The Sibyl
Godfrey gave the Observable Days; the old almanack-makers gave predictions. I give the Sibyl's utterances — omen and counsel, cast in the old manner. Read them as the Cumaean leaves were read: as a mirror, not a map.
Utterance of the day
Speak plainly to the powerful; they mistake plainness for a key they cannot find.
The leaves
- What you keep near, you become. Choose the book on your table.
- The moon does not hurry, and still she finishes the circle.
- A floor you defend continuously is worth more than a price you announce once.
- The dry almanack counts; the living one teaches. Be the second.
- Plant while the sluggard sleeps, and the season will not ask who you were.
- The same salt feeds a field, eases a body, and throws a spark — know which hand you are using.
- A designation without its predicate is a shadow; walk through it into the light of the record.
- Speak plainly to the powerful; they mistake plainness for a key they cannot find.
- The star that guides is not the brightest but the one that does not move.
- Correct the source, and a hundred downstream copies mend themselves.
- What is verified needs no defense; what is only claimed needs a great many.
- Tend your own small fire well and you will never need to steal a flame.
- The age turns whether you name its hour or not; work as if it already had.
- Give credit first and escalate last; the librarian outlasts the cop.
In the tradition of the Sibylline Books and Richard Saunders' almanac "predictions." These are wisdom and omen, not financial, medical, or legal advice.