors. But some stones were handed over by the men themselves for the building, and these did not turn bright: they were found exactly as they had been set in, because they had not been handed over by the virgins and had not been carried through the gate. So those stones did not match the rest in the building of the tower.

When the six men saw the stones that did not match in the building, they ordered them lifted out and carried away down to their own place, where they had been brought from. And they said to the men who were bringing the stones in: “You are not to hand over stones for the building at all. Lay them down beside the tower instead, so that the virgins can carry them through the gate and hand them over for the building. For unless they are carried through the gate by these virgins’ hands, they cannot change their colors. So do not work for nothing.”

The building was finished that day, but the tower was not completed; more was going to be built onto it, and there was a pause in the work. The six men ordered all the builders to withdraw a little way and rest, but they told the virgins not to withdraw from the tower. It seemed to me the virgins had been left there to guard the tower. [j]

After they had all withdrawn and were resting, I said to the Shepherd: “Sir, why was the building of the tower not completed?” “The tower cannot be completed yet,” he said, “not until its Lord comes and tests this building, so that if any of the stones are found to be rotten he can change them. For the tower is being built to suit his will.” “Sir,” I said, “I would like to know what this building of the tower means, and about the rock and the gate, and the mountains, and the virgins, and the stones that came up out of the deep and were never cut but went into the building just as they were. And why ten stones were laid in the foundations first, then twenty, then thirty-five, then forty; and about the stones that went into the building and were then lifted out again and put back in their own place. Set my soul at rest about all of it, sir, and let me know it.” “If you are not found to be a man who busies himself over nothing,” he said, “you will know it all. In a few days we will come here, and you will see the rest of what happens to this tower, and you will know all the parables exactly.”

And after a few days we came to the place where we had sat before, and he said to me: “Let us go to the tower. The owner of the tower is coming to look it over.” So we came to the tower, and there was no one near it at all except the virgins. And the Shepherd asked the virgins whether the Master of the tower had come, and they said he was about to come and look the building over.

And look: after a little while I see a column of many men coming, and in the middle of them one man so tall that he stood higher than the tower. The six men who had been over the building walked with him, on his right and on his left, and everyone who had worked on the building was with him, and many other splendid ones were around him. And the virgins who guarded the tower ran up and kissed him, and began to walk close to him around the tower. [l]

That man looked the building over carefully, feeling every stone one by one; and holding a rod in his hand he struck each of the stones that had been built in. When he struck them, some of them turned black as soot, and some came out scabbed, and some cracked, and some chipped, and some neither white nor black, and some rough and out of keeping with the other stones, and some with many stains on them. Those were the kinds of rotten stone found in the building.

He ordered all of these carried out of the tower and laid down beside it, and other stones brought and thrown in where they had been. The builders asked him which mountain he wanted the stones brought from to put in their place. He did not order them brought from the mountains; he ordered them brought from a certain plain nearby. So the plain was dug up, and shining square stones were found, and some round ones as well; and every stone there was in that plain was brought, and the virgins carried them through the gate. The square stones were cut and set in the place of the ones that had been lifted out. But the round stones were not put into the building, because they were hard to cut and it went slowly. They were laid down beside the tower instead, as though they were going to be cut and set into the building, for they were extremely bright.

When the glorious man, the lord of the whole tower, had finished all this, he called the Shepherd over and handed him all the stones that lay beside the tower, the ones thrown out of the building, and said to him: “Clean these stones carefully, and put into the building of the tower the ones that can fit with the rest; and the ones that do not fit, throw far away from the tower.” When he had given these orders to the Shepherd he left the tower, with everyone he had come with. But the virgins stood around the tower, guarding it. [o]

I said to the Shepherd again: “How can these stones go into the building of the tower after being rejected?” He answered me and said: “Do you see these stones?” “I see them, sir,” I said. “I am going to cut most of these stones,” he said, “and throw them into the building, and they will fit with the rest of the stones.” “Sir,” I said, “how can they fill the same space after being cut down on every side?” “The ones that turn out small will be thrown into the middle of the building,” he answered, “and the larger ones will be set on the outside, and they will hold the small ones together.”

When he had said this to me he said: “Let us go, and in two days let us come and clean these stones and throw them into the building. Everything around the tower has to be cleaned, in case the Master comes suddenly and finds the ground around the tower filthy and is disgusted, and then these stones do not go into the building of the tower and I look careless to the Master.” And after two days we came to the tower, and he said to me: “Let us go over all the stones and see which of them can go into the building.” “Let us go over them, sir,” I said to him.

We began with the black stones and looked them over. They were found exactly as they had been when they were taken out of the building, and the Shepherd ordered them carried away from the tower and set apart. Then he looked over the scabbed ones. He took many of these and cut them, and told the virgins to lift them and throw them into the building; and the virgins lifted them and set them into the middle of the building of the tower. The rest he ordered laid down with the black ones, since they too were found to be black.

Then he looked over the ones with cracks. He cut many of these and ordered them carried into the building by the virgins, and they were set on the outside, because they were found to be sounder. But the rest could not be cut, because of the number of the cracks; and for that reason they were thrown out of the building of the tower. Then he looked over the chipped ones, and many of them turned out to be black, and some had opened up great cracks. These too he ordered laid down with the ones that had been thrown out. But the ones left over he cleaned and cut and ordered set into the building, and the virgins lifted them and fitted them into the middle of the building of the tower, because they were on the weak side.

Then he looked over the ones that were half white and half black, and many of them turned out to be black. He ordered these lifted away with the ones that had been thrown out. All the rest were lifted by the virgins, for they were white, and the virgins themselves fitted them into the building; and they were set on the outside, because they were found to be sound and able to hold the ones set in the middle, since nothing at all had been chipped off them.

Then he looked over the rough and hard ones, and a few of them were thrown out because they could not be cut, since they turned out to be extremely hard. But the rest of them were cut and lifted by the virgins and fitted into the middle of the building of the tower, because they were on the weak side. Then he looked over the ones with the stains, and very few of these had turned black and were thrown out with the rest; but the ones left over were found bright and sound, and the virgins fitted these into the building, and set them on the outside because of their strength.

Then he came to look over the white round stones, and he said to me: “What are we to do about these stones?” “How would I know, sir?” I said. “Then you have no idea about them?” “Sir,” I answered, “I do not have this trade. I am not a stonecutter, and I cannot work it out.” “Do you not see,” he said, “how very round they are? If I want to make them square, a great deal has to be cut off them; and some of them have to go into the building, there is no way around it.” “Then, sir,” I said, “if there is no way around it, why torment yourself? Why not simply pick out the ones you want for the building and fit them into it?” He chose out the larger and brighter of them and cut them, and the virgins lifted them and fitted them into the outer parts of the building. [p]

The rest, the ones left over, were lifted and laid back down on the plain they had been brought from. They were not thrown out. “There is still a little more to be built onto the tower,” he said, “and the Master of the tower wants all these stones fitted into the building, because they are extremely bright.”

Then twelve women were called, most beautiful in appearance, dressed in black, belted, with their shoulders bare and their hair loose. These women looked to me like wild things. And the Shepherd ordered them to lift the stones that had been thrown out of the building and carry them away to the mountains they had been brought from. They lifted them cheerfully and carried all the stones away and put them back where they had been taken from.

And once all the stones had been lifted away, and there was not one left lying around the tower, the Shepherd said to me: “Let us go around the tower and see whether there is any flaw in it.” So I went around it with him. And when the Shepherd saw that the tower was beautifully built, he was very glad; for the tower was built in such a way that, seeing it, I longed for a building like it. It was built as if out of a single stone, with not one joint in it. The stone looked as though it had been carved out of the rock: it seemed to me to be one solid block.