The Equinox (Volume III, Number I)

THE SEVEN PORTALS Surely a better image would have been the Mother, and does the Mother complain or rejoice? Itis also a bad image, this of the snow. Is snow in any way incommoded by the biting frosts, the northern blasts? 86. Self-doomed to live through future Kalpas, un- thanked and unperceived by men; wedged as a stone with countless other stones which form the “Guardian Wall,” such is thy future if the seventh Gate thou passest. Built by the hands of many Masters of Compassion, raised by their tortures, by their blood cemented, it shields mankind, since man is man, protecting it from further and far greater misery and sorrow. Comment has already been made upon this verse. 87. Withal man sees it not, will not perceive it, nor will he heed the word of wisdom . . . for he knows it not. Here indeed is the only sorrow that could seem, even for a moment, likely to touch the Adept. It is rather annoying that the great prize offered so freely to men is scorned by them. But this is only if the Adept fall for one moment to the narrower view, accept the conventional outlook on the universe. If only he remember that very simple and ele- mentary instruction that the Magician must work as if he had Omnipotence at his command and Eternity at his dis- posal, He will not repine. 88. But thou hast heard it, thou knowest all, O thou of eager guilelessSoul . . . and thou must choose. Then hearken yet again. This verse introduces the climax of this treatise. 127