Happy Valentine's Day!

A post in two parts.

On How to Dream of a Lady Whom you Loved yet never Possessed

Avail yourself of and give heartfelt praise to your solitude, since the fleshliness of your dreams seeks the solitary and ethereal. Prepare your couch upon an open veranda, facing south, that you may clearly survey all the constellations in the firmament, the commonplace Pleiades together with the radiant Alektor. Betake yourself to bed at the eleventh hour or thereabouts, having previously sprinkled your pillow with five or six droplets of aromatic liquid known as the tears of Christ (lacrimae Christi), for He too loved yet possessed not. Whereupon, see to it that you sleep undisturbed and soundly for at least four hours.

When four hours have thus passed, move slightly and assume the position of the embryo in the belly, viz. place your right hand as your pillow and draw up your legs like wings enfolded. Thereafter, reflect, though sleeping still, on all that you possessed and lost, all you possess and are losing, not so to grieve, but on the vanity of it. Whereupon, once you feel a rush of tears sweeping you out to sea, take from within you a musical instrument, no matter whether lute, mandolin or drum, and strike up most passionately and rhythmically as in a dream. And set the melodious paths of the verses that become you all around indiscriminately as garlands to safeguard you, yet neglect not the melodious path of Lethe and play this unfailingly twice and thrice. Whereat, shining before you will appear trails of dreams, some black as pitch, some of reddish hue and others the colour of saffron. WIthout more ado yet with no little awe, take the one dream path that leads you to your heart's desire and follow it with utmost care for at least fifty miles. For here is the place that deep in the night you will find her sitting all alone upon a rock, or in her master's dwelling, or wedded to another and busy with her household and content.

Then come up to her most softly that she may not awaken and be alarmed and call to her within you, as only you know, O Irene, O Lucy, O Elspeth, O Christina. And, if she still hearkens and feels for you, she will turn towards you, as in dreaming, and you will say to her in the Romaic tongue, "Regard how because of you I am alone and my tears rejoice in you, for you have gladdened me this night, my Sweetest." Say to her no more than this since it is not expedient, given that time is pressing, but turn back once more and make your return. Yet should she not hearken to you when you address her and no longer feel for you on account of the length apart, do not be embittered or grieve overly much, for you were worthy of her shade and image. Whereupon, collect yourself and seek another more amenable.

If you would employ dreams in such a manner, take care not to exceed two or three each year. The most propitious time is August, on the sixth day, the feast of the first fruits and our Saviour's Transfiguration, or on the morrow of the Assumption, feast of the Holy Shroud, unless, that is, this falls on a Sunday. Otherwise, do this in August, on the twenty-ninth day, fest of the Precursor's Beheading.

Part two is located infra.