The Equinox (Volume III, Number I)

THE EQUINOX among many others, that wise men in old time chose the Ser- pent as the Hieroglyph of Life. Life then is indestructible as all else is. All destruction and construction are changes in the nature of Love, as I have written to you in the former chapter proximate. Yet even as the blood in one pulse-throb of the wrist is not the same blood as that in the next, so individuality is in part destroyed as each life passeth; nay, even with each thought. What then maketh man, if he dieth and is reborna change- ling with each breath? This: the consciousness of continu- ity given by memory, the conception of his Self as some- thing whose existence, far from being threatened by these changes, is in verity assured by them. Let then the aspirant to the sacred Wisdom consider his Self no more as one seg- ment of the Serpent, but as the whole. Let him extend his consciousness to regard both birth and death as incidents trivial as systole and diastole of the heart itself, and neces- sary as they to its function. To fix the mind in this apprehension of Life, two modes are preferred, as preliminary to the greater realizations to be discussed in their proper order, experiences which tran- scend even those attainments of Liberty and Love of which Ihave hitherto written, and this of Life which I now inscribe in this my little book which I am making for you so that you may come unto the Great Fulfilment. The first mode is the acquisition of the Magical Memory so-called, and the means is described with accuracy and clearness in certain of our Holy Books. But for nearly all men this is found to bea practice of exceeding difficulty. Let then the aspirant follow the impulse of his own Will in the decision to choose this or no. 114