Sublime

all these things—fullness, decline, destruction, renewal, tearing down, rebuilding—are actually part of the same process, points on a single continuum, consecutive segments of a never-ending circle.

The baths were certainly still in use in the late fourth century; but it is during the fifth and sixth centuries and into the seventh that Wroxeter punches above its weight in the sheer scale and dynamics of its post-Roman life. Barker’s meticulous recording showed that early in the fifth century the huge baths basilica – an aisled hall some 200 ft

atavistic

The recent revival of yangsheng practices in everyday life, where classical ideas intersect with contemporary needs and new ideals, to achieve a better integration of individual life with family, community and nature, reveals that dialogical transcendence is alive and well in China and being tapped in similar ways.7

At this point in the tale, we see a fragment of the old night religions. The young woman bathes, dresses in white, draws a chalk circle around herself. It is an old Goddess ritual to bathe—purify—to don the white gown—the garb of descent to the land of the dead—and to draw a circle of magic protection—sacred thought—around oneself. All these the ma