THE EQUINOX
PHUR and MERCURY with the alchemical powers of the
seven planets; precipitating the SALT from the four ele-
ments—Subtilis, Aqua, Lux, Terra; and mingling Flatus,
Ignis, Aqua, and Terra, smote them with the cross of Hidden
Mystery, and cried: “ Fiat Lux!”
Youth strides on with hasty step, and by the summer of
this year—1898—we find P. deep in consultation with the
mystics, and drinking from the white chalice of mystery with
St. John, Boehme, Tauler, Eckart, Molinos, Levi, and Blake:
“Rintrah roars and shakes his fires in the burden’d air,
Hungry clouds swag on the deep.”
Insatiable, he still pressed on, hungering for the knowledge
of things outside; and in his struggle for the million he
misses the unit, and heaps up chaos in the outer darkness of
Illusion. From the cloudless skies of Mysticism he rushes
down into the infernal darkness on winged thoughts: “ The
fiery limbs, the flaming hair, shot like the sinking sun into
the western sea,” and we find him now in the Goetic king-
doms of sorcery, witchcraft, and infernal necromancy. The
bats flit by us as we listen to his frenzied cries for light and
knowledge: “The Spiritual Guide,” and “The Cherubic
Wanderer” are set aside for “ The Arbatel” and “ The Seven
Mysterious Orisons.” A hurried turning of many pages, the
burning of many candles, and then—the Key of Solomon for
a time is put away, with the Grimoires and the rituals, the
talismans, and the Virgin parchments; the ancient books of
the Qabalah lie open before him ; a flash of brilliant fire, like
a silver fish leaping from out the black waters of the sea into
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