THE EQUINOX
universe. Veiled are their faces, that have beheld the glory
Ineffable.
These adepts seem like Pyramids—their hoods and robes
are like Pyramids.
And the Angel sayeth: Verily is the pyramid a Temple
of Initiation. Verily also is it a tomb. Thinkest thou that
there is life within the Masters of the Temple, that sit
hooded, encamped upon the sea? Verily, there is no life in
them.
Their sandals were the pure light, and they have taken
them from their feet and cast them down through the abyss,
for this AEthyr is holy ground.
Herein no forms appear, and the vision of God face to
face, that is transmuted in the Athanor called dissolution, or
hammered into one in the forge of meditation, is in this place
but a blasphemy and a mockery.
And the Beatific Vision is no more, and the glory of the
Most High is no more. There is no more knowledge. There
is no more bliss. There is no more power. There is no
more beauty. For this is the Palace of Understanding: for
thou art one with the Primeval things.
Drink in the myrrh of my speech, that is bruised with the
gall of the roc, and dissolved in the ink of the cuttle-fish,
and perfumed with the deadly nightshade.
This is thy wine, who wast drunk upon the wine of
Tacchus. And for bread shalt thou eat salt, O thou on the
corn of Ceres that didst wax fat! For as pure being is pure
nothing, so is pure wisdom pure... and so is pure
understanding silence, and stillness, and darkness. The eye
1 I suppose that only a Magus could have heard this word.
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