Coil The Golden Section
The angel of death stands between heaven and earth,
holding a poison-dripping sword. Identified with Satan,
he is full of powers, a diligent reaper, an old
fugitive and wanderer like Cain, a beggar, a pedlar, an
Arab nomad, a skeleton, capering with sinners and
misers in a jugglers' dance.
But the nightmarish angel presents a different face to
the one who has died before death, who has attained
some measure of the apathea of a saint.
We are told that Azrael, Death, appears to our spirit
in a form determined by our beliefs, actions, and
dispositions during life. He may even manifest
invisibly so the man may die of a rose, a rheumatic
pain, or of a rotting stench.
When the soul sees Azrael, it falls in love, and its
gaze is thus withdrawn from the body as if by a
seduction. Great prophets and saints may even be
politely invited by Death, who appears to them in
corporeal form. Thus it was with Moses and with
Mohammed.
When the Persian poet Rumi lay on his deathbed, Azrael
appeared as a beautiful youth and said, "I am come by
divine command to enquire what commission the Master
may have to entrust in you."
In fact, a strange connection becomes apparent between
mors and amor, love and death. The moment of extinction
in the pleasure of love resembles that of death, and
thus, that of the mystical. In mythic terms, Eros and
Thanatos are almost twins, for in some cases Death
appears as a lovely youth and Eros as a withered
starveling.
Both love and death are gateways, hence their eternal
adolescence and their fixation in the midst of the rite
of passage.
