THE RISING OF THE TEMPLE

This phase in the story is very much about the reaching of a very important time. A time which is felt and understood by a whole environment. Not necessarily spoken about, just known - understood.

Scarcely had the Beautiful Lily spoken - when she clasped the old Man still faster; for the ground began to move beneath them; the Youth and the old Woman also held one another; the Will-o'-wisps alone did not regard it.

You could feel plainly that the whole temple was in motion; as a ship that softly glides away from the harbour, when her anchors are lifted; the depths of the Earth seemed to open for the Building as it went along. It struck on nothing; no rock came in its way.

The old Man had just used the words "The Time is at Hand" when speaking with the Lily.

The old Man held the fair Lily fast and said to her: "We are now beneath the River; we shall soon be at the mark."

Ere long they thought the Temple made a halt; but they were in error; it was mounting upwards.

And now a strange uproar rose above their heads. Planks and beams in disordered combination now came pressing and crashing in at the opening of the dome. Lily and the Woman started to a side; the Man with the Lamp laid hold of the Youth and kept standing still. The little cottage of the Ferryman, - for it was this which the Temple in ascending had severed from the ground and carried up with it, - sank gradually down and covered the old Man and the Youth.

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What is being represented here by Goethe in this very imaginative scene?

Use of the words, for the third and final time in the story "The Time is at Hand." and "we shall soon be at the mark." 

A significant moment in the continuing development of the characters, how they enjoin together as a community: one community instead of two separate ones. How is the "Time" known by the Man with the Lamp and what is the "mark" he speaks of? Please share thoughts.