The Secret of Secrets: A Novel
by Dan Brown
Contents
Chapter 6
Overview
The Golěm completes an Ether-induced mystical journey and retreats to a candlelit shrine in his private sanctuary. Fixated on a photographed woman, he casts himself as her secret protector while condemning her new lover in Prague as unworthy. The chapter reveals the Golěm’s invasive access to her mind and his escalating, possessive mission to “save” her without being detected.
Summary
After the Ether’s effects fade, the Golěm lies naked on a hemp mat, having reached the familiar climax of the ritual: an intense, nonsexual ecstasy he believes grants a brief glimpse of “Reality” and confirms the Ancient belief that the body is only a temporary vessel.
He removes a perforated ball gag and, still in darkness, crosses his private svatyně to a wall shrine. He strikes a match and lights three votive candles set among dried flowers, bringing the shrine into view.
In the candlelight, a photograph of a woman appears, and the Golěm addresses her with possessive devotion. He frames himself as her unseen deliverer “from evil,” convinced powerful forces threaten her and that she is especially vulnerable now because she is distracted by love.
Jealous and contemptuous of the woman’s “new lover” in Prague, the Golěm claims the man is unworthy and does not truly understand her. He admits he sometimes watches the couple as a silent presence in her mind, desperate to warn her but choosing to remain hidden so she will never know he is there.
Who Appears
- The GolěmEther-using mystic who worships at a shrine and obsessively surveils a woman’s mind.
- Unidentified woman in the photographTarget of the Golěm’s fixation; he believes she is threatened and distracted by love.
- Unidentified lover in PragueThe woman’s new partner; scorned by the Golěm as unworthy and deceptive.