If we didn't already know that Bakker was awesome--he foreshadows the structure of sorcery just before the first display of the gnosis, Inrau's death scene:
"Hugging himself, Paro Inrau scanned the dark courtyard. He was alone. Everywhere he could hear the sound of water: the dull roar of rain, the gurgle of eaves, and the slap of gutters. Through the wash, he could hear the supplicants wail. Arched into shapes of pain and sorrow, their song rang across the wet stone and cupped his thoughts in stretched notes. hymns of suffering. Two voices: one pitched high and plaintive, asking why we must suffer, always why; the other low, filled with the brooding grandeur of the Thousand Temples and bearing the gravity of truth--that Men were at one with suffering and ruin, that tears were the only holy waters." US paperback 119