'When the stream of synthetic creation lapses, we find ourselves part of the inverse process, the blood of destructive creation.

Aphrodite is born in the first spasm of universal dissolution--then the snakes and swans and lotus--marsh-flowers--and Gudrun and Gerald--born in the process of destructive creation.' 'And you and me-- ?' she asked.
'Probably,' he replied.

'In part, certainly.

Whether we are that, in toto, I don't yet know.' 'You mean we are flowers of dissolution--fleurs du mal?
I don't feel as if I were,' she protested.
He was silent for a time.
'I don't feel as if we were, ALTOGETHER,' he replied.

'Some people are pure flowers of dark corruption--lilies.