The Equinox (Volume I, Number I)

THE EQUINOX our ease upon the Path of the Chameleon, by the Towers of Iron and the Fountains of Supernal Dew, unto that black unutterable Sea most still. XIII “From the Cavities of the Earth leap forth the terrestrial Dog- faced demons, showing no true sign unto mortal man.” “Go not forth when the Lictor passeth by.” “Direct not thy mind to the vast surfaces of the Earth; for the Plant of Truth grows not upon the ground. Nor measure the motions of the Sun, collecting rules, for he is carried by the Eternal Will of the Father, and not for your sake alone. Dismiss (from your mind) the impetuous course of the Moon, for she moveth always by the power of necessity. The progression of the Stars was not generated for your sake. The wide aerial flight of birds gives no true knowledge, nor the dissection of the entrails of victims ; they are all mere toys, the basisof mercenary fraud ; flee from these if you would enter the sacred paradise of piety, where Virtue, Wisdom, and Equity are assembled.” “Stoop not down unto the darkly splendid World ; wherein continually lieth a faithless Depth, and Hades wrapped in clouds, delighting in unintelligible images, precipitous, winding, a black ever-rolling Abyss ; ever espousing a Body unluminous, formless and void.” “Stoop not down, for a precipice lieth beneath the Earth, reached by a descending Ladder which hath Seven Steps, and therein is established the Throne of an evil and fatal force.” “Stay not on the Precipice with the dross of Matter, for there is a place for thy Image in a realm ever splendid.” “Invoke not the visible Image of the Soul of Nature.” “Look not upon Nature, for her name is fatal.” “Tt becometh you not to behold them before your body is initiated, since by alwaysalluring they seduce the souls from the sacred mysteries,” “Bring her not forth, lest in departing she retain something.” “The Light-hating World, and the winding currents by which many are drawn down.”—ZOROASTER. It may be useful here to distinguish once and for all between false and real mystical phenomena; for in the 64