THE VOICE OF THE SILENCE
16. When waxing stronger thy Soul glides forth from her
secure retreat; and breaking loose from the protecting
shrine, extends her silver thread and rushes onward; when
beholding her image on the waves of Space she whispers,
“This is I’’—declare, O Disciple, that thy Soul is caught in
the webs of delusion.
An even more advanced instruction, but still connected
with the question of the Ego and the non-Ego. The phe-
nomenon described is perhaps Atmadarshana, which is still
a delusion, in one sense still a delusion of personality; for
although the Ego is destroyed in the Universe, and the Uni-
verse in it, there is a distinct though exceedingly subtle ten-
dency to sum up its experience as Ego.
These three verses might be interpreted also as quite ele-
mentary; v. 14 as blindness to the First Noble Truth
“Everything is Sorrow”; v. 15 as the coward’s attempt to
escape Sorrow by Retreat; and v. 16 as the acceptance of the
Astral as SAT.
17. This earth, Disciple, is the Hall of Sorrow, wherein
are set along the Path of dire probations, traps to ensnare
thy EGO by the delusion called “Great Heresy.”
Develops still further these remarks.
18. This earth, O ignorant Disciple, is but the dismal en-
trance leading to the twilight that precedes the valley of true
light—that light which no wind can extinguish, that light
which burns without a wick or fuel.
“Twilight” here may again refer to Atmadarshana. The
last phrase is borrowed from Eliphas Levi, who was not (I
believe) a Tibetan of antiquity. [Madame Blavatsky hu-
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