Blinding and blind, the sparks of spirit curled
Each to its proper soul ; the wide wheels flow,
Orderly streams,
and lose the rushing speed,
Meet, mingle, marry.
Fire and air express
Their dews and winds of molten loveliness,
Fine flakes of arrowy light, the dawn's first deed.
Metallic
showers and smoke self-glittering
For many an aeon.
Wild the pennons spring
Of streaming flame
!
Then, surging from the tide,
Grew the desirable, the golden one.
Separate from the sun.
Now fire and air no more exult, exceed,
Are balanced in the sphere.
The waters wide
Glow on the bosom of fixed earth ; and Need,
The Lady of Beginning,
also was.
Thus was the firmament a vital glass.
The waters as the vessel of the soul ;
Thus earth,
the mystic basis of the whole,
Was smitten through with fire, as chrysopras,
Blending,
uniting, and dividing
it.
Volcanic,
airy, and celestial.
I
rose within
the elemental ball,
And
lo
!
the Ancient
One of Days did sit
!
His head and hair were white as wool. His eyes
A flaming fire
:
and from the splendid mouth
Flashed the Eternal
Sword
!
io8