That we name the celestial bodies after gods and animals is a sign of veneration – fleeting like in the desert a drift of sand. Fleeting are also the temples and prayers, but the veneration is lasting; it lives in the world. Beings and things venerate by their existence. When the sun rises it is greeted by a concert of the animals from the forests; the flowers turn towards it. Even the stone begins to breathe; it expands. Relating thereto is the “singing” of the column of Memnon at sunrise and the quatrain that Goethe dedicated to drawing breath and its graces*. The drive to veneration is anchored in the material; therefore the drive can be displaced, the participation can not.
— Ernst Jünger, Die Schere (The Scissor), Part One : 70
*Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Talismane (Talismans)
