Argument with an Angel Book

The Meaning of Sibyl:

1. A woman in ancient times who was thought to utter the prophecies of God.
2. (literally) a woman able to foretell the future.

This is how I began reading the novel searching for the meaning of the term found in the title.

The Story:

This story is primarily about the two meanings of the term explained above and is added to it are various other correlatives. There is the woman who was the sybil in the shrine of Delphi and who now lives in the adjacent mountain alone with her only son. She is away now from the town because she had betrayed god and is cursed. The only place fit for the cursed ones are the places not usually visited by human beings. [An Aside: How did she betray? By loving a fellow human being and sharing human joy with him. For the pythia (the priestess) is supposed to be the bride of god and god alone.] To her comes a wandering Jew, another cursed one by God's son. He did not allow the God's Son on his way to Calvary to lean on his house wall. And so, God's Son said to him:

"Because you denied me this, you shall suffer greater punishment than mine: you shall never die. You shall wander through this world to all eternity, and find no rest."

In search of his destiny, the future one, he has come seeking an answer to Delphi, the place of oracles where any question can be answered. In Delhi, no one answers and guided by a blind beggar he reaches the old sibyl now living in solitude with her only son. The blind beggar led him here because everyone knows that she was the best sibyl, through whom god loved to speak through.

She narrates her own story before answering. This story is very interesting. She loved to be the priestess. She loved to be possessed by god. She loved the ecstasy when god came to possess her. But being human, she also fell in love with a young man. God was enraged and he took revenge by killing the lover and raping the priestess. Out of the violent union was born a son - god's son. This god's son is very quiet and witless ('an idiot'). He just sits in a corner never speaking, never showing any inclination to understand what is spoken in his presence. But he is mysteriously young and has an enigmatic smile which is childish in nature.

Enough of her story. Now to the answer that she gives to the wandering Jew. This is what she replies:

"I can see in your face that you're under god's curse and that what you say is true. It's plain that you're not free, that you're bound to him and that he doesn't mean to let you go. He is your destiny. Your soul is filled with him; through his curse you live a life with god. you hate him, you mock and revile him. But judging by your indignant words you care for nothing in the world but him, and are filled with him alone. With what you call your hatred of him. But this very red-hot hatred of god is perhaps your experience of the divine."

My Sentiments:

I was stunned by these and few more revelatory passages that appeared at the end of the novel. It looked like a spiritual treatise with deep and profound reflections may be revealed to a mystic. The whole novel is dealing with god's dealing with man. It speaks of divine love and human response to it. It speaks of the mystery of god's love and our futile search to understand it. It speaks of god and his existence and our relationship to him.

The definition of god as found in the book:

"He is not as we are and we can never understand him. He is incomprehensible, inscrutable. He is god. And so far as I comprehend it he is both evil and good, both light and darkness, both meaningless and full of a meaning which we can never perceive, yet never cease to puzzle over. A riddle which is intended not to be solved but to exist. To exist for us always. To trouble us always."

My Failure:

This is not my usual style of writing a review. I hardly tell the story in a review. But here I have narrated the story in an abbreviated manner. And yet, I have not said it all. Read the story. Each word has a meaning and reason to be there at that spot in this book. You will get a different experience. The last few pages left me with spiritual kind of wonder. I decided not to write a review. For, I could not have revealed even an iota of my reading experience. Then, I decided for I wanted others to know. Here am I writing a review in a haphazard manner. In fact, love to blabber some more......Sorry guys, for the aimless wandering of my thoughts. And thanks for putting up with it.