The Equinox (Volume III, Number I)

THE EQUINOX then, the goal; beyond which lie, bathed in the sunlight of the Spirit, glories untold, unseen by any save the eye of Soul. These gates are described in the third treatise. The words “spirit” and “soul” are highly ambiguous, and had better be regarded as poetic figures, without a technical meaning being sought. 60. There is but one road to the Path: at its very end alone the voice of Silence can be heard. The ladder by which the candidate ascends is formed of rungs of suffering and pain: these can be silenced only by the voice of virtue. Woe, then, to thee, Disciple, if there is one single vice thou hast left behind; for then the ladder will give way and overthrow thee; its foot rests in the deep mire of thy sins and failings, and ere thou canst attempt to cross this wide abyss of mat- ter, thou hast to lave thy feet in Waters of Renunciation. Beware lest thou shouldst set a foot still soiled upon the lad- der’s lowest rung. Woe unto him who dares pollute one rung with miry feet. The foul and viscous mud will dry, become tenacious, then glue his feet unto the spot; and like a bird caught in the wily fowler’s lime, he will be stayed from further progress. His vices will take shape and drag him down. His sins will raise their voices like as the jackal’s laugh and sob after the sun goes down; his thoughts become an army, and bear him off a captive slave. A warning against any impurity in the original aspiration of the Disciple. By impurity is meant, and should always be meant, the mingling (as opposed to the combination) of two things. Do one thing at a time. This is particularly necessary in the matter of the aspiration. For if the aspira- tion be in any way impure, it means divergence in the will 30