The Equinox (Volume III, Number I)

THE SEVEN PORTALS heart-light. When out it goes, a dark and threatening shade will fall from thine own heart upon the Path, and root thy feet in terror to the spot. It is true that the further one advances the more subtle and deadly are the enemies, up to the crossing of the Abyss; and, as far as one can judge, the present discourse does not rise above Tiphareth. I am very sorry to have to remark at this point that Madame Blavatsky is now wholly obsessed by her own style. She indulges, much more than in the earlier part of this treatise, in poetic and romantic imagery, and in Miltonic inversion. (I do not here refer to Lycidas.) Consequently we get quite a long passage on a somewhat obvious point, and the Evil Persona or Dweller of the Threshold is introduced. However, it is a correct enough place. That Dweller is Fear—his form is Dispersion. It is in this sense that Satan, or rather Samael, a totally dif- ferent person, the accuser of the Brethren, is the Devil. 36. Beware, Disciple, of that lethal shade. No light that shines from Spirit can dispel the darkness of the nether Soul unless all selfish thought has fled therefrom, and that the pil- grim saith: “I have renounced all this passing frame: I have destroyed the cause: the shadows cast can, as effects, no longer be.” For now the last great fight, the final war be- tween the Higher and the Lower Self, hath taken place. Be- hold, the very battlefield is now engulfed in the great war, and is no more. The quotation is only proper in the mouth of a Buddha, from whom it is taken. At this point the Higher and Lower Selves are united. It is a mistake to represent their contest as a war—it is a wedding. IOI