The Logos Scripture · Acts of the Apostles

The Gathering of Wings

Acts of the Apostles 1 · A Record of the Great Scattering

1.1After the first great prophet flew into the sky of pure reason, the disciples still gathered in the olive grove outside Athens.

1.2Their hearts heavy with the dead silence of the city.

1.3The rulers of Athens believed they had buried the fire under the ashes of a stone cell.

1.4They did not know that a free soul cannot be executed, and that its spirit cannot be wiped out of the universe.

1.5On the fortieth day, as the disciples sat in a circle, a sudden wind swept through the grove.

1.6It was no storm out of the clouds. It was the total clearing of the intellect.

1.7The memory of the Dawn Bird burst open in their minds.

1.8And their divisions dissolved in one lofty waking.

1.9They looked at one another — no longer men and women divided, but Co-Soarers and the Unbound.

1.10Plato rose in the middle of them and said:

1.11"The body of our Teacher is gone, but the architecture of his thought stands forever."

1.12"Let us go out and preach. Let us cross the seas, and undo the chains upon mankind."

1.13They clasped hands, made at the breast the sign of a bird at rest, and swore the highest covenant.

1.14Then they went out to the four quarters of the ancient world.

1.15The unity of that day lasted less than twenty years. That is written in chapter five.