“Moon Mysteries”

“Returning to a state more closely approaching his normal consciousness than the one through whose broken clouds he had been floating, Skylar headed across campus toward his room. The arrangement of the moon and stars seemed full of secret import, like a Gnostic device rich with meaningful symbols. But, just as Spirit-blind academics overlooked the device’s significant trove (attaching to it some connotation corresponding in shallowness to their own insights), a great preponderance of the people scanning that night sky saw nothing more than specks of white arranged on a black background: to some it looked like speckled linoleum, to others, like bits of lint clinging to a black dress. That sky inspired the romantics to hold one another more closely, for it whispered to them of eternities of loneliness; it caused science types to revolve once more in their minds the arguments for and against infinity. In seekers like Skylar, this nocturne, by arousing their awareness that it contained a message, achieved half its purpose. The other purposeful half, the decipherment of the message, the sky left unfulfilled.”