“In the middle of the vineyard [of the soul] He [Christ] placed the vessel of his heart, full of blood, to water the plants with it, so that they don’t dry out. . . . What is [the vineyard] watered with? Not with water but with precious blood spilled with much fire of love. That blood is located in the vessel of the heart, as it is said.”

'Love pulled sighs from your eyes,
shooting them into my heart so strongly
that I fled, confounded.'

Guido Cavalcanti

'Take the hairs of a menstruating woman and place them in the fertile earth under manure during the winter, then in spring or summer when they are heated by the sun, a long, stout serpent will be generated'