Magick Without Tears

114 MAGICK WITHOUT TEARS lustre, and the stars shall be hidden because thou art passed beyond these things, beyond the need of these things, beyond the desire of these things. What I thought were shapes of rocks, rather felt than seen, now appear to be veiled Masters, sitting absolutely still and silent. Nor can anyone be distinguished from the others. And the Angel sayeth: Behold where thine Angel hath led thee! Thou didst ask for fame, power and pleasure, health and wealth and love, and strength and length of days. Thou didst hold life with eight tentacles, like an octopus. Thou didst seek the four powers and the seven delights and the twelve emancipations, and the two and twenty Privileges, and the nine and forty Manifestations, and lo! thou art become as one of These. Bowed are their backs, whereon resteth the 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