When reading Monas Hieroglyphica by John Dee, I understood nothing. These few words are the only thing I can remember: "grades of the double moon.”

I suppose that “double” might relate to the spiritual and the material. As above, so below.

Perhaps each grade represents a step or phase in the journey towards gnostic knowledge.

However, in Ficciones, Bioy Casares recalls that one of the heresiarchs of Uqbar had declared that mirrors and copulation are abominable because they increase the number of men.

Is duplication a step towards a higher state of being, or is each reflection of reality increasingly imperfect?