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The Cloud of Unknowing is an anonymous work of Christian mysticism written in Middle English in the latter half of the 14th century. The text is a spiritual guide on contemplative prayer in the late Middle Ages.Beautifully restored and republished with an introduction by Evelyn Underhill, foreword by Nick Stafford and complete contents and index.

IN this book I have retold the legends of the Gods of ancient Egypt, legends, which were current in the " morning of the world," preserved to the present day engraved on stone and written on papyri. I have told them in my own way, adhering strictly to the story, but arranging the words and phrases according to the English method ; retaining, however, as far as possible the expressions and metaphors of the Egyptian. In some cases I have inserted whole sentences in order to make the sense clear ; these are in places where the story divides naturally into several parts, as in " The Battles of Horus," and " The Regions of Night and Thick Darkness"; where each incident, so like the one preceding and the one following, is kept distinct in the mind of the reader by this means. This repetition is quite in accordance with the style of Egyptian literature.

In the following pages I have endeavoured to arrange, in something like consecutive order, all that is definitely known concerning the History of the Egyptian Obelisks generally; and more particularly of those now standing. To do this it has been necessary to compare the accounts of many writers, and the measurements of various authors, but the result of such a comparison is far from satisfactory; in truth there is very little agreement between them; and there are several statements which cannot be reconciled with each other. Under these difficulties, I have had to rely chiefly upon the measurements of Bonomi, he being professionally a sculptor as well as an Egyptologist, and, therefore, possessing a double guarantee against liability to errors of detail. With regard to the identifications of the obelisks mentioned by Pliny with those now standing in Rome, it is hardly possible to be quite certain as to any special monument, except perhaps the Obelisk of the Circus Maximus.

The origin of the science of symbols is lost in the distance of time, and seems to be connected with the cradle of humanity - the oldest religions were governed by it; the arts of design, architecture, statuary, aud painting were born under its influence, and primitive writing was one of its applications. Did symbols exist in spoken, before being translated into written, language? Were primitive words the source of symbols? These are the questions on which these researches are based. The first men, in order to express abstract ideas, borrowed images from surrounding nature; by a surprising intuition, they attached to each race and species of animals, to plants, and the elements, ideas of beauty or ugliness, of good or evil, of affection or hatred, of purity or uncleanliness, of truth or error.

It has been my high privilege to have some practical experience as the earthly wife of an angel from the unseen world. In the interests of psychical research, I have tried to explore this pathway of communication with the spiritual universe, and, so far as lay in my power, to make a sort of rough guidebook of the route. For not all wives of heavenly bridegrooms travel the same path at first. There are roads running into this one from every religion and folklore under the sun, since the pathway of marital relations on the Borderland was once, and still is, as I hope to show, one of the main thoroughfares connecting our world with the world beyond the grave.

No subject is of greater importance and significance in the history of the humanrace than that of sex worship, the adoration of the generative organs and their functions as symbols of the procreative powers of nature. It was the universal primitive religion of the world and has left its indelible impress upon our ideas, our language and our institutions. It constitutes the basis of all religious systems and the origin of our most sacred symbols and many of our most familiar customs ; in a word, it is the foundation of religious thought and conduct.

Taken from the 32 Paths of Wisdom by Joannes Stephanus Rittangelius (1642), translation by William Wynn Westcott (1877) and embellished with additional content as a study guide and fully indexed.