The Temple of the Four Winds; continued, Bluestars

In spring , les cantons de la Vaude were a riot of green, gold, blue, purple and white. Sunshine on treebark had a transient glow, that betrayed a chameleon chroma progressing to sunset hues of burnished cinnabar. Orange pink shot through with gold.
Heloise rejoiced in Gods creation-(She could plainly see; that everywhere it was apparent, the hand of the creator was visible in all that now unfolded before her.
Twice monthly, she had two free days wherein her time was all her own. A favourite diversion was walking in the general vicinity of the vast parklike acreage, just beyond the orchard perimeter; that bounded the convent walls on its' southern and eastern flanks.
Here began the wilder wooded region of Oak and Ash groves- spreading outwards in all directions.
The area was intersected at random by numerous mazelike footpaths-and Heloise brought a packed lunch, making a day of her wanderings. The air, she found refreshing, the birdsong; uplifting- and it was during these perambulations, she felt nearest her beloved God. Had he not created all this natural beauty with his two bare hands? She asked herself. -Two mighty hands , skilled , massive giant hands, ( all powerful, but all knowing , all gentle harmony )- Was he not the prime mover in all things? She tended to think of the almighty as a -"Heavenly Father"; (the white haired, bearded patriarch of the Cappella Sistina variety ), a bodily , corporeal form ; she ascribed to the divinity in her minds eye, despite her disdain for her own and other earthbound forms. In these, she noted weakness and imperfections.
Heloise wandered on drinking the air before her - she relished the solitude which gave her the feeling that she owned the pathways and the experience of walking them- on her own. , Hating it , when interrupted by encountering any other like minded walkers , ( with dogs or otherwise ). This somehow ruined the meditative oneness of being in direct communication with "the creator".HIM... For this reason, she often enjoyed going " off piste "; as she put it , " what an original thought!" she exclaimed to herself... haring off through the undergrowth and twiggery, thus avoiding the possibility of any unwanted meetings.
This could prove difficult given her Nuns' habit, Gray peplum and wimpled and winged headgear. However, she took pains and somehow managed to gradually move from clearing to clearing.
In the centre of the wood was a large low hill; wooded to the top where a vantage point comprising two stepped plateaux gave onto a wooded ring of clearings and copsewood. At the centre of the higher plateau, stood an old Belvedere, dating from 1759;- "The Temple of the Four Winds"- as it was known to les Vaudeoise- had been part of an estate holding, of Les Vaudin de Vaude la Desosser- from time immemorial-.
Now an elegant ruin, the neo classical structure took the form of a small , openwork marble replica of the ancient temple of Cybele , ( Vesta ) , at Rome. Its marble collonade, held up a dentellated architrave, which in turn, held the circular portico roofed with old blue ceramic tile of the colour of smalt. Above this , a wrought iron weathervane, (much rusted), in the form of an astrolabe spun willfully in the tempermental breeze.
Inside this gem of an antique folly, - an ode to neo-classicism; stood a central plinth of finest pink Parian, ... thereon a marble Pan of the same stone; engaged in full chase of, ...( and on point of capture of...) a laughing Maenad , nude and nubile, but for a spraying cascade of carved blooms that tumbled as garland between her legs, just covering the dusky Mons Veneris, just hidden tantalizingly from view. The Randy Satyr, ( also nude ), by contrast , sported the remains of an attentive Phallus-(long since broken off by a vandal, or antiquarian collector). His fawns ears were intact, his youthful torso and thighs tapered to goats hooves beneath; shaggy with the finely tooled fur of a wild animal.
Loosely modeled on the Apollo and Daphne of the Bernini Baroque, the unknown sculptor had spared no attention to detail- the animated vitality of the dynamic , lifelike composition conveyed a great sense of upward movement, lift and thrust- in an essentially static medium.
( It was a real fixed contradiction-; dynamic movement conveyed in frozen stasis) - the human forms strained for eternity; to break free from material encasement- imprisoned forever in the stone, but always on the verge of release.
Heloise hated the work; ( considering it a pagan affront to the one true GOD , and a corrupting influence among the novices, and youth generally in the banlieu).

Heloise made her way towards this structure-, not to see it, but to get the fantastic panoramic view- that could only be had from that spot.... she was tired , hungry and sat down at last , on a marble bench in front, beside the low embankment upon which the whole structure stood.
She sighed with relief in the warm midday sun of early June. Bees buzzed distractedly in the gently wafting breezes- large white cumulus powderpuffs of cloud- placed evenly at intervals drifted slowly above in the blue ether. Each was small enough to never impede the suns rays- slowly scudding towards her over a warm sunny landscape- she gazed far out over the land- the fields of new green shoots, golden and green light- Oak leaf burgeonings lately arrived- almost copper orange veined with green saponified yellow in spangles of shimmering windripple.

Heloise contentedly nibbled her sandwiches , drank the lemonade- all was right with the world- doves cooed in the nearby copsewood- insects beamed and new leaves whispered softly about her. Yet, ... something , one small thing was amiss, ... the presence of the old folly behind her, the presence of the old belvedere, ... she felt it behind her - almost burning a hole in her back, into the back of her head and the core of her psyche.

The Temple of the Four Winds: Reprise, Bluestars

Heloise de la Vachebobois, nee Alphonsine...( with the relinquishing of a former political career in le canton de Vaude la Desosser; changed her first name to Heloise, in honour of one of her medieval heroines ).
Heloise then took orders to become a 'bride of Christ'; en effet, betrothed to almighty god; Le dieu Sacree-. The abstract concept-, fantastic in its' sense of import and moment of a divine covenant with the almighty; filled a yawning void in terms of her reasoning intellect, coupled with an overweening sense of missionary zeal and purpose, generously slaked with the pungent mortar of righteous indignation.
She joined les Soeurs de la 'Couvent de la Sang Precieux'- as a willing votaress and supplicant to the order-, and despite the distinct reference in the naming of the convent, to the physicality of lifes blood, and by proxy , the body of the church through which it flowed; ( directly to God ), - her sensibilities forever eschewed and denied any corporeal or sensual awareness in terms of physical bodily feeling or function as an integral part of animal nature.
Such a thought would be anathema to Heloise, who secretly loathed her body , and all or any reference to the taint of human flesh, ( save through the substantive metaphorical symbolism and iconography of the Catholic faith, through which the interminable filth ; ( as she saw it ), of humanity in general could be saved and purified.
Indeed , she took pains to dress and undress herself in darkness, avoiding all vanities such as mirrors and window glass-, even going so far as to disturb the placid reflective drinking pool of La Fontaine de la Vierge des'eaux; before her face could appear in it when fetching water. This ancient well stood at the centre of the cloistered quad of la Couvent , and was its only source of fresh water, besides the ten rain butts that caught the celestial run off for the needs of le potager and flower gardens so well tended by la vielle Soeur Agathe and her charges.
In short , Heloise studiously avoided any reminder of her rather plain and unprepossessing visage. Instead, she threw herself wholeheartedly into devotional service of her dear Lord Jesu- and almighty God- the Holy Ghost and the sacred blessed Virgin.
She was a paragon of virtue, and the Abess , La mere Marjolaine Valdevendage' was quietly overjoyed to have such a willing servant, a tireless worker and a shining example of religious devotion to all members of the convent; not least, the novice students of divinity, of whom eventually, Heloise undertook to inculcate in the saintly ways and means of the order.
Years passed, Heloise became known throughout the wider community as a defender of the faith, - and also a highly vocal , political and social commentator on any and every issue that could be brought to her attention. She would despatch her council to all and sundry in the village market place in an opinionated black and white, either/or approach to legislation , reinforcing the rigidity of her self righteous certainties on all issues with the ancient trope of penance and reward; backing up her moral ultimatums with oft quoted scripture and the biblical decree and threat of Almighty God...the sacrificial passion of Christ, his suffering for the sins (entire) of all humanity, and the impending neccessity for the world to repent of its sins in preparation for universal judgement and the Celestial Rapture.

One of Soeur de la Vachebobois' many tasks was as keeper and guardian of the Sacristy and all its devotional contents. Oft of an evening after Vespers, she would stand rapt and in piteous tears of anguish combined with a strange elation and joy, gazing upwards at the lifesize Christe Sacree; a painted and carved crucifixion in wood , ivory and polychrome waxes, so lifelike in its contorted agonies, stigmata, and dripping ruby drops of onset. Holding her own ivory crucifix and rosary close to her heaving bosom, she marveled at the fortitude and omnipotence of this divine being who overcame the lowly goals of his torturers, now burning in eternal hellfire... and he the chosen one, the righteous son of god immaculate rose from the dead to save the world from sin. Candlelight flickered and caressed the glowing tautness of his straining sinews, glistening with the torturous sweaty weight of his own body, his tilting head , eyes upraised to his father in heaven, the ell shaped line of his neck, dripping streams of blood that directed the gaze downwards to his prominent painted nipples, further down to a washboard abdomen attenuated to his draped loins, where the ragged linen, (his mean and meagre raiment) , protruded in a knotted bulge that bespoke an earthly genesis.
Heloise ; overcome with emotion, clasped his feet in both her hands and kissed them repeatedly with salty tear stained lips and roving and reverent hands in exalted supplication, while uttering numerous feverish whispered devotions of undying love, service and eternal faith.

Fraser and His Scottish Garden: The Temple of the Four Winds; Bluestars Draft

The outline follows a loose narrative regarding an epiphany in the life of Soeur Heloise de Vachebobois. Whose minor hagiography is recorded in terms of her wonted peripatetic in the bosky dell of le couvent de la sang precieux, wherein she discovers the divine occurence of a miraculous intervention in the vicinity of the Temple of The Four Winds.
The desultory ramble culminates in both a spiritual and physical revelation of the unalterable laws within nature, provoking a cathartic revision in her hitherto adamantine catholic proclivities. Jadis Bluestars.