Carlos Fuentes - Terra Nostra

CELESTINA AND THE DEVIL

And so it happened that one night, upon returning to the room they shared, Ludovico found Celestina crouching beside the flames of a brazier, weeping, biting upon a cord, and burning her hands in the flames; she was insensible to the weeping of the two children, and surrounded by little flour-filled cloth dolls.

The student tried to help her and draw her away from the flames, but the girl was possessed of an invincible strength, and she told him to leave her, that her memory was returning, that she had forgotten everything, her dream had been realized: love without prohibitions — a liberated body, she, Ludovico, and Felipe — had been like a drug, she had allowed herself to be lulled by a false illusion, now she was beginning to remember again, she had been violated by El Señor Don Felipe the Fair, taken coldly and brutally by that whoring, incontinent, hurried Prince, on the very night of her wedding with Jerónimo in the grange, and she had said to herself: I shall give myself to the Devil, I have no friend but the Devil, only Satan could be more powerful than this filthy Señor, God has not thought me worthy of His protection, perhaps the Devil will defend me, I shall be his wife, he will give me the power to avenge myself against El Señor and his house, El Señor and all his descendants, and she held her hands to the fire, drew them back, took the cord and bit upon it to relieve her torment, plunged her hands into the fire, invoking him, angel of venom and death, come, take me … and amidst the flames, Ludovico, a shadow appeared, visible only in the center of the fire, as if requiring purest light to appear and to be seen, and that form of pure shadow without face or hands or legs, pure darkness revealed by the flames, spoke to me and said:

“Do not weep, woman. There is one who will take pity on you. You have learned what the world offers you if you obey the law of God and as a reward suffer the cruelty of men. Remember that woman was once a goddess. She was goddess because she was keeper of the most profound wisdom. This ancient female sage knew that nothing is as it appears to be, and that behind all appearances there is a secret that both refutes and completes them. Men were unable to dominate the world while women knew these secrets. So they joined together to divest them of their dignity, their priesthood, their privilege: they excised and amended the ancient texts that recognized the androgynous character of the first Divinity, they suppressed mention of the wife of Yahweh, they changed the Scriptures to hide this truth: that the first created being was both masculine and feminine, made in the image and likeness of the Divinity in whom both sexes were joined; in His place they invented a God of vengeance and anger, a bearded goat; they expelled woman from Paradise, to her they assigned guilt for the Fall. Nothing of this is true, it is merely the lie that is indispensable to the foundation of man’s power, power without mystery, cruel, divorced from love, separated from real time, which is woman’s time, simultaneous time: the power of man is captured within a simple succession of events which in their linear progression lead every thing and every being to death. Hear me, woman: I shall tell you how to conquer death; I shall tell you how to conquer this atrocious masculine order; and I shall tell you secrets, see how much you can do with them, and quickly, your time is brief, I shall demand much of you, you will be exhausted, all you can do is initiate what I ask you, you will not be able to finish it, it is too much for one person, you must realize that in time so you can transmit what you know to another woman in time, before men again wrest from you the forces that today I grant you; remember, let another woman continue what you initiate, for you can only continue what others have initiated in my name. Woman was Goddess. I was Angel.”

“What,” moaned Celestina, “what will you teach me, what must I know, I do not understand…”

“Your wounded hands are the sign of our communion: fire. The woman who kisses your hands shall inherit what I give to you.”

“When? How shall I know?”

“Look for me in the streets of Toledo. There you shall find me, when fate so decrees.”

“What shall I do in the meantime?”

“Flee to the forest. Spirits and succubi dwell there, the familiars of witches. Seek their counsel. They are the ancient pagan gods, expelled from their altars by cruel Christianity. They will recognize in you the ancient goddesses of the Mediterranean world, condemned to witchcraft by Christian powers and executed in public squares with the same cruelty accorded Christ upon Golgotha. Adore the forbidden goddesses. Disguise them as an innocent game. Fabricate dolls made from rags. Fill them with flour. Flour is the color of the moon. There dwells the hidden goddess of all time.”

“Where? In the forest? In the moon?”

But the invisible vision in the center of the fire had disappeared.

NUMBER 3

Morning, midday, and night. Beginning, middle, and end. Father, mother, and child. Everything that is complete is three times complete. Thrice a saint, truly a saint. Dead three days, truly dead. Three regions make up the heavens: sky, land, and water. Three bodies have the heavens: sun, moon, and earth. Thrice is the rite repeated, and three persons fulfill it. Sacrificial animals must be three years old. The Law ordains three fasts per year and three prayers a day. Three is the number of righteous men. Three flocks come to the well. Guilt extends unto the third generation. Three generations are needed to avenge fathers. Three years without a harvest justify the husbandman’s impatience, and the abandonment of his lands. Three days is the guest tolerated. Three times, one circles the funeral pyre. Three are the Furies. Three are the judges of death. Every three years are celebrated the festivals of Bacchus. Three were the first augurs. Three, the first vestals. Three, the books of the Sibyls. Three days pass in the descent into Hell. Three days the soul remains beside the corpse awaiting its resurrection. Thrice are repeated the words that protect voyagers, that induce sleep, that calm the fury of the sea. Thrice Yahweh blessed creation. Heaven offers us three witnesses. Three daughters had Job. Three sons Noah, and from them we have descended. Thrice Balaam blessed Israel. Three friends had Job, and three, Daniel. Three emissaries from Heaven visited Abraham. Thrice Jesus was tempted. Thrice he prayed in Gethsemane. Thrice Simon denied Him. He was crucified at the third hour. There were three crosses on Golgotha. Thrice Jesus revealed himself to His disciples after the Resurrection. Three times Saul desired. Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Beast, Serpent, and False Prophet. Faith, Hope, and Charity. Three sides has a triangle. One is the root of all. Two is the negation of one. Three is the synthesis of one and two. Three contains both. It balances them. It announces the plurality that follows. Three is the complete number. The diadem of the beginning and the middle. The reunion of the three times. Present, past, and future. Everything ends. Everything begins again.

THE DUEL

Many afternoons Celestina wandered through the streets of Toledo, steep and level, solitary and tumultuous, opening into broad plazas, honeycombs of long narrow lanes, seeking the promise of the Devil. Her search was for one known face.

One late afternoon she passed by a walled garden, and she heard cries in the garden and noises on the other side of the high wall. A cloaked cavalier with a nun in his arms leapt over the wall. The gate opened and two other cavaliers ran into the street, their swords unsheathed. The nun lay in a swoon; the cloaked man was wounded in one leg. He saw Celestina. He entreated her: “Try to revive the novitiate. Take her with you and I shall come for her. Tell me where you live.”