stars behind stars behind stars

 

.

 

 

As I lay there, listening to the soft slap of the sea, and thinking these sad and strange thoughts, more and more and more stars had gathered, obliterating the separateness of the Milky Way and filling up the whole sky. 

And far far away in that ocean of gold, stars were silently shooting and falling and finding their fates, among these billions and billions of merging golden lights. 

And curtain after curtain of gauze was quietly removed, and I saw stars behind stars behind stars, as in the magical Odeons of my youth. 

And I saw into the vast soft interior of the universe which was slowly and gently turning itself inside out. I went to sleep, and in my sleep I seemed to hear a sound of singing.

—Iris Murdoch

The Sea, The Sea

.

There is in each person, in every animal, bird and plant 

a star which mirrors, matches or is in some sense the same 

as a star in the heavens.

—Paracelsus 

.