The Equinox (Volume III, Number I)

THE EQUINOX power to stay thy course. Thou wilt be master of the seven- fold Path; but not till then, O Candidate for trials passing speech. That we have correctly interpreted these obscure passages now becomes clear. No further personal effort is required. The gates open of themselves to the Master of the Temple. 61. Till then, a task far harder still awaits thee: thou hast to feel thyself ALL-THOUGHT, and yet exile all thoughts from out thy SOUL. The discourse again reverts to another phase of this task of Vairaga. It is just as in the ‘Earth-Bhavana,’ where you have to look at a frame of earth, and reach that impres- sion of Earth in which is no Earthly quality, “that earth which is not earth,” as the Qabalah would say. So on this higher plane you must reach a quintessence of thought, of which all thoughts are perhaps debased images, but which in no way partakes of anything concerning them. 62. Thou hast to reach that fixity of mind in which no breeze, however strong, can waft an earthly thought within. Thus purified, the shrine must of all action, sound, or earthly light be void; e’en as the butterfly, o’ertaken by the frost, falls lifeless at the threshold—so must all earthly thoughts fall dead before the fane. Again another phase of this task. Complete detachment, perfect silence, absolute will; this must be that pure Chiah which is utterly removed from Ruach. 63. Behold it written: “Ere the gold flame can burn with steady light, the lamp must stand well guarded in a spot free from all wind.” Ex- 114