Prayer to Ceres

From Seneca's Hercules Furens: rites are promised to Ceres if Hercules returns from the underworld.

The vow is built on a contradiction, and Seneca points it up. "For you, with silent faith, hushed Eleusis will brandish its long torches": muta fide, tacita — what is promised is the thing that may not be spoken of. The Eleusinian mysteries are bound by an oath of silence, and the only thing that can be promised aloud is silence about them.

The torches are called long for a reason: what is meant is the night procession of initiates from Athens to Eleusis, more than twenty kilometres with fire in hand. The whole secret is reduced to the one thing visible from outside.

The card's reference points to line 229; in fact this is 299-302.