Wishing You Were Here

 WISHING YOU WERE HERE

“It is only because man remembers his origin that he can work in the realm of thought. Thought is the only spiritual influence in the world. Therefore it is a duty to think of the dead. It is the only way in which one can remain in communion with them. Is not God alone realized by faith?”  – Novalis

What is man’s origin? Surely it is the world of the blue flower. Our true home. 

Novalis began writing his philosophical fragments in late 1797 – the year Sophie died. In the letters he wrote shortly after her death, he expressed his longing for heavenly reunion with her. Religion became his deepest consolation and Sophie became the angel who inspired his life. 

In the four years that Novalis lived after the death of Sophie, he wrote his beautiful and mysterious works of philosophical poetry and poetic philosophy. Most are unfinished, yet they are as grand and as sacred as the Divina Comedia and Vita Nova of Dante.

The story of Novalis and Sophie touches my heart even more than that of Dante and Beatrice. The love of Dante for Beatrice was an idealized love. But the love of Novalis for Sophie was as earthly as it was spiritual. And the anguish Novalis felt was as earthly as his love. 

Imagine how helpless he must have felt as he watched her die of consumption. How lost he must have felt after she died. At twenty-four years old, a widower instead of a bridegroom.