The Equinox (Volume III, Number I)

LIBER CORDIS CINCTI SERPENTE 8. Thou hast come hither, O my prophet, through grave paths. Thou hast eaten of the dung of the Abominable Ones; thou hast prostrated thyself before the Goat and the Crocodile; the evil men have made thee a plaything; thou hast wandered as a painted harlot, ravishing with sweet scent and Chinese colouring, in the streets; thou hast dark- ened thine eyepits with Kohl; thou hast tinted thy lips with vermilion; thou hast plastered thy cheeks with ivory enam- els. Thou hast played the wanton in every gate and by-way of the great city. The men of the city have lusted after thee to abuse thee and to beat thee. They have mouthed the golden spangles of fine dust wherewith thou didst bedeck thine hair; they have scourged the painted flesh of thee with their whips; thou hast suffered unspeakable things. 9. But I have burnt within thee as a pure flame without oil. In the midnight I was brighter than the moon; in the daytime I exceeded utterly the sun; in the byways of thy being I flamed, and dispelled the illusion. 10. Therefore thou art wholly pure before Me; therefore thou art My virgin unto eternity. 11. Therefore I love thee with surpassing love; therefore they that despise thee shall adore thee. 12. Thou shalt be lovely and pitiful toward them; thou Shalt heal them of the unutterable evil. 13. They shall change in their destruction, even as two dark stars that crash together in the abyss, and blaze up in an infinite burning. 14. All this while did Adonai pierce my being with his sword that hath four blades; the blade of the thunderbolt, the blade of the Pylon, the blade of the serpent, the blade of the Phallus. 91