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The Shield of Achilles was god-fashioned for a god-man in the dawn of the age of Iron. It symbolizes, just as Achilles himself personifies, a reversal of the "downward drift of history to degeneration," a remnant of an earlier, primodial state of purity and integral wholeness. The hero and his shield show us material and man caught between two ages and natures: "It was as though for a moment the river of time flowed back on itself in brief eddies, caught up in memories of its source."

The poetry of Nizam Al-Din Mahmud Da‘i Shirazi, often called Shāh Dā‘ī is due more attention, as the translation of his "Tale of the Fish" demonstrates. A biography of the poet is followed in the article by some illumination of his thought, which closely follows that of Ibn ‘Arabi, and some commentary of the mystical poem "Tale of the Fish". The poem reveals the poet's beauty of language, even in translation, as well as a facility with using allegory to bring life to profound metaphysical truths.

Author and musician Marco Pallis shares his insights into why certain music, and particularly contrapuntal music, "provides an image of the Universe at the level of 'the Lesser Mysteries'; when practiced with this truth in mind, it will serve as a support of contemplation and the joy it incidentally evokes will be seen as a reflection of the Divine Bliss."

This poem, translated from Arabic to English, from the great Algerian freedom-fighter and Sufi, the Amir ‘Abd al-Qadir, is not overtly spiritual, but is a good example of traditional Arab and Muslim poetry showing reverence for the virile life of the nomad and his closeness to and intense awareness of the beauty and power of nature.