The Equinox (Volume III, Number I)

THE EQUINOX consciousness of ecstasy, unknown, yet known in that its being is certain. O Lord, be my helper, and bring me to the bliss of the Beloved! 30. I came to the house of the Beloved, and the wine was like fire that flieth with green wings through the world of waters. 31. I felt the red lips of nature and the black lips of per- fection. Like sisters they fondled me their little brother; they decked me out as a bride; they mounted me for Thy bridal chamber. 32. They fled away at Thy coming; I was alone before Thee. 33. I trembled at Thy coming, O my God, for Thy mes- senger was more terrible than the Death-star. 34. On the threshold stood the fulminant figure of Evil, the Horror of emptiness, with his ghastly eyes like poison- ous wells. He stood, and the chamber was corrupt; the air stank. He was an old and gnarled fish more hideous than the shells of Abaddon. 35. He enveloped me with his demon tentacles; yea, the eight fears took hold upon me. 36. But I was anointed with the right sweet oil of the Magister; I slipped from the embrace as a stone from the sling of a boy of the woodlands. 37. I was smooth and hard as ivory; the horror gat no hold. Then at the noise of the wind of Thy coming he was dissolved away, and the abyss of the great void was unfolded before me. 38. Across the waveless sea of eternity Thou didst ride with Thy captains and Thy hosts; with Thy chariots and horsemen and spearmen didst Thou travel through the blue. 86