Gemini 26. A man cutting the limb of a persimmon tree to make a wand.
The limb, had it not been cut, would have bloomed, and become laden with persimmons. The tree is happy to give up this limb, though, for it knows the other uses it might have, other than bearing persimmon fruit. Just as the fruit is born with a potent, drying bitterness, in time the fruit will ripen into luxurious sweetness and fall from the tree. So the wand, too, will take on the bitterness of the earth and its illusions, and through magic transform them into a rich nectar.
Azoth Oracle
A woman helping a maiden to don her wedding dress.
In the province of Bardath it is said that sometimes when a young maiden is preparing for her wedding an old woman will appear, one who is known to the villagers as Tandara, and that when she comes the other women leave the presence of the bride and allow this old one to help her put on her wedding gown and other finery.
Tandara is the spirit of an alchemist who lived long ago in Bardath. One day, being accosted by one of the village women after she had assisted the bride, and asked of her nature said, “We don the illusion of the body when we come into this world, and as all illusions are clothing, I, being a master of illusions make it my work to insure that brides wear their new illusion well, so that they may know it for what it is, and savor its beauty for the time it is theirs.”