V

OCCULT FORCES

In a mist of secrecy wrapping the world-scene

The little deities of Time's nether act

Who work remote from Heaven's controlling eye,

Plotted, unknown to the creatures whom they move,

The small conspiracies of this petty reign

Amused with the small contrivings, the brief hopes

And little eager steps and little ways

And reptile wallowings in the dark and dust,

And the crouch and ignominy of creeping life.

A trepidant and motley multitude,

A strange pell-mell of magic artisans

Was seen moulding the plastic clay of life,

An elfin brood, an elemental kind.

Astonished by the unaccustomed glow,

As if immanent in the shadows started up

Imps with wry limbs and carved beast visages,

Sprite prompters goblin-wizened or faery-small,

And genii fairer but unsouled and poor

And fallen beings, their heavenly portion lost,

And errant divinities trapped in Time's dust.

SRI AUROBINDO

Savitri, Book Two, Canto Five

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