“Cryptography,” said Peebs, “from the Greek kryptos, or ‘hidden.’ ” “Hidden writing, specifically,” said Ada. “A code.” “But not, one hopes, crypt as in, well, crypts, with dead people in them,” said Jane. “Actually…,” began Peebs. “Impossible, all of you!” Ada raised her voice.

Jordan Stratford, illo. Kelly Murphy, The Case of the Girl in Grey [Amazon, Bookshop, Publisher, Local Library]

Hermetic quote Stratford The Case of the Girl in Grey cryptography greek kryptos hidden writing code dead people impossible raised voice

Consider also:

  1. “But ‘settling’ seemed completely beyond Allegra’s abilities. She would fidget, or tap, or twirl at random, or run all the way upstairs and all the way down again if she forgot something. “
  2. “The depths of human nature and self knowledge, the hidden mysteries of the soul of man are not, as real initiates well know, probed into with impunity except by the ‘properly prepared’. The man who does so has, as it were, a cable-tow around his neck; because when once stirred by a genuine desire for the higher knowledge that real initiation is intended to confer, he can never turn back on what he learns thereof without committing moral suicide; he can never be again the same man he was before he gained a glimpse of the hidden mysteries of life. And as the Angel stood with a flaming sword at the entrance of Eden to guard the way to the Tree of Life, so will the man whose initiation is not a conventional one find himself threatened at the door of the higher knowledge by opposing invisible forces if he rashly rushes forward in a state of moral unfitness into the deep secrets of the Centre. Better remain ignorant than embark upon this unknown sea unwisely and without being properly prepared and in possession of the proper passports.”
  3. “The signs of the occult script are not arbitrarily invented; they correspond to the forces actively engaged in the world. They teach us the language of things.”
  4. So what is the nature of this library? What function does it serve other than being a filing system for books? What, to use the phrase beloved of cultural criticism, does it say about me, and to whom is it addressing this message?
  5. “I open the hidden water-springs for the ablutions of Urt-ab. I unbolt the door of the Shetait Shrine in Ra-stau. I am with Horus as the protector of the left shoulder of Osiris, the dweller in Sekhem. I enter in among and I come forth from the Flame-gods on the day of the destruction of the Sebau fiends in Sekhem. I am with Horus on the day[s] of the festivals of Osiris, at the making of offerings and oblations, namely, on the festival which is celebrated on the sixth day of the month, and on the day of the Tenat festival in Anu. I am the UAB priest (libationer) in Tetu, Rera, the dweller in Per-Asar. I exalt him that is upon the high place of the country. I look upon the hidden things (the mysteries) in Ra-stau.”