The Equinox (Volume III, Number I)

THE SEVEN PORTALS posed to shifting breeze, the jet will flicker and the quivering flame cast shades deceptive, dark and ever-changing, on the Soul’s white shrine. This familiar phrase is usually interpreted to mean the mere keeping of the mind free from invading thoughts. It has also that secret significance at which we have several times already hinted. These unfortunate poetic images again bewilder us. Blavatsky’s constant use of the word “Soul” without defini- tion is very annoying. These verses 63 and 64 must be taken as dealing with a state preliminary to the attainment of this Fifth Gate. If the lance shakes in the hand of the warrior, whatever the cause, the result is fumbling and failure. 64. And then, O thou pursuer of the Truth, thy Mind- Soul will become as a mad elephant, that rages in the jungle. Mistaking forest trees for living foes, he perishes in his attempts to kill the ever-shifting shadows dancing on the wall of sunlit rocks. This verse explains the state of the mind which has failed in the Abyss—the student becomes insane. 65. Beware, lest in the care of Self thy Soul should lose her foothold on the soil of Deva-knowledge. 66. Beware, lest in forgetting SELF, thy Soul lose o’er its trembling mind control, and forfeit thus the due fruition of its conquests. These two verses seem to mean that any attention to Self would prevent one crossing the Abyss, while in the event of any inattention to Self the mind would revolt. In other 115