"Some marble steps descended to a vault..."

The Golden Chain references two Medieval ideas: the Great Chain of Being and the Danse Macabre(Dance of Death). While the Great Chain presents us with an unchangeable spiritual hierarchy, the Danse Macabre reminds us that we are all made equal by our mortality. The Great Chain of Being and the Danse Macabre both inform us in different ways that there is no better way to prepare for death than to accept our status as transient members of the world.