The Equinox (Volume III, Number I)

THE EQUINOX which is taught. On reaching the highest grade of the sec- ond Order, that of Exempt Adept, there are two Paths open, the right hand and the left. These are described at length in Liber 418, and we must refer the Student to that book. But the main point is that on the right hand path, stripping self, the Adept becomes Nemo, the Master of the Temple, and re- turns across the abyss, or rather is flung forth, and appears in the Heaven of Jupiter—or sphere of another planet—as a morning Star or an evening Star to bring light to them that dwell upon the earth. On the left hand Path, the Adept, wishing to keep all that he has, shuts himself up in a Tower of Silence, there to suffer the progressively degrading agony of slow dispersion. For on the right hand Path the Master of the Temple is—momentarily—after a fashion—at rest. His intellectual and physical forces are acting in the world, but his blood is in the Cup of Babalon, a draught to awaken the Eld of the All-Father, and all that remains of him is a little pile of dust which only waits the moment when it shall be burnt to ashes. 49. To perish doomed is he, who out of fear of Mara re- frains from helping man, lest he should act for Self. The pilgrim who would cool his weary limbs in running water, yet dares not plunge for terror of the stream risks to suc- cumb from heat. Inaction based on selfish fear can bear but evil fruit. A further warning against the doctrine of inaction. It is extraordinary how the Author insists again and again on this point. Orthodox Buddhism ostensibly teaches that creation of any Karma whatever merely perpetuates “Sor- row.” 62