This brings us back directly to what was said at the outset about "the language of the birds," which can also be called "angelic language" and which is symbolized in the human world by rhythmic language, for the science of rhythm, which has many applications, is in fact ultimately the basis of all the means that can be brought into action in order to enter into communication with the higher states of being. This is why it is said in an Islamic tradition that Adam, while in the earthly paradise, spoke in verse, that is, in rhythmic language. It is also why the Sacred Books are written in rhythmic language, which clearly makes them something altogether different from the mere "poems" (in the purely profane sense) that the antitradi-tional prejudice of the "critics" would have them to be; nor was poetry itself, in its origins, the vain literature it has now become as a result of the degeneration that is part of the downward march of the human cycle. [NA: One can say, in a general way, that art and science have become profane by a similar degeneration which has stripped them of their traditional character and consequently of everything that has a higher meaning. This subject has been discussed at length in L’Esotensme de Dante  , Chap. 2; The Crisis of the Modern World, Chap. 4; and The Reign of Quantity and the Signs of the Times, Chap. VIII.] It had on the contrary a truly sacred character. Examples can be found as far back as classical Western antiquity, of poetry being called the "language of the Gods," an expression equivalent to that we have already used since the "Gods," that is, the devas, [NA: The Sanskrit dêva and the Latin deus are one and the same word.] represent, like the angels, the higher states of being. In Latin, verses were called carmina, a name connected with their use in the accomplishment of rites, for the word carmen is identical with the Sanskrit karma, which must be understood here in its special sense of "ritual action." [NA: The word "poetry" is derived from the Greek word poiein which has the same meaning as the Sanskrit root kri from which karma stems and which is to be found in the Latin verb creare understood according to its primal significance. The idea in question was thus originally quite different from the mere production of artistic or literary works in the profane sense that Aristotle   seems to have had exclusively in mind when speaking of what he called "poetic sciences."] The poet himself, the interpreter of the "sacred language," which is like a transparent veil over the divine word, was vates, a word that implies a certain degree of the prophetic inspiration. Later, by a further degeneration, [NT: The first degeneration was the isolation of the vates from the generality, that is, his becoming an exception rather than a norm.] the vates became no more than a common "diviner," [NA: The word "diviner" itself has deviated just as much in meaning, for etymologically it is no less than divinus, that is, "the interpreter of the Gods." The "auspices" (from aves spicere, meaning to "observe the birds"), omens drawn from the flight and song of birds, are more particularly related to the "language of the birds" understood here in the literal sense but nonetheless identified with the "language of the Gods," since the Gods were held to make known their will through these omens. The birds thus played the part of messengers analogous (but on a very much lower plane) to the part that is generally attributed to the angels (hence their name, since "messenger" is precisely the meaning of the Greek angelos).] and carmen (whence the word "charm") no more than a "spell," that is, something brought about by low magic. We have here yet another illustration of the fact that magic — we might even say sorcery — is the last thing to be left behind when traditions disappear. Essays: The Language of the Birds by Rene Guenon