The Vision and the Voice

THE VISION AND THE VOICE THE CRY OF THE I9TH AETHYR, WHICH IS CALLED POP At first there is a black web over the face of the stone. A ray of light pierces it from behind and above. Then cometh a black cross, reaching across the whole stone; then a golden cross, not so large. And there is a writing in an arch that spans the cross, in an alphabet in which the letters are all formed of little daggers, cross-hilted, differently arranged. And the writing is: Worship in the body the things of the body; worship in the mind the things of the mind; worship in the spirit the things of the spirit. (This holy alphabet must be written by sinners, that is, by those who are impure.) “Impure” means those whose every thought is followed by another thought, or who confuse the higher with the lower, the substance with the shadow. Every Aethyr is truth, though it be but a shadow, for the shadow of a man is not the shadow of an ape. (Note.—All this has come to me without voice, without vision, without thought.) (The shew-stone is pressed upon my forehead and causes intense pain; as I go on from Aethyr to Aethyr, it seems more difficult to open the Aethyr.) The golden cross has become a little narrow door, and an old man like the Hermit of the Taro has opened it and come out. I ask him for admission; and he shakes his head kindly, and says: It is not given to flesh and blood to unveil the mysteries of the Aethyr, for therein are the chariots of fire, and the tumult of the horsemen; whoso entereth here may never look on life again with equal eyes. I insist. 47