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August 1, 2005

Visible Mathematics

“Earlier,
there had been mapping projects in Saudi Arabia’s Rub’ al-Khali, the
Empty Quarter in the south and west of the country….
‘“Empty” is a misnomer… the Rub’ al-Khali contains many hidden riches.’”

– Maps from the Sky,
Saudi Aramco World, March/April 1995

From Weaveworld

Book Three:
Out of the Empty Quarter,
by Clive Barker, 1987:

… As a child he’d learned the names of all the angels and archangels
by heart: and among the mighty, Uriel was of the mightiest. The
archangel of salvation: called by some the flame of God…. What had he
done, stepping into the presence of such power? This was Uriel,
of the principalities….
    Another of the angel’s attributes rose from memory
now, and with it a sudden shock of comprehension. Uriel had been
the angel left to stand guard at the gates of Eden.
    Eden.
    At the word, the creature blazed. Though the
ages had driven it to grief and forgetfulness, it was still an angel:
its fires unquenchable. The wheels of its body rolled, the
visible mathematics of its essence turning on itself and preparing for
new terrors.
    There were others here, the Seraph said, that called this place Eden. But I never knew it by that name.
    “What, then?” Shadwell asked.
    Paradise, said the Angel, and at the word a new picture appeared in Shadwell’s mind. It was the garden, in another age….
    This was a place of making, the Angel said. Forever and ever. Where things came to be.
    “To be?”
    To find a form, and enter the world.