The Dead

Conchis tells Nicholas that the dead live by love.  Lily had died from working at a hospital during an epidemic.  This makes me think of stories that involve hauntings and people seeing loved ones in the form of ghosts.  In Native American myths of the Dogrib people, it is believed that if a person holds on to a loved one's possession who has passed on, they will see their ghosts.  The only way to stop the dead from haunting the living in this scenario is to burn the belongings of the dead.  In the book The Lesser Blessed, the protagonist, Larry, tells a story of the dead which is identical.  The Lesser Blessed is highly mythological and I am going to be explaining this novel's mythological connections in my final paper.

The magus-elect

What does it mean to be 'elect'

Conchis is of the elect; he considers himself to be psychic.  Conchis continues to tell Nicholas that he is of the elect.  Although Nicholas refutes the idea of being part of the elect and of having psychic qualities, he ponders the idea.

What does it mean to be 'elect'.  I believe some of us choose to perceive the world around us in a special way.  Although I am not psychic, I believe that being 'elect' has something to do with perception and an attitude towards the world.  The elect try to lift the veil from our own eyes.  Nicholas, at first, does not recognize the veil that has been placed over his narcissistic eyes.  But as we read on, Nicholas begins to lift his veil and see things he has never seen before.