Advanced Search. Verse Take heed to yourself that you be not snared by being again enticed by those evil loves, after that they have been driven out from the soul; and that you seek not after the thoughts and doctrines which favour them, endeavouring to find how far those evil loves can be followed and worshiped with the sanction of religionโand in that way to worship the Lord.
Study this Passage. To this I will append the following narrative account: My sight was opened to see a dark forest and in it a mob of satyrs. The satyrs' chests were hairy, and some had feet like those of calves, some feet like those of panthers, and some feet like those of wolves, with claws instead of toes. These satyrs were running about, shouting, "Where are the women?
They, too, were monstrous in various ways. The satyrs ran up to them and took hold of them, dragging them away into a cavern which was situated in the middle of the forest deep beneath the earth. On the ground around the cavern, moreover, lay a great serpent coiled in a spiral, which spewed its venom into the cavern. In the branches of the forest above the serpent, deadly birds of the night were cawing and shrieking.
But the satyrs and whores did not see these things, because they were forms corresponding to their lascivious lusts and thus appearances visible usually only from a distance. They were talking about marriage, nature and religion. Marriage was the subject of those whose feet looked like those of calves, and they said, "What is marriage but legalized adultery?
And what is sweeter than licentious charades and the deceiving of husbands? Nature was the subject of those whose feet looked like those of panthers, and they said, "What else is there but nature? Is there any difference between man and beast other than the fact that a man can articulate his thoughts in speech, while a beast can only make sounds? Do they not both have life from heat and understanding from light by the operation of nature?
